Game Topz (gamtopz@gmail.com)

Originally announced earlier this year, Call of Duty: Mobile (Free) soft launched in Australia and Canada on iOS. Activision is bringing their flagship franchise to mobile in a new exclusive game featuring all the important Call of Duty multiplayer modes. Earlier last month, Activision finally announced a release date for the global launch on iOS and Android. With Call of Duty: Modern Warfare set to arrive later this month, Activision will no doubt tie these two games together in some form. Watch the trailer for Call of Duty: Mobile below: In addition to 5 versus 5 team deathmatch and zombies, Call of Duty: Mobile also includes 100 player battle royale. Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 ‘s Blackout mode was very popular and I have no doubt the battle royale component in Call of Duty: Mobile will be the most popular mode. Call of Duty: Mobile is online only as expected and has in app purchases for Call of Duty Points. If you’ve held off from the soft launch release and were wait...

In December of 2016, the other TouchArcade writers and I each posted our Top Ten lists detailing our favorite iOS games of that year. One of my top picks was Mini Metro , which I wrote was “an incredibly addictive little strategy game that has literally been the only thing on my iPad’s screen all week.” My life started to get really busy around that time and it wound up being the last thing I ever wrote for TouchArcade. Three years later, the newly released Apple Arcade has sucked me right back into iOS gaming and I couldn’t stay away from TA any longer. So what better game to review on my first day back than the sequel to one of the last games I ever wrote about? Mini Motorways by Dinosaur Polo Club should look instantly familiar to anyone who loved Mini Metro . In fact, I didn’t even know it was coming out until I scrolled through the Apple Arcade section of the store last week and saw that familiar art style with the word “Mini” attached to the screenshots. It’s every bit as cris...

We first caught wind of Monolisk , a unique action RPG from developer Trickster Arts, back in May when it was posted to our upcoming games forum. Right from the start I was digging the look of Monolisk , which had a sleek art design and utilized the same sort of visual technique as Bastion where each level would sort of fly in piece by piece as you moved further through it. Digging beyond the surface though and Monolisk was doing some really interesting things. First off, each of its bite-sized levels are called Shards, because as the story goes the world where the game takes place was shattered into all these little pieces. Functionally though, Shards are little levels that users can create and upload for others to play, and then earn rewards based on how well the community rates those creations. Think of it sort of like Bastion and Mario Maker had a weird little baby. Here’s the trailer from the initial announcement of Monolisk that gives you a good idea of what it’s all about. ...

You may have heard of and even played Hot Lava before. This game has been in development for a few years now and many people got their chance to play its beta version on Steam. Now, after 27 updates, the game has finally officially released, and we can play it on Apple Arcade. Hot Lava is an action game developed by Klei, the studio behind games like Don’t Starve . This game takes your childhood memories of playing “the floor is lava" to the next level. You’ll be jumping, sliding, swinging and sticking to walls. You can do anything but touching the floor because, you know, it’s lava. Just in case you didn’t get that part. You’ll start the game playing as Hazard, but you can also play as the other Global Action Team (G.A.T.) members available from the toy shelf. You’ll play in different maps that go from the school to the playground and even the basement. As of right now, there are 6 maps, each one with a series of levels. Mostly, you’ll have to get from point A to point B in ...

If you’ve ever played Starcraft’s or Warcraft’s traditional multiplayer modes, you’ll probably be drawn to Red Reign initially. Your goal in the game is to destroy your opponent’s castle and this is done by gathering up resources, creating and upgrading troop-buildings, and sending your soldiers on their merry way either up, right, or diagonally. Each of these options have their own benefits other than just trying to flank enemy troops. Idle mines, towers, lumber mills, and more lay on some paths which will help you earn resources faster or defend your castle more easily. While there are those similarities, you can definitely see some differences in the gameplay. There are no hero troops nor any mobs to kill on the battlefield, but even so, it’s a game that works and offers up a good variety of strategy and troop-types. You also don’t have to upgrade any buildings other than the bastion or stronghold to unlock the bigger and better buildings, like the ones to allow you to build sie...

