• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

iOS Gaming October 2017 | Stranger Things have happened than great mobile games

uM6g9rg.jpg


Each month, the iOS GAF community hosts a thread for new game releases, rumors and discussion that define the fast-moving world of iOS gaming.

The OP will contain recommended games that released during the previous month. All the games listed will have been highlighted by the GAF community in one way or another. This way you can keep tabs on the best games and at the same time curate an excellent resource to look back on to find games you may have missed.

If you're a developer who wishes to have your game featured, please talk about your game in the thread and if the GAF community at large likes the game then your wish just might be granted. Please note that there's a difference between posting about a game you made and just advertising your game with no further interaction with the community, this thread is not for the latter and such advertising behavior is frowned upon.

Directory
1) Introduction & Recommended Games
2) Upcoming Releases, Past Threads & Other Links


c9l3j0f.jpg


Thimbleweed Park
Site | App Store
A brand new adventure game from Ron Gilbert and Gary Winnick, creators of the classics Monkey Island and Maniac Mansion! Play as five characters to uncover the surreal mystery of Thimbleweed Park -- a town where a dead body is the least of your problems.
A haunted hotel, an abandoned circus, a burnt-out pillow factory, a dead body pixelating under the bridge, toilets that run on vacuum tubes... you've never visited a place like Thimbleweed Park before.

520x293bb.jpg
520x293bb.jpg

___________________________________________________________________________

The Witness
Site | App Store
The Witness is a single-player game in an open world with dozens of locations to explore and over 500 puzzles. This game respects you as an intelligent player and it treats your time as precious. There's no filler; each of those puzzles brings its own new idea into the mix. So, this is a game full of ideas.
520x293bb.jpg
520x293bb.jpg

___________________________________________________________________________

Stranger Things: The Game
Site | App Store
Stranger Things is back! Prepare for Season 2 of the award winning show by joining Hopper and the kids on a new, action-packed adventure.
It's 1984 all over again. Experience an action adventure game just like the ones our heroes would have played back in the day. Explore Hawkins and its surroundings. See your favorite locations like Mirkwood Forest and Hawkins Lab. Uncover exciting areas you've never seen before!

520x293bb.jpg
520x293bb.jpg

___________________________________________________________________________

Morphite
Site | App Store
The story of Morphite takes place in a far off future when humanity has long since populated the distant reaches of space. The player takes on the role of Myrah Kale, a young woman residing on a space station and workshop under the care of her surrogate father, Mr. Mason. What starts as a simple exploratory mission to gather supplies to support their shop rapidly turns into a journey revealing Myrah's unknown past and her relationship to a rare, coveted, and nearly extinct material called Morphite.
520x293bb.jpg
520x293bb.jpg

___________________________________________________________________________

Iron Marines
Site | App Store
From the creators of the award winner Kingdom Rush trilogy comes the most extraordinary space odyssey. A real-time, dynamic and deep strategy game that will transport you to amazing and unknown planets. Immersive, engaging gameplay, ridiculously appealing art, and a touch of silly humor. Brave soldiers, mighty mechas and powerful aliens await your command to face the greatest challenges.
520x293bb.jpg
520x293bb.jpg

___________________________________________________________________________

Flower
Site | App Store
Experience award-winning Flower, now available on the App Store. Flower lets you take control of the wind as you explore and navigate beautiful, lush environments using motion controls. Journey through varied landscapes at your own pace, interacting with and changing the environment as you go, and find balance and harmony in your surroundings.
520x293bb.jpg
520x293bb.jpg

___________________________________________________________________________

Another Lost Phone
Site | App Store
Another Lost Phone is a game about exploring the social life of a young woman whose phone you have just found.
This game is designed as a narrative investigation where you must piece together elements from the different applications, messages and pictures to progress. Scrolling through the phone's content, you will find out everything about Laura: her friendships, her professional life and the events that led to her mysterious disappearance and the loss of this phone.

