TouchArcade Game of the Week: ‘Six Ages: Ride Like the Wind’

The idea behind the TouchArcade Game of the Week is that every Friday afternoon we post the one game that came out this week that we think is worth giving a special nod to. Now, before anyone goes over-thinking this, it doesn’t necessarily mean our Game of the Week pick is the highest scoring game in a review, the game with the best graphics, or really any other quantifiable “best" thing. Instead, it’s more just us picking out the single game out of the week’s releases that we think is the most noteworthy, surprising, interesting, or really any other hard to describe quality that makes it worth having if you were just going to pick up one.

These picks might be controversial, and that’s OK. If you disagree with what we’ve chosen, let’s try to use the comments of these articles to have conversations about what game is your game of the week and why.

Without further ado…

 

Six Ages: Ride Like the Wind

It has been QUITE a journey for developer A Sharp and their game Six Ages: Ride Like the Wind ($9.99) which just launched on iOS this week. It was first announced way back in October of 2014, which might as well have been forever ago in the world of mobile games, and at various points I wondered if it would ever get completed at all. Well, the game was feature complete as of August of last year, and A Sharp has spent the entire next year play testing and bug fixing Six Ages ahead of its release this week. But the story goes back even further than that!

Six Ages is actually the follow-up title to A Sharp’s King of Dragon Pass ($9.99), which originally launched on PC way WAY back in 1999. It found new life with a mobile release in the fall of 2011, and we were absolutely shocked at how phenomenal an experience it was, awarding it 5 stars in our review. But it was easy to see the static illustrations and heavy amounts of text in King of Dragon Pass, and the hefty (for mobile, anyway) price tag of ten dollars and go “5 stars? Really?" Not that that would be the first time anyone has had an issue with our review scores (heh), but I could definitely see that point of view as well. Mobile hardware was just getting better and better and running these gorgeous fully 3D worlds, so what made King of Dragon Pass so special?

While I’ll admit that something like King of Dragon Pass is a very niche title, the game serves that niche so phenomenally well it’s hard not to be impressed. And that was for a nearly two decade old game! Six Ages follows in similar footsteps but this time has been built for the ground up with modern platforms in mind. Like King of Dragon Pass, it takes place in the fictional universe of Glorantha, which is a VERY detailed fantasy world that was created in the 1960s and serves as the home for many games and books and other works. Six Ages actually takes place 2000 years prior to King of Dragon Pass, so while you’re in the same universe, things are decidedly different this time around.

Your job is to take a small clan and build it into an empire with turn-based strategy gameplay similar to something like Civilization, and while you’re doing that, the lore of your kingdom is fleshed out through numerous Choose Your Own Adventure-style choices and text. The allure of Six Ages, and King of Dragon Pass before it, is the sheer depth and replay value of the game. EVERY decision you make matters in the long run, and every play through can come out entirely different than the last. I’ll admit this isn’t the game for everyone, but if it is your type of thing then you can safely buy Six Ages and it’ll keep you busy for literally years to come. This is total “desert island game" territory. We’ll have a full review shortly, but if you were a King of Dragon Pass fan already, I think it’s safe to recommend jumping all over Six Ages: Ride Like the Wind immediately.