Game Topz (gamtopz@gmail.com)

We’re back in action after a brief holiday break last week to bring you another rockin’ episode of The TouchArcade Show. I’ve come down with a wicked case of plane throat, which is what we’re calling the mysterious illness I have some flying on an airplane until it manifests itself into something more interesting like… whatever upper respiratory thing we worried about a few years ago. We cut the show a little short because of that, but still play major catch up of all the news from the past two weeks as well as pose a (potentially significant) question to our audience. Give it a listen! Don’t forget to shoot us emails with any questions, feedback, or anything else relevant or irrelevant to podcast@toucharcade.com . We read ’em all, and love decoding messages written entirely in emoji. As always, you can listen to us with the links below… And if you like what you hear, please subscribe and/or drop us a review in iTunes. Much appreciated! As a companion to this audio podcast, we also ...

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…   Don’t Trip I love mobile gaming because it allows me to carry tons of my favorite traditional styles of ...

Back in June of last year we wrote about an upcoming top-down shooter called Tacticool that caught our attention with its great looking visuals and promise of multiplayer mayhem. At that time developer Panzerdog was on the hunt for beta testers to help whip the game into shape, and as always members of our forums rose to that challenge and for the next year or so the game rapidly started taking shape based largely on player feedback. This week Tacticool has finally reached a pretty major milestone as it has been soft-launched in select territories in order to stress test the game on an even larger scale. The main features of the game are 5v5 team deathmatch with easy to use controls, tons of cool weapons, a realistic physics system, and the ability to use vehicles both for transportation and impromptu death machines. Check out the trailer. If you think Tacticool looks, well, pretty cool and you’re either physically in or have an iTunes account in Netherlands, Denmark, Norway, S...

In June of last year, developer Nathan Meunier launched the clever card game Missile Cards ($2.99) , which was a mashup of sorts of strategic turn-based card game and the classic arcade hit Missile Command . It was a lot of fun, and we enjoyed Missile Cards so much that we chose it as our Game of the Week when it released. After taking some time off, now Meunier is back with his newest mobile game release called DUNKYPUNG . Yes, that is a silly name indeed. DUNKYPUNG is a flappy-style avoidance game similar to the recent Super Fowlst or even the legendary Flappybalt from Adam Saltsman. Although compared to those other game, DUNKYPUNG is like a whirling dervish of death with its many hazards that you must avoid. Check out the trailer. Now that I think about it, DUNKYPUNG also reminds me of another classic, the sadly defunct 1001 Attempts . Basically, Meunier is taking a bunch of video games that I love and putting his own spin on them, which I’m a big fan of. DUNKYPUNG is pl...

Pirates of the Caribbean: Tides of War (Free) first hit the App Store (and Google Play ) early last year. It’s developed by Joycity and will be super familiar to players who enjoy other multiplayer strategy battle games, except this one is absolutely dripping in fan service from Disney’s Pirates of the Caribbean universe: A film series that started super strong and (much like Fast and the Furious) seems to have only gotten more over the top as the sequels continue. Pirates of the Caribbean: Tides of War saw another massive update this week, this time around adding Captain Armando Salazar who first appeared as the primary bad guy in the Tides of War film before he met his untimely demise (Is that spoilers? The movies came out so long ago!) in Dead Men Tell No Tales. This legendary pirate also comes with his ship, the Silent Mary. In the game, he appears as a phantom called Salazar’s Shade who, like any primary movie bad guy, has powerful skills and a hunger for vengeance. Specific...

Welcome to Week 29 of the Arena of Valor news roundup! Taking a slightly different approach to this week’s events, rather than write this piece up first thing in the British morning, we’ve pushed the schedule back to make the most of the EU-friendly stream times of the ongoing Arena of Valor International Championship. With Day 1 officially done with, we’re able to talk shop with fresh results for the first time in a long while! But don’t worry, AoV novices; there’s plenty of other topics to cover this week, too! AIC Week 2 Begins With Allegiance Defeat Week 2 of the Arena of Valor International Championship kicked off today. Taking place all the way over in Vietnam, our EU and NA teams are subject to the radically different local timezone in the area, meaning while EU viewers can expect to catch the matches during usual work hours, Americans rooting for Team Allegiance need to survive through the night. Today’s matches are already over, so it’s time to talk results! Before Nova ...

