So Return to Monkey Island finally hit iOS and Android earlier today following its debut on PC and Switch. When it was originally announced, I wasn’t actually sold on the aesthetic, but Terrible Toybox being involved meant I knew I would need to eventually play it because it likely would be worth it. I decided to wait for a potential Switch physical release to buy it. It was then released on PS5 and Xbox Game Pass. This is when I tried out Return to Monkey Island (Free) for the first time, and I ended up liking the few hours I put into it a lot, but didn’t enjoy playing it with a controller. I figured I’d hold off for a potential mobile version or just wait for the Switch physical because it felt like an experience that would be brilliant on a touchscreen or portable.

A few months had gone by, and I did end up playing it more on Xbox. The way things work out, Devolver Digital announced a mobile version just as I was near the end. I’ve been replaying the game and trying out the different hint systems while seeing how the game differs if at all across platforms. For this Return to Monkey Island mobile port review, I’m going to cover why this is the gold standard for point and click adventure games in many ways, but also touch on the port quality for mobile, Switch, and how it plays on Steam Deck as usual.

Despite its name, Return to Monkey Island can be enjoyed as a standalone story. You will miss out on some references though. While there is an in-game scrapbook that I used as a refresher for the original games, don’t let the name or anyone tell you to skip this until you play games that aren’t as accessible outside of playing on PC. If you’ve already played a few games in the series, Return to Monkey Island will feel like going back to an old bar after many years, but remembering many things you loved about it. Familiar faces, voices, style of puzzles, and more await you in Return to Monkey Island, but this time there are plethora of accessibility and quality of life features that you can enjoy if you ever get stuck. You don’t need to worry about looking up a walkthrough here. Return to Monkey Island has it all included if you ever need some help, and the hint system is very smartly implemented.

Return to Monkey Island has Guybrush Threepwood back talking about an adventure going across many new and old locations. Not only are series’ creator Ron Gilbert and co-writer Dave Grossman back, but also composers Peter McConnell, Michael Land, and Clint Bajakian who worked on both The Secret of Monkey Island and Monkey Island 2: LeChuck’s Revenge are back with Rex Crowle who worked on Tearaway which I adored on PS Vita. This feels very much like the band coming back for the most part, and while many revivals have taught me to be skeptical, I’m glad this team pulled it off. While we have had Special Edition versions of both The Secret of Monkey Island and Monkey Island 2: LeChuck’s Revenge hit mobile in addition to Telltale’s Tales of Monkey Island, none of them have felt this polished and great to play on mobile.

If you’ve never played a game in this series or are new to the genre, Return to Monkey Island has you tapping to move around, tapping and dragging to find points of interest, interacting with said points of interest, and going through a plethora of well-written and in many cases voiced dialogue to progress through the story and puzzles. There is a lot of backtracking in parts, so keep that in mind as you approach this adventure.

Return to Monkey Island has a few control options available on mobile. I played with touch controls on both iPhone and iPad which felt like the best way to play it. I also used my Razer Kishi V2 on iPhone 11 and it worked great. On the iPad, I only tried my DualSense controller, but the game lets you choose between controller button prompts for PS5, Xbox, or Nintendo Switch. It defaults to Xbox, but you can change it. I don’t have a wireless keyboard handy to try out keyboard and mouse support, but using a mouse worked fine. It treats it like a touch input in Return to Monkey Island. I don’t have an Android device to test on, so whatever I’ve said so far applies to the iOS version on the mobile side.

I’m glad to have come around on the visuals in Return to Monkey Island. While I prefer the look of the original game, Return to Monkey Island feels like the correct step forward for bringing the franchise into the modern era. The aesthetic not only works well in motion, but it looks gorgeous on high resolution displays. Return to Monkey Island on iPhone doesn’t have fullscreen support and runs in 16:9 with black bars on my iPhone 11. The iPad version runs fullscreen on my 11″ iPad Pro though and looks superb.

Barring the writing and visuals that are a huge part of the experience, audio is where Return to Monkey Island absolutely shines. The voice acting is superlative, and it is backed by an incredible soundtrack. It feels weird to think of it like one, but this is probably the closest we will come to a AAA point and click adventure game. While not the same genre, I think we should be talking about Return to Monkey Island alongside great games like Pentiment.

Having now played Return to Monkey Island on basically everything but PS5, it shines on a portable. The iOS versions have controller support as well as touch support as I mentioned above, but so do the Steam Deck and Switch versions. Given the game looks, runs, and plays brilliantly on all portables I tried it on, I recommend getting it wherever you enjoy playing games the most. There is no definitive portable version because they are all excellent. My favorite version is definitely the iPad version on my iPad Pro.

On the topic of accessibility, when you start a new game, you’re given the option of playing in casual or hard mode. The former is for those who want easier puzzles and to focus on the story while the latter aims to be a “full monkey” experience with more and harder puzzles. The hint book which you obtain in-game can be used in both difficulty options. If you did play prior games and have more time to spend on the game, I’d recommend the hard mode. I think 11 hours is about what you should expect if you don’t use casual mode and end up retrying some puzzles a few times. Return to Monkey Island ended up being a lot meatier than I expected.

Usually, I’d be hoping for a Switch physical release for a multi-platform game I enjoy a lot at this point, but Return to Monkey Island is already getting a physical release this week on PS5, Xbox, and Switch. I pre-ordered it the moment I finished writing this review. My only complaint about Return to Monkey Island on iOS right now is that it doesn’t seem to have functional cloud save support between iPhone and iPad. I tested this with the pre-release build so things might change at or soon after launch, but it didn’t work across two different iCloud accounts on four devices.

