04-24-24 -

Wildfrost review
Wildfrost is an easy game to fall in love with. What I mean by that every little aspect of the game has its own little charming flourish to it. You might not be able to appreciate all of those nitty gritty details on a phone screen, but on larger ...

04-18-24 -

Ghost Trick review
Ghost Trick is a cult classic game for a few very good reasons. It's a one-off release by the creator of the Ace Attorney series that only released on Nintendo DS back in 2010, which was pretty late into that device's life cycle....

03-28-24 -

Slice & Dice review
There is no shortage of roguelikes on mobile, and great ones at that. I feel like I'm writing about some new hotness in this space every other month. It's a pace that feels unsustainable, and yet, the hits keep coming. Slice &...

03-19-24 -

Methods: Detective Competition review
Something I had an epiphany about last year was why so many visual novels go out of their way to lose focus or just get a bit goofy with their storytelling thanks to PARANORMASIGHT's deficiencies in that department. Methods: Detective Com...

03-12-24 -

Ex Astris review
I've always been of the mind that the stories that video games tell tend to not matter all that much. There are various reasons (and a fair amount of nuance) for this that I can't get into here because I have a game to review, bu...

03-05-24 -

Shovel Pirate review
As the App Store gets increasingly overloaded with live service titles, ever ambitious gacha games, and bulky console/PC ports, its nice when something comes out and embraces a small, mobile-focused scope and sticks to it. Shovel Pirateis exactly ...

02-29-24 -

Death Stranding iOS saves are as hard to detect as BTs
This isn't a review of Death Stranding on iOS so much as it is an announcement that I will not be reviewing it. I posted some impressions earlier this month about the release where I mentioned my intent to finish it, but I just... can&...

02-22-24 -

Recontroller review
Style over substance can only get you so far, but it works out quite well if you're only going on a short journey. Recontroller does exactly that. In addition to being a sort of visual mind-trip, this game doesn't ask much of you...

02-20-24 -

Of Two Minds review
I wouldn't say there's been a whole lot of expermientation that I've seen around reinventing FMV games, which are also commonly referred to as interactive movies or games that use video clips as its main way of presentin...

02-14-24 -

Resident Evil 4 review
This review of Resident Evil 4 coming out quite a bit after its release for a very specific reason, which I'll try to articulate as best I can in this piece. The original Resident Evil 4 is a modern classic that essentially raised the bar...

02-08-24 -

Yes, Your Grace review
Quite a few kingdom management games have graced the App Store, but I'm not sure any of them have felt quite as bespoke and personal as Yes, Your Grace. Where many other titles of this ilk tend to employ overlapping systems and procedural...

01-30-24 -

Solquence review
Mobile games really don't need to be deep. It's nice when they are (while still respecting the limitations of the platform), but also sometimes you just want a nice thing to do that isn't doomscrolling and provides some ...

01-25-24 -

Art of Rally review
It's easy for me to forget, but the App Store--surprisingly--is home to a solid collection of good-to-great rally-based racing games. So, when a new challenger enters the ring, they really ought to bring their best. Unfortunately for Art ...

12-19-23 -

Demeo review
This will probably be a short review. There isn't a whole lot to say about a game like, Demeo, after all. It is an extremely straightforward dungeon-crawler game. It looks nice, has some decent variety, and a few interesting mechanics, bu...

12-12-23 -

Hitman: Blood Money Reprisal review
When thinking about kinds of games that tend to have an especially hard time working well on mobile, games like Hitman: Blood Money - Reprisal are near the top of that list. Action games--particularly those that rely on precision, patience, stealt...

12-06-23 -

Coromon review
There have been quite a few mobile games to come along and do the Pokémon thing, but none of them (not even the ones featuring actual Pikachus and the like) feel like they have come as close to capturing the magic of this beloved series...

11-15-23 -

Wizard of Legend review
I will be the first person to say that there's a good case for more PC and console games to make their way to iOS. After all, my experience with other mobile game-playing devices that folks fawn over like the Steam Deck and Nintendo Switc...

