Following last week’s release of fighting game World Heroes 2 Jet, SNK and Hamster have released Sengoku 3 on iOS and Android worldwide. Sengoku 3 debuted in 2001, and it is a side-scrolling action game where you try and purge malicious souls. You have weapons, ninja arts, and more in the speedy ninja action side-scroller experience. Shaun is probably going to review this one. If you’ve not kept up with the ACA NeoGeo releases and want to check out some good shoot ’em ups which is usually the most popular genre, read Shaun’s post here here. Check out a screenshot from the Android version of Sengoku 3 below:
You can buy Sengoku 3 ACA NeoGeo on the App Store for iOS here and on Google Play for Android here. As with prior releases on mobile, this costs half of what it does on consoles at $3.99. If you’ve not heard of the series or seen it in action on mobile yet, Shaun has reviewed most of the releases so far in the ACA NeoGeo series on iOS. Check out his reviews for Sengoku 2here, Top Hunter Roddy & Cathyhere, Samurai Shodown IVhere, Alpha Mission IIhere, Metal Slug 5here, Shock Troopershere, NAM-1975here, ZED BLADEhere, PUZZLEDhere, The King of Fighters 2002here, Big Tournament Golfhere, King of the Monstershere, Last Resorthere, Aero Fighters 2here, Burning Fighthere, Robo Armyhere, Mutation Nationhere, Twinkle Star Spriteshere, Aero Fighters 3here, and Prehistoric Isle 2here. Check out the official website for the series on mobile here. What’s your favorite recent ACA NeoGeo release and are you grabbing today’s release?
Last week, Superbrothers and Pine Scented software launched JETT: The Far Shore + Given Time on Steam alongside updating the PlayStation and Epic Games Store versions of the game with the new free expansion. Having covered Superbrothers for a very long time all the way back to 2010 when Sword and Sworcery was shown at GDC, we obviously were also going to talk about how things evolved over time for Superbrothers from Sword and Sworcery to JETT: The Far Shore. In the lead up to JETT’s new expansion and it hitting Steam last week, I chatted with Craig D. Adams (founder Superbrothers A/V and co-creator of JETT with Patrick at Pine Scented) and Dan Berry (Given Time contributor and UK comics person and broadcaster) in a slightly different format.
Since the team was still hard at work on JETT for Steam and the expansion, I sent over questions about a week before launch and got sent back a video of Dan discussing the questions with Craig. It almost felt like an interview in itself with Dan interviewing Craig. I’ve split that up into two parts and edited for clarity and brevity. The first part which you can read here covered JETT: Given Time, JETT: The Far Shore, and a bit about the future of Superbrothers. Part 2, below, covers Sword and Sworcery, working with Jim Guthrie, Twitter integration, PlayStation’s Sound Shapes that had Superbrothers’ involvement, and more.
TouchArcade: We covered Sworcery over a decade ago right from its showing at GDC 2010. It is one of my favorite games of all time. Tell us a little bit about Superbrothers and how how Superbrothers has changed over time.
Craig Adams: Thank you for asking about Superbrothers. It is extremely cool that Sworcery is one of your favorite games of all time. Something exciting on the Superbrothers side: It is 2023 and we are beginning our relentless 30 year celebration leading up to 50 years of Superbrothers if you can believe that. It has been a long time. What I mean to say is this is our 20th year of Superbrothers existing.
When I got going in 2003, it was a nom de plume for my pixel illustration. I liked the idea of it being unnecessarily pluralized and a little bit confusing. I always had the idea that it would be cool if there were video games that had that kind of tone, style, and vibe. I would try to make those games myself with my limited skill set.
That didn’t quite work. I joined the industry and learned some things. Then I connected with Capy (Games) and somewhere in there I also connected with Jim (Guthrie) and that’s how Sworcery happened. At that time, the snapshot was just me on the Superbrothers side. The concept is supposed to be bigger than just me. It is like a band that I want to be in. I have to do a whole bunch of work to create a structure that other people can plug into it. I should mention that around that time my actual real life brother Mack did step in on the business side. He has been around throughout.
Superbrothers became appropriately pluralized at a certain point. For many years it was just me cooking along with JETT co-creator Patrick at Pine Scented Software and that’s all it was for a number of years until we needed to bring on part-time people as part of the JETT squad.
So then, I guess Superbrothers changed a little bit. I was sort of managing different people and directing moreso. In order to get JETT done, we had to scale up and become a lot more serious. I had to try to learn the ropes as a director and a creative director and all that stuff. So for a few years, it was a different kind of thing. My brother Mack who was in orbit occasionally, he has another job, ended up needing to step in and really help as an executive producer and do a lot of number crunching and admin stuff.
It was pretty white knuckle for a few years at Superbrothers there. It still is just me and some computers out in the woods of Quebec but as a sort of a broader operation, with my brother Mack, with the JETT squad. At some point we had over 30 people in different states, provinces and countries. It was a pretty interesting and wild time.
Fun fact, to get the project done, we needed more producer capacity at a certain point. It just so happened that Mack and I knew a really good producer. We brought our older sister, Sarah, who had never worked in a video game context before, but knew her way around productivity software, and running meetings and stuff like that. For a moment there, three siblings were working to ship a PS5 game.
It was an interesting shape for things to take. Then once JETT The Far Shore shipped, we were able to let that JETT squad go off in their various directions. Then for Given Time, we staffed up just a little bit. That’s where Dan Berry entered the picture along with Richard Flanagan. It was like a tighter squad moving through with Given Time. Now we are reaching the end of that journey so even that squad will dissipate shortly. Then Superbrothers will go back to being just me and some computers out in the woods of Quebec. But then I’ll be trying to figure out what’s the next thing, and how can I make another structure that people can plug into and anyway that’s I guess me trying to describe whatever Superbrothers is. At root, I always hoped it would be a bigger concept that could include a bunch of interesting things and some freshness. Some things come from different angles. I’ll try to keep that dream alive.
TA: Sworcery wasn’t a one and done game for Superbrothers. We saw a special Japanese soundtrack edition for its release there, and more ports following the iOS launch. It was even updated in late 2021 for modern iOS devices. How was it revisiting Sworcery after all these years?