I hope Devolver Digital can work with Lucasfilm and Terrible Toybox again to bring some of the earlier games to modern platforms. They deserve to be played by as many people as possible, and Return to Monkey Island proves that the team handling the games knows what makes these special, and does enough to make them feel good for newcomers and veterans to the genre. The only reason you should avoid Return to Monkey Island is if you don’t enjoy point and click adventure games that can have some obtuse puzzles. This release does enough with accessibility and hints to negate that, but I’d only hesitate in recommending it to that group of people. If you do enjoy the games, just go buy Return to Monkey Island on iOS and enjoy your weekend with it. It rules.

Luck be a Landlord ($4.99) from developer TrampolineTales hit iOS and Android last week following its PC release. When Jared wrote about it it reminded me to try it out on Steam because I had it on my wishlist since I interviewed Superbrothers. I tried the demo on Steam, and was instantly sold on the game to the point where I just bought it on iOS and spent an hour playing it on my iPhone. The first few hours of the game reminded me of this Vince McMahon GIF. The slot machine meets roguelike deckbuilder is a game I feel like I’ll have on my homescreen for a while, but it has a few things holding it back on iOS right now.

Luck be a Landlord has you trying to defeat your landlord by earning more through slot machines to pay your ever-increasing rent. Despite the aesthetic and it involving slot machines, Luck be a Landlord is a premium game with no in app purchases. Initially, Luck be a Landlord felt like a decent time waster that I might get bored of in an hour or so, but the hooks were in after a few attempts at defeating the landlord. You see, each spin gives you things to add to your deck, or in this case slot machine. These change how much you earn, synergize with other items, and can turn the tide of a spin as you inch your way towards your rent target for that cycle. After every rent payment, your rent increases and you eventually need to keep track of many items or symbols so you know what to pick next to make the most of the situation.

There are so many combinations of items and symbols that I sometimes feel like I’m playing The Binding of Isaac. Luck be a Landlord also has loads of achievements though the developer couldn’t add as many on Game Center thanks to a limitation on Apple’s side. The in-game achievements match other platforms though. One quality of life feature I’m glad to see included from the start, is the ability to increase the speed or turn off animations and go for instant results in spins as you earn coins. This makes it even better to just pick up and play on iPhone when you have a few minutes spare.

On PC, Luck be a Landlord has support for mouse and controller inputs. On iOS, it only has touch controls. I wouldn’t use a controller for a game like this given the touch option, but it is worth keeping in mind for those who plan to play on iPad where I prefer using controllers in most games. The interface has been brought over very well to touch, but you will need to tap on a few things more often to understand mechanics in the early hours of playing. For accessibility, Luck be a Landlord lets you adjust font, maximum frame rate including 120fps on my iPad Pro, various colors including that of the main background, item text, symbol text, and more.

As I played more, I started discovering specific items and symbols that I found working better, but the randomness element is going to constantly make you think on your toes with each spin. This is a positive or negative depending on who you ask. As someone who enjoyed the randomness element in games like Hearthstone to the point where I only focused on those joke decks by the end of my time with it, I’ve enjoyed being screwed over by a bad spin in Luck be a Landlord as weird as that sounds. Since this involves slot machines, you need to expect and welcome that, but it still might not be a positive for some players. The other aspect some might be put off by is the sheer number of items and possibilities making the early hours feel a bit daunting to progress, but this learning by experience is what gets me deeper into games like Luck be a Landlord and Slay the Spire.

Visually, I like the Luck be a Landlord aesthetic a lot. It has great pixel art for various objects, animals, and more. Animations are also very nice and smooth on my devices. Given the amount of different characters and items in the slots, the pixel art is still quite varied and recognizable. The music from Vincent Colavita is surprisingly catchy as well.

If you’ve already played Luck be a Landlord on PC, and are wondering how the mobile port is, it is fantastic if you’re ok with portrait gameplay on iOS. Barring that, I saw nothing in the PC version that would make me want to play it there over my iPhone. You can play it on Steam Deck without issues if you prefer playing there over mobile, but the iPhone version is my favorite way to play Luck be a Landlord.

In its current state, the only thing holding Luck be a Landlord back on iOS is seemingly lack of cloud save support between devices and the lack of landscape support which the developer has already commented on. Everything else about Luck be a Landlord on iOS is fantastic. This is easily my favorite way to play it, and I hope the patch with landscape mode does end up releasing soon after the engine adds support for it on iOS.

Luck be a Landlord manages to perfectly blend slots with a deckbuilding roguelike. I never thought those two would work, but just like Peglin taught me recently, the developers that manage getting genres like these working together are the real ones to keep a watch over for future games. Luck be a Landlord is a game I’ll have on my iPhone homescreen for a long time. I just hope the update with landscape support arrives in the near future. I liked it enough to buy it at full price on Steam soon after playing the iOS version. It is that good.

Okay, I’m going to start my review of Geo Gods (Free) by covering some similar ground to Jared’s Game of the Week write-up for the game. It really can’t be avoided sometimes, and this is one of those cases. I could talk about this game without talking about its creator, Arnold Rauers. It’s not that it can’t stand on its own, because it certainly can. But before I get into the nitty-gritty of the game itself, I have some things to say about this developer’s accomplishments in a general sense. I will get to the game, I promise. Indulge your pal Shaun.