392x696bb.jpg
392x696bb.jpg

___________________________________________________________________________

Minos Strategos
Site | App Store
You are the legendary Minos Strategos (general of the ancient city of Minos)! Command the defenders of the temple by harnessing the power of specific battle formations to push back the Minotaur hordes. Minos Strategos is a quick single-player strategy game with a focus on elegance and clarity. Climb the single-player ladder as you devise flexible strategies, amassing an ever-growing collection of command cards as you go!
392x696bb.jpg
392x696bb.jpg

___________________________________________________________________________

Flat Pack
Site | App Store
Flat Pack. A 2D and 3D platform mix-up! Take to the skies and explore 30+ levels each with there own unique twist
392x696bb.jpg
392x696bb.jpg

___________________________________________________________________________

Find The Balance
Site | App Store
Stones, boxes, bananas - whatever you can imagine. Place all the stuff to make a steady tower and have fun finding the balance. Think over, drag and rotate elements, cut the rope with double tap and drop objects gently.
Find the Balance is a puzzle like game joining an art of stone stacking with easy but challenging, one-finger mobile gameplay.

392x696bb.jpg
392x696bb.jpg

___________________________________________________________________________

Rekt
Site | App Store
REKT makes doing tricks incredibly smooth and easy, and with super realistic physics it's easy to learn and hard to master. Get your landing right and power slide into the next trick for an incredible trick combo chain at a smooth 60 frames per second.
520x293bb.jpg
520x293bb.jpg

___________________________________________________________________________

Kensho
Site | App Store
Begin your journey through a surreal world where nature, time and space intertwines.
Mysterious things happen in a ruined room. Doors inside that room lead to different worlds and beautiful landscapes.
Match blocks and overcome challenges in this addictive puzzle with rich visual effects that unfolds a narrative through breathtaking places including lush jungles and stormy seas.

520x293bb.jpg
520x293bb.jpg

___________________________________________________________________________

Stormbound
Site | App Store
Tactical gameplay, card collection, and gorgeous 2D and 3D art combine in Stormbound: Kingdom Wars!
Immerse yourself in the rich world of Stormbound, as four kingdoms struggle for dominance. Construct a deck of unique and powerful cards and then dive into real-time battles against other players.

392x696bb.jpg
392x696bb.jpg

___________________________________________________________________________

OPUS: Rocket of Whispers
Site | App Store
Travel across a world of ice and snow, through burned down ruins and treacherous peaks, to launch a rocket that will reach the stars.
Throughout the game, you will play as two survivors of an apocalyptic plague. Help them achieve the unimaginable of building a rocket, so they can return the deceased to their cosmic homeland through the ancient tradition of space burials.

520x293bb.jpg
520x293bb.jpg
 
wcEfO6V.png


Sacrifices - October 7th
Our Ways - October 11th
Into The Dead 2 - October 13th
Warhammer Quest 2 - October 19th

More releases to be added soon
___________________________________________________________________________

IcBECrt.png


iOS Gaming September 2017 | He11o Darkest My Old Friend
iOS Gaming August 2017 | Better Layton Never
iOS Gaming July 2017 | A day late, and 32 bits short
iOS Gaming June 2017 | What Would Apple Do (WWAD)
iOS Gaming May 2017 | Got 99 problems but 32 bit ain't one
iOS Gaming April 2017 | Canceled due to backlog
iOS Gaming March 2017 | Switch to iOS
iOS Gaming February 2017 | Providing escapism since 2008
iOS Gaming January 2017 | Swipe Right Into The New Year

Visit the January 2017 thread for links to all 2016 iOS Gaming threads
Visit the January 2016 thread for links to all 2015 iOS Gaming threads
Visit the January 2014 thread for links to December 2013 through November 2012 threads!

___________________________________________________________________________





This website keeps track of all the controller enabled games. It gets updated regularly.

___________________________________________________________________________

RmHPAM6.png

Genuine thanks to our iOS Gaming community for keeping these monthly threads alive!
Special thanks to awp69 for this month's thread title, as well as Tunesmith for his fantastic thread format and month after month of hard work in maintaining these threads
 
Have to say I'm not enjoying the Stranger Things game that much. Might give it another shot later, but so far it's eh.