CA: For me, I think Sworcery is pretty safely in the rearview. Maybe I knew about the 2021 update, I don’t remember. Maybe I even pitched in with some artwork to go out on social media. I should say for Sworcery, thank goodness Capy was the developer really, and have continued to be the developer. So any updates that have been happening are things that they have done on their side. I’ve been pretty distant from it. All I’ve been paying attention to is JETT and being in deep space.
TA: The original Sworcery experience with Twitter integration is something lost to time now. I still remember how amazing that was back in the day. How did you come up with the idea to make it such an important part of the experience?
CA: Going way back. Me thinking through what Superbrothers stuff should be on this device. That was back in the day when everybody was looking to gamify this, social gaming was a thing, Farmville was probably top of the pops back then. There was this feeling that we should think about that. We should think about things in that general space to see if there’s some idea.
But what we were more interested in was, We had an experience, Chris (the creative director of Capy at the time and co creator on a bunch of these concepts) and I. We played Animal Crossing back in the day. It was really fun to discover something over here, and communicate it to someone over there, and to have just like weird little nuances that you’re picking up and communicating with other people about. Both Chris and I were on the early adopter train for Demon’s Souls (PS3) which is a little different from Animal Crossing, but similarly had mysterious things happening inside of it, that you just had to just go and talk to other people.
This is where I reveal that I’ve forgotten everything about Demon’s Souls but when the World Tendency is a certain way you get these specific items over here. That level of mysteriousness was interesting. That was the thing that made us think, hey, what if we made a game where there were weird things like that in there, and it would be helpful for you, that when you learn something, you have a way to tell other people. Or if you’re playing it and seeing people talking, that stuff might reel you in. You might wonder what they are talking about. Anyway, the moon phase stuff in Sworcery seemed like a good kind of relatively simple concept, but a weird lunatic concept to kind of underpin some of the puzzles.
We looked at the different social platforms at the time. Facebook seemed like a bad scene. Twitter seemed fun. Remember, back in like 2009 or 2010. People bouncing off each other, jokes, just a lot of handshakes and high fives. It seemed like If we got it right, that’s where we would want to be. If we could do something where someone goes “hey i solved a weird thing”, they could broadcast that and we would get some of the Animal Crossing and Demon’s Souls flavor of that kind of interaction.
The actual integration wasn’t that hard. The API was an always moving target, but the thing we were asking it to do wasn’t all that difficult. Then there was a little miscalculation in there because we had that onboard, but late in development, I just got this worry. I was seeing playtesting that people wouldn’t notice that this cool feature existed. I think it was me that lobbied to make it a little bit more foregrounded, and make it seem a little bit more part of the intended experience, which is not a bad move, but then the blowback from that was that Sworcery had a really strong launch out of the gate. Great. People really wanted to use that Twitter feature. Great. But then they would fire off Tweets about everything, and so the first couple of days, it was like a slightly obnoxious takeover of Twitter, and some people were a little bit put out.
That wasn’t the intent, and it worked out well for Sworcery, but it was also not the intent to step on people’s toes. The good thing is once we passed that first day or day and a half or something, it settled into a nice pattern. It was having the desired effect. People were sharing fun little goofy things. Some of them might include clues and some of them are just for fun. It was kind of part of the golden times of Twitter. Back in the day, I guess that was March 2011.
Dan Berry (to Craig): Explain the Megatome.
CA: Because we were going into this direction of integrating Twitter and because Sworcery had whatever the Superbrothers-y approach where it’s aware of the context that it’s in. It kind of brings some of the meta textual elements into the fiction. That’s where the Megatome came from, which I think was just a word that we needed because it sounded like something really cool that you would be intrigued by, and then Clive Holden who was the voice of the Archetype was like, “If you’re calling it the megatome, at some point it has to detonate.” He was right. At the end of the story, you detonate the Megatome, and the megatome is basically like a magical Twitter book where you can read everybody else’s thoughts. The twitter integration was brought into the fiction in that way. It’s funny that the task of the Scythian is to take the representation of Twitter that grants you this amazing ability to read thoughts and to destroy it. And then all the years since then, it seems like that’s probably the right move overall. We probably should not be able to read each other’s thoughts to quite this level. It might have adverse effects.
TA: The Sworcery soundtrack is legendary. Not only is it one of my favorite albums of all time, but it was a huge part of what made the game special. How was it working with Jim Guthrie on Sworcery?
CA: It is great to hear that you like it. I think it is also good. I agree. Working with Jim was a treat. Jim and I got back a bunch of years before Sworcery. I guess I crossed paths with him in 2005. I sent him some pixels when I was doing the freelance illustration thing, and he sent me this burned CD of all these goofy compositions he had been making using a PS1 game called MTV Music Generator (Editor’s Note: Jim uploaded a recent track on YouTube here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7cZjRWg3rlo) and I love Jim’s music. My wife and I listened to all his albums back in the day a lot, and so hearing this was wild. He had some of that in his second album, Morning Noon Night, and I loved it there. But this was like a whole world of those sounds. It was very inspiring to me and I took my pixels and made a music video around one of them. Jim and I were in Toronto and we crossed paths and I told him all about the cool things that were going on in video games at the time like Electroplankton and whatever else.
There were actually songs on that album that suggested to me pixel paintings. There’s a song called ‘Under A Tree’. It was always going to be a pre-dawn walk in the woods, or there was a song called Little furnace that I had various visual ideas about, but nothing strong enough but I just knew that I wanted to do something that would hit the magic of that tune.
I couldn’t make these games on my own, so it took connecting with Capy and getting the ball rolling there. It turned out they were big Jim fans as well. We all got on like a house on fire. Working with Jim on sworcery was such a treat, because I was kind of building the game around his music and saying yes to ideas from his direction. Because there wasn’t an ironclad design that we had to honor. He would come in with something and we would go, “that fits, but we haven’t figured out how we would wrap it up.” There was a little bit of us figuring out how to wrap our thing around what Jim would bring.
