Apex Legends Mobile

 

Apex Legends Mobile released May 17, 2022, for iOS and Android is a first/third person shooter in the battle royal genre. Developed by Respawn Entertainment and published by Electronic Arts. The game follows the same format as its big budget counterpart that has been released on multiple consoles and PC.  The difference? It's on a touch screen.

Even though the game feels familiar, especially if you sync a controller up to your phone to make it easier to play. There are still some major flaws with this version. Apex Legends Mobile  isn't optimized very well, when you get into later matches (ones without or less bots) you can tell a noticeable difference in the performance and lag. The popups for each event, battle pass, or deals gets tiresome. On the plus side the main menu is less cluttered than other games in the same genre, sadly that probably won't last as the game is still a fresh release.

I feel as though Respawn is late to the party with this game. All of the other big name battle royals have mobile versions and most have been out way longer. PubG Mobile dropped in 2018, Call of Duty in 2019, and even though it was pulled from both Google play and iOS store's Fortnite also came to mobile before Apex.

At the time of writing there are 11 playable characters (Loba not pictured) with one exclusive to mobile, Fade. Nine of the characters at launch are obtainable by playing the game, Fade is obtainable by reaching level 28 of the season one battle pass. Otherwise, they can be purchased with the in-game currency. Most other transactions are cosmetic or upgrading the battle pass just like it's console/PC counterpart.

As far as how I feel about the game, overall Apex Legends Mobile plays well, for the most part. It feels like Apex, but I felt like I had an advantage by using my controller. I ended up with a 17 KDA after playing for a solid two weeks. That is unheard of from me, ask anyone who has played a battle royale with me. The genre is played out and I think that the late release of this game may end up hurting it in the long run. I want to rate it low just because I'm sick of all the battle royals, but it's Apex. One of the best BR's that has been made. It's paved the way for mechanics in other BRs, even when some of them came before. So I'm going to give the game a 7. It's better than other BRs I've played and if they can get the lag optimization under control it'll be a solid game to play just like it's console counterpart.

Listen to our full episode on your favorite podcasting app or on our YouTube channel.

Rocket League Sideswipe

 

Rocket League Sideswipe developed and published by Psyonix on November 29, 2021 available on Andriod and iOS. Rocket League Sideswipe is a R/C car sports game that mimics concepts from multiple ball based sports games including soccer (EU football), basketball, volleyball and tennis, depending on the game mode. Based off the original Rocket League concept where you drive your R/C car to dribble and bump the ball into the opponent's goal, and use rocket boosters on the back of the car to propel yourself though the air while balancing the ball to accomplish scoring points. Unlike the original game which was 3D, Rocket League Sideswipe is a 2D side view of the field with only the ability to go side to side and up and down on the play field. 

Despite the differences in game play Rocket League Sideswipe stays true to the original concept. The game feels similar enough for anyone transitioning from PC or console will not have a hard time adapting; especially if they are already a master of the original's mechanics. This version is far easier to control and I felt that even my small brain was able to comprehend enough that I didn't feel dwarfed in skill to other players.

At the time of our review there was no paywall for the game. Cosmetics were all earned through playing and the store's in-game-currency could only be gained from actually playing. We struggled to understand why there were no in game transactions. We concluded that Rocket League Sideswipe is a gateway to Rocket League proper, perhaps targeting those who haven't played before. 

Overall the game is well polished, with various styles of game play. They do rotate game modes to include different variations to keep things fresh. When we started playing Rocket League Sideswipe included in the standard 1v1 and 2v2 modes, as well as a basketball variation. However, halfway through our playtime with the game the basketball mode switched to volleyball. It was fun to play though after we completed our review of the game. I wasn't really drawn back into the game like I was for the original Rocket League. Because of that I give Rocket League Sideswipe an 8.5.

Listen to our episode on our YouTube channel or wherever you listen to your podcasts.

Totally Reliable Delivery (Service)

Totally Reliable Delivery (Service)

    Today I am reviewing the free mobile version of Totally Reliable Delivery on IOS by Tiny Build LLC and We’re Five Games, which released April 1st, 2020. The game is officially posted as Totally Reliable Delivery but I’ve seen it with service attached hence that title of this review. I only played the mobile version, but the game is also available on PC and consoles.

Gameplay: I’ll be honest, it’s fairly straightforward. The game is what I’d call a “whacky physics delivery game” You play a character who works for a delivery service. You can control your character’s movement, ability to grab with left/right hand, ability to lift left/right arms, jump, and dive. In order to load packages into vehicles, you have to lift the package up after grabbing it, hence movement of arms. Occasionally you have to move a lever and grab it with a hand as well. There are delivery package machines that drop/spawn a package for you to deliver and a location to take the package to. Some delivery missions spawn vehicles but you can also find some on the street and you can load your package onto it. Examples of vehicles are pickup trucks, boats, and fork trucks. As you haul the package however you haul it, you may encounter obstacles or physics that delay your delivery or even damage the package. As I was driving down a road, a manhole cover flew up and blew my truck onto its side which also tossed the package down the street. I also rolled the vehicle often by turning, which definitely didn’t help my deliveries. There are also some other tools for fun, like I hit a red barrel and it tossed me into the air from an explosion. I also grabbed a fire extinguisher and flew up the side of a mountain of trash as it emptied its contents. As you complete deliveries you earn currency which you can buy different things in game. 