In pretty much every culture there is the concept of the “one-hit wonder”. Lou Bega. Dexys Midnight Runners. Los Del Rio. The Tokens. These are all musicians, but you can apply it to other art forms. It’s a term of light mockery, relegating such creators to the annals of trivia for the crime of only making one amazing thing. The absolute absurdity of it only became apparent to me as I got older. Stepping up to the plate of creation and sending that cultural ball flying out of the park even once is more than most of us will ever manage. So what if a person only pulls it off once? Wow, you only made Take On Me. Ridiculous.

It’s ridiculous precisely because making something great, even once, is hard. Like, stupid hard. You have to have a great idea, you have to do the work to bring the great idea to fruition, and you probably need more than your fair share of support and luck along the way. If you’re missing any of those things, there’s a very good chance the rest is going to fall apart on you. So yes, if someone makes one awesome thing, I absolutely tip my hat to them. Without all of those “one hit wonders”, the world would be a lot less interesting. The App Store in particular would be in rough shape, because some of the best games in the history of iOS were one-offs. Either the developer moved on, or nothing else quite landed the same way.

So, Arnold Rauers. TiNYTOUCHTALES, if we want to use the official developer name. I know not whence Rauers came, in terms of game development. As TiNYTOUCHTALES, he hit the ground running with the phenomenal Card Crawl. Perfectly suited to mobile, and a game I can still fire up and have a really good time with. Simple enough for anyone to pick up in a game or two, but complex enough to keep you playing for years. Card Thief was another piece of brilliant work, and very much unlike Card Crawl in terms of design and rules. Miracle Merchant, perhaps his most approachable game of all, and once again completely different. Even the games that didn’t quite hit as well as those, ENYO and Maze Machina, show a remarkable amount of ingenuity in their design while carrying forward what I can only assume are the basic principles by which Rauers works. Hey, where did Gnomitaire go? Well, no matter.

It would not have been unusual for Rauers to have disappeared after Card Crawl, but he kept on making more mobile games and steadfastly refused to retread old ground. It has not ruined him, as far as I can tell. Certainly not in terms of the quality of his games. I have eight folders on my phone dedicated solely to the works of single publishers: Radiangames, Simogo, Butterscotch Shenanigans, Michael Brough, Quantum Sheep, SEGA, Square Enix, and TiNYTOUCHTALES. It is the most minor of honors, but it is the one I have to offer. I do not need to know anything about a new game from any of these parties before buying it. They have my utmost trust.

Geo Gods is probably not going to have the same pick-up as Card Crawl or Miracle Merchant, but I might end up being completely wrong. I hope I am. As upfront experiences go, this is certainly on the more complex end of Rauers’ works. It doesn’t take too long to learn how to play, but it does take some effort to learn how to play in a satisfying way. The basic idea here is that you are planting a garden of gods. I don’t know either, but let’s roll with it. You’ll do this by placing gods in each of the spaces on the game board, with the game ending when you’ve either filled up the board or run out of the Mana Gems you need to play your gods. Your aim is to rack up as high of a score as possible, with that score resulting from a wide array of complex interactions.

Bordering the board are Power Crystals, each attuned to a specific element. They’ll apply their elements to spaces on the board, with the result being that each hex space has one to four marks on it associated with them. Sigh. This is already getting hard to explain. Let’s go back to Mana Gems and the gods. Each turn you’ll be presented with three god cards drawn from three piles. You can pick one of the three to play, and where you can play them is determined by the Mana Gem that is up at the moment. It will have a number from one to four, and that will determine which spaces are open to play a god on. One is for one elemental mark, two is for two marks, and so on. Each of the gods has their own point value, and they’ll also have an ability of some kind. These abilities can be very beneficial or troublesome depending on how you use them, so you can’t just fire them out carelessly.

Playing gods will also count down the numbers on the Power Crystals. When they reach zero, that Crystal is unlocked and will give you an additional point bonus. Unlock them all in a game and you’ll get a huge boost. So you’ll want to have that sub-goal in the back of your mind as you play, keeping some degree of balance in the elements of the gods you throw out there so as to unlock each of the Power Crystals. But it’s just as important to focus on the gods you’re playing and how their abilities will interact with each other, because that is where the real gold is found points-wise. Each turn you’ll be given three fresh cards, but you can lock one of them if you feel like. You can also pass a turn, but you’ll reduce the value of the current Mana Gem the first time you do so and shatter it if you do it again. This of course puts you at risk of running out of Mana Gems before you’ve filled the board. You have to be careful with these moves, but they too interact with some god abilities.

Simply putting up one good score isn’t enough, either. You have to play six rounds of the game, after which your average score will be taken as your high score. With all of the variables at play, there are plenty of opportunities to find your way to new highs with smart strategy or a bit of dumb luck. You can also find your way to a low score if you lack both. Geo Gods is a game where you really need to think carefully about each card you play, where you play it, and what is around it. At the same time, there isn’t a whole lot of push back for playing badly. You’ll get a low score, but that’s the only real penalty. I think this might be the part of the game that isn’t as strong as some previous Rauer efforts, as the lack of clear and immediate feedback about how the player is doing might cause some players who are less motivated to become disinterested.