Then there were some instances where we had a boss battle with these Trigons, and we really needed a piece that would meet these specifications, and Jim would always come in with some beautiful, soulful, kind of piece of music that hits the target. A lot of high fives and it was a treat. Jim’s still a good friend, and of course, a JETT contributor, because Andy (scntfc) had a cameo appearance in Sworcery. It only made sense to see if we could Jim a cameo in a score otherwise dominated by scntfc’s work. So Jim was the one that delivered the Out of Our Hands song that caps off JETT’s prologue.
TA: Following Sworcery, the next project involving Superbrothers and Jim Guthrie was Sony’s Sound Shapes. Tell us a little bit about how that collaboration with Sony came into being.
CA: It is a Sony published game, but the developer of sound shapes was Queasy Games, a Toronto developer. Jess Mak is the key person, and might still be a one pierson shop these days. Jess Mak was a hero of mine back in the days when I was trying to get Superbrothers going, and I was working in the console video game industry. This is like the early days of indie, and it was a treat that in Toronto we had Metanet software making N, and Jess Mak making Everyday Shooter. It turned out that they were in the same city, and we got into each other’s orbits, and there was a really tight community around that time with Metanet and Queasy and Capy and lots of others.
The way I got pulled into Sound Shapes was just that the idea of the game was that they would be pulling this visual contributor and that music contributor, and pairing them together, or at least that was the concept for Sound Shapes at a certain point. It just made sense coming off of Sworcery, to see if Jim and I could show up, and I’ll say I didn’t totally understand what Sound Shapes was exactly going to be, because it’s a very unusual thing.
So the way that it boiled down was Jessica and Mathew Kumar who were working there kind of gave me an asset list after I’d done some sketches, and I just turned in all those assets Superbrothers style characters and locations. They bric-a-brac-ed it together, and I got a chance to check it out at the end. It was a pretty cool experience overall, to just be a part of that machine.
In that mix, I also did get to know some of the folks at Sony, here and there.
TA: Sworcery saw a special Moon Grotto EP from composer scntfc. What led to this collaboration?
CA: In Sworcery times a friend had connected Andy (scntfc) to me, and there was this idea of number stations ending up in Sworcery. It seemed like a mysterious game with that kind of thing would fit. At a certain point the Moon Grotto concept came into being, and it occurred to me that Andy scntfc whose music I was now familiar with, would be a good fit. So that happened. Andy composed the music you hear in the Moon Grotto and he created the number station transmission that we ended up playing at the end of Sworcery. Probably a short time later, the same friend, who had Venus Patrol which was a website blog around that time, motivated the idea of getting a physical release, a 7” together.. It was mostly a reason to put a whole bunch of puzzles and mysteries together in a physical package. That’s pretty much how that came about.
Fun fact, that’s kind of its own story, is the number station transmission that you hear at the end of Sworcery, if you dial that number into your phone, I think it dead ends now, but that’s recent. For a number of years it would lead you to a mysterious answering machine. It was a little creepy. We recorded all the messages that people left on this answering machine. But then the weird thing is there was an internet ghost story that got started, that if you called that number, somebody would come to your house and kidnap you which is not true, we don’t have that kind of infrastructure (laughs). Yea, there were the top 10 weird internet phone numbers, and we made the top 10. But then we got uncomfortable with that, so we unplugged it.
TA: What have you been playing recently across different platforms?
CA: This is where it is revealed that as the father of two kids, and with a project running, I’m not getting like a lot of deep video gaming sessions regularly. But, with two kids, we have been playing a lot of Mario Strikers: Battle League the last little while. The kids are 5 and 8. The 5 year old especially, is way into it, and it is great. We can play two kids against each other or the three of us. We went through Super Mario Odyssey which I played on release. It was a treat to go through with each of the kids. Gotta get those moons man.
On my side on the PS5, I loved God of War (2018), and I know that I have to allow that outsider indie credibility is going to suffer when I say that. It was just a big juicy cheeseburger. It had Metroid Prime vibes inside of it deep in there. I don’t think Ragnarok is reaching the heights of 2018, but it is very expansive so that’s fun. I guess it is pretty well made. Then Sable, I’ve dipped a toe into it, because just came to PlayStation and I tend to play on PlayStation. But yea, there’s a zillion games that I should be playing like Rollerdrome. I enjoyed the hell out of that for a little while, but I haven’t come back to it. Immortality, seems amazing. I gotta dig in. That’s pretty much where I’m at video game wise these days. I’m a pretty conventional video game player, I think. Im looking forward to Star Wars: Jedi Survivor, the sequel to Fallen Order. They have just the right amount of Dark Souls flavor with just the right amount of Sony Santa Monica-inspired accessibility.
DB: You (Craig) spoke about what your kids are playing so I’ll talk about what my kids have been playing. They’re very much into Marvel Snap, obviously there’s the obligatory Roblox and Minecraft that they will just spend time on all day long. We’ve been playing Bugsnax. They really enjoy Bugsnax. They’ve been enjoying the Kirby game which is a delight. Personally, I’ve been playing The Curse of the Golden Idol which is great, a little bit of Luck Be a Landlord, I dipped back into Deathloop a little while ago which was fun, Elden Ring. There’s always a hundred hours of Elden Ring. Pentiment was a good thinker. For not thinking at all, I quite enjoyed playing Wreckfest. Just driving a car around and smashing it up. It was good.
Thanks to Craig D. Adams and Dan Berry for their time here leading up to the launch of JETT: The Far Shore + Given Time and also to popagenda for facilitating this interview.
Spire Blast developers Orbital Knight have released Castle Crumble() on Apple Arcade today. If you played Spire Blast you will right at home here, and I think I like it more based on the first few levels I played. It features cannonballs, magic beams, and more as you try and destroy castles with nice haptics. It is going to be interesting to see if it gets updated as often as Spire Blast with new content. Check it out here on Apple Arcade.