We’ve already posted about it a bunch, but Old School RuneScape is a really, really cool game with a couple of minor caveats: They make no attempt at hiding the fact that this game is, in fact, old school so the graphics reflect that. Secondly, because it’s an old school game, the depth you’ll experience while playing it can be incredibly intimidating. There isn’t much of a tutorial, and aside from a shockingly exhaustive wiki , you’re pretty much on your own when it comes to figuring out what to do next. Just diving into a massive wiki represents a pretty massive learning curve (more of a learning wall, really) so to help the huge amount of players Jagex has seen flooding into Old School RuneScape for the first time they have released a really great series of newbie guide videos on YouTube. The first is a general overview, then they get into more complicated topics like the game interface, quests, skills, and combat. All in all, watching all the videos will take you around 40 mi...

Square Enix announced a new Romancing SaGa game for iOS and Android in Japan which is Romancing SaGa Re: Universe and it finally has a release date. Read Shaun’s thoughts on Square Enix’s TGS showing here. https://ift.tt/2puF7QS The first new Romancing SaGa game in over two decades that is set 300 years after the events of Romancing SaGa 3 will release on iOS and Android in Japan next week. After a successful pre-registration campaign , Square Enix has released a new trailer for it. Watch it below: While we did get the lovely Romancing SaGa 2 ($17.99) localised on iOS and Android well before the console release, this new game looks a bit unlikely because it is from a much smaller brand for Square Enix and they usually skip or take way too long to do English releases of the smaller free to play games. I will post if any localisation is announced or even hinted at for Romancing SaGa Re: Universe . I say this because localisations usually aren’t big announcements for these kinds...

Dragalia Lost’s (Free) previously announced Raid Event and Summon Showcase are now live. As with most events, you can also login for a limited time to get a free tenfold summon voucher. To partake in any of the events or see any new content, make sure you have downloaded the 1.2.1 update and have downloaded data in game on wifi so you’re set for playing. The Resplendent Refrain Raid Event lets up to four adventurers team up for four players (up to 16 adventurers in total) to take on the shadow element raid boss. The event will last until December 12th at 1:59 AM. The new Summon Showcase titled “An Enchanting Ensemble" is also live with an increased appearance rate for the featured adventurers, dragons, and wyrmprints. This showcase is live until December 12th at 1:59 AM. For more information including some of the featured adventurers, read the announcement story. Dragalia Lost is free to play on iOS and Android Read our review of it here. Because I get asked about it e...

Bethesda’s rollout of their mobile Elder Scrolls game continues to be a rollercoaster of emotion. Called Elder Scrolls: Blades, the game was initially unveiled at this year’s E3 back in June and then promptly put up on the App Store for pre-order with an expected release date of September 1st. We actually got our hands on the demo of Elder Scrolls: Blades at E3 and enjoyed what we saw, and were anxious for that September release date. Everything seemed on track and that September 1st release date actually coincided with a big event Bethesda was throwing during PAX West 2018, which we attended. Expecting the game to be fully out and playable at the event, instead we were greeted with devices loaded with the exact same E3 demo we saw a few months prior. The demo was even called “E3 Demo" still. Something had to be up. Then later that week Bethesda updated the App Store pre-order page changing the September 1st release date (which had obviously come and gone) to December 1st. O...

In May of last year, developer Pine Studio released a game called Faraway: Puzzle Escape (Free) to the App Store. It was a first-person puzzle adventure game that was heavily inspired by the classic Myst and it had you exploring ancient Mayan ruins as you solved various types of puzzles and discovered loads of secrets. What I loved most about Faraway when I wrote about it back then was its super clean aesthetic and its wonderful touchscreen controls, which made moving around and poking and prodding at the environment a lot of fun. The following November the studio released the sequel Faraway 2: Jungle Escape (Free) which brought a similar sort of adventure to jungle environments, and then this past May just prior to the one year anniversary of the first game’s release they launched Faraway 3: Arctic Escape (Free) which took the series to a snowy world. That last entry was supposed to be the end for the series , but this week Pine Studio has launched a fourth game in the serie...

Developer Zach Gage is known for taking tried and true gameplay mechanics and turning them on their head with various twists to provide a completely fresh experience. That’s what he did with his variant on Poker and Solitaire back in the summer of 2015 when he released Sage Solitaire (Free) to the App Store. Wow, has it really been more than three years since Sage Solitaire released? It seems like only yesterday. Anyway, today Mr. Gage has released a brand new update for the game, its first since 2015, that adds in new content and refreshes the game for today’s modern iOS devices. The big new feature is the addition of Instant Tournaments, which you may recognize from Gage’s most recent release Pocket Run Pool (Free) . Basically you’ll attempt to get the best score possible on a specific deal, and everyone else in the world gets to play that same deal too and you can see how you stack up against the competition. The Instant Tournament also introduces a cool new scoring mechanic ...

