Hey there. You may have heard there’s a basketball tournament going on this weekend. That’s the sport with the nets and the dribbling and the tank tops. Some of us love March Madness here at Gamezebo while others are simply …
Hey there. You may have heard there’s a basketball tournament going on this weekend. That’s the sport with the nets and the dribbling and the tank tops.
Some of us love March Madness here at Gamezebo while others are simply perplexed by the whole thing and wish to take solace in the familiar rhythms of daily life, ones that don’t involve passionate men screaming at you from the TV about Cinderella. One of those rhythms is the weekly release of new mobile games, and we’re happy to report that a new batch has arrived right on schedule, same as always.
In case you’re too busy trying to figure out if you’ve filled out your brackets correctly, we’ve done our usual legwork to dig up the most promising new mobile releases of the week. No madness here, folks, just stuff you might want to check out.
No one has ever gone broke betting on cute cats, and The Big Journey stars an undeniably adorable feline. His name is Mr. Whiskers, and when the maker of the dumplings he loves vanishes, this cat isn’t just going to sit around and accept his fate. The result is a physics-based adventure with excellent-looking graphics and a catchy soundtrack. it also gave our editor in chief LocoRoco flashbacks, and that’s awesome in and of itself.
Yes, I’d like one ticket to Earth please! Nothing to declare. Ahem. Aside from the absolutely gorgeous art, Robot Circus Pty’s game looks like it packs in plenty of story to go with what it claims is “a new style of gameplay that blends puzzle and tactics games.” Early reviews back up the idea that it is legitimately challenging, in a good way, and there appears to be plenty of depth in terms of customization and character progression. We’re suckers for tactical RPGs in general, but when you throw in everything different that Ticket to Earth brings to the table, this is too tantalizing to pass up.
It’s possible you’ve run away screaming with nightmares of geometry as soon as you heard the word ‘Euclidean,’ but if you’re still here, just hear us out on this one. Euclidean Lands is a puzzle game with unique mechanics and visuals that sort of call to mind a pretty popular mobile game from the not too distant past. There are even boss fights, which is something you don’t find in every puzzler. If it plays even half as good as it looks — and the buzz is that it’s pretty sweet in that department as well — this game could take away your fear of sophomore year math forever.
I’m not sure which people at NimbleBit decided it would be a good idea to mash up city-building and idle clicking but let us assure you that the combination is delightful. Bit City asks you to build a series of progressively larger cities using very simple mechanics and decisions about how to spend the revenue from your bitizens as it comes in. Sounds simple, and it is, but it’s ridiculously addictive in a way that most other clickers aren’t, and it has NimbleBit’s typical sense of whimsy and a killer soundtrack. Highly recommended.
Golfing zero would be pretty good since the object of the game is to get the lowest possible score. It’s also impossible. I think. Anyway, Golf Zero is a mash-up of golf and platforming and one that would certainly make the actual sport a lot more interesting to watch on TV. “Oh, he hooked that one badly, that’s not going to come close to making the fairway. Also, he failed to avoid those razor-sharp spikes. Such a shame.” Master all 40 levels and then advance to speed runs.
A side-scrollng adventure game with a spooky narrative that is affected by the choices you make, OXENFREE was released early last year on PC and console and was warmly received. As they are wont to do, teenagers make some bad decisions about scary locales to visit and you’ve got to help them do something about the supernatural forces they unwittingly unleash. Multiple endings encourage to dive in and replay it as well, and like a bunch of the games on our list this week, it’s visually impressive to boot.
Science was never my strongest subject after about 11th grade, but I don’t think the sky itself can be twisted. Instead, what the title of this game from Elephant Mouse refers to the way the tower you ascend in this endless climber can be swiped to rotate as necessary to make ladders line up correctly and get obstacles out of your way. It’s a test of thinking and reflexes at the same time, and it looks like fun thanks to the touches of personality and 25 different unlockable characters.
Computer security is a topic that affects all of us and is kind of frightening when you spend too much time thinking about it. But does that mean it can’t be turned into a fun, somewhat humorous mobile game. Of course not! Become the apprentice to the Glitch Witch and figure out how to navigate the unusual environment of an alien computer system. It looks cute, but don’t be fooled — players who have taken the dive into its unique world also report that it can be pretty tricky at times.
If you drop a game called hocus on the world, you’re almost obligated to follow with a title called pocus at some point. Lo and behold, that’s exactly what we’ve got. It’s got a similarly minimalist design, gut the object is different, as you have to collect all the green squares to complete each level. The thing that makes it interesting is that gravity is relative to the position of the red square you control. Anything else you need to know is likely in this description from the App Store write-up: “hard • perceptual • puzzle”
We’ve already fulfilled our cute cat quota for this week, but what’s wrong with more? Nothing, is what the internet would say to that. Catomic offers not just cats but space cats, along with atomic owl. Get it? Catomic. It’s also a match-3 game, and while you’d be excused for saying you’re already up to your elbows in those, may we remind you: cute space cats. That bit sells itself.
It’s always great to see arcade classics show up on mobile, and Ghosts’n Goblins resembles that description. Help Sir Arthur make it through all the side-scrolling action you remember from back in the day, with (obviously) new controls suitable for your touchscreen. There’s even a casual mode if the original was too difficult for you, and for this game, there’s actually no shame in admitting that. Plus you likely spent a ton of quarters on this if you’re 40 or older, and you only need a dollar here. Hard to beat that.
This is just some friendly advice and not criticism, but developers, you might want to give your game a slightly more involved title than Guards. It’s pretty hard to have it stand out from the crowd with a name that simple. So what gives? This is another game that came out on PC first, and it’s not as big a deal on Steam to name your work whatever you darn well please. Build your team of four characters and hold off waves of enemies in turn-based fashion, using positioning and skill to your advantage. The devs say they’ve cooked up some tweaks to the reward system just for mobile, so this might be worth a download even if you’ve already played it on PC.