Alongside today’s new release, a few notable games have been updates beginning a few days ago until now. Amazing Bomberman adds the Liberabimus stage, mission level 151-200, and new customization parts. Cut the Rope Remastered brings in a winter themed board with 12 new levels and fixes for issues in the prior update. Episode XOXO brings in the first four chapters of The Valentine’s Day Project new original story. JellyCar Worlds gets its first content update since launch bringing in World 7 featuring the grapple ability, the ability to access challenges from many more places, improved UI, and more.
LEGO Star Wars: Castaways adds in an exclusive Clone Wars event to earn minifigure pars inspired by the clones and a chance to take on Fearsome Droidekas in the HoloSim levels. MasterChef: Let’s Cook! adds a new Mix minigame, Valetine’s day themed additions, new challenging ways to cut, pan, and pour, and more. What The Golf? adds in the new Love Birdies special day pack with this week’s update. Charrua Soccer has its anniversary event on with all characters from last year’s events, daily challenges, and more. The Valentine’s Heart Challenge is also featured here for a limited time.
The final update of the week is Solitaire Stories bringing in Tri-Peaks, a remix of the original Pantaloony story, and more. This month will also see three special in-app events — The Pod: Death by AI, Crystal Caverns, and Romeo & Juliet. Check out our forum threads for Amazing Bombermanhere, MasterChef: Let’s Cook!here, Cut the Rope Remasteredhere, What The Golf?here, Charrua Soccerhere, LEGO Star Wars: Castawayshere, Solitaire Storieshere, JellyCar Worldshere, Episode XOXOhere, and Castle Crumblehere. For all Apple Arcade related things, check out our dedicated Apple Arcade forum for discussion on the service and every game included here. What do you think of Apple’s new release today?
Amanita Design’s psychedelic horror experience Happy Game($5.99) is out now on iOS and Android worldwide following its debut on Nintendo Switch and PC platforms a little while ago. Happy Game is a standard paid game on iOS and Android, and not included in Apple Arcade like some of the developer’s releases. I’m glad to see Amanita Design continuing to do premium mobile releases, and hope we get more in the future. If you haven’t played Happy Game yet, the mobile teaser trailer below will give you a good idea about the game:
You can currently buy Happy Game on the App Store for iOS here and on Google Play for Android here for $5.99. Check out the official website here. You can also grab it on Steam here and Switch here. If you’d like to check out Samorost 2 on mobile from Amanita Design, you can buy it on the App Store for iOS here and on Google Play for Android here. Hopefully the wait for Amanita’s next new game isn’t too long for mobile players. Are you grabbing Happy Game on mobile today?
Following the release of developer Patrones & Escondites’s Unmemory back in 2020, we learned about Delete After Reading() last year. Delete After Reading is about a trio of friends setting out to rescue one of the greatest video games of all time from one of the richest people in the world. According to the developer, the quirky narrative game will also feature some serious themes. Today, the Delete After Reading release date has been announced with pre-orders and pre-registrations going live. Alongside that news, a new Delete After Reading trailer is available. Watch it below:
Delete After Reading definitely looks worth checking out. Pre-orders are supposed to go live as of this writing, but the iOS one currently might be showing you a macOS only link right now. If you’re interested in checking it out, you can pre-order it on the App Store here, pre-register for it on Google Play here (link is currently rolling out), and check it out on Steam here. Delete After Reading is due on March 14th worldwide. Will you be checking out Delete After Reading when it arrives next month?
Following last week’s release of Prehistoric Isle 2, SNK and Hamster have released the 1994-released fighting game World Heroes 2 Jet($3.99) on iOS and Android worldwide. World Heroes 2 Jet was an SNK fighting game featuring 16 heroes, villains, and more. It was the third game in the series and it also featured fast-paced battles with a counter system and more. If you’ve not kept up with the ACA NeoGeo releases and want to check out some good shoot ’em ups which is usually the most popular genre, read Shaun’s post here here. Watch a trailer from the console version Hamster released below:
You can buy World Heroes 2 Jet ACA NeoGeo on the App Store for iOS here and on Google Play for Android here. As with prior releases on mobile, this costs half of what it does on consoles at $3.99. If you’ve not heard of the series or seen it in action on mobile yet, Shaun has reviewed most of the releases so far in the ACA NeoGeo series on iOS. Check out his reviews for Sengoku 2here, Top Hunter Roddy & Cathyhere, Samurai Shodown IVhere, Alpha Mission IIhere, Metal Slug 5here, Shock Troopershere, NAM-1975here, ZED BLADEhere, PUZZLEDhere, The King of Fighters 2002here, Big Tournament Golfhere, King of the Monstershere, Last Resorthere, Aero Fighters 2here, Burning Fighthere, Robo Armyhere, Mutation Nationhere, Twinkle Star Spriteshere, Aero Fighters 3here, and Prehistoric Isle 2here. Check out the official website for the series on mobile here. What’s your favorite recent ACA NeoGeo release and are you grabbing today’s release?
Amanita Design brought the psychedelic horror experience Happy Game to Nintendo Switch and PC a little while ago. At the time it was planned to hit iOS at some point, but we didn’t have a hint of a release date. Today, Amanita Design announced that Happy Game will be hitting iOS and Android this week. If you’ve not heard of the developer before, Amanita Design brought us premium games and also Apple Arcade releases in the form of Pilgrims and Creaks in recent years. Older games like Botanicula and Machinarium are legendary. Watch the Happy Game mobile teaser trailer below:
As of now, there are now pre-orders, but Happy Game launches on iOS and Android this Thursday on February 2nd worldwide. A price point is yet to be confirmed for mobile. Check out the official website here. You can also grab it on Steam here and Switch here. If you’d like to check out Samorost 2 on mobile from Amanita Design, you can buy it on the App Store for iOS here and on Google Play for Android here. It is priced at $2.99 on both platforms. I’m excited for a new Amanita Design release on mobile after quite a while, and I hope the wait for Amanita’s next new game isn’t too long. What is your favourite Amanita Design release and what did you think of Happy Game if you’ve played it already?
