Game Topz (gamtopz@gmail.com)

In this week’s show Eli recounts his finding of the slinky and then losing it again, and then contemplates the merits of just buying a new one (or a three pack). I then dive into why I’m feeling like garbage which is directly related to my toddler son feeling like garbage last week, which resulted in a Covid scare over the weekend. Not fun. But everything is ok! We then manage to wrangle ourselves back on track to discuss mobile gaming news including Eli’s impressions of the League of Legends Wild Rift beta test and how to get in on it even if you’re not in one of the soft launch territories. 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, w

We see A LOT of retro-inspired games on mobile, or really, in video games in general. Lots of stuff inspired by the 16-bit or 8-bit eras, but occasionally some that go back even further than that. Like the monochrome era of the original Game Boy or the surprisingly vibrant world of graphing calculator homebrew. These are what immediately came to mind when I first fired up Pixboy , a new platformer from developer Oaky Games. When you’re dealing with essentially just black and white, you have to go that extra mile to give your visuals some extra detail and life, and Pixboy does a great job with this. It’s the kind of game that looks totally lo-fi on the surface, but actually runs so smoothly and is filled with fancier things like particle effects that wouldn’t have been possible on actual hardware of the day. There’s also a couple dozen unlockable color palettes so you can change up the look while retaining that retro visual style. In fact unlockables are a big part of what I’m digg

Hello gentle readers, and welcome to the SwitchArcade Round-Up for October 30th, 2020. The list of new sales today is absolutely massive . One of the bigger ones we’ve seen in a while, outside of formally-organized major events. There are also a bunch of new releases to look at, with the charge led by Nintendo’s own Pikmin 3 Deluxe . And that’s really all I had time to stuff into today’s article! That’s just how things go sometimes, friends. Let’s check it out! New Releases Pikmin 3 Deluxe ($59.99) SwitchArcade Highlight! Nintendo’s quest to make sure there’s no reason to keep your Wii U plugged in marches one step further with the release of Pikmin 3 Deluxe , an enhanced version of the quirky real-time strategy sequel. Command various Pikmin to collect items, defeat enemies, and make your way past whatever obstacles stand in your way. The Deluxe in the title amounts to some new side-missions featuring Olimar and Louie, a co-op option for the Story mode, and all of the DLC packed

Genshin Impact (Free) from miHoYo is a magical adventure RPG with great visuals that plays brilliantly on modern iOS devices. While also announced for Nintendo Switch, that version is releasing at a later date. If you’d like to play it across platforms, PS4 players cannot sync saves to other systems in Genshin Impact . Cross platform online play is supported on all platforms though. Today, Genshin Impact 1.1 finally got a confirmed release date with new content revealed for the gorgeous adventure game. Genshin Impact 1.1 titled ‘A New Star Approaches’ releases on November 11th for all platforms and it brings four new playable characters, a new set of quests, the first seasonal event, a new reputation system, and more. Watch the Genshin Impact version 1.1 gameplay trailer ( via IGN ) below: Childe is a new 5 star hydro archer while Zhongli is a 5 star polearm wielder. Xinyan and Diona are the new 4 star characters who will join in this update. Genshin Impact 1.1 will conclude

After pre-orders for Feral Interactive’s XCOM 2 Collection () went live on iOS, we finally get an extended gameplay showcase for 2K and Firaxis’ tactical experience on iOS. The XCOM 2 Collection is very demanding on iOS as expected. Check out the supported devices here . After originally releasing on PC and then seeing a PS4 and Xbox One release, 2K brought the XCOM 2 Collection to Nintendo Switch earlier this year. Feral Interactive’s conversion for iPhone and iPad got an extended gameplay video revealing how the interface has translated over and also showing off the visuals in the port. Watch the gameplay video for XCOM 2 Collection on iOS below: After already bringing Company of Heroes , Tropico , Rome: Total War , and more to mobile, I’m very curious to see what Feral Interactive does following the XCOM 2 Collection . The XCOM 2 Collection releases on November 5th for iOS as a premium port. You can now pre-order it on the App Store for iOS here . It is priced at £23.99

Last month , I posted about South of the Circle () from State of Play. State of Play developed Kami ($2.99) , Kami 2 ($2.99) , INKS ($1.99) , and Lumino City ($4.99) and the company’s newest release is rolling out now on Apple Arcade in the form of South of the Circle . At the time, it was only announced for Apple platforms but wasn’t explicitly confirmed to be an Apple Arcade game but was confirmed soon after. South of the Circle is a gorgeous adventure game with a narrative focus set in 1964 in Antarctica after an an aircraft crash. Watch the teaser trailer for South of the Circle below: South of the Circle tells the story of Peter who is a Cambridge academic trying to reach bases and fight for survival through the cold. State of Play says South of the Circle uses full motion capture for realism with its gorgeous aesthetic. South of the Circle is out now on Apple Arcade with controller support and it is a 2.3 GB download on iOS. Check it out on the App Store for Apple

It’s been over a year since Rocketcat and Madgarden’s Death Road to Canada ($14.99) received, among dozens of other things, a “realistic poop system" for dogs in the big ILEUM update . It’s like, where do you even GO from there? How do you improve on perfection? Well somehow these developers have figured out a way, and just about 6 weeks after its release on desktop, the iOS version of Death Road to Canada has just received the massive KIDNEY update. It didn’t receive an actual enlarged kidney, but KIDNEY is the codename for this update and boy howdy is it ever a biggie. So big, in fact, that there’s no way I’m going to try and list everything that’s new. No way. You can find the exhaustive details in the update section of the game’s App Store page, or over on Steam . One thing I will mention though is UNLOCKABLE HATS. Also, in a similar vein to ILEUM’s more realistic dog poop, Rocketcat and Madgarden continue to show that they know what features are truly important to their pl

Crying Suns ($8.99) from Alt Shift finally hit mobile a few months ago after being originally confirmed for iPad back in 2018. The FTL -inspired tactical space game debuted through Steam but the mobile version is excellent. Read our review of it here . Crying Suns was just updated with a huge update dubbed the Advanced Tactics Update. This update has new equipment, additional neutral units, a new POI type, new enemy AI, and more. The update converts the game into the Crying Suns Advanced Tactics edition. Watch the mobile trailer for the Crying Suns Advanced Tactics Update below: The Crying Suns Advanced Tactics Update adds 8 new battleships weapons, 4 new battleships auxiliary systems, 5 new squadron types, 6 battleships core systems, 5 new officers abilities, 3 additional neutral units that each opponent can capture in terms of new content. This update also includes a new waypoint mode for more control on the battlefield. Crying Suns from Humble Games is out now on iOS and

Hello gentle readers, and welcome to the SwitchArcade Round-Up for October 29th, 2020. Nintendo did a nice little stealth Direct yesterday, giving us some news and shadow-dropped games to enjoy. I’ll briefly go over that before heading into the tons of new releases we need to summarize today. There are also the usual lists of incoming and outgoing sales to look at. Plus, we’ll be doing a giveaway of two North American digital copies of Torchlight III for Switch through the TouchArcade Twitter account , so make sure to check that out. Let’s go! News ‘Bravely Default II’ and More Feature in the Latest Nintendo Direct Mini Nintendo dropped what it says is its final Nintendo Direct Mini: Partner Showcase for the year, and it had a lot of interesting things in it. We got a better look at Bravely Default II , which is now coming in February of next year. Two streaming games, Hitman 3 and Control Ultimate Edition , were announced, with the latter now available on the eShop. A new Story