As Jared also mentioned in his write-up, however, Geo Gods is free to try out. You can more or less play the whole game as much as you want, allowing you to get a feel for whether or not it is for you. There is an IAP you can purchase, and it will unlock some extra cards and features. If you like the game, you’ll want to buy it. It’s a meager $4.99 in US dollars, which is more than fair for how much you can get from this game if it gets its claws into you. I guess I should also mention the presentation. It’s nice. Looks decent, and it’s quite functional. Rauers always handles this well, so it’s not very surprising he’s pulled it off again here.

Geo Gods is another clever game from a developer who is now holding a full hand of them. It takes a little more effort to come to grips with than some of the other TiNYTOUCHTALES games, and there is the usual strong random element at play that will occasionally mess with you, but such is life. The important thing is that this is a game that keeps on growing as you put more time into it, flourishing like the garden it depicts. It’s more than worth the investment to learn for all the entertainment it will offer you in the long run.

Gosh, Hamster’s been at this for a while now, hasn’t it? About a year and a half ago, the original King of the Monsters arrived on mobile by way of the ACA NEOGEO series. I reviewed it at the time and despite the game’s iconic status I wasn’t too hot on it due to the thin amount of content and lack of multiplayer support. We’re quite a ways down the road now, and it’s time to take a look at the mobile release of King of the Monsters 2 ($3.99). It’s a well-loved follow-up to be sure, but does it shine in this format? Let’s slide in and have a look.

There isn’t a whole lot of juicy history behind this game. SNK scored a strong hit with the original King of the Monsters in early 1991, at a time when the company needed all the success it could get. So yes, of course we get a sequel. King of the Monsters 2 arrived in early 1992, and it made a few changes to the gameplay seen in the previous game. The original King of the Monsters was basically a wrestling game with an interesting theme. You would choose one of several monsters and then battle the rest of them, one at a time, in stages set in various Japanese cities. Then you do it again, and that’s the single-player game. Grab a friend for one on one fun and you’ve got a pretty enjoyable bit of arcade diversion.

One of the fun things about the original game was how the arenas were cities that were slowly destroyed over the course of the match. It really made you feel like you were a giant monster, and a person couldn’t help but want more of that. Well, how lucky we are! King of the Monsters 2 gives you some room to stretch your legs, such as they are. Each stage still culminates in a one-on-one battle, but before that match-up you’ll wander through short stages, swatting down airplanes or aliens, smashing bridges and buildings, and collecting power-ups. There are more power-ups this time around, and each of the monsters can level up a couple of times. They get access to more special moves when they do, along with stat and health buffs. It’s in your interest to smash everything and try to find those power-ups, but be careful not to grab the bad ones.

This is a good time to talk about the monsters. The playable roster has been significantly trimmed down this time. There are only three monsters to choose from. The Godzilla-like Geon is here in mutated form, the King Kong-like Woo has powered up into Cyber Woo, and the Ultraman-like Astro Guy is here in a slightly modified suit. These, apparently, are the only survivors of the original monster wars as chronicled in the first game. Yes, there’s a story. That’s half of it right there. The other half is that aliens have invaded so these three remaining kaiju are tasked with stopping it. Let them fight, and all that. Don’t worry about a potential lack of creative creature designs though, as you’ll get to see plenty of other monsters as you make your way through the game.

There are no pin falls this time. There’s still a lot of wrestling DNA in King of the Monsters 2, as you will regularly get involved in grapple fights with the boss creatures. But your goal this time is to whittle their life meter down to zero, at which point they’ll go kaboom. There are no electrical power lines serving as ropes to whip them into this time, and the game broadly feels more like a beat-em-up as a result. A beat-em-up whose stage-to-boss ratio of time spent is very different from most others, but a beat-em-up nonetheless. Some may lament this change, and I do think it’s swings and roundabouts if we’re talking about playing the games in normal conditions.

We’re not, though. This review is about the mobile version, and we have to take a few things into account. First, while players certainly can make use of an external controller, it’s more likely that they’ll be using touch controls. Next, while players technically can play in multiplayer via extra controllers and some sort of decent-sized display, it’s more likely that they’ll be playing alone. I personally find the first game’s more pure wrestling approach to be more fun in multiplayer. It’s less random, the whole tug-of-war of trying to pin the opponent is interesting, and there are more characters to choose from.

But King of the Monsters 2 is, I feel, considerably more satisfying than the first when it comes to single-player. The opponents are more varied in their forms and attacks since the game doesn’t need to consider how a human will control them. Traveling through the stages smashing things and swatting lesser enemies is enjoyable and helps set the stage. Chucking buildings can feel cheap in multiplayer matches, but as a single-player feature it’s awesome. The random power-ups (and power-downs) are more tolerable when they aren’t messing up an otherwise interesting battle between two human players. The locations are a lot more varied in setting, too. That’s important when you’re playing alone, because it helps ward off repetition. There’s a proper final boss here as well, and it’s a real SNK sonofagun.

What I’m trying to say here is that for the purposes of most mobile players, King of the Monsters 2 is a considerably better experience than the first. There’s even a good ending and bad ending, encouraging further replays. It feels less like you’re playing a multiplayer game against the CPU and more like you’re playing a normal game meant for one player to have a good time with first and foremost. Some of the controls can be a little trickier with the virtual buttons so there is still a benefit to using an external controller if you have one. Still, even with touch controls it is a hoot to fire the game up and smash your way through a few aliens and landmarks. You can save whenever you need to, so feel free to break the game down into as many sessions as you need. It’s a cheap game that likes to milk you for as many coins as it can, but you have all you need.