Railbound from Afterburn Games is set to get a massive update this week. Since its launch, Railbound has gotten a good amount of support already. Read about the most recent big update here. Afterburn Games will bring Railbound 2.0 to mobile and PC platforms on February 3rd. This update adds in over 30 new puzzles, the new Semaphores mechanic, a new region, and more. The new region will also feature new story postcards and music. The Semaphores mechanic lets you decide when and how to delay carriages during puzzles. Watch the Railbound 2.0 update teaser trailer below:
Railbound 2.0 will come later to Nintendo Switch. A release date is yet to be confirmed, but the update is coming to Switch. It will hit Steam, itch.io, Google Play, and the App Store on February 3rd worldwide. With this update, the game will have over 200 levels. If you haven’t gotten it yet, we featured Railbound as our Game of the Week when it launched. We like it a lot. You can grab Railbound on the App Store for iOS here, Google Play for Android here, Steam here, itch.io here, and Nintendo Switch here. Head over to our forum thread for more discussion around Railboundhere. Have you played it before or will you be grabbing it this week with version 2.0?
Noodlecake’s Squiggle Drop() featuring more than 100 puzzles is the final new Apple Arcade release of January 2023. When Apple revealed the games for the month, I was very curious to see how Squiggle Drop would turn out. It seemed like a game I’d enjoy. Having spent a bit of time with it this morning, Squiggle Drop is lovely. It scratches the quick pickup and play puzzler itch and also has a bit of what I liked in the Scribblenauts games. I haven’t finished it, but the music is also a highlight so far. You can grab Squiggle Drop here on Apple Arcade.
Alongside Squiggle Drop, a few notable Apple Arcade games have gotten updates. Skate City takes you to Tokyo for Pro Skate Mode. This update brings in new collectibles in Tokyo, and has 60 new challenges. Warped Kart Racers adds in the Speedway Nights track, a new chapter to unlock Boomhauer, new rewards unlocked during multiplayer, and more. Episode XOXO brings in a few more chapters in the ongoing Game of Hearts story. Stitch. has added the Best Friends category with eight new hoops, 3 more patters, and removes the Flawless stitching bonus. Temple Run: Puzzle Adventure brings in a new Mirror Story, 60 new puzzles, and new tournaments.
The final update is Devolver Digital’s Cricket Through the Ages getting its first update in about a year. The update notes mention this release bringing in “A dramatic tale of one duck’s nefarious mission to destroy humanity! and the quantum scientists’ battle to save Cricket!”. With the updates done, check out our forum threads for Stitch.here, Episode XOXOhere, Skate Cityhere, Squiggle Drophere, Warped Kart Racershere,Temple Run: Puzzle Adventurehere, and Cricket Through the Ageshere. For all Apple Arcade related things, check out our dedicated Apple Arcade forum for discussion on the service and every game included here. What do you think of 2023’s first month of Apple Arcade?
After the launch of Season 6 and Season 5, our our 2021 iPhone Game of the YearRocket League Sideswipe saw a bit of a delay for its newest season. We now know that Rocket League Sideswipe Season 7 will arrive on January 30th worldwide for iOS and Android with an update having just gone live bringing in support for all the new features and content. This update will focus on changes and updates to the Rocket Pass and Ranked Seasons, new content including a Collection Tab, a quick party up button, advanced tutorials, currency tokens, a token shop featuring items from previous seasons, and more.
Details for the Rocket Pass changes that all sound great are here. If you’d like to read the full patch notes for Season 7, they are here. If you do play Rocket League Sideswipe, make sure you update today so you’re ready for the new season on Monday. If you haven’t grabbed the game yet, get Rocket League Sideswipe on the App Store for iOS here and on Google Play for Android here. Head over to our forum thread for the game here. Have you been playing Rocket League Sideswipe lately and what do you think of the Rocket Pass changes coming to the game next week?
Thunderful Games recently announced SteamWorld Build for PC and console platforms, as the newest entry in the long-running franchise. A demo for it is currently available on Steam. To celebrate the announcement, both SteamWorld Quest($2.99) and SteamWorld Heist on iOS are discounted for a limited time. If you haven’t played them yet, SteamWorld Quest is a deck building turn based tactical RPG hybrid release. Read my full review of the iOS version here and Shaun’s review of the Nintendo Switch version here. SteamWorld Heist is a turn-based strategy game that hit many consoles and PC before coming to iOS. Read Shaun’s review of it here. Both games are down to their lowest prices yet on iOS.
SteamWorld Quest is usually priced at $24.99 on Nintendo Switch and PC. The iOS version is priced at $9.99 but it is down to $2.99 for a limited time. We featured it as our Game of the Week when it released. SteamWorld Heist is priced at $4.99 usually, and it is down to $0.99 for a limited time on iOS. Both games are amazing regardless of platform at full price. If you haven’t gotten them yet, now is a great time to grab both with big discounts. I hope SteamWorld Build can hit mobile in the future, but right now it is only announced for PC and consoles. What is your favorite SteamWorld game?
Following its launch back in 2021, Square Enix announced that Dragon Quest The Adventure of Dai: A Hero’s Bonds(Free) for iOS and Android will be shutting down. Dragon Quest The Adventure of Dai: A Hero’s Bonds was one of the three games originally revealed under the Dragon Quest: The Adventure of Dai project that includes a console game as well. Dragon Quest The Adventure of Dai: A Hero’s Bonds has been developed by DeNA and it is a team action RPG with three lane combat and co-op support for up to three players. Following today’s announcement, sale of Red Gems have been discontinued. If you bought any, you can use them until service ends in April 2023. Square Enix says more updates are planned until the service ends. While it is disappointing to see this happen for regular players, I can’t imagine regular Square Enix free to play mobile game players are enjoying seeing this happen to multiple games from the publisher.
If you’ve not played it yet, Dragon Quest The Adventure of Dai: A Hero’s Bonds includes two different stories with ‘Dragon Tracks’ featuring the story from the original Adventure of Dai series and ‘Bonding Journey’ which is a new story written under the guidance of Riku Sanjo, the original author. If you’d like to check it out ahead of service ending on April 26th, you can download Dragon Quest The Adventure of Dai: A Hero’s Bonds on the App Store for iOS here and on Google Play for Android here. It includes English, Japanese, Traditional Chinese, and French language support. What do you think of Dragon Quest The Adventure of Dai: A Hero’s Bonds if you played it following its global launch in September 2021?