11-10-23 -

Resident Evil Village review
I posted some first impressions of how Resident Evil Village plays on iOS a few days ago, and I stand by most of what I wrote there if you are curious about how it plays and the effort that went into the port. The only thing I now disagree with is...

11-02-23 -

Illuminaria review
Illuminaria is a real-time strategy game that explores the idea of being able to build multiple bases of operations that persist and interoperate throughout the course of a campaign. It's a really neat idea that I'm surprised I h...

10-17-23 -

Kingdom Eighties review
The latest entry in the Kingdom series also takes place the closest the franchise has ever gotten to the modern day. Kingdom Eighties takes the real-time, minimalist strategy series to the 1980s and trades out horses for bikes, has you building ou...

10-13-23 -

Subpar Pool review
Subpar Pool is a new puzzle game from the developer behind holedown and rymdkapsel. In concept, it's a billiards game, but it also combines that with a little bit of mini-golf and a whole lot of video game nonsense. The end result is a ga...

10-10-23 -

The Wreck review
I have built up a pretty high degree of skepticism heading into experiences like The Wreck over the years. Games focused emotional narratives are all well and good, but I've played a few too many that feel content to just make emotive mom...

10-05-23 -

The Last Game review
Sometimes a game doesn't have to be super deep to be enjoyable. For $ 2, The Last Game offers up some generic roguelite shooting action all without taking itself seriously or ambitiously, and honestly it is probably better off that way. ...

10-02-23 -

Tangle Tower review
The latest re-release of a previous Apple Arcade exclusive is a quirky mystery adventure game about a curious family living on an isolated estate. Tangle Tower puts you in the shoes of a detective duo that has been called to uncover who murdered t...

09-20-23 -

The Isle Tide Hotel review
Wales Interactive has fully entered journeyman status in the world of FMV game development, putting out the vast majority of these kinds of games I've encountered on the App Store. I have said before (and will say again) that I find their...

09-14-23 -

Motorsport Manager 4 review
The Motorsport Manager games are far and away the management titles I've put the most time into on mobile. They are sharply designed and do a good job of teaching you about some of the nuances and excitement of racing that exist outside o...

08-30-23 -

Dawncaster review
Dawncaster is a deck-building roguelite that released for mobile devices back in March of 2021. Why am I writing about it now, then? Well, for starters, I somehow only recently became aware of it. Secondly, the game recently updated to add over 16...

08-23-23 -

Six Ages 2: Lights Going Out review
If you've heard of A Sharp's games (King of Dragon Pass, Six Ages: Ride Like the Wind), then a shortcut assessment of Six Ages 2 is that it is the most fully realized version of these uniquely narrative-focused strategy games. Th...

07-31-23 -

Geo Gods review
It's not common for a mobile game to rely first and foremost on delayed gratification. Although individual matches of Geo Gods may only take a few minutes, you have to play several rounds of it for you to even begin posting high scores or...

07-27-23 -

Return to Monkey Island review
Return to Monkey Island answers the question of what you should do with an aging franchise that defined a genre: Give it a proper send-off. This adventure game welcomes the return of its original creators, features some super smart innovations on ...

07-25-23 -

Luck be a Landlord review
As someone who plays and reviews a lot of mobile games, I have (unfortunately) become very accustomed to engaging with gambling-like mechanics. It's gotten to the point where I am almost entirely immune to their charms and their mere pres...

07-24-23 -

Bugsnax review
Bugsnax is a game all about creatures that embody features of two completely different forms of life. This dichotomy extends beyond the game's subject matter, though, and bleeds into almost every other aspect of the game as well. The resu...

07-20-23 -

Temporal War review
If you know anything about Game Stew as a developer, it's probably pretty surprising to see screenshots of Temporal War, their latest release. Outside of being released on iOS, it's a game that bears very little resemblance to th...

07-18-23 -

Roto Force review
Action games are notoriously hard to nail down on mobile, but you can get a long way with a distinct and stylish presentation and design. Roto Force has got to be one of the coolest-looking games I've played this year, but I never quite g...