I have long said that Plague Inc . ($0.99) from Ndemic Creations is some of the best money you can spend in the App Store. Inspired by the cult Flash hit Pandemic , Plague Inc . tasks you with unleashing various types of viruses into the world and making strategic moves to ensure those viruses spread as far as possible and wipe out as much of humanity as possible. Yeah, this is a messed up game, but it is oh so fun. Since its initial release back in 2012 Plague Inc . has received a staggering amount of new updates and additional paid content, and if the near endlessly replayable base game somehow wasn’t enough there was always plenty more to chew through for those that wanted it. While Ndemic has parlayed its success in mobile into a fantastic physical board game version of Plague Inc . as well as a PC port that brought forth a robust scenario creator for the game, we had yet to see any sort of new games from the developer. Until today when Ndemic Creations unveiled their new game Reb...

If you thought November was big for Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp (Free) , thanks to the first multi-event celebration and its first anniversary festivities , prepare to be blown away with what the game has planned from now through December. An update has gone live, making the game look a little bit different and adding new space, and a holiday celebration will encompass three events, The major update for the game changes several UI elements and adds the cabin, a new dedicated space to decorate and invite animals. The Friends List is completed revamped. Players can now display their favorite photos, and it is much easier to give kudos and lend a hand to those in need. Small icons show is someone needs help in their garden. Despite these updates that make the game much more user-friendly when it comes to friend interactions, players seem far more excited about the addition of the cabin. The cabin is a relatively large interior space that can be decorated in addition to the campground...

Back when the game was originally revealed , Tomorrow Corporation had only announced a Switch and PC release. At the time, you probably knew it was only a matter of time before an iOS version is announced and it took a bit longer than I expected. 7 Billion Humans originally launched on Switch and PC back in August. It is finally coming to iOS. Watch the announcement trailer for it below: 7 Billion Humans will be universal just like the other games from Tomorrow Corporation and will require iOS 10 and later. It is launching with support for 13 languages on iOS as well. After playing World of Goo on iPad, I can’t imagine a non touch version of the game. I waited for an iOS version of Human Resource Machine and enjoyed it quite a bit. If you held off on the Switch version, your wait will nearly be over and we will soon be able to experience new music from Kyle Gabler in an iOS game. Originally released on Switch and PC back in August, 7 Billion Humans finally arrives on iOS next...

Nintendo’s Dragalia Lost (Free) was just updated to version 1.2.1 and it brings various fixes across skill descriptions, animations, and more. High Midgardsormr’s “Storm Chaser" did more damage that it should in version 1.2.0 and the new update fixes this. Everyone who started the game before November 30th will get 300 Wyrmite for this error. Alongside releasing this update (that will most likely get datamined soon), “An Enchanting Ensemble" is the next summon showcase for the game. This summon showcase begins on November 30th at 3:00 AM. As always, the featured adventurers, dragons, and wyrmprints have an increased appearance rate. This period will last until December 12th at 1:59 AM. Lucretia is the featured adventurer for the showcase while Cupid is the featured dragon. Resounding Rendition and Heavenly Holiday are the featured Wyrmprints for this event. Dragalia Lost is free to play on iOS and Android Read our review of it here. Because I get asked about it each...

Each and every day new mobile games are hitting the App Store, and so each week we put together a big old list of all the best new releases of the past seven days. Back in the day the App Store would showcase the same games for a week, and then refresh those features each Thursday. Because of that developers got into the habit of releasing their games throughout Wednesday or very early Thursday in order to hopefully get one of those coveted features spots. Nowadays the App Store refreshes constantly, so the need for everyone to release all on the same day has diminished. Still, we’ve kept our weekly Wednesday night format as for years that’s the time people knew to check TouchArcade for the list of new games. And so without further ado please check out the full list of this week’s new games below, and let us know in the comments section which games you’ll be picking up!   CHUCHEL iTunes Description CHUCHEL is a comedy adventure game from the creators of Machinarium, Botanicu...

Since launching in 2002 Ragnarok Online has been one of the most popular and enduring MMORPGs, and now developer Gravity Interactive in partnership with X.D. Global are attempting to bring a faithful version of that experience to mobile with Ragnarok M: Eternal Love . The game has already launched in Asian territories and seems to have been doing quite well for itself so far, but today the developers are opening up pre-registrations for the forthcoming global launch of Ragnarok M: Eternal Love . For an idea of what the game will be like, check out this trailer. So yeah, this is totally not my type of game, but for what it’s worth it does look pretty cool. I especially like the sort of cel-shaded look of the in-game visuals. However, if you ARE among the target audience for this particular type of game, then you should head over to the game’s official website where you can pre-register, and as is typical for campaigns like this the more people who pre-register the more rewards that ...