Following last week’s release of the side-scrolling action game Sengoku 2, SNK and Hamster have released the shoot ’em up Prehistoric Isle 2($3.99) on iOS and Android worldwide. Prehistoric Isle 2 debuted in 1999 featuring different kinds of dinosaurs as enemies. Your aim is to get rid of them and save the city while rescuing citizens. I’ve been digging some of the Hamster releases I haven’t played thanks to Shaun’s recent shoot ’em ups feature for them on Switch. Read it here. Shaun will likely review Prehistoric Isle 2 soon. Check out our new forum thread for it here. Check out a screenshot from the Android version of Prehistoric Isle 2 ACA NeoGeo below:
You can buy Prehistoric Isle 2 ACA NeoGeo on the App Store for iOS here and on Google Play for Android here. As with prior releases on mobile, this costs half of what it does on consoles at $3.99. If you’ve not heard of the series or seen it in action on mobile yet, Shaun has reviewed most of the releases so far in the ACA NeoGeo series on iOS. Check out his reviews for Sengoku 2here, Top Hunter Roddy & Cathyhere, Samurai Shodown IVhere, Alpha Mission IIhere, Metal Slug 5here, Shock Troopershere, NAM-1975here, ZED BLADEhere, PUZZLEDhere, The King of Fighters 2002here, Big Tournament Golfhere, King of the Monstershere, Last Resorthere, Aero Fighters 2here, Burning Fighthere, Robo Armyhere, Mutation Nationhere, Twinkle Star Spriteshere, and Aero Fighters 3here. Check out the official website for the series on mobile here. What’s your favorite recent ACA NeoGeo release and are you grabbing today’s release?
Genshin Impact and Honkai Impact 3rd(Free) developer HoYoverse just began signups for the final closed beta for the upcoming space fantasy turn-based RPG Honkai Star Rail. It has been a little while since we heard about Honkai Star Rail, and I’m glad it is moving forward wit hits final closed beta. This closed beta will feature Herta Space Station, Jarilo VI, and Xianzhou Luofo. The combat system and other newer in-game features will also be included on iOS, Android, and PC through this beta. Closed beta sign-ups are now live on the official website. The Honkai Star Rail Final Closed Beta release date is set for February 10th at 10 AM (UTC+8). Watch the Honkai Star Rail new trailer below:
Honkai Star Rail and the final closed beta are planned for iOS, Android, and PC platforms. A Honkai Star Rail release date for the full game is yet to be revealed. Honkai Star Rail has continued to look gorgeous in every bit of new footage, and I’m interested to see how this final closed beta turns out next month. Until we get a release window for Honkai Star Rail, you can get Honkai Impact 3rd on the App Store for iOS here and Google Play for Android here. Have you been playing Honkai Impact 3rd and Genshin Impact recently?
Late last month, Mr Traffic(Free) from Dashy Crashy(Free) developer Dumpling Design had its major 2.0 update go live bringing in progression changes, holiday costumes, and monetization changes. Over the weekend, Dumpling Design pushed out another big update for the game with fixes for things from 2.0 and also bringing in new costumes, missions, achievements, Game Center rivals on the leaderboards, and another change to in app purchases and ads. Check out the full patch notes here. Watch the Mr Traffic trailer below:
Lives have now been added to Mr Traffic. If you watch an ad, you get 3 lives. An in app purchase gives you infinite lives and removes ads. The new gameplay highlight is the ability to stop time with a new charge ability. Mr Traffic is free to play. You can grab it on the App Store for iOS here and on Google Play for Android here. Head over to our forum thread for Mr Traffichere for discussion around the game. Have you played Dashy Crashy or Mr Traffic from Dumpling Design yet?
Having gotten a Nintendo 3DS years after the system launched and having never owned a Nintendo DS before, I enjoyed checking out the massive library of games from Japan that I missed. Barring the multiple RPGs I played, there were quite a few Nintendo eShop exclusives that were constantly recommended. One of them was Pokémon developer Game Freak’s Pocket Card Jockey. Pocket Card Jockey blended elements of simulation games, horse racing, and solitaire to be something I never thought would work on paper, but it did. I only played a few hours of it when I bought it on 3DS, but loved what I played.
Earlier today, Game Freak launched Pocket Card Jockey: Ride On!() for Apple Arcade devices as the newest game on the service. Pocket Card Jockey: Ride On! is a blend of a remake and a port of the Nintendo 3DS game for modern devices. I’ve been playing a pre-release build of Pocket Card Jockey: Ride On! on my iPhone and iPad for review, but wanted to also try the macOS and tvOS versions for this review, since this is the first time we have a Pocket Card Jockey game on non-portable platforms as well.
Since I didn’t put in as much time into the 3DS version as I had liked over the years, I can only comment on the similarities or differences in the early parts of the game. This Apple Arcade review will also focus mostly on the ports rather than the game itself, which is very similar to what I played on 3DS albeit with a few changes and one new feature.
If you aren’t familiar with Pocket Card Jockey at all, it is a card game that blends in simulation, solitaire, horse racing, strategy, and more. Initially, Pocket Card Jockey: Ride On! might seem a bit complex with its mechanics, but its gameplay loop is sublime once it clicks. If you don’t enjoy solitaire at all though, this isn’t for you. I enjoy seeing new takes on tried and tested gameplay, and Pocket Card Jockey: Ride On! feels like a game that was always designed for mobile, rather than an enhanced version of a portable console release.
In Pocket Card Jockey: Ride On!, you spend time in races or in the simulation aspects. The former involves different phases. These include the solitaire, strategy, and resource management. The simulation aspects are quite deep, and you will see them continue to expand the more you play. Having played some Pocket Card Jockey: Ride On! daily for about a week on different devices, I’m very pleased by the newest addition to Apple Arcade. The structure of Pocket Card Jockey: Ride On! allows for seemingly infinite replay value.