Paywall: There isn’t much free here, so the paywall is mostly buying the game ($4.99) and the DLC (3 DLCS each $1.99). The free area is a small town and ten missions. You can buy the deluxe edition for $9.99 that has base game and the DLC packaged together. I didn’t purchase it, so I couldn’t confirm if there is much to pay for after if any.

Replayability: For free to play players, there’s very limited replayability here. If you buy the game and DLC, I imagine there would be a lot keeping players coming back. There’s also multiplayer if you have friends playing the game or you could join random games I believe. I didn’t test it though; free players are locked to either hosting games or joining friends. Can’t join a random player sadly. 

Judgement: I have heard this game is very fun on consoles and I can imagine how it would be. On mobile however, I’m not a fan. I’m usually not a fan of whacky physics games in general, but I can understand their appeal. The controls on here however are awful. You have a left stick in the bottom left of the screen and limb control on bottom right. They aren’t responsive and usually as I was driving, the camera would start swinging around randomly and my joystick in the bottom left wouldn’t quite respond correctly. This made turning a vehicle that much harder and it was frustrating. Besides the controls, I also physically got stuck in package delivery slot a few times which was annoying. At least the game offers a respawn function, so you could break free, but it would spawn you a ways away, and also as free goes, this isn’t free. I would like to give it my seal, considering how graphically it looked good, it was relatively polished for an inexpensive game, but it just doesn’t meet the criteria in my book for approval. It doesn’t get my seal, however if you like physics games and have friends to play with, check this out on console or pc. A free to demo is still worth checking if it’s your type of game, but skip the mobile version. 

Reviewed by Nomic on 4/9/2020. Thank you for reading my review. Disclaimer: My opinions are my own, I’m an unpaid third-party reviewer so I’m not bias in any way. 

Dragon Up: Idle Adventure

Dragon Up: Idle Adventure is an "idle game" produced by East side games, in collaboration with IdleKit and night Garden Studio. The game is available on Android and iOS. At the time of writing this I couldn't find the original release date. On the official site the games synopsis is as follows.

Tap your way through the Dragon Kingdom in this colorful and fun animated idle adventure Game!

Collect ALL the dragons and rake in gold coins from beautiful dragon nests to unlock rare dragon, epic dragons and new habitats to expand your kingdom! Once you collect enough coins, feed them to your trusty pet dragon Billy and watch him turn them into amazing treasures.

Game play: The game play (if you can call it that) is pretty strait forward. You are given enough gold at the start of a round (Day per the game) to set up your first habitat for your dragons. As the game is idle, gold will build up in that habitat and can be collected once the counter reaches it's max. As gold increases you'll unlock the ability to open up other habitats to produce gold as well. Habitats can also be automated to collect gold automatically but only after specific perimeters are met. At the top of the screen is a bar that represents the "day's" tasks. once you've met all of the tasks your main dragon can be "fed". To feed your dragon you're taken to another screen where you tap the screen to feed your dragon. I've found that no matter how you tap your screen the dragon will eat at the same consistent rate so there is no way to boost your rewards from eating no matter your technique for tapping. After collecting your rewards from feeding your dragon you start another "day" of collecting gold from your dragons. Each dragon and habitat can be upgraded from obtaining cards. The upgrading is what allows you to automate the gold collecting. 

Paywall: There are four main currency within the game. First is the gold which is earned by the idle processes. Next is potions that are earned from various tasks as well as purchased. You can purchase the potions with the third currency which is diamonds. The Diamonds can be earned as well but is also the only purchasable currency with real world money. The final currency is the cards that can only be earned from the various tasks in the game. This game practices a very predatory economy within the game. Each habitat to be upgraded to be able to automate gold collection requires either your dragons or habitat to be upgraded to a specific point. The only way to upgrade either is with the potions. Potions can be earned but the earning potential is very minimal and most times requires you to watch an in game ad around 30 seconds long. Or you can wait for your free potions every four hours. Either way the amount of potions that will be required far exceeds what you are reasonably given for free. 

Replayablity: This type of "game play" will defiantly keep a person with a specific personality type coming back again and again. As for myself it doesn't hold water. I found that it was a chore to continually log into the game to "play" it to give a fair review.

Judgment: This doesn't even merit the title of "Game". This is the type of game that gets mobile gaming labeled as not gaming by the gamer community. This game does not get the Budget Arcade seal of approval. There are far better ways to waste your time and your phones memory on than this.  

Review written by Scott Taft.

