Release Roundup (Q1 2019)

Mystic Vale (no review)

Mystic Vale is a Steam-only title for now, but a mobile version is in the works. The game hit Steam early access late last year before moving to a full release in January. Mystic Vale is a deck builder where you actually add to your cards as you play. This is an experience loaded in plastic sleeves and transparent cards in the physical game, with the digital version streamlining the process a bit. There are some interesting twists on the traditional deck builder to be found here. For now, you’ll need to head to Steam to check out Mystic Vale.

The Legends of Andor - The King's Secret

This digital port is unique in that it’s, well, unique. The basic gameplay is pulled from the popular co-op adventure game, but the story that is told over the 12 legends is completely new. We are big fans of the game and the port, as it offers a tough, but satisfying, trial-and-error gameplay style that will have you learning a little more about the legend each time through before finally breaking through and winning. There is a limited amount of variety possible in adventure games like this, but Andor does a good job of adding a variety of quests to each legend so that none of them feel the same as the last. Overall, this is a great option for anybody looking for a great, streamlined, single-player adventure game on their mobile devices.

Twice as Clever

The addicting roll-and-write gets a sequel! The game takes the mechanics of Ganz Schon Clever and swaps out the five scoring tracks for five new ones. The result is the same addicting, point-chasing gameplay, but with new twists to be found in those scoring tracks. The new tracks add some interesting mechanics such as needing to play two dice to score in certain tracks. As with any good sequel, the bonuses are ramped up so the upper limit on points has skyrocketed to over 400 points (not that I’ve actually done this, but I have gazed at the weekly leaderboard in awe). Looking for a quick playing, point-chasing, roll-and-write? Twice as Clever is a fantastic choice.

Assembly

Assembly is a quick playing puzzle game with a fun spatial aspect. The app was developed in-house by Wren Games who designed and published the physical game. Players must use three different action cards to reveal modules then position them correctly into place before locking them down. Lock in all 12 modules before time runs out, and you win the game. The game shines by ramping up the tension through limited actions and the ever-dwindling oxygen supply counter. There is, of course, a way to mitigate a truly bad hand, by discarding them all to perform any action of your choice, but that is a costly trade-off to make. The game plays very quickly and provides a fun puzzle to solve in each game. 

Evolution

Evolution pits players against each other in a battle to create and feed the most resilient species in the watering hole. Every game is a battle over limited food resources, and also a battle to defend against carnivores, or turn one of your own species into a carnivore and viciously take out opponents. It’s a strong back-and-forth battle, the game smartly doesn’t lock you into any decisions permanently, as you can alter your species on each turn to adapt to what everyone else is doing. The game also works as an engine builder as you can chain together powerful feeding pipelines which will see your species hogging the majority of the food, leaving other player’s species to go unfed. Evolution is one of the most polished app releases we’ve ever seen and has an impressive feature list which includes a campaign mode and an unheard of amount of AI variety. The only complaints are the lack of online options (async and pass-and-play are missing), but those are coming as updates to the app down the line.

Mythical

Mythical is an original digital deck builder. Dominion fans will find themselves immediately at home in Mythical as the basics are very similar; build up your deck, grab the point-producing items, and repeat. The twists Mythical has to offer come mainly through the card abilities which have some effects that carry over between turns. The game also introduces a reserve space which can be used to store off valuable cards out of your deck, but also has some more interesting uses with some of the expansion cards. Overall, Mythical is a fun stand-in for Dominion that has a free base game with a slew of expansions should you want to dive in further.

The Castles of Burgundy

The Castles of Burgundy is a set collection, tile placement, dice rolling masterpiece brought to the digital world by Digidiced. The game perfects the “easy to each, difficult to master” concept as well as any game I’ve ever seen. There are four simple actions to be taken, and you take two each turn. That’s it. However, the large variety in the ways you can go about earning points ensure that no two games are the same and that you will want to keep returning to Burgundy to see if you can chain your actions together a little bit better next time through. The app features very difficult AI opponents and strong async and real-time online options. There isn’t much in the way of bells-and-whistles to be found here, but the app plays very smoothly and lets you play Stefan Feld’s masterpiece as many times as you want.

Tides of Time

Tides of Time is a two-player set collection, card drafting game. Those are two well worn mechanics, but Tides manages to breathe some unexpected life into them by placing them into a two-player duel game. The game plays very tightly with only a handful of cards in each hand, this makes trying to chain together cards to score big points very difficult. Your opponent can clearly see your goal and try to block it at any turn. The app is really well made, featuring some very cool graphics and strong AI opponents. The massive downside is the lack of online multiplayer, you are limited to pass-and-play for your multiplayer needs. Given that, combined with the lack of any additional solo modes to spice things up, leaves Tides of Time in a bit of an odd spot. If you love the game and want to play against good AI, or you just want to try out the game, the app does very well there. If you were hoping to be able to take your Tides battles online, you will be disappointed.