When it comes to the controls, Pocket Card Jockey: Ride On! is very much a touch-focused game. While it does have macOS and tvOS versions since it is an Apple Arcade Original, those feel like afterthoughts. They even say “tap” instead of “click” for macOS. The tvOS version on Apple TV forces you to pair a controller to play Pocket Card Jockey: Ride On!, but you use it to simulate a touch cursor with the left stick and press the confirm button to click. The interface here also mentions tapping instead of clicking or pressing a button. There is no controller support on iOS and iPadOS as of this writing. I tried three different controllers on my iPad Pro with no luck. The interface feels great on touch, but this is worth noting as some people who subscribe to Apple Arcade enjoy using controllers to play games.
Barring the change to 3D for the racing, Pocket Card Jockey: Ride On! also has a new daily login system. This is something I expected given how the aim of this release is also to keep people playing the game and remaining subscribed to Apple Arcade. It isn’t a dealbreaker by any means, but something to keep in mind. I haven’t played the free-to-play iOS version of the game in Japan from years ago, so I’m not sure if this is a remnant of that release. There have also been a few changes to some aspects of the game from the 3DS version which you can read in my interview with Game Freak here.
I’ve praised Pocket Card Jockey: Ride On! quite a bit, and while I love the transition the game has made from 3DS to modern iOS devices, I hope a future update can add a higher frame rate option. The races would be a lot nicer at 60fps or 120fps. I can’t imagine that is too much for modern iOS devices given the visuals on display. Barring that, Pocket Card Jockey: Ride On! looks great and seamlessly syncs across devices.
While some of the technical issues are disappointing, Pocket Card Jockey: Ride On! is an easy recommendation if you have an Apple Arcade subscription. The structure of the game perfectly suits the service, and I hope it gets updated over time to bring in new content and fix some of the issues. If you don’t have an Apple Arcade subscription yet but enjoyed Pocket Card Jockey on 3DS, this is the best reason to check the service out.
Earlier today, the legendary Pokémon developer Game Freak launched an enhanced version of its 3DS classic Pocket Card Jockey on Apple Arcade in the form of Pocket Card Jockey: Ride On!. Over the last week, I’ve been playing it on multiple devices for review including checking out the early parts of the 3DS game once again to compare with this new version. I had a chance to talk to Masao Taya (Director Pocket Card Jockey: Ride On!) and Masafumi Saito (General Manager Development Department 1) at Game Freak about today’s launch, working with Apple, a potential Nintendo Switch version, the future of Gear Project, and more.
TouchArcade: Pocket Card Jockey was one of the more interesting 3DS eShop exclusives. It also has quite a cult following outside Japan. When a trademark for Pocket Card Jockey: Ride On! was spotted last month, a lot of people expected a sequel to potentially launch on Nintendo Switch. What led to the decision to bring it to Apple Arcade over other platforms?
Masao Taya: We released an F2P smartphone app version of Pocket Card Jockey in Japan, but we couldn’t adapt the game very well to the F2P style, it didn’t go well in business terms. After that I kept thinking about a way to make Pocket Card Jockey a success as a smartphone app or mobile game, but I had a lot of other (fun) work to do, so I didn’t do anything about it. While this was happening, Apple Arcade began to catch on in Japan. With Apple Arcade, which requires absolutely no in-app purchase beyond the subscription service fees, there was no need to forcefully remodel the game into an F2P style, so I decided to see if I could provide the real joy of playing Pocket Card Jockey with it.
I know that there are a lot of people who’d love to see a Nintendo Switch version, and porting it is one possibility, but right now our main focus is on Apple Arcade users enjoying it.
TA: The original Pocket Card Jockey was released on iOS in Japan, but it never saw an international release barring the 3DS version published by Nintendo. Were there plans to bring the original iOS release to the West at all years ago?
MT: No, we had no plans to do that. Like I said before, the smartphone app version we released in Japan was F2P, a model that required ongoing sales to secure the running costs, including server side maintenance. Given that it didn’t go so well in Japan, it would have been difficult to decide to expand it to the US and to Europe.
TA: Pocket Card Jockey was an interesting take on two different mechanics that worked perfectly. Has there been any change to the core mechanics for the Apple Arcade version barring bringing a dual screen game to single screen devices?
MT: The gameplay in this remake is essentially the same, but one point that’s different from the previous version is stamina control during races. In this release, stamina recovery cards are mixed into the solitaire depending on the positioning of the horse. The more stamina recovery cards there are in one position, the less energy there is to gain. So, the trade-off between stamina and energy is clearer than in the original.
You can play the game and win it without knowing this fact, but I think users will have more of a sense of wider strategies — like deciding in one race to focus on stamina recovery, or in another to go all out to gain energy at the risk of running out of stamina. Of course, if you make the right choice then your chance of winning increases. I hope users who are already familiar with the game keep this in mind when playing.
TA: Was there anything you couldn’t do for Pocket Card Jockey on 3DS that has now been possible with more powerful hardware on Apple Arcade devices barring the 3D races?
MT: The key point where we really made full use of the power of Apple products is the 3D screen. We’ve fine-tuned it so that it runs well even on slightly older devices, but also to enhance the rendering a bit more using the power of Apple devices with the new chips.
TA: The highlight of Pocket Card Jockey: Ride On! for existing fans of the game is the 3D racing segments. What else should longtime fans expect in Pocket Card Jockey: Ride On!?
MT: A feature of all Apple Arcade titles is the ability to smoothly share save data among several devices. So, you can play games at home on your iPad, Mac, or on a big screen with Apple TV, then easily carry on playing it out of the house with your iPhone.
The use of 3D for the race scenes goes beyond enhancing the rendering. The relative positions of the horses and the special cards shown with simple symbols on the previous version (on the lower screen in the Nintendo 3DS) can now be shown in the 3D space of the race scenes. So, while watching the fascination of the race, at the same time you can keep your eye on the cards to experience both hope and despair of collecting or missing said cards. That’s one point I quite like about this version.
TA: Are there any plans to add controller support to iOS and iPadOS?
MT: Nothing has been decided on that at this moment.