 

Horrorfield

By Elliot

Horrorfield is a multiplayer survival game released by Skytec Games. You, and three other “people” a term I would use very very loosely, run around a map and attempt to turn on five generators. Those generators will in turn allow you to escape through, what appears to be a garage door, that is powered by five generators. You’re trying to do this while a fifth “player” runs trying to capture the players to lock them up.

Gameplay is fun, at first. You begin with only one character unlocked and as you progress by playing you unlock more abilities for that character, as well as other playable characters. I say it is fun in the beginning, but progress is slow. As you unlock skills, or levels, they are all on a timer. You unlock the ability to create soda, but now you have to wait an hour before you have actually learned how to do so. For quick little matches here and there, this provides a big problem with gameplay. Unlock most characters is at random as well, which I’m fine with, but I just wanted to play as the fat professor Gary, or the foreign exchange schoolgirl Mary. Instead I got Phil, the old moron. You’re dead to me Phil.

Gameplay is fun, until you realize that winning as the rag tag group of misfits is hard. Really hard. So hard that I played for six days in a row and won less than ten times. Luckily, once you level high enough you can play as the monster. Again, that’s fun for a little while, but winning is really easy. Just by camping one of the handfuls of generators I would catch multiple people. Which leads me to believe that I was playing mostly against computers, and dumb ones at that.
You can listen to the episode to hear all the other things about gameplay that I’m skipping out on. The leveling system isn’t good, neither are the skill trees, that take forever, unless you want to use that premium currency. Another two currency game that really takes away from the fun. Or how if you get caught by the monster you have to sit and hope someone comes around to rescue you. And then heal you back up, or you’re still worthless.

It’s not that the gameplay isn’t fun, but stale after a few rounds. This is the type of game that would be best enjoyed in a room of five people all playing together. But changes need to be made as well. This is just too one sided of a game for the monster. This type of game has been done better, and it shows.

NBA now

NBA season is back and with it comes NBA Now a new free to play hoops game on your mobile phone.  What could go wrong?

The biggest NBA video game series, NBA 2k and its closest competitor in a distant second, NBA Live, both feature a My Team, and Ultimate Team mode respectively.  This mode is built around microtransactions. You use real money to buy packs of players to build a team around. To take online and play against other players and/or the AI.  While I don’t really have a problem with this mode, I always thought it just should have been a free to play game that anyone can download. Instead, you pay for the full priced game to play a mode that uses a free to play economy.  This to me is inexcusable. 

With that said, on your cell phone, you can now get NBA Now for free.  It released 10/22 the same day as the start of the 2019 NBA season. In NBA Now you pick your favorite team and you have access to their roster. This is very different than most NBA games F2P modes. Usually you get a couple packs of random players to fill out your team.  So if you wanted to play as Lebron, you would just have to get lucky or fork over some money. I picked the Bucks and was happy to see that All-Star player Giannis Antetokounmpo was available right away, granted these players are not as powerful as you would see in a standard NBA game mode. Therein lies the hook. To build your team up. Either through spending “dumbells” on training, or pulling better players from packs. You also get a free prospect pull every day.  A better star pull every 2 days, and another SUPERstar pull every 5 days. This is a good feature to keep you logging in to the game everyday hoping that your get a player you are ready to dump all your resources in to building. 

You are going to have to rely heavily on boosting stats, because you will not be able to make up for a weak team by just being good at the game.  I know most mobile games have to simplified controls to fit on a touch screen, but NBA Now took control largely out of your hands. 

First thing you do is pay season tickets to get in to the game.  These refresh fast enough, and I only expect the most avid players to run out before having to pay. When the game starts, it immediately simulates the first 3 quarters of the game, then you get to play the fourth quarter. So far I haven’t had it give me an unwinnable situation after the simulation. You can play against the computer or in PVP and I can’t prove this, but I suspect this ‘PVP’ pits you against other players teams, but they aren’t actually playing you.  My only real evidence is that you pick from a list of waiting players and the game just starts. There is no waiting for matchmaking. Again, this is just speculation but try it yourself and see.

I mentioned before the game takes control out of your hands, and I mean it. When the game starts there is no tip-off, again the first 3 quarters are simulated, and there is no tip off to start the 4th quarter.  You do not control the movement of your player, they move on their own. On offence there are three buttons on the screen. Shoot, Pass, and drive to the hoop. That’s it. No digital joypad to move your player around.  On defense it is even more sparse. With just a defend button, and a more aggressive defender button. You can’t control when to attempt a steal or a block. This game made me feel more like a coach yelling at my players hoping they would listen.  When you do shoot the ball, there is a meter that comes up that allows you to improve the chances of your shot being successful. That is the closest to a game this gets. I think if you come into this game as a management sim with light controls you might be happy, but largely I was expecting a better experience.  On a good note, the sound of the crowd is nice and loud and adds to the atmosphere. The graphics, while not great get the job done, but I found the framerate a little lacking on my Google Pixel 3a. Overall, I can’t recommend this. There are some nice ideas, and being able to have my starting team be the full starting 5 from the squad of my choice is real nice compared to other games. The gameplay is just non existent.  What a disappointment. 

