Actually just go buy Missile Cards. Fine retro fun made by one guy.
Missile Cards by Nathan Meunier
I’ll be the bad person ruining the mood on this one.
I don’t like that game at all. It makes Fairway Solitaire feel… fair in regard. The strategy element is ultra-slim compared to the luck of the draw. And aesthetically, I prefer the groundhogs to that red and yellow pixelated murder attempt on my eyes.
I much prefer Onirim, which is infinitely better paced and overall more interesting, even with a single expansion.
@Left_Empty Your points about Missile Cards are, uh, fair… but I find that strategies reveal themselves the further you get into it. And despite it being turned based, I feel my heart pounding as the comets/bombs/whatever creeep down each turn to the base while I try to optimize my use of the cards. For me its great fun and addictive – almost missed my train stop yesterday playing it. Well worth $3.
Onirim is also a winner. As is, on a different level, Race for the Galaxy. Good year so far for strategy card games on mobile platforms.
Race for the Galaxy is so good… but I am worried a lot is still escaping me, as I find playing the computer opponent very engaging!
I didn’t know anything at all about Neon Chrome until just now, when I looked it up since it’s one of the games in Tom’s Patreon giveaway.
Is this good on iOS? I don’t have a controller.
Yeah, I thought it played great on iOS. I use a stand, though. Not sure how it would be if you had to hold the iPad the whole time. It’s on PC as well.
It’s a very deliberately-paced dual stick shooter. It’s not super frantic. It’s a roguelite in the sense that when you die, you can then buy upgrades for future runs. Each time you win, the difficulty levels up a notch, so there’s longevity too (though I kind of had my fun with it then moved on, which is typical for me).
Cross posting from Bargain thread.
I heard the raves about the physical card game and wanted good, quick solo games as I am spotty at getting to my group. Maybe my expectations were too high as I found it fairly uninspiring. It works well for what it does as a simple deck grinder outer, but I was bored pretty quickly.
Per @TimJames request:
I have played about 5 games of Terra Mystica on my iPad. I was hesitant to get it as I had not played the physical version and heard you need some familiarity as the mechanics are hard to follow even with the decent tutorial. Well, I played the physical version for the first time last week, loved it and immediately got the app. My daughter was shocked, SHOCKED, that I would spend $10 on an app. Even as I explained the xost of the physical version of my mountain of boardgames, she was still in disbelief.
I have played 5 games with 5 different races. I won one of those. All of the AI opponents are “Easy” according to the game. Each one, though, takes an increasingly length of time to think in real time: Easy (5 secs), Easy (10 secs), Easy (15 secs) and Easy 20 (secs). I think that is correct. I played a two, three ad 3 four player games. It works great as far as I can tell. THe UI is a little goofy, but the game provides you with so many options and actions it is bound to be a bit challenging to navigate.
Digidiced has now done several board game to app conversions and they seem to know what they are doing. I don’t think the AI’s are particularly great, but then at least one keeps beating me so what do I know. There is a Medium and Hard AI that have placeholders in the set up that currently say “Coming soon” under them. No idea what “soon” means.
It is certainly helping me to get familiar with the game quickly so that I can play with a few people who like it. I may end up having to teach it, but I’ll have to read the rules first as some of the bookkeeping in the physical version is attached to new, weird mechanics that I had trouble grasping in the physical version and are done behind the scenes with the app. Although, if I paid enough attention, I could probably figure them out. My attention is in short supply though.
Can’t even recall what got me to buy into Lanota–a Taiwanese-made JRPG-looking rhythm game–but, a couple caveats aside, I’m really glad I did. Really energetic, distinctive music and a rhythm game system with a number of interesting mechanics and unusual choices. For example: the play space is a circle, with the guitar-hero-style notes coming from the center toward the edge of the circle. At the same time, the circle will move around the screen–often you’re just playing on the lower hemisphere of it, which makes things easier to see, tap, and predict. Sometimes it zooms out so the whole circle is visible and you don’t know what direction things might come at you. Sometimes the play space moves entirely off the screen… and then comes flying in when the song hits a sudden crescendo, forcing you to react quickly to notes that started their descent while off-screen. Craziness.
The game is basically split up into episodic chunks with 5-8 songs in each, for $2-4 each. No other energy/F2P type mechanisms. Every song can be played in multiple modes and at multiple difficulties.
There have been a couple of chapters with too little direction about how to progress, and unless I’m getting confused by the UI somehow, there’s a kind of boss battle song that forces me to play the previous song before I can get to it, which means every time it kicks my butt I have to play two songs.
If these are more than flukes, then that will be disappointing. But even if that’s the case, it’s been worth the few bucks:
Motorsport Manager 2, the sequel to the great Motorsport Manager (1), has just been released.
LeeAbe
3434
I was looking at this, but it appears that it just brings the mobile version to be on par to the PC version. Unfortunately most of the mobile sites (especially Touch Arcade), are just PR outlets anymore and don’t actually tell you anything about it.
Shame they never got in random driver generation. The same six drivers available for every team kind of sucks.
Thraeg
3436
Ticket to Earth is on sale for $2. Interesting puzzle-tactics hybrid. I grabbed it and have been enjoying it so far.
nKoan
3437
Ticket to Earth is pretty fun. I put a lot of hours into it and was a little disappointed when I topped everything out.
I’m eagerly waiting for Episode 2 to come out.
Arnold Rauers, of Card Crawl (nice…) and Card Thief (very nice!) fame, has released his latest in the heat of summer: Miracle Merchant.
It’s the usual card solitaire game with a score emphasis of his. No unlocks, if that is your thing.
I am enjoying it, but Onirim’s expansion spree is drawing a very long shadow over it.
LeeAbe
3439
Thanks for posting, will have to check it out. Really enjoyed Card Crawl, but never played Card Thief. Looks like you liked it, so I should probably check that out too.
nKoan
3440
Card Theif was pretty good but in the end I think I like the pickup simplicity of Card Crawl. But I think I’m in the minority of that opinion. Both are great games.
Definitely going to check out the new one.
Lords of Waterdeep is getting updated to 64 bits for the next iOS compatibility, and a (probably terrible - it’s Playdek) PC port. Then I read about a “visual upgrade”. Last time this happened to a favorite of mine (Neuroshima Hex), it was a massacre, and sure enough…
And my personal award for the worst visual gimmick goes to…