EDIT: I've also gotten myself stuck, I keep running out of rocks and then I can't progress or go backwards so I have to quit and restart the game.
 

awp69

Member
Thanks for the thread MB! (And using my title ;) )

—

There’s a new Sunny Tam (Danmuku Unlimited) game out:

Loot and Dodge by Sunny Tam
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/loot-and-dodge/id1276414680?mt=8


Kind of like a sort of swipe to avoid shmup with loot you can gather. Only played a bit. Obviously a little different for him. F2P with a one time IAP of $2.99 to remove ads (which seem pretty non-intrusive banners between games).
 
Looking at the top charts recently and noticed that The Escapists game has never left the top 100 paid chart since it was released. I feel that's a good indication that we'll be getting the sequel somewhere down the line.

In other news I've been testing a game from one of the pixel artists at Nitrome called Spicy Pig. Really rad runner game!
 
I know I said I wasn't enjoying it much, but I ended up getting 100% in the Stranger Things game. It gets better the more you play. There's some frustrating stuff though.
 

awp69

Member
A twin-stick shooter that's a port from PC. Its got pretty good reviews on steam;

Kick Ass Commandos by Anarchy Enterprises
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/kick-ass-commandos/id972190920?mt=8

This is really cool. It is kind of like a twin stick Broforce. You have to rescue prisoners and gain their weapondry as you release them and lots and lots of destruction. One difference is that you gain their help rather than just sort of changing to them like Broforce.

The aiming reticle is a bit distracting and think it doesn’t really need one. But otherwise fun so far.

Always wished Broforce itself would come over to mobile.
 

RM8

Member
Is there any good kart racer after the iOS11 apocalypse? Man, it's such a shame that there was a super decent mobile version of Sonic Racing Transformed and it's gone forever both on Android and iOS :(
 

52club

Member
What are a few tower defense games that have come out in the past year? I’ve got the itch to play one.
 

awp69

Member
What are a few tower defense games that have come out in the past year? I’ve got the itch to play one.

Iron Marines is a TD/RTS blend from the same devs as the Kingdom Rush. More on the RTS side I would say and quite challenging.

NeoDefense is a great little back to basics TD, that also puts up a good challenge. Harkens back a bit to games like GeoDefense (which is no longer on the App Store.)

Oh and Dungeon Warfare may not look pretty but it’s probably the best TD of the last year or so.
 

52club

Member
Iron Marines is a TD/RTS blend from the same devs as the Kingdom Rush. More on the RTS side I would say and quite challenging.

NeoDefense is a great little back to basics TD, that also puts up a good challenge. Harkens back a bit to games like GeoDefense (which is no longer on the App Store.)

Oh and Dungeon Warfare may not look pretty but it’s probably the best TD of the last year or so.

Thanks Dungeon Warfare is exactly what I was looking for.
 
I know I said I wasn't enjoying it much, but I ended up getting 100% in the Stranger Things game. It gets better the more you play. There's some frustrating stuff though.

I also 100%d it on my commute home today. Game timer says I spent 6 hours on it. I agree that some moments are frustrating - almost exclusively due to poor checkpoint design (what is and isn't a checkpoint is completely abritrary, and you can definitely quit the game and have it not save the thing you just did). But man - for a free "advergame" it was legit. It's mechanically solid, it has interesting dungeon designs, generally clever bosses, topped off with great art design and soundtrack.

It's biggest weakness is that it does nothing to establish its characters, so if you haven't seen Stranger Things, you won't care about what's happening one bit.

That aside: I highly recommend it.
 

hollomat

Banned
I’m liking iron marines a lot less than the kingdom rush games. Since it’s an rts, the games just go on and on. Way too long for a game I’m playing on my phone.

Only times I actually have the time to get through an entire match are the times I’m at home and then I’d rather be playing a non mobile game.
 

awp69

Member
I’m liking iron marines a lot less than the kingdom rush games. Since it’s an rts, the games just go on and on. Way too long for a game I’m playing on my phone.

Only times I actually have the time to get through an entire match are the times I’m at home and then I’d rather be playing a non mobile game.