Since being on Budget Arcade, I have had to play a lot of mobile games with Scott and Elliot.  I am by far the biggest skeptic of the three of us when it comes to gaming on the phone. I just don't like the lack of tactile controls.  That being said I have played some pretty good games that are able to deliver a good experience with the limited options of the touch screen interface. PubG, Call of Duty Mobile, and Mario Kart Tour to name a few.  I knew there had to be a better basketball experience on mobile than this. 

I downloaded NBA Live Mobile by EA Sports.  Now I know, EA doesn't have the best reputation.  But when I go into something like this, knowing that it is going to be heavy with microtransactions, and coming off of NBA Now, I am very open minded that good times could be had. 

First things first.  This is a video game.  You control your players.  You get to shoot the ball, pass, block, steal.  NBA Live Mobile, at its core, is a basketball video game.  So it’s already better than NBA Now. 

This is EA's ultimate team without having to buy a full priced game to play it. When you start the game you pick a team, but really you're just picking the jerseys your squad will be wearing. You'll open packs of cards to build your roster.

Once you have your team you can play with them in a season, or Showdown mode. Showdown is kind of a multiplayer mode.  You and your opponent play against AI controlled versions of each others teams. Then the total score from each game determines the winner.  It’s fine, but I would have prefered testing my skills against another player.

Season is where I spent most of my time. You play 14 games, then if you win 7 of those you move to the playoffs where you would play 4 single game rounds to win the championship.  The brevity of this season length is welcome. As you play games you win packs and gold to help improve your team. You also gain shards to unlock specific players. Even without spending money you are constantly getting new players and currency to use to build your team. Along with this, you also get free packs daily and weekly you get premier packs to get even better players.  You can also spend gold to get packs. I should also mention you slowly gain the premium currency for free while playing, something a lot of other free to play games do not allow.

When it’s time you play you spend 50 stamina per quarter of play (200 for a full game).  You accrue stamina over time, to bank up to 330, currently I have 655/330. I found this to generally be enough unless I played shorter skills modes or went on a long play session.  You can also get more than the 330 limit by leveling and accomplishing goals while playing. You can of course buy stamina recharges with real money, but I never felt like I needed to do that.  Should you run out of stamina mid game you can save, and complete the game later. This makes NBA Live Mobile perfectly suited for short play sessions as each quarter is just 2 and a half minutes. 

These are a lot other modes I haven’t been able to try, like joining leagues.  

When it comes to having a free NBA game on your phone NBA Live Mobile is miles better than NBA Now.  Live is my go to game on my phone for waiting rooms and toilet time. If your a basketball fan, I heartily recommend it. 

-Jeff (JQueasy)

Phase 10: World Tour

By Tessa

I’ve spent the better part of my free time today attempting to play this game, including re-downloading it three times and restarting it multiple times. I got to level five and for whatever reason it would wig out and freeze or not let me move cards or confirm a play. I can’t tell if you play actual players in the later levels yet or not because again I only got to level 5 which is still basically the tutorial. I’m giving up now as I’m tired of re downloading it and deleting it over and over.

Upon further investigation I found that it is a bug, the devs need to fix it as multiple people are running into the same issue.

If they fix the bugs I’d be happy to retry it but as of right now I give this game a 1/10

The Last Door

By Elliot

Point and click is not a genre I have a lot of experience with. When I was younger, my dad would come home with demo disks for the computer. If you’re a little older you may be familiar with that, a lot of gaming magazines use to come with a disc full of demos. Some were better than others. I recall when we got a Playstation and it came with one controller and a demo disc. The two point and click games that I played, weren’t actually full games, but demos. One was Freddi Fish, you played as Freddi, trying to solve the mystery of something that had gone missing. I tried to look up which one it actually was, but when I saw the list of game names I couldn’t recall which one it actually was. Let’s just assume they’re all basically the same game. The second one was Putt- Putt Joins the Circus. You play as a talking car named Putt-Putt, and you, just like with Freddi are trying to solve some mystery. In the end you join a circus parade or something along those lines.

I don’t recall enjoying those games, but we did not have a lot of choices on PC back then and I found myself playing them quite often back in the day, before Starcraft came into my life and showed me the video games on PC is where it’s at.
The Last Door and I did not get off on the right footing. I literally spent five minutes trying to kill myself. This really is not a spoiler, as it is the prologue to the game. Point and click games are just not a thing I do often, if ever. I had to click on the rope two or three times to actually have it in my inventory I clicked around for the next few minutes unsure what to do; I knew I couldn’t leave the room I was in, but was unsure what I was doing. I went to the window, nothing. I clicked the chair, it moved. Little did I know I had to click it again. I clicked everything in that dark room. Eventually I clicked the chair again and climbed it. From there I realized what I was doing, hanging myself, so clicking the rafter was simple.