With Christmas on the horizon, one of the year’s best platforming games Super Cat Tales 2 (Free) has just received an update celebrating all things winter and Christmas. Upon launching the newly updated game, you’ll be presented with a new icon on the title screen which will take you to the game’s new Winter Xmas Event level. Here you can visit with some friends and partake in a selection of cool mini-games, like an ice sculpting game that lets you create the pixel designs of your dreams or a snowman bashing game that tasks you with plowing through as many snowmen as you can in twenty seconds. Check out the Xmas Event in the following trailer. If you aren’t familiar with Super Cat Tales 2 , it’s a sequel to the 2016 original that manages to improve on the already incredible first game. You’ll command a roster of unique playable cats who each have their own special abilities that will help you make your way through the story-driven campaign. Probably the most exciting thing about ...

It’s that time of week where we round up all the new games that have been posted to our forums, and later tonight we’ll post a big list of all the new games that have hit the App Store over the past week. With Eli out of town it’s up to me to come up with some obscure holiday to reference in this post, so… let’s see here. A quick Google search and a seemingly unreliable website have told me that today is apparently French Toast Day. Well that’s just entirely TOO appropriate, seeing as Eli is in Paris right now. So fire up that griddle and get down on some totally unhealthy, basically dessert, for breakfast! Or lunch, or dinner. Or a snack. I won’t judge you. With that incredibly important part out of the way, feast your eyes below on all the new game threads that have been posted to our forums this past week. Criminal Minds The Mobile Game (by FTX Games Ltd) Dawn Break -Ice and Fire- (by Our Game Entertainment) Flip Skater (by Miniclip) Fumble Fang (by Fire Giant Entertainment) ...

Here is a chance for you to see me try and talk about a game series that I’ve been aware of for decades but know absolutely nothing about. It’s The Romance of the Three Kingdoms ! Yes this series has been around since the mid-80s, and has no less than thirteen(!) mainline entries as well as a smattering of spin-offs. It’s a strategy game series which isn’t really my cup of tea which probably explains why I’ve never delved into its many entries. However, it seems to have a strong fan base and back in September we learned that developer KOEI Tecmo in conjunction with BBGame would be adapting the eleventh game in the series as a new free to play mobile game. That game, titled simply New Romance of the Three Kingdoms (Free) , is now available in the App Store. For whatever reason there’s not one regular length launch trailer for the game, so here’s a bunch of super brief little trailers instead to give you an idea of what’s in store. So as I said, I’m not super familiar with the...

During the first week of September we brought you three different trailers for a very promising upcoming platformer from FredBear Games called Spirit Roots . Besides its really attractive visuals, I loved the premise behind Spirit Roots , which goes a little something like this: “Long ago, the planets of a small star system waged war against one another for a hundred years, to the point that only a fraction of each planet remained. Everyone decided that they’d better stop all that fighting before they wiped each other out completely, so in a very clever move they decided to stitch the fractions of each planet back together into one complete planet and made a pact that no one from any fragment could ever cross the border into the other fragments. Surprisingly this wacky idea worked and the survivors of the wartimes lived in harmony until one day the planet fragments started to separate. The only way to figure out what was going on and save this piecemeal planet was for one inhabitant t...

One of the traditions of the App Store for as long as I can remember is Apple freezing up the App Store over the Christmas holiday to give their staff a break, and this year Apple has just announced that the freeze will take place from December 23rd to December 27th Pacific Time. However, what exactly the freeze itself is has changed quite a bit over the years. In the early days all functionality of the App Store would freeze for that time period. That means that not only could you not submit new apps or updates but you couldn’t change the prices or make any other App Store page changes either. And the different App Store charts would also seize up for that period, leading to many developers trying to game the system by getting their apps to chart high by whatever means possible so that for that 4 or 5 day period they’d be stuck up at the top of the charts for all those new iOS device owners to discover. Sneaky devils. Thankfully Apple has tweaked The Big App Store Freeze over the ye...

One of our favorite releases of the year has been Grumpyface Studio and Cartoon Network’s Teen Titans GO! Figure ($3.99) , the sequel to the 2016 hit Teeny Titans ($3.99) . Offering more silly humor with the Teen Titans GO gang, more fun figure battling and collecting, and more areas to explore and story to enjoy, Teen Titans GO! Figure was pretty much everything you’d want in a sequel. There’s really only been ONE major feature request that even dates back to the first game that is finally coming to pass in the sequel: Multiplayer battling! Yes, on December 6th a big update dubbed the “Legion of Doom" update will add in the much-requested online multiplayer to Teen Titans GO! Figure , as well as new figures including Lex Luthor, Cheetah, The Riddler, and more. Here’s a not so subtle teaser image. In addition to online play and new figures, the Legion of Doom update will also add in the Hall of Doom and will offer brand new tournaments to enter, brand new missions to complete...