I like it but agree on the time thing. Wish they had in-game saves. I also can’t do like 30 minute games very often.
 

ss_lemonade

Member
So I made the jump from android to ios yesterday, switching from my oneplus one to an 8 plus. First time using an iphone too, been an android user all this time (I also wanted to try something different this time). Hopefully will be an interesting experience, there seems to be a ton more games on the ios side.
 
I’m liking iron marines a lot less than the kingdom rush games. Since it’s an rts, the games just go on and on. Way too long for a game I’m playing on my phone.

Only times I actually have the time to get through an entire match are the times I’m at home and then I’d rather be playing a non mobile game.

I like it but agree on the time thing. Wish they had in-game saves. I also can’t do like 30 minute games very often.

Huh, I actually found the majority of matches in Iron Marines to be a lot faster than most Kingdom Rush stages. A lot of the 15 wave matches in KR go on for 15-25 minutes (or even longer) by the half-way point of the game, and that's usually a fairly locked duration because the waves are fixed (unless you call every wave early).

By the fourth or fifth stage in Iron Marines (when it started to get challenging) I found that the best strategy to win was to press forward as quickly as possible before the enemy could do the same to you. Once I figured that out there weren't many missions that went longer than 10 minutes or so. I still need to play the game on higher difficulty levels (this was on casual which was still a little tough for me, just like Kingdom Rush), so maybe normal and hard require more careful strategy (but by now my tech tree and heroes are pretty leveled up so it shouldn't be too different).

Plus you should be able to just pause in the middle of the match and return to it later, I know I did that more than a few times in both Kingdom Rush and Iron Marines.
 

Matt Frost

Member
So I made the jump from android to ios yesterday, switching from my oneplus one to an 8 plus. First time using an iphone too, been an android user all this time (I also wanted to try something different this time). Hopefully will be an interesting experience, there seems to be a ton more games on the ios side.

Yeah gaming wise is the best place to be. This thread can help you find a lot of games, what games are you interested in?
 
Anyone noticed that the App Store Games twitter has basically been decommissioned and replaced by the general App Store twitter?
 

Tunesmith

formerly "chigiri"
Hey good news for those of us managing local backups of our apps and games.
Apple released iTunes 12.6.3 to enterprise which retains the App Store components that are removed in 12.7 while adding support for iOS 11.
The 12.6.3 version will act as a 12.7 replacement for those that need to keep the App Store and you won't be asked to update to 12.7 with it installed.

Link: https://support.apple.com/en-gb/HT208079

If you have already updated to 12.7 though, your library won't be compatible with 12.6.3, it'll need to be rebuilt or an older version be used.
 

sheaaaa

Member
Chiming in to say I'm really enjoying Super Mario Run at the moment. The levels are tightly designed and Remix 10 is a fun little diversion. Glad I didn't pay $10 for it, but $5 is a decent price.
 

RedSwirl

Junior Member
Just tried out this game called "Eternium." Seems to be the only good Diablo-style game I've found on iOS. Has no one else really managed this?
 

Voidance

Member
So, it looks like we’re getting The Talos Principle on Wednesday based on the App Store home page (US).

I’m excited I can play games like this and The Witness on my iPad. What a time to be alive.
 

PittaGAF

Member
So, it looks like we’re getting The Talos Principle on Wednesday based on the App Store home page (US).

I’m excited I can play games like this and The Witness on my iPad. What a time to be alive.

OMG.

I’m absolutely loving The Witness.
I was at the end (I think) but had to stop for WHQ beta (I’m basically living every free moment in the Old World).
But I can’t wait to complete it (awesome game and awesome execution).

Can’t wait for Talos Principle too!!!

What a year.
 

awp69

Member
So, it looks like we’re getting The Talos Principle on Wednesday based on the App Store home page (US).

I’m excited I can play games like this and The Witness on my iPad. What a time to be alive.

I’ve played it on Shield Tablet (and TV) and I honestly like it a lot more than The Witness. Touch controls work well enough but having some shooter like mechanics, controller does work a bit better IMO. I’m sure it’ll have mfi support.
 
Top Bottom