And thus starts The Last Door, a point and click adventure game, developed and published by The Game Kitchen. The music sets the tone, and the opening credits did bring me into the game.

The protagonist here is Jeremiah Devitt, who was summoned to Anthony Beechworth’s house, that’s the man who hung himself in the opening. Strange things are about, and it’s up to you to solve them.

As I said before, I did not get off on the right foot with this game, and that continued into the early game. You walk around, just clicking everything in a room, picking up random things that have no meaning to you early on, in hopes they will come in useful later. I felt very bored in the beginning, there was little story, and in a point and click, that has zero voice acting, that makes it hard to stay in the game.
I eventually got moving, and into the story, from what I could gather from the free to play stuff it really isn’t bad. You’re trying to figure out what this “thing” is that is causing all the problems. There is a lot of back and forth from room to room. Go to the basement, get the hammer, go back to the 2nd floor and pull off the boarded up wall, find a record, take it back down to play the record. Without giving anything away I really enjoyed some scenes, one jump scare in particular was very well done.

Eventually was stuck again. Didn't know what to do with the crucifix. Or the dead Crow I picked up because I could. I figured it out, but a much smarter person could have been done with the first episode pretty quickly.

Overall what your get for free is pretty short. There might be even less to play here than Mario run. Unlocking the games comes with 3 other chapters, and a handful of minisodes, whatever that really means. The story wasn’t bad, but short; it’s hard to really tell how I feel playing this game, half an hour isn’t really long enough to get a good sense, but that is all you have with free-to-play with The Last Door.

Elliot is a part of the weekly Budget Arcade podcast. Find him on Twitter at @Elliot_Argues You can also find his other podcasts; Tessa and Elliot Argue, and Wall Pull where you find podcasts.

Asphault 9 (Mobile)

-Overview

Asphalt 9: Legends is a racing video game developed by Gameloft Barcelona and published by Gameloft. Released on July 25, 2018, it is the ninth main installment in the Asphalt series. In comparison to previous entries, there are several new and improved features, such as a prestigious car lineup, new control schemes, including the autopilot mode called Touch Drive, and race modes, and the reimplemented "shockwave nitro" from Asphalt 6: Adrenaline. The graphics are also considered significantly improved compared to its 2013 predecessor, Asphalt 8: Airborne.

Unlike the switch version there is only four different play modes Special Events, Daily Events, Multi-player and Career. Also all modes require an internet connection unlike the two switch modes that did not. The main difference is also the controls. Touchdrive is the default on mobile, and to be honest is quite easy compared to using the switch controller. Your driving decisions are limited to do I swipe to the left to pick up this bottle of nitro or do I swipe right to hit this ramp? You can also activate your nito boost or hit the "drift button" during turns. With this simplistic approach you don't have to be good at driving games to come out on top of the race. Just have your car upgraded and get enough boosts and you win every time. I cleared parts of the career so much faster than on console. There is a way to turn off the Touchdrive and then you control the car via turning your phone like you would a steering wheel (I did not try that). After playing on mobile with the touchdrive I decided to go back to the switch and try it out. It's exactly the same and allowed me to pass levels that I was having trouble with. Unfortunately that wasn't covered in our episode.

-Paywall

The mobile version has the exact same paywall as the switch but with one minor change. There's the ability to watch ads to get "packs" as well. up to 3 per 24 hours. This makes leveling your cars even faster than the switch.

There isn't too much difference between the two versions and has about the same replayablity value. It is to be noted that the mobile version is about 8 months ahead of the switch version with updates. So items that are available on mobile are not yet on the switch.

-Scott

Theme Solitaire

Theme Solitaire is a game in which players can play cards to easily collect resources in order to build their own themed tower, using fairy tale characters. Theme Solitaire is free to download on Google Play and the App Store. The following review is by Tessa.

I played Theme Solitaire for a few days and this was my experience.

First off, it wasn’t exactly solitaire, you get a stack of cards and then several cards on the board that are either facing up or turned over. You have to get the cards off the board by flipping up cards either one higher or one lower. Later on down the line they add in ice which freezes until you match, only then can the card be matched again and taken off the board. The next thing they add is a bomb, you have to match it in three turns or it explodes. You have a set number of cards to go through and once you get done you can pay 2500 coins to get five more; I’ve never done that option as it doesn’t seem worth it. If you flip a card without meaning to you can pay to flip it back I have done this a couple of times as it’s not too expensive.

The object of the game is to earn gems to build different fairy-tale rooms in a tower. I have finished Alice and wonderland and Snow White. I’m now working on Rapunzel. You have a choice when you build a new floor. I’ve only built three floors so I’m not sure how many they have to choose from or if the choices come back around if you don’t pick them.

This game is right up my ally as fairy tales are my favorite thing, however the game play is not great. It’d be better if it was actually solitaire but it’s just matching cards. The ice just gets annoying and the bomb isn’t nerve racking at all.

