May 2019 – Stately Play

Fort Sumter: The Secession Crisis arrives

May 21, 2019 David Neumann 33

iOS, Android, PC/Mac When we heard about the partnership between GMT Games and Playdek, it was like hearing that your two favorite people were finally tying the knot. I mean, they’re so right for each other! It was only a matter of time before this pairing started to bear fruit and, today, they have their first born! (I’m discounting Twilight Struggle as that was pre-partnership and has turned into a titillating ménage à trois with Asmodee) It’s Fort Sumter and it’s coming to mobile and Steam today. Right now, as a matter of fact.

One Deck Dungeon getting tiny on Thursday

May 21, 2019 David Neumann 30

iOS, Android, PC/Mac/Linux My top mobile game of 2018 was Handelabra‘s masterful port of the Little Card Game That Could, One Deck Dungeon. It was a perfect blend of quick, roguelike play and oodles of dice-chucking madness. Yes, bad dice rolls can nip you in the backside, but that’s the point of the game: building up your hero(es) to mitigate dicey disaster. I played the hell out of it on my iPad and even sank too much time delving on my laptop. It was nearly as perfect as could be, with one exception: it wasn’t also on my phone. This Thursday, that changes.

Feud set to release next week with asynchronous multiplayer

May 17, 2019 David Neumann 0

iOS, Android, PC/Mac/Linux The last time we talked about Feud from Bearwaves, the title of the post was, “Remember Feud?“. A year later and I guess that title would have worked quite well once again. I considered it, in fact, but then Bearwaves dropped a bombshell: async play is coming. When? When the game releases on May 21st, of course.

Asmodee heads back to the Talisman well for Talisman: Origins

May 17, 2019 David Neumann 1

iOS, Android, PC/Mac It’s been a busy week+ for the folks at Asmodee Digital. It started with the reveal of the first four classes of the upcoming Gloomhaven port and continued with the, now closed, opening of the Terraforming Mars mobile beta. The thing is, we’ve known about both of those titles and their digital ports for months now. What we didn’t know anything about (and, neither, does Asmodee as there’s no mention of it anywhere on their site) was a game that actually released yesterday, Talisman: Origins. Yes, it’s more Talisman, but not quite in the way you’re thinking.

Dead Cells making its way to iOS this summer

May 7, 2019 David Neumann 4

iOS, PC/Mac/Linux, Xbox, PS4, Switch One of the indie games to make it big on Switch was the side-scrolling platformer, Dead Cells. You play a headless lump of undead flesh trying to figure out just what the hell is going on. Actually, that might not be the point of the game, but it’s what I do each time I load it up. Anyway, word just came down the pipe that Dead Cells is making the move from Switch to iOS later this year.

Shards of Infinity arrives

May 7, 2019 David Neumann 1

iOS, Android, PC It figures that on the day of a major mobile release I’d be stuck at home with two sick kids. As such, I’m a day late in letting you know that the long awaited (and much played in beta form) Shards of Infinity from Temple Gates and Stone Blade Entertainment is now live on iOS, Android, and PC.

Morels expands with Foray!

May 7, 2019 David Neumann 6

iOS, Android It’s been a while since we’ve chatted about our little fungoid friend, Morels. If you recall, it’s a light card game about harvesting mushrooms, cooking them up, and scoring points. First timers, Mossbark, did a heck of job bringing the base game to our phones, and now they’ve expanded the toadstool selection with a new expansion titled Foray.

Review: SteamWorld Quest: Hand of Gilgamech

May 1, 2019 Tanner Hendrickson 1

Switch This is a very hard review to write. It’s one thing to be let down by a game you’re excited for but quite another when it’s so excruciatingly close to being great… but ends up only okay. By any measure, SteamWorld Quest should be extremely my jam—it’s a deckbuilding RPG, it’s on the Switch, and it’s the latest game in one of the low-key best game series in recent memory. (Go play SteamWorld Heist right now, if you haven’t.) But there’s a stack of little imperfections that compounded and held me back from enjoying the game as much as I thought I would. It’s like the uncanny valley effect—the game is so close to being great that all the little flaws became much more glaring. However, with some small tweaks, I think Image & Form could turn things around. My fingers are crossed, because I really wanted to love this game.