Hello gentle readers, and welcome to the SwitchArcade Round-Up for September 30th, 2019. It’s the final day of the month and the first day of the working week. What will the new week and month bring? Lots of games. Lots and lots. But that’s just normal around here, isn’t it? Today at least is a little quiet, with a pair of new releases, a little bit of news, and a whole bunch of sales. Let’s head in! News The First DLC Pack for ‘Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3’ is Out Now If you bought that shiny expansion pass for Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3 , your day has finally come. Marvel Knights: Curse of the Vampire is now available, adding a new story scenario and bringing Punisher, Blade, Morbius, and Moon Knight to the playable roster. There are also some new challenges in the Gauntlet Mode. For those who didn’t pick up the expansion pass, you still get some goodies today. As promised, free costumes for Captain America, Black Panther, Iron Man, and Thor have been made available. Cap’s Super ...

Hello everyone, and welcome to the week! It’s time once again for our look back at the noteworthy updates of the last seven days. Or rather, the last fourteen days, as I missed last week due to the holiday in Japan. Well, that just means more genuinely noteworthy stuff and less “ Toy Match Blast of Clans gets fifty new levels" fol-de-rol , so that’s not horrible.  Of course, you can keep an eye out for updates yourself using AppShopper or by participating in the TouchArcade forums. This weekly summary is just here to fill you in on the things you might have missed. Let’s go for it! ANOTHER EDEN , Free Another Eden gets another update and I make this same joke another time. It’s all a cycle, isn’t it? Anyway, this update adds new story content with a new map and area. There’s a new class unlocked for Amy, and some new encounters. Toova (Another Style) and new character Elga have been added. Rounding things out are some bug fixes and adjustments to the text to correct some ...

Back in 2015, Shaun wrote about Dragon Quest of the Stars which was a free to play social RPG planned for iOS and Android devices in Japan. It was eventually downloaded over 20 million times since. Usually, writing about a new Dragon Quest mobile game means I always have to specify that there’s a good chance it might not release outside Japan. Four years later, Dragon Quest of the Stars has been announced for release globally on iOS and Android. It isn’t Dragon Quest Walk but I’m not going to say no to a new Dragon Quest release for the West. Watch the live action trailer for it below: A closed beta for it has been planned for just Android at the moment. This will be available from October 30th until November 28th and you can sign up for it here . The beta will include customisation, story sequences, and multiplayer. Registration has just gone live for it on the official website . When it launched in 2015, it looked like it was using some elements from the early 3D Dragon Quest...

Mojang teased an augmented reality Minecraft experience for smartphones a while ago. That was eventually revelaed to be Minecraft Earth and we’ve been slowly learning more about it over time. They even had a demo at WWDC . After opening up closed beta sign ups on iOS and Android for a few regions, Mojang had a big announcement for those living in the rest of the world at MINECON. Usually, huge projects like this see soft launches in a few countries for a while before rolling out everywhere. Mojang wants everyone to get a taste of Minecraft Earth soon. Watch the new trailer for it below: Minecraft Earth is built on the bedrock engine and has been inspired by that old E3 HoloLens demo from Microsoft’s showcase. After seeing a very small rollout in five cities only, a larger rollout begins from October. This will see more countries added each week. The plan now is to have the rollout be complete by the end of the year. If you’re interested, sign up here for more information on w...

Spiel Studios’ Man Vs. Missiles (Free) has been updated regularly since it launched with a lot of new content for both free and premium players. I say premium players because it has a subscription option. If you missed out on the last few big updates for it, read our posts about them here and here . Today, Spiel Studios announces Man Vs. Missiles 5.0 that has new content and one very nifty new feature. Watch the video below showcasing 5.0’s standout feautre: In addition to a visual overhaul to support dark mode, the update brings five new planes, 10 new levels, a new powerful missile for higher levels, and the option for in app support. Out of the five new planes, two are VIP planes. Dark mode in Man Vs. Missiles can either follow your system settings or be toggled from the in game settings. I hope more games add support for dark mode because when you’re used to interacting with most things on a pleasing dark background, seeing a bright white launch image for a game isn’t plea...

