Assoluto Racing
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/assoluto-racing/id1055375459?mt=8
Free, 105mb download, no internet required, no gamecenter.
Sweet, Assoluto is here! Buy vehicles, race vehicles, upgrade them and then race even better. Fantastic visuals and controls work nicely, definitely worth a grab at free and while your at it why not grab the reward doubler, definitely perfects progression.
CSR Racing 2
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/csr-racing-2/id887947640?mt=8
Free, 759mb download, no internet required, gamecenter enabled.
Well holy crap. Ok the first CSR was an impressive game and this franchise has indeed been around since the beginning of the app store but good god 2 really... REALLY improves on the game and amazingly it manages to add complexity that simulators the likes of RR3 only wish they had. Fantastic visuals, rewarding controls, pretty friendly IAP system, definitely worth a look.
Into Mirror
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/into-mirror/id1072600030
.99usd, 62mb download, no internet required, gamecenter enabled.
Feels like super metroid with a rpg system and ghost in the machine feel to it visually. Action Plat former at heart you run around cyber futuristic japan environments killing, looting, exploring hidden things on each stage, leveling up, spending points on heath/crit/dps each time you do level up, and so on and so on. Controls are good but not mifi enabled so no controllers here. Shame, this game would probably do well with such a feature. Death has no penalty aside from starting the stage your on over and you get to keep everything you looted, all exp gained, etc. Each stage has three hidden items that once found award you a permanent perk. Green currency is spent on gear upgrades. Green currency is iap purchasable and you can also watch ad's for it.
Teeny Titans
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/teeny-titans-teen-titans-go!/id1032743715?mt=8
3.99usd, 270mb download, no internet required, gamecenter enabled.
Pokemon meets Teen Titans from DC Universe. Collect'em, fight'em, upgrade'em and then do it a bunch more. Plenty of side activities in the city add lots of flesh to this games playability. 70 odd characters to correct, fantastic game play, and premium?! I recommend you always have Cyborg in your team, his ability to fill the energy meter at a minor cost of his hp's? Second to none!
Final Fantasy Brave Exvius
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/final-fantasy-brave-exvius/id1078553808?l=en&mt=8
Free, 95mb download, internet connection required, no gamecenter.
All right, I'm of... mixed impressions on this one. I'm enjoying the game well enough but... I already have a final fantasy free-2-play hero collector. Record Keeper. Both games let you collect Final Fantasy characters. Both games let you upgrade them. Both let you play with equipment, abilities, dailies, things to do, all sorts of side activities. I do however like several things about record keeper over this one. Record Keepers entire character base is open and available without forced real money purchasing. RK's iap system is ungodly beyond fair. RK has the entire final fantasy story for every final fantasy ever made.
Now this isn't saying Exvius isn't a good game. Funny story. Turn base game play with larger ability selection. More animated heroes and villains. I'm just not sure I like the iap system, it requires iap spending or really really large amounts of patience on your part.
Worth a look at the price of 'free' of course and hurry up, there's a massive launch celebration going on. After I collected and spent everything given to me I went from 5 2 star heroes to well over 45 heroes ranging 2 to 5 stars.
Lego Starwars: The Force Awakens
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/lego-star-wars-force-awakens/id1106014973?mt=8
Free, 1.1gig download, no internet required, gamecenter enabled.
Ok, I am a Lego game nut. I confess. I have this game on my PC as well as iOS so I can give you lots of comparisons. But that's a time for another post. I will say this. Everything in the PC/Console version is here in the iOS version. Just some puzzles are a bit simpler, there are more stages (in smaller size, ideal for mobile gaming), and the open exploration areas are a bit smaller. But its all here. Which rocks! The iap is one of two choices. 1, buy force awakens chapter and then each chapter here on out as it becomes available or 2, buy the season pass and get it all.
Buy the season pass :)
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And I am playing two notable soft launch titles. Both are available through the Netherlands (nl) app stores.
Sacred Legends
https://itunes.apple.com/nl/app/sacred-legends/id1045947023?mt=8
Free, 100mb download, internet connection required, gamecenter enabled.
Ok so, Sacred Legends. First things first. This plays nothing like Sacred 1 or 2. IF your looking for that type of solid hack'n'slash experience you need to look in the direction of Titan Quest. Second thing about SL, aside from seraphim, the worlds name, and references to the first games necromancer... this game really doesn't have much of anything to do with Sacred.
This game instead borrows heavily from games like Heroes Charge but interestingly... and refreshingly... leaves behind the whole hero collecting system. You don't have 60+ heroes in this game to collect, you just have your hero. Game play is on rails like games like heroes charge, you run from left to right automatically, smack anything in the way and receive your reward at the end of the stage. You can hit your ability buttons if you want, or hit auto play and the game will do it for you. You can bring along gamecenter friends/random gamecenter folk, but can't directly control them.
Currency earned in the stages is spent upgrading gear and abilities. New gear is found in stages or bought in the randomly populating store. Maxed out gear can be evolved to higher star quality gear. Stages can be played on multiple difficulties for increasing rewards.
Really, Heroes Charge without the hero collecting. And oddly, I like it. I don't have to worry and fuss about upgrading, leveling and so on a hundred or so characters. Just you and your hero. -thumbs up so far-
Galaxy On Fire 3: Manticore
https://itunes.apple.com/nl/app/galaxy-on-fire-3-manticore/id1039848719?l=en&mt=8
Free, 1.1gig download, internet connection required, gamecenter enabled.
Drama! Drama drama drama! Folks have been arguing over whether this game is actually the '3' we've been waiting for or if its a modified apple TV 2 title ported to mobile. Well fishlabs came out today and cleared the confusion. This is GoF 3 folks. The franchise has gone free-2-play. Energy bars, timers, double currencies, online connection requirement, no open world exploration. Now that's put the fan base on one of two sides of the fence. Hate it or Love it. Alot of folks are justifiably upset that the game franchise that brought open world sand box game play to mobile has pretty much ditched everything in favor of quick burst stage based free-2-play game play. Very much justified. We've all been waiting quite afew years for the sequel sandbox open world choose your path sequel to part 2... and it looks like we will never see it.
Very disappointing, but thems the way the mobile gaming market rolls and you can either keep an open mind and form educated opinions on these games after giving them an honest effort... or you can give yourself an ulcer complaining about something you simply have no control over. Most folks on Toucharcade's thread for this game are in the ladder group, but I've long since been in the former so here is what we have currently in this soft launch.
Stages are randomly generated for the most part with the random stages having chances to drop progressors for the actual games story. Stages average between 5 and 7 minutes length. You can upgrade your ships core systems as well as purchase/build/upgrade the weapon systems. You will own multiple ships at the same time and its important that you do because there is a repair system in place here. Repairing a ship takes 2 hours or so, but if you have multiple ships you can just play with your other ones. A strong Real Racing 3 vibe in this mechanic but so far Manticore is much much more fair with it. After 5 stages and over an hour of game play my ship was still at 80% on the repair bar.
Everything has timers for upgrades/repairs and the iap currency in game strictly feeds speeds those timers to completion. There are multiple types of resource needed in the building of ships and weapons, all of which are randomly looted off stages or purchasable with in game currency.
Gamecenter will provide you with random friends if you don't have any to run your missions as wing men.
Visually fantastic, controls are fantastic. I played this game for 3 hours this morning and never actually hit a pay wall which is nice. Yes there are timers on things but aside from the ship maintenance one, you can continue playing even while upgrades are in progress.
Both Manticore and Sacred are Fishlabs products and while I picked both up through the Netherlands store, they are actually available in afew other stores so take a peek. I'm enjoying both so far.