You earn gems and coins with each game you play, you use the coins to enter the game and the rubies to build with. There are also rings you can earn but I’m honestly not sure how you earn those. There is a timer on each game and if you finish the game within that set amount of time you get a coin bonus at the end. The entry fee goes up every level but you get the coins back at the end plus bonuses for time and for doing multiple plays on the same card. I think it’s kind of silly because you pay so much to play but then immediately get it back at the end. It cost 20,000 coins to build a new floor. I’ve only built three so I’m unsure if that price goes up at the end or not.

You also uncover artifacts as you play you use these to craft different items. I’m not sure what exactly these items are used for maybe I’ll learn if I play more.

Overall the game is just ok, it is a bit addictive as I love to build stuff and I love fairy-tales but those aspects don’t make up for the boring game play. It is a good way to spend five minutes and it doesn’t have a set amount of lives so you can play as much as you want. I am undecided if I’ll keep it on my phone or not as I like building the tower but it’s still kind of boring so we’ll see.

I give it a 4/10

Tessa is from the podcast Tessa and Elliot Argue, you can find it on iTunes, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. Follow her on Twitter at tessie_paints.

Call of Duty Mobile

By Elliot

It was during my sophomore year of college that the Xbox 360 really started to take off. The original Xbox was still around, but most of my circle of friends had moved on from the previous generation of consoles to the 360 era. I don’t know how it was for you, but for me and those around me we all had an Xbox 360. Playstation just didn’t grab our eyes. Games like Halo had come in and changed how I played games. Halo parties, where we would take 4 Xboxes and link them together to play 16 player matches of Halo quickly became a normal Friday night. It was magical, groundbreaking, and an excuse to spend all of Friday night at a friend’s house.

Then Halo 2 and with it Xbox Live. If you were around during that time, I don’t need to tell you how game changing that was. If you weren’t, just look around you now. Online gaming is what it is today because of Xbox Live and games like Halo 2. Gone were the Friday nights at a friends house. Here to stay were the long nights, next to the blue glow of a screen with a headset on, talking about how garbage the person on the other end of the microphone was; and what you wanted to do to their mom.

Online games got better too, and quickly. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare was one of those games. Just about everyone had that 4th Call of Duty game. My roommate and I would find ourselves coming home from class in the evening, logging into our school’s internet. On campus we were able to play with anyone else that had a 360. Hours upon hours would be spent playing Modern Warfare with other people who lived on campus.

Then came games like World at War, Modern Warfare 2 (the best in the series), and Black Ops. Each one bigger, and arguably, better than the last. And like anything, when you release a new version of the same thing year after year, you get diminishing returns. Unless your Apple, people will still buy the same phone every year, whole sucker being born everyday with that one, I guess.

It’s to the point now where most people don’t even bat an eye at the new Fall release of Call of Duty. I haven’t really noticed them the past few years. There are quite a few shooter games out these days, the most popular ones seem to be battle royales. I’ve moved on from my college days, and with that my love of the shooter has dwindled, and Call of Duty is no longer on my gaming radar.

That was until this year, and a new free to play version, Call of Duty Mobile (COD Mobile) has been released. Releasing on October 1st of 2019, 24 days before the actual “big” release of this year’s main game, a remake/reboot/rehash of Modern Warfare; it’s here to tide you over till then. And to be honest, I’m kinda sold on it.

I don’t think shooters work well on mobile phones. I even have a hard time with shooters and controllers. Once you make that switch to PC it’s hard to argue that shooters can be better on anything else. Disagree? I don’t care, your opinion is invalid, because I am not capable of rational thought. Is anyone even reading this? Let me know.

Booting up the game was pretty simple, and much like other games of this nature you are immediately greeted with a login screen, please connect to social media before playing, so we can spam posts into your feed in an attempt to trick your friends into playing as well. Also, agree to our terms of service, it’s legit, and I’m sure they’re not collecting data to sell to other companies…

After all of that you go right into a training mode. I was playing on an Iphone 8, so not the biggest screen, I found the type to be a little small, maybe it’s my age, but I just kept pushing the button the game highlighted, trying to get through the tutorial. I know I’m poo pooing on it but the tutorial really was simple, and effective. One of the things I do like about this game is how they handle the controls. You can be basic, which is what I went with, after all I am basic. This mode does the shooting for you when you have someone in your cross-hairs, you use the left half of the screen to move your character forward/backward, the right half to move the cross-hair, almost like having two analog sticks. It doesn’t matter where you put your finger on the screen, as long as it’s on that half of the screen, it will work. And, it works well. I would play more mobile shooters if this was the method they used.

Like most of these types of games, it is filled to the brim with micro transactions, loot boxes, and battle passes. I COD Mobile has this in spades, no exception here. I don’t know what I can say that would be new to add to this discussion. Not a big fan, I get games need to make a profit to justify their existence. It’s here, it’s pretty standard, in your face, constant barrage as you are just trying to play. No one really likes it, I’ve said enough.