TA: How has it been working with the team at Apple for Pocket Card Jockey: Ride On? Were they involved from the start to help bring this to Apple Arcade?
MT: Apple regularly gave us advice during development. They gave us feedback on some English expressions that are difficult for us to notice, which was quite a big help. Regarding the gameplay, they constantly said how fascinating it is, which created a really good atmosphere for us as we carried on with the development.
TA: I enjoyed Game Freak’s Little Town Hero quite a bit on Nintendo Switch for its combat, designs, and music. Is there any chance that can come to mobile in the future?
MT: Thanks so much! Unfortunately, we don’t have any plans to do that at the moment, but as the director of Little Town Hero, I’m happy to hear how much you like it.
TA: Game Freak has a lot going on with recent Pokémon games including Pokémon Legends: Arceus that is my favorite game in the series. I wanted to know how the Gear Project at Game Freak has changed in the last few years and whether we can expect more of these more-creative smaller titles?
Masafumi Saito: The development scale of Pokémon Legends: Arceus and other Pokémon series games has grown, so having enough staff for Gear Projects has become an issue for Game Freak, but we have no intention of stopping work on making new games.
In recent years we’ve adopted a style of working on development in cooperation with other companies. We’re aiming to be able to work on bigger titles, as well as the smaller-scale ones, than we’ve had so far. We’re still going to bring out more games with the Gear Project that you can all look forward to!
TA: Can we expect more Gear Project titles to come to Apple Arcade on iOS in the future?
MS: This is our first game release on Apple Arcade, so firstly we want to hear the reactions of users who play it and see what they think of it. If it looks good, then of course there’s a good chance we’ll be able to provide other titles to Apple Arcade. I’m certainly hoping so!
Thanks to Masafumi Saito (General Manager Development Department 1) and Masao Taya (Director, Pocket Card Jockey: Ride On!) for their time here leading up to the launch of Pocket Card Jockey: Ride On! and also to Jennifer Tam at Apple for facilitating this interview.
Pocket Card Jockey: Ride On() from Pokemon developer Game Freak has launched on Apple Arcade. I’ve been playing it for about a week now, and like it quite a bit. Stay tuned for my full review soon. Pocket Card Jockey is one of the best 3DS eShop exclusives, and this remake for Apple Arcade is definitely one of the highlights of the service in recent months. Check out the official website here for more information. Pocket Card Jockey: Ride On is available here on Apple Arcade.
Alongside the new release, a few notable games have gotten updates. Episode XOXO sees new chapters added to its recently-released Game of Hearts story. While not a full update, Crayola Create and Play+ has a week-long, worldwide event: Crayola Creativity Week from January 23rd until 29th. Details for the event are here. Fruit Ninja Classic+ has its Lunar New Year Event from today until February 6th featuring three new blade powers. Subway Surfers Tagbrings in the new surfer, Frank with an Anti-Gravity powershot. This update also adds a new unlockable outfit.
What the Golf? brings in the fetaverse with a new two week event. Simon’s Cat – Story Time has a new story at the vets, 25 new levels coming weekly, and more with today’s new update. Zookeeper World brings in 12 new Puzzle stages today with the next one coming January 29th. Once you hit rank 26, you can expand the zoo area as well. Jetpack Joyride 2 has new story levels, a new jetpack, a new powerup, new avatar, and more today. The final notable update of the week is Taiko no Tatsujin Pop Tap Beat bringin in Kaneda from the legendary anime movie Akira and 3 more songs.
With the updates done, head over to our forum threads for Episode XOXOhere, Pocket Card Jockey: Ride Onhere, What The Golf?here, Simon’s Cat – Story Timehere, Taiko no Tatsujin: Pop Tap Beathere, Jetpack Joyride 2here,Crayola Create and Play+here, Zookeeper Worldhere, and Subway Surfers Taghere.For all Apple Arcade related things, check out our dedicated Apple Arcade forum for discussion on the service and every game included here. What do you think of today’s new release?
Pascal’s Wager($3.99) recently had new DLC and a costume arrive through an update on iOS and Android. Tipsworks and Giant Games have been updating the game a ton since launch with new content and paid DLC. With the last major update adding Elena as a playable character with the option to play rearranged stages and more, I wasn’t sure what to expect from the game in the future. Today, we have a new iOS for the game bringing in RichTap Haptics support. This update brings in haptics for cut-scenes, combat, and more. I checked it out for a few minutes, and it is a great implementation on my iPhone. This update will go live for Android in the future.
If you’ve not played the recent DLC for the game, the Dance of the Throne DLC for Pascal’s Wager is priced at $1.99 on iOS and Android while Elena’s outfit ‘Enigma’ DLC is priced at $0.99. If you’ve not gotten the game yet yet, Pascal’s Wager is available on the App Store for iOS here and on Google Play for Android here. Read our review of it here. Here’s our forum thread for the game. I featured Pascal’s Wager as one of the best iOS games to play with keyboard and mouse. Do you play Pascal’s Wager often on mobile and have you played the recent DLC?
Wales Interactive just revealed the first trailer for Ten Dates, the sequel to the interactive romantic comedy game Five Dates(Free). Ten Dates is due on Valentine’s day worldwide for mobile, PC, and consoles. Ten Dates features Misha from London who tricks her best friend Ryan into going on a speed dating event with her. It features real-time relationship status tracking that adapts the story, a streamer mode (likely not on mobile), and more. Watch the announcement trailer (via GodisaGeek) for Ten Dates from Wales Interactive below:
As of this writing, pre-orders and pre-registrations aren’t available yet. You can wishlist it on Steam and even sample the game through a free demo here. Check out the official website here. Wales Interactive have been bringing quality FMV games to multiple platforms including mobile over the years, and I’m looking forward to what else the studio has in the works for iOS and Android this year. I’m still a few releases behind on Wales Interactive’s catalogue. My recent favorite FMV game is definitely Square Enix’s The Centennial Case: A Shijima Story. Have you played Wales Interactive’s recent FMV games on mobile and did you play Five Dates when it hit iOS and Android?