This game is also a good one for the usual extra modes Hamster includes in all of these releases. There are lots of opportunities for variable scoring here, and you can also go faster or slower through the stages to an extent. That means both Score Attack and the timed Caravan modes work very well, provided the leaderboards are active. Even trying to better your own scores adds some value to the game. All the other usual options are here, of course. Game settings, video and audio settings, and control settings are all here. The only thing missing is an option for online or wireless multiplayer, and no I am never letting that particular bone go.

I knew going into this what the result would be, more or less, but I can happily recommend King of the Monsters 2 in its mobile form to anyone looking for some arcade action. For what it is, it holds up really well. The graphics still look good, the game plays well, and there just aren’t a whole ton of good kaiju brawlers out there even now. The single-player mode is enjoyable to bash your way through, and with three characters and lots of variability, it stays surprisingly fresh on multiple playthroughs. All in all, a good addition to the ACA NEOGEO mobile line-up.

The original Oxenfree was a brilliant experience. Whenever an indie game I love has a sequel announced, I’ve become skeptical thanks to the massive disappointment of Hotline Miami 2. Despite there being amazing sequels like Rogue Legacy 2 and even Risk of Rain 2 or Spelunky 2, there’s a part of my brain that thinks a Hotline Miami 2 might happen. Thankfully, Night School and Netflix delivered in spades with Oxenfree II: Lost Signals (Free). I’ve been playing it for review on iOS, Steam Deck, and Nintendo Switch over the last week or so, and definitely think it was worth the wait, despite not actually thinking we needed a sequel before.

Oxenfree II: Lost Signals, is a standalone sequel to Oxenfree: Netflix Edition, but given both games are now included in Netflix Games, I’d still recommend playing the original first. Having context and expectations from the first game definitely shaped my experience in Oxenfree II: Lost Signals, and I ended up appreciating it a lot more. Even if you aren’t a fan of paying for a subscription to play games, the original Oxenfree is often dirt cheap on PC and consoles, and is absolutely worth checking out.

Oxenfree II: Lost Signals is set half a decade after the first game. The opening hour felt very weird in a good way as I played more as Riley, the protagonist of this game. It kind of felt like coming back to an old vacation home that somehow is creepier and bigger than before. That holds true for most of Oxenfree II: Lost Signals. Everything here is bigger than the original, and things feel more polished overall. The voice acting is superb, visuals amazing, and music everything I wanted. There are some downsides though, and they involve backtracking. Oxenfree II: Lost Signals‘s vibe is immaculate, and while the puzzles were simpler than I expected even coming from the first game, I loved seeing the characters over the course of the six or so hours I spent to see it through to the end. There is some replay value, but the slow-paced gameplay made replaying it a bit annoying.

I ended up liking Oxenfree II: Lost Signals more than the original in many ways thanks to its cast. Just like the studio, Oxenfree II: Lost Signals feels like a more mature story despite the supernatural and thriller elements. This also applies to the visuals and scope that feel bigger and better. The flashbacks, interactions with other NPCs, and narrative all come together very well. I mentioned the opening hour feeling weird in a good way, but the opening bits should’ve been paced better. The later parts of Oxenfree II: Lost Signals ended up carrying the narrative where I wanted. Night School definitely needs to do another game, and I’m glad to wait half a decade more to see how a potential Oxenthree would end up being. While I didn’t get on with Night School’s Afterparty, Oxenfree II: Lost Signals feels like a return to form for the studio.

Playing Oxenfree II: Lost Signals across multiple devices has also been interesting. It runs and looks amazing on Steam Deck and newer iOS devices. On Nintendo Switch and also on iPhone, some of the larger portions of the games with a zoomed-out camera can cause some visual issues, but this isn’t a problem on Steam Deck or iPad. On the visual side, Oxenfree II: Lost Signals looks excellent on Steam Deck and iOS, but is a bit blurry on Nintendo Switch. The performance on Switch is also not as nice as modern iOS devices or Steam Deck, but it gets the job done for the game. The load times are my main complaint with the Switch version right now.

On the controls side, Oxenfree II: Lost Signals on iOS supports full touch or controllers. I played with my DualSense on iPad and touch controls on iPhone. Both worked as they should. Oxenfree II: Lost Signals even showed me PlayStation button prompts on my iPad when I used my DualSense controller. The Switch version also includes touchscreen support which is how I spent most of my time with it in handheld mode. On Steam Deck, you can use touch controls to simulate mouse input. Speaking of Steam Deck, despite not being Steam Deck Verified, Oxenfree II: Lost Signals runs perfectly. If you want the best portable experience and don’t want to play it through a subscription service, I’d recommend playing it on Steam Deck.

Barring the backtracking and some issues with the camera, my only problems with Oxenfree II: Lost Signals have to do with how I ran into a few bugs with the dialogue boxes or some tutorial tooltips glitching out and remaining on screen longer than they should. Everything else was polished and great. If you didn’t like Oxenfree, I don’t think Oxenfree II: Lost Signals will click with you, but it is worth trying out in Netflix for sure.

I did end up using the larger font option while playing. The default size feels built for playing on a monitor while the larger one worked better for portable play. Since I’ve now played Oxenfree II: Lost Signals on Steam Deck, iPad Pro, iPhone, and Nintendo Switch, I’m going to replay it in a few months on PS5 to see if Night School did anything interesting with the DualSense controller there.

