Review: Maze Machina

January 20, 2020 David Neumann 9

iOS, Android According to the wayback machine, it’s been over eight months since we’ve posted a review here at Stately Play. Despite this, I still try to convince myself that, somehow, we’re relevant [hahahahahahahahahahahaha -ed.]. It took our German friends at TiNYTOUCHTALES to put an end to our torpor. Last week the developers of such mobile classics as Card Crawl and Card Thief released their latest time waster and it’s a doozy. In fact, Maze Machina might be their best game yet.

Just a friendly reminder that Grimvalor arrives tomorrow

October 9, 2018 David Neumann 21

iOS Universal • With our limited time for posting these days, I usually don’t post about the same game twice unless there’s something special about it. You know what I mean, it’s a Playdek or CGE release or a AAA game that managed to make its way to the App Store. Your standard weekly App Store releases are usually a one-and-done here on the blog [and then only when Dave can get his fat butt to actually sit up and write about them -ed.]. We’re breaking this rule today to remind you of the imminent release of Grimvalor for iOS. Don’t like the added attention this action-RPG is getting? Blame Pitta.

Civ VI moves to the small screen

October 4, 2018 David Neumann 1

iOS Universal, PC/Mac/Linux, Switch (in Nov) • Last year’s surprise release of Civilization VI for iPad was big enough that I was compelled to buy a new iPad just to play it. I haven’t regretted it, with Civ VI being my most played iPad game since. Last week I received a pre-release copy of Civ VI for iPhone and, I have to say, I’m starting to regret that iPad purchase. Sure, a game as big as Civ shouldn’t work on a tiny screen, but Aspyr pulled it off. Don’t believe me? You can try it for yourself today.

Michael Brough revisits Imbroglio, adds Phlogiston expansion

April 10, 2018 David Neumann 0

iOS Universal • I have kids in two different school systems, one in public high school and the others in a private elementary school. Although the schools are merely two blocks apart and many, many families in the area have children at both schools, we learned that they rarely manage to sync their schedules and, as such, their spring breaks never coincide. This led to the past two weeks when I was traveling and then home with children, both of which really cut into my writing time here at Stately Play. Today, the house is empty and I couldn’t be happier. Not only does that mean I can actually sit and write again, but it also means I’m back to not wearing pants. Freedom. None of this has anything to do with the topic of this post, however, which revolves around one of the true maestros of the App Store, Michael Brough. His dungeon-crawler/puzzler/roguelike Imbroglio has just expanded with Phlogiston.

The reports of Stone Age’s death have been greatly exaggerated

February 21, 2018 David Neumann 7

iOS Universal • It’s been a while since we’ve posted anything relating to the App-ocalypse, the destruction wrought on the App Store when iOS 11 dropped last September. It was at that point that 32-bit apps were deemed unworthy of our love and sent packing. One of the better casualties was the digital rendition of Stone Age from Campfire Creations. This wasn’t a huge surprise, considering that Campfire Creations died a while back, leaving no one to update the app. Turns out, Campfire Creations wasn’t quite dead and, in fact, are feeling better. They definitely don’t want to go on the cart. How can we be so sure? Yesterday, Stone Age was updated to work with iOS 11.

Perchang releases expansion for Warhammer Quest 2, The Lord of Khorne

February 8, 2018 David Neumann 5

iOS Universal • Well this was supposed to be a big surprise with an embargo in place for early this morning, but it appears that was broken yesterday afternoon when a trailer appeared in our forums and tweets started floating about Twitter. I guess the embargo was more “guidelines” than actual rules, to quote Captain Barbossa. So, with the cat out of the bag, I present to you a new Warhammer Quest 2 expansion: The Lord of Khorne.

Review: The Room-Old Sins

January 25, 2018 David Neumann 1

iOS Universal • The Room: Old Sins is the fourth title in the vaunted The Room series of puzzle games, the first of which came out way back when the iPad 3 and iPhone 4S were the pinnacles of mobile gaming. The first game was a revelation, mixing cutting edge and realistic graphics with a tactile feel that you could only get from a touchscreen. The next two games in the series offered more of the same touchy-feely puzzles while expanding the size and scope of the world in which the puzzles existed. The Room: Old Sins doesn’t do anything new to change the well worn formula, feeling much like every other game in the series. Luckily, that’s exactly what we were hoping for.

Battle of Polytopia going multiplayer

January 16, 2018 David Neumann 105

iOS Universal, Android • The end of every game of Battle of Polytopia is an exercise in building self-esteem. I finish each game feeling great about how I did and then see my score is several hundred thousand points behind anyone on the leaderboards. Hooray for me! The only thing that would be more gut wrenching would be your friends personally crushing you in-game. That’s what we have to look forward to as Battle of Polytopia gets updated with multiplayer in February.

Antihero lands on mobile and it’s pretty damn great

January 3, 2018 David Neumann 7

iOS Universal, Android, PC/Mac • We looked at the Steam version of original board game, Antihero, last year and kind of loved it. We knew it was coming to mobile at some point down the road, but yesterday it just showed up on the App Store without any warning. Did we do something wrong to not get a press release? Does Versus Evil hate us? Probably, but I like to think they were just releasing it all stealthy. You know, like a thief in the night. Because it’s a game about thieves. Yeah, you’re right, they probably just hate us.

Beautiful flower-builder, Lotus, arrives today for mobile

December 20, 2017 David Neumann 1

iOS Universal, Android • Sigh. Look, I’m all for new games on the App Store, but at some point we need time to, you know, actually play some of the games on the App Store. Can we slow down a bit? Today’s new addition and must-try is Lotus from Renegade and Dire Wolf, the same pair behind another board game puzzler, Lanterns: The Harvest Festival. Like that game, Lotus has a zen-like quality to it and is more of a relaxing card game than cutthroat experience. It also has flowers, lots of flowers.

1 2 3 9