When we recorded last week’s episode, everything we wanted to talk about was so new that we were basically limited to hot takes. This week we’ve had some time to spend with the new iPhones, the new Apple Watches, and Apple Arcade to provide some vaguely insightful commentary instead! What a novel concept for a podcast! 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 do a video version of the same show that is exclusive to Patreon which allows you to see us playing the games we’re talking about. Backers can view the most recent video episodes of the TouchArcade show by clicking here . Be sure you’re logged in to see the latest conten...

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…   Lock’s Quest After they had captured everyone’s attention with Drawn to Life , but before they became a ...

Frogger has been around since 1981, nearly 40 years. It was a simple, colorful little game that had you dodging cars and then leaping onto passing logs, turtles, and alligators all in an attempt to get each frog safely to their homes. Frogger in Toy Town really takes the heart and soul of the original games and modernizes it spectacularly. There are still pieces of all the original game, especially toy cars, and a whole lot more. You can dodge everything from exploding pen cups that will rain down on you to spring toys that might just spring onto you. There’s little toy cannonballs to avoid and even bigger objects like huge lawnmowers and vacuum cleaners. Your goal in this new game is technically nothing more than getting to the end, but there are three challenges in each room (level). There’s always one for saving all the baby frogs on a level. Others tend to include saving 3 frogs and avoiding dying in a specific way (drowning, falling pens, etc.) This is where the modernizations ...

We’ve been following along with Black Desert Mobile , the mobile iteration of the desktop and console MMORPG Black Desert Online from Pearl Abyss, for a couple of years now, and in fact the game was originally supposed to launch before the end of 2017. Actually it didn’t miss the mark too much as technically Black Desert Mobile did launch in February of last year… in Korea , which is where Pearl Abyss is based. We checked out the Korean launch version back then and were blown away by just how awesome it was , making the wait for a localized version even harder. Well today Pearl Abyss has finally announced that Black Desert Mobile will be arriving in North America, Europe, and Southeast Asia this December. Here is a beefy gameplay trailer that was released during E3 back in June which should give you a good idea of what Black Desert Mobile is all about. Fishing? Riding (and getting thrown off of) horses? Playing with doggos? Heck yeah, where do I sign up. Oh also you can like bu...

Perhaps you’re familiar with Food Truck Chef (Free) , the mega-popular mobile cooking game from Nukebox Studios and Tilting Point. And maybe you’re a superfan of the cult animated series Spongebob Squarepants. And maybe you’re thinking to yourself “WHY oh WHY can’t these two things I love somehow merge into one?" Well Nukebox and Tilting Point have partnered up with Nickelodeon to make this very odd and specific dream of yours come true. Today they’ve announced SpongeBob: Krusty Cook-Off , a mobile cooking game where you’ll take a spot behind the counter of the Krusty Krab grill and dish out delicious dishes to tons of familiar faces from the Spongebob universe. Here’s a teaser trailer. In addition to slinging deep sea chow, players will also be able to explore Bikini Bottom and decorate their underwater kitchens to their liking. If you’ve played Food Truck Chef before, or many other food-serving simulator games for that matter, I’m sure you have an idea of what’s in store fo...

Hello gentle readers, and welcome to the SwitchArcade Round-Up for September 27th, 2019. Today we have a gigantic list of new sales with some really great stuff in it and a bevy of new releases to look at. In a fun turn of events, I seem to have developed tendinitis in my right hand, so I’m skipping the news today. In summary: those Atelier Dusk games are coming West in January, DOOM and DOOM 2 got updates to fix the lighting and music issues, the first  Bloodstained  performance patch is coming in November, and House of the Dead 1&2 are getting Switch remakes. Now let’s get to the goodies! New Releases Dragon Quest XI S: Definitive Edition ($59.99) SwitchArcade Highlight! The incredible eleventh installment of the grand-daddy of JRPGs has finally made its way to Switch in a new Definitive Edition. At least until the next edition, anyway. Play the game in 3D or in a classic 2D style. Visit the worlds of other Dragon Quest games in some mini side-quests. Enjoy the...