Oxenfree II: Lost Signals on mobile is my favorite way to play it. Not only did Night School do a great port that feels perfect on iPad, but it also looks and runs nicer than the Switch version. Having now played Oxenfree II: Lost Signals on Steam Deck, iPhone, iPad Pro, and Nintendo Switch, Night School and Netflix exceeded my expectations, and I hope it gets a physical release so I can add it to my Nintendo Switch collection alongside the physical release of the first game. This is Netflix’s best original addition to its games subscription since Poinpy, and one of my favorite mobile games of 2023.

Has it really been ten years since Ridiculous Fishing released on iOS? Ten years since it won TouchArcade’s Game of the Year award? More than a decade since the cloning controversy? I guess so. Heck, it’s been six years since I did my Classic Reload article on the game, a piece that is now more classic than the game itself was at the time of its writing. It was a game sorely in need of an update, but when Vlambeer more or less closed its doors a few years back, I gave up any hope of that. So imagine my surprise when Ridiculous Fishing EX () was announced to be coming to Apple Arcade. Not Ridiculous Fishing+, but Ridiculous Fishing EX! I’m a Capcom fan; ‘EX‘ gets me moderately excited all on its own. So how is this update? Let’s cast a line and find out.

I’d like to sit here and pretend that everyone reading this is already familiar with Ridiculous Fishing, but time makes fools of us all, doesn’t it? So to kick things off, here’s a recap. It started as a Flash game released in 2010 by Vlambeer called Radical Fishing. The small developer planned to bring a spiffed-up version of the game to iOS as one of its first mobile game, but the sudden appearance of a clone that shall go unnamed caused a bit of a dust-up that saw the game get sidelined for a couple of years. It eventually hit in 2013, after the release of the also-excellent Super Crate Box. This new version, called Ridiculous Fishing: A Tale of Redemption, was put together by Vlambeer (Rami Ismail and Jan Willem Nijman) along with designer Zach Gage, artist Greg Wohlwent, and musician Eirik Sulke. It was a real dream team, and the results spoke for themselves. Great reviews, many awards, and near-universal praise were piled up for the game. Can’t beat the real thing, baby.

It only takes one play to see why. Ridiculous Fishing hits all the notes a mobile game should. It’s really intuitive to pick up and play, it looks and sounds great, and it’s perfect for filling a few minutes or a couple of hours as needed. Each play consists of three segments, each taking the form of a little mini-game. Casting your line with a tap starts the first, which sees you tilting your device to avoid any fish or other creatures to ensure your line reaches its maximum depth. When it hits that point or touches anything, the second segment starts. You’re tilting again here, but this time you’re trying to hit as much as you possibly can to snag it on your ascending line.

So far this isn’t very ridiculous, but once your line reaches the surface things get kind of wild. The catch flies into the air, and you now have to use your gun to shoot every last creature. Well, not all of them. Each creature you shoot will either add some money to your total or subtract some. Once all the creatures have either been shot or fall back into the water, your cash earnings are totaled. You can then go to the shop to buy some upgrades or cast your line again. There are different fishing areas, and you’ll unlock new ones by catching a set number of species in the previous one. You can only do that by reaching as far into the deep as possible, and there are some creatures that require certain conditions to appear.

Ridiculous Fishing EX, developed in association with KO_OP Mode, pretty much follows the same template. There are some new upgrades in the shop, new creatures to catch, a new end game mode (a terrific new addition for veteran players), a fully redone presentation, and more. I also love that the game’s Twitter expy has been swapped out for a TikTok expy named BikBok. With new creatures come new entries in the Fishopedia, and they are just as hilarious as ever. And don’t worry: it’s still a tale of redemption. Make sure you roll those credits, because there’s a nice reward for doing so. All in all, it’s a really faithful remake. While it has been fully spruced up, it hasn’t abandoned the style of the original game in doing so.

The gameplay is practically unchanged with the exception of what the new upgrades offer, and that’s great because it didn’t need any changes. There’s a satisfying progression built around the simple gameplay loop, and all of the segments of that loop are short and fun enough that they never really get old. Even after you’re used to the absurd premise, it’s fun trying to avoid the fish, then do the opposite, and then blast them away. Having to be careful about which fish you shoot to avoid money losses and where you should focus your shots means you can’t just blast away without thinking, so even at its most mindless Ridiculous Fishing EX needs you to pay a bit of attention.

Ultimately, while Ridiculous Fishing EX is a full-on remake, it doesn’t reinvent the wheel. It takes a game that very much worked in every way, buffs up the presentation, piles some extra content on top, and most importantly makes it work the way it should on modern devices. Those who played the original top to bottom will find some new things to enjoy, and those who are completely new to Ridiculous Fishing are in for quite a treat. I wish we had seen the universe where mobile gaming continued along these lines instead of where it ended up going, but for now I’ll just say I’m very happy to have this terrific, near-perfect game vital once more.

Young Horses’ excellent creature collection and charming puzzler Bugsnax (Free) hit iOS as a premium release last week. I had been following it ever since it was a game that showed up at multiple Sony events as a PS5 showcase indie. I didn’t play it until getting my PS5 months after the system launched, and I’m glad I waited because of how well it used the DualSense controller. Since the PS5, PS4, and PC release, Bugsnax hit Nintendo Switch and Xbox platforms. I checked it out on both and was very impressed with the Switch port despite the cutbacks. With Bugsnax now on iOS, I have another excuse to write about one of the more-interesting games in recent years.