06-29-23 -

Fireball Wizard review
Fireball Wizard is about as straightforward in concept as it is in its title. It's a game where you play as a wizard, and (surprise!) they can shoot fireballs. With this basic, primary tool, you weave your way through brief platforming le...

06-22-23 -

Bumballon review
Over the years, the App Store has seen some ingenious design go into the humble one-touch platformer. I'd even go as far to say that some of these past titles are some of the best platforming you can find just about anywhere. Due to this ...

06-21-23 -

Coffee Golf review
There have been quite a few attempts to develop games that double as a sort of daily ritual in the wake of Wordle, but I'm not sure many have had all the requisite components to compete at this level. After spending a few weeks with Coffe...

06-09-23 -

Hoop Land review
[youtubenIdiP7wBBcU 600] I am a big fan of sports games, but often avoid titles that lean into simulating real life sports. This is for a whole number of reasons, but the main two are that typically no simulation of real sports ever actually feels...

06-01-23 -

Legend of Keepers review
Dungeon-crawlers that have you play as the bad guys trying to beat the adventurers isn't exactly all that novel these days, but it is the tack taken by Legend of Keepers. This game has you playing as a big bad monster who needs to manage ...

05-24-23 -

Lost Words: Beyond the Page review
Media about writers and writing usually rub me the wrong way unless actual writing is prominently featured and said writing is good. Either that, or have the words being featured be those of a child who aspires to be a professional writer. This is...

05-18-23 -

Torecower review
It's hard to follow up on something great, and Torecower is trying to do just that. The second release from the publisher that brought the fantastic SNKRX to iOS brings a title that tries to apply a similar formula of the breakout hit to ...

05-08-23 -

The Centennial Case: A Shijima Story review
I knew I was in for a pretty big experience when I downloaded all of the files for The Centennial Case and they totalled almost 15 GB. What I was not prepared for was just how wild of a ride I would be on. This FMV mystery game definitely puts its...

05-05-23 -

Omega Strikers review
Competitive multiplayer free-to-play games are almost always designed to be played over a long stretch of time. That's why I didn't rush this Omega Strikers review out the door. I wanted to wait until I had sunk a sizeable number...

05-04-23 -

Mia and the Dragon Princess review
There's a secret sauce to making an FMV game engaging and fun that Wales Interactive always seems to be dancing along the border of. I find their output at its most entertaining when the scope is small and the stakes are low. Their latest...

04-27-23 -

Scenic Route's Generations review
Games being ported to iOS is nothing new, but games being ported over from the Playdate--a tiny handheld featuring a crank on the side of it--is not something I necessarily expected. Generations from Scenic Route Software is exactly that, and the ...

04-25-23 -

Roundguard review
Apple Arcade has proven to be a pretty underwhelming service despite the fact that some standout titles debuted there. One such title is Roundguard, which has re-released on the regular App Store and is a creative mix of dungeon-crawling and arcad...

04-18-23 -

TriviaLinked review
I've been playing Trivia Linked for the past week or two and enjoying its short daily quizzes. It almost feels akin to Wordle in how it is a short-form routine challenge, but I appreciate that it less of a guessing game. It's cer...

04-14-23 -

Orange review
After making games about green, red, yellow, black, blue, and pink, Bart Bonte has released yet another set of 50 puzzles inspired by yet another color: Orange. While I'm not sure this game quite reaches the levels of creativity found in ...

04-12-23 -

Voice of Cards: The Forsaken Maiden review
The Voice of Cards series is kind of odd in that it is based around a dedication to gimmicks that don't meaningfully change the core of the games all that much. These titles all want to emulate a grand fantasy adventure using nothing but ...

04-05-23 -

Water 2050 review
I like a good management game to dink around on, particularly on iOS. Water 2050 is extra appealing to me because it also has a noble cause. As a game developed in partnership with the Water Environment Federation to alert players to issues surrou...