There is a battle royale (BR) mode here as well. I did not play the last Call of Duty, Black Ops 4, but I know there was a BR mode to that as well, and it was well received for the most part. The one on Mobile requires you to reach level 7 in order to partake, makes sense, learn a little about the game before you actually go in. Level 7 took almost no time at all to get to. I found the battle royal not as fun as the normal run and gun death match. The BR took too long, and it really seemed as though I was always playing against the computer.

At least on initial release I found that I was playing against the computer more often than against actual people. It was very noticeable when I was playing against people vs the computer, I usually lose when playing against other people, I’m a terrible old man. My team would clean house when we were playing against the computer, and it took away from my fun, I could care less about being able to beat some bad AI.

You can add you friends, and there are clans that you can enjoy. Playing with your friends isn’t hard to do, and does add to the enjoyment. The voice chat isn’t great, but for a mobile phone game it is better than some other options. Thankfully there were not a pile of nasty teenage boys screaming, the only time I heard people talk was when I was playing with friends.

Like most mobile games, ads are everywhere. Every time you log back into the game you are bombarded, and of course the buy button is three times the size of the close button. I found it bothersome, but not surprising. I could easily see how a child, or manchild could click the buy button by accident. User beware.

Overall for mobile first person shooters this is the best one I’ve tried. But let’s not forget that this is a FPS on a mobile phone. This just isn’t a genre that belongs on a phone. If you must, then have at it, but I would rather spend my time on other games.

You can listen to our episode on Call of Duty Mobile on Anchor, or wherever you find your podcasts.

Elliot is a part of the weekly Budget Arcade podcast. Find him on Twitter at @Elliot_Argues You can also find his other podcasts; Tessa and Elliot Argue, and Wall Pull where you find podcasts.

Pokémon Masters

By Elliot

I have played a lot of Pokémon games, since the beginning. In my older years I have gone away from the series as a whole, I’ve never touched Sun or Moon, mostly because I was busy with other games, after all the formula doesn’t change often so if you’ve played one, you’ve played most. I find the anime is hard to watch as a 32 year old man. My wife Tessa and I have played a good deal of Pokémon Go from time to time, finding enjoyment in the raiding, and special weekends they have occasionally. But I’m not here to talk about game but Pokémon Masters.

When Masters was announced I was initially excited for a new Pokémon game on the phone. I thought if they could harness the fun parts of Go and bring it to a new game with better combat, and a few tweeks then sign me up. I waited patiently for the game to come. After a while Nintendo said summer 2019. So I waited. Then, 26 days before Fall, Pokémon Masters showed up. And my hopes of a better Pokémon phone game than Go were dashed pretty quickly.

Don’t get me wrong there are things that this game does right. Combat being a big one in my eyes. Standard combat in Pokémon games is typically one on one, Pokémon vs Pokémon, mano-a-mano, I don’t know how else to say 1v1.. Masters does things a little differently. Battles here are three on three. More is happening in combat here than in your normal Pokémon game. More to keep track of, more choices to make, and it works. For example, you have to highlight which Pokémon you want to focus on, and when you do that their “bar” levels up faster than the other two. Moves have a cost to them, so the higher your bar the higher the move you can have the Pokémon perform. So there is some logic in which three Pokémon you chose to do battle with, which order you put them in, and which one you focus on during the fight, but being able to switch in between the three once battle starts.

Combat is an issue with Pokémon Go, I found myself comparing the two games constantly the week of review. It’s hard not to, not a lot of Pokémon games on the phone, but they are worlds apart in my eyes.

Story is a big difference. Go has absolutely none, zero, nada. Like throwing a hot dog down a hallway, big empty void. Pokémon Masters has to much, way to much, just story everywhere. More story than I would ever care to have in a game that has almost zero voiceover work. I do not want to read all that story. And I know I’m saying the word story, but that is a strong term here. The story is very basic, the “character stories” are even worse than the main story to the game. It feels like fluff here, filler with no substance, you are better off googling some Pokémon fanfiction if you need some story, might even find more enjoyment in doing so.

Like just about every phone game these days you find a gacha system in place here. This one is no different. One of the things that I am liking in the new games, almost all the Nintendo ones give you this, is the percentages on the chances to get characters. I know almost all the other “real” countries require this now, and it’s a shame we don’t in America, but I like that we still have it here in the game. It helps, I guess, to know how horrible my chance is to get Blue and his Pidgeot, it’s almost zero. Thanks for keeping my hopes low Nintendo, you didn’t disappoint.