In this Bugsnax iOS review, I’m going to cover the game itself, the port quality, touch controls, controller support, comparisons with other consoles, and more. I’m very impressed with the port, but it needs a bit of work on the iPad version right now. Since launch it has already been updated once to improve thermals and also to adjust the default frame rate, but I’d recommend playing around with these settings if you do buy Bugsnax to find the best settings for your device.

In Bugsnax, you arrive on Snacktooth island looking for Elizabert Megafig. You interact with various colorful characters on the island while trying to discover the mysteries and solve puzzles that involve capturing Bugsnax. There are tons of species, and each one involves its own little puzzle. There are also secrets to discover with the tools available to you growing over the course of the main story. The world of Bugsnax feels very real, and it is quite cozy despite getting dark later on. Bugsnax on iOS, just like the Switch and Xbox versions, debuts with the Isle of Bigsnax DLC included. This was a free addition to the base game on PlayStation and PC platforms with a nice location full of larger Bugsnax species. The only thing I don’t like is how you can’t directly access this DLC if you already played the game through a previous release.

On iOS, Bugsnax lets you adjust the maximum FPS across targets of 30fps, 30-60fps, and 60fps. Devices with 120hz screens also have a 40fps option. This isn’t something you usually see on mobile, but is something I’ve been seeing on PS5 with 120hz and also been using on Steam Deck after adjusting the screen refresh rate. You can also adjust the field of view. Since launch, the game has gotten updated a few times with the newest update (as of Sunday) even allowing you to choose quality presets, resolution scale, and shadow quality. These are visible on my iPhone 11 but not on my iPad Pro (2020).

My iPhone 11 ended up running the game better than my iPad Pro (2020) model overall. Bugsnax runs superbly on iPhone 14 Plus as well. The performance and visuals are better than Nintendo Switch overall, especially the performance, but it doesn’t look as nice as the PS5 version on my iOS devices. I feel like it might be close if I had a newer iPad Pro model. Overall, I’m very pleased with the performance and visuals in Bugsnax on iPhone, but it could’ve looked a bit better on iPad.

When Bugsnax was announced for iOS, I was curious how it would control on the touchscreen. It took me a little while to get used to it after playing Bugsnax multiple times with a controller, but the touch controls are great. I found them better on iPhone than iPad though. On iPad, I’d stick to using a controller like I do with most games that are ported to mobile from console and PC platforms. The touch targets and on-screen buttons are well thought out, and it almost feels like Bugsnax was always planned to hit mobile.

On the controller side, Bugsnax has full controller support. I used my Razer Kishi V2 on iPhone and my DualSense controller on my iPad Pro to play Bugsnax. The implementation of adaptive trigger support is great, and it immediately makes this my second favorite way to experience Bugsnax. The best way is still the PS5 because of how awesome the DualSense features are, but Bugsnax on iOS is the best portable version for sure. If you play with a controller, it is the same control experience as on other platforms.

Barring my issue with the game not letting older players directly access the new DLC content, there are some aspects of Bugsnax that might not work for people. If you aren’t too bothered by certain puzzles and solutions to problems being a bit too vague or out there, you will not have any issues in Bugsnax. Just be prepared for it to not look as nice as it does on PS5 if you have an older iPad model like I have.

Bugsnax is priced at $24.99 on PC and console platforms. Bugsnax on iOS is priced at $9.99 and it is a universal app covering iOS, iPadOS, and tvOS. As a value proposition, Bugsnax on iOS is the best version for sure since you have access to playing it on iPhone, iPad, and Apple TV while also getting touchscreen and controller options. It also helps that this port is very good. I’ve also been glad to see a developer of the mobile port be very responsive to feedback in our forum thread.

If you skipped Bugsnax before, this iOS version is superb. The developers went above and beyond with the port by even adding many DualSense features that work wirelessly in addition to delivering an excellent conversion when it comes to visuals and performance. This is easily the best portable version of Bugsnax, and the low asking price compared to other platforms makes it an even easier recommendation. It still has the same issues as the original game, but Bugsnax has never been more accessible, and this is one of the best mobile ports of 2023.

When McPixel 3 ($2.99) from Sos Sosowski and Devolver Digital was announced, I was disappointed that it wasn’t coming to mobile at launch. I have fond memories of McPixel on iOS, and it was good enough to ensure I’d play whatever Sos worked on. McPixel 3 hit PC and consoles, and it even came to Xbox Game Pass recently. You see, McPixel 3, is a game I’ve enjoyed enough to just want installed on every device. When it was finally confirmed for mobile, I knew I had to review it. This review was delayed because I was on holiday for a week, but I’m now here to tell you to stop wasting time and just spend the $3 on McPixel 3. It is that good.

If you’ve not played McPixel or even heard of it before, it is basically a parody of a parody taking place with hilarious over-the-top situations that play out in point and click puzzles. McPixel 3, the sequel to McPixel, is big enough to be basically two games combined compared to the original. The real draw of McPixel 3 is seeing the various situations play out as you work your way towards more of the levels and see more of what Sos has to offer here. Over a decade after launching McPixel, McPixel 3 on iOS is a joy to play, and it is good enough to make you forget about the awful McPixel 2. If the humor doesn’t click with you though, this is going to be a waste of three bucks. McPixel 3 and its blend of crude or “out there” writing and solutions is definitely not for everyone. It is however for me, and I was super glad to see Sos manage to impress me nearly throughout when I first played McPixel 3.

