Game Topz (gamtopz@gmail.com)

We did it! We made it to episode 500 of The TouchArcade Show! Wahoo! We spend a good amount of the show this week talking about the Playdate (again) which we pre-ordered on Thursday and are stupidly excited about. We then buzz through a handful of our normal weekly mobile gaming stories so that we can spend the back end of the show sharing the best TouchArcade memories that were sent in by you, our fans. We asked everyone last week to send in their story of how they first got into TouchArcade or mobile gaming in general, and the response was wonderful. So much so that we had to save a bunch of them for next week. If you have a story like that please, send it our way! I absolutely love reading them and I kid you not a number of them made me tear up. I love you guys, podcast listeners/viewers and/or site readers <3 Also you’ll find a little bonus down in the Show Notes below in the form of our original podcast intro and outro music recorded by real-deal professional film and games c...

It’s not everyday that you get a new release from developer Luca Redwood aka EightyEight Games right out of the blue. In fact, it’s been a couple years since his last release Photographs launched. So what’s been going on with Luca? Well, you see, there has been this whole pandemic thing, and… yeah. So Luca took it upon himself to make a “lockdown game" during the pandemic, as many other developers have done. A great use of time, if you ask me. The result of that is a game called Infinity Island for both iOS and Android , and at the risk of sounding like too much of a fanboy, Luca Redwood has totally nailed it once again. What do I mean by that? Well, the game that put Luca on the map way back in 2012 (Wow, almost a decade ago!) 10000000 , and its follow-up You Must Build A Boat in 2015, were master classes in incremental progression. It was like someone took a fast-paced matching game mechanic and married it with a progression loop that you couldn’t put down as you went just ...

Hello gentle readers, and welcome to the SwitchArcade Round-Up for July 30th, 2021. In today’s article, we look at the rest of the new releases for the week. Some decent games in here, but after the week we’ve had I’ll forgive you if you want to take a little breather. We’ve got summaries of all the new games anyway, along with the usual lists of incoming and outgoing sales for you to have a good gander at. Let’s dig in! New Releases 10 Second Ninja X ($11.99) It’s ultra-challenging platformer time. Each level gives you exactly ten seconds to clear it, so you’d better find your feet fast. There are one hundred levels in total, with tons of different obstacles and hazards to overcome. Are you fast enough to get a three-star rating on every level? There are different character costumes to unlock, hidden minigames, online leaderboards for every level, marathon modes, and even some accessibility options for those who want to play their way. If you enjoyed stuff like League of Evil, N++...

It takes a lot of work to be the black sheep of a series as inconsistent as Final Fantasy , but Final Fantasy II has generally found itself in that position since it first released on the 8-bit Famicom back in 1988. It’s an odd game, in many ways establishing the SaGa series more than it sets up further Final Fantasy games. It went unlocalized for a rather lengthy period of time, which meant when it finally did come it was being judged against games that came ten years or more after it. Memes about the game were established in the West before the game itself ever had a chance. Unfortunately, I feel like the Final Fantasy II ($11.99) Pixel Remaster has once again drawn the short straw. Of all the Pixel Remaster games so far, this is the one that loses the most. The list of differences with the Pixel Remaster when compared to the previous mobile version is almost identical to that of the first game. We’ve got completely new visuals that you may or may not prefer. There’s a new vers...

A little while ago, Apple’s Apple Arcade coming soon section was updated to list a few of the games hitting the service. One of these games was Detonation Racing () by Electric Square. Detonation Racing is an arcade racer about explosions with drifting that feels great. I’ve been playing it a bit since this morning and it is a lot of fun but needs a bit of work for the visuals. Electric Square have put out a Split/Second -like (link) racer with what seems like a good amount of content available from day one through its career mode and more. It also has controller support with button prompts for Xbox controllers. Watch the Detonation Racing trailer below: The aesthetic and interface in Detonation Racing are very nice and I’m definitely going to dip in and out of this one over the next few weeks. I hope future updates can improve the visuals because it doesn’t look great on my iPad Pro. A higher frame rate option would be great as well. Check out Detonation Racing on Apple Arc...

Fantasian () from Mistalker is one of the flagship Apple Arcade games that many had been looking forward to following its initial reveal. When it finally released back in April with the big Apple Arcade release day, a lot of people I know subscribed to Apple Arcade to try it. Fantasian in its current state on Apple Arcade is the first part of the game. Mistwalker and Final Fantasy creator Hironobu Sakaguchi have been posting in-development screenshots of the second part often on Twitter. Today, Hironobu Sakaguchi revealed that the second part of Fantasian is almost done. This news follows the recent Apple Music soundtrack release for Nobuo Uematsu’s superb score for the game. Check out a screenshot from Fantasian part two below: I’m very interested to see how the final Fantasian part plays out when it releases on Apple Arcade. Fantasian is currently available here on Apple Arcade. The soundtrack is now also on Spotify here and iTunes here following its Apple Music rele...

Today Akupara Games and Silver Lining Studio announced a release date for their Studio-Ghibli inspired interactive narrative game Behind the Frame: The Finest Scenery and opened up pre-orders on mobile in addition to releasing a playable demo on Steam. Behind the Frame follows an aspiring artist as she goes about her everyday life and ponders what the deal is with her mysterious artist neighbor and his kitty cat. Ultimately you’re helping her finish her masterpiece painting, and “As her painting starts to take shape, [you’ll] uncover an emotional tale of chance and artistry revealed behind unrelated yet familiar moments." Check out the stunningly gorgeous new trailer announcing the release date for Behind the Frame . As mentioned, as of today you can download a free demo for the PC version of Behind the Frame over on Steam and it should give you a taste of what will be on offer. However, for a game that is so largely centered around painting and drawing, and with puzzles th...

Around this time back in 2017 indie developer Kishor Berde released a clever puzzle game called Twins: Brotherhood , which essentially had you controlling to tiny cubes simultaneously as you navigated them around their own respective light and dark worlds each filled with a host of unique and dangerous challenges. We thought it looked really cool back then. Now the developer is taking a similar idea and expanding on it in a number of ways for a new upcoming game simply called Twins . The art is hand-drawn this time around and there seems to be more emphasis on story, but the overall concept is quite similar: Control two characters at the same time through light and dark versions of the world. Here’s a very nice trailer for Twins showing a bit of what you can expect. You know, who among us hasn’t been enjoying the delicious fruit that magically appears in the grass out of nowhere when all of a sudden your buddy is whisked off into an alternate evil dimension because they happened t...

Hello gentle readers, and welcome to the SwitchArcade Round-Up for July 29th, 2021. In today’s article, we’ve got a whole bunch of new releases to check out. From big names like Blaster Master Zero 3 to smaller-scale but still scrappy titles like Piczle Puzzle & Watch Collection , there are a wide variety of new titles to consider. Moving past the summaries of those games, we’ve got the usual lists of incoming and outgoing sales for you to check out. Lots of ways to spend your money today, friends. Let’s see how you’re going to fall! New Releases Blaster Master Zero 3 ($14.99) SwitchArcade Highlight! I’m sure most of the people reading this have some basic familiarity with these games by now. Here’s the third one! More adventures with Jason and Eve await in this end of the so-called Jason Saga of the series. Picking up where the second game left off, Jason and Eve have arrived on the planet Sophia. While escaping from the local military, Jason and Eve are separated. Now Jason...