A sticking point that really upset me here where the characters and Pokémon that were available to possibly unlock. In the game they call them sync-pairs, because you unlock a trainer and their Pokémon. Like Brock and Onix, Misty and Starmie. There are 64 pairs you can unlock when the game was first available, I’m sure that number will change as the game ages. For example Nintendo kept promoting the game before release by showing you sync-pairs that would be in the game, like Blue and Pidgeot, or Red and Charizard. But, get this, Red isn’t in the game at the time I’m writing this. Perhaps the only pair I felt like I wanted above all else, and you tease me with him not even being in the game. You cut me Nintendo, deep.

The week we played this game on the podcast I was able to look beyond all the things that I disliked to see a Pokemon game I wanted it to be. I felt that if I would just keep playing it would become that game that I really wanted it to become. I was blinded by the shiny of the game. It does look polished, which I feel is almost the worst thing. The combat is really well done, but just about everything else around it is not fun. I’ve played the game a handful of times since our first week, but I do not have any intentions to play much more. Sadly this game is not worth the investment, in either time or money. Not to mention that if you want to sink money into this game, there are plenty of ways to do so, and it is not cheap.

Not a lot of traditional things about Pokémon in Pokémon Masters, and for once, I think that is a shame.

You can listen to our episode on Pokémon Masters on Anchor, or wherever you find your podcasts.

Elliot is a part of the weekly Budget Arcade podcast. Find him on Twitter at @Elliot_Argues You can also find his other podcasts; Tessa and Elliot Argue, and Wall Pull where you find podcasts.

Mario Kart Tour

By Elliot

There are few game series that hold the magic in my eye better than Mario Kart. My first system was the SNES, and one of the first games I specifically chose to buy was the original Mario Kart. I recently was able to replay that game thanks to the SNES games that were put on the Switch. Jeff warned me not to try and relive my youth when it came to Mario Kart, and of course, I did not listen. Honestly I’m glad I didn’t shy away from replaying the game, I fell in love with it all over again.

I’ve played every version of Mario Kart, 8 probably being my favorite. I refused to purchase the game again when it came out on the Switch, I am somewhat of a Nintendo Fanboy and actually loved my Wii U, so I’m going to need you to go ahead and come out with Mario Kart 9 there Nintendo. In the meantime they have given me Mario Kart Tour for the phone.

First off, let’s talk polish. Overall I’ve been impressed by all the games Nintendo has put out for the phone in terms of look. They all look legit, and they all look like Nintendo games. They don’t always hold that initial shine, but it is certainly there.

Booting up for the first time, and I was in shock. It looked like Mario Kart, but on the phone. That feeling did not last though.

Get this, there is no accelerator, there is no brake to this game. None. A racing game without either of those two functions, are you kidding me.

Handling is awful. At first. You slide your finger one way or the other to drift, or steer. Not all at once though. The only way you can drift and steer at the same time is if you enable tilt controls. Tilt controls! I’d rather hear Jeff talk about Auto Chess for an hour. Back in the days of Mario Kart 8 you couldn’t talk to people directly in the online chat, you had to use small catch phrases, that Nintendo provided. My favorite catch phrase was “I’m using tilt controls!” so stupid.
I say at first, because once you’ve played a handful of games you get use to it. The auto accelerator isn’t too awful, the drifting isn’t too hard to learn. Annoying, but not impossible, and after a while I didn’t give it much thought. Complaint number one, the controls.

I had zero problems winning my first game. I thought, man, I haven’t lost my touch with Mario Kart, and then I learned that I’m playing against the computer. Online play is “coming soon” whatever that truly means. But it is deceiving, because the people you are racing against have unique names, even names in Japanese, so they want you to think you’re playing real people. Complaint two, it’s not a full release of a game.

There are 20 racers to unlock, 19 karts, and 11 gliders to be won in a gacha style of unlocking, again, the normal for phone games. As you play the game you level up each racer, kart, and glider. But there is a limit on how much you can level in a day’s time. Frustrating beyond belief, and a huge turn off. Just as you are getting in a groove you can still play the game, but no longer level up for that day. Complaint three.

You can listen to the podcast to hear about gameplay, replayability, and what the pay wall is all about. I will say this about what paying gets you, essentially their gold pass. The price of the play pass, which is $4.99 a month is a joke it unlocks a few addons, and the 200cc races, which is a let down to someone who is playing these games without putting money into them. You will not get $4.99 a month worth of enjoyment here, plain and simple. If you have that kind of money, go buy Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, you will enjoy it, and find it has far more replayability for that price. Price point for the gems seems to align with most phone games, not great, kinda awful, but it’s there, and it is the new normal. The price point for the pass is robbery. Complaint four.

But having said those awful things I really do like this game. I had a lot of fun, and I didn’t spend a dime all week, or felt the need to. I feel like this is a Mario Kart game, for the most part. Certainly worth your time, maybe even worth a few dollars, maybe to try out the gold pass for a month at least, just to see.

You can Listen on Anchor to this episode.

Elliot is a part of the weekly Budget Arcade podcast. Find him on Twitter at @Elliot_Argues You can also find his other podcasts; Tessa and Elliot Argue, and Wall Pull where you find podcasts.