McPixel 3‘s structure is a bit different though as you make your way through the levels and earn coins. Earning coins in a game always makes me feel like things will get grindy because you do use coins to unlock new stages, but things never get annoying. The few times I did have to go earn coins, it was a rewarding experience. It must have taken a ton of design work to make sure this aspect doesn’t become annoying for players. Nothing in McPixel 3 is a waste of time, and you’ve already wasted some time reading this review while wondering about McPixel 2 instead of buying the game haven’t you?

Expect to see everything McPixel 3 has to offer in under half a dozen hours. It isn’t a long game, but is beyond worth the asking price. While I already knew the solutions thanks to playing McPixel 3 before the mobile release, I still enjoyed my time with it on iPhone and iPad. It looks and runs perfectly, and I’d say it even feels better to play on iOS than any other platform. This is where I’ll get into the platform comparisons based on my time with McPixel 3 on Xbox Series X, iPhone, iPad Pro, Nintendo Switch, and Steam Deck.

On iOS, McPixel 3 does not have controller support. It doesn’t need it though. I did not enjoy playing it with a controller on Xbox and even used touch controls when I played McPixel 3 on Nintendo Switch. The touch controls are perfect. On the visual side, depending on your device, you can enable or disable cinema mode and also toggle scaling. It scales perfectly across every device I tried it on, and I have no hesitation in recommending it to you on whatever you’d like to play it on, but just keep in mind that it doesn’t feel as nice with a controller as it does with touch controls.

Here’s the thing. I get why games like this are now released first on PC and console platforms. McPixel 3 is priced at just $2.99 on iOS and Android while it is $9.99 on other platforms. I don’t think it would’ve done well at full price even if it did hit mobile alongside other platforms. I’m ok with Devolver Digital bringing games to mobile after they’ve sold enough at full price on PC and console platforms. We are seeing that with Return to Monkey Island as well. Hopefully these late ports do well enough for Devolver to keep getting more games on iOS and Android. I hope we eventually get stuff like Cult of the Lamb as well even if it does require a controller to play.

Playing through McPixel 3 feels like grabbing an issue of MAD Magazine because I never knew what to expect when I went ahead in my initial playthrough. McPixel 3 on iOS is essential, but it will absolutely feel like poop if the humor doesn’t click with you. I loved McPixel and McPixel 3 is everything I wanted in a sequel and more. The wait for it on mobile has been long, but even in my third playthrough, McPixel 3 is just superb, and it will make you forget all about McPixel 2 which doesn’t exist so don’t worry.

It all started so well. Using my meager funds, I purchased Flamma from the gladiator market. I invested in him, watched him take his wins and losses in the arena, and had him nursed back to health when he was injured. Sure, I arranged for his family to be killed in an accident so that he wouldn’t lose sight of the important things, but I thought we were tight. Then one day he slipped away from my security, gathered some like-minded barbarians, and attacked me at my home. My other gladiators were in no condition to stop these brutes, and my estate was burned to the ground. My head was left on a pike, a final show of Flamma’s lack of gratitude. Well, that’s how it goes sometimes in Gladiator Manager (Free), a rather enjoyable little strategy game from developer Renegade Games.

As the title says, this game drops you in the role of a gladiator manager. It’s ancient Rome, the days where people would fight ferocious beasts or each other for the entertainment of the masses. You choose your nationality, each conveying a particular benefit, and head into the virtual lion’s den that is the world of gladiator management. You start with some funds and the basic necessities like a training ludus and a couple of slaves to work on your estate. Your first order of business is to head to the market and pick up your first gladiator. Grab him a weapon too, while you’re at it.

Broadly speaking, your goal in this game is to enter your gladiators into tournaments to win fortune and fame, increase your standing, and wipe out your rivals. The game is played week by week, with your actions mainly limited by the number of active gladiators you have on your roster and how much money you have left. You can buy slaves to perform various tasks on your estate, upgrade your facilities, attempt to sabotage your rivals in various ways, and enter your gladiators in whatever tournaments are available. The longer you play, the more your options open up. While it’s initially a very straightforward affair, you’ll soon find yourself having to deal with all manner of matters.

Since you’re just the gladiator manager and not the gladiator, all you can really do during the battles is watch things play out. Before each round, you’ll get some information about how fair of a match-up it is. If things look a little dire, you can always bribe the guards to “forget” to unlock the opponent’s chains, or accidentally leave the door open to the lion cage, and so on. If you’ve got money and influence, you can get away with an awful lot. Victories will grant you money and more influence, while your participating gladiators will gain fame. Lose, and at best you go home with a bruised ego. At worst, your gladiator could be injured or killed. And don’t forget: your rivals can cheat just the same way you can.

Between battles and during the passage of time, random events will pop up. You’ll have to make a choice, with some only available if your status is at a certain level. It’s often a matter of losing resources (money or slaves) or influence, but you’ll also have a chance to earn money, pick up new gladiators, or get more slaves. While these aren’t the most complicated of affairs, their presence reminds me a bit of The King of Dragon Pass. That’s a good thing. When I first fired this game up, I was expecting at best something along the lines of Monster Rancher, but as the strategic layers continued to be revealed I found myself more and more impressed at just how much there was here.

The game does its best to at least get you off on the right foot. It will present you with objectives when you start a new game, and if you follow them you’ll more or less find your feet before long. Completing them can even reward you with gems, which are the only way the game monetizes. Gems can be used to buy a variety of things, including new weapons, tournaments, events, and more. If you manage to finish every achievement in the game, you’ll get enough free gems to buy just about everything on offer. If you want to finish out picking up those remaining things or simply want to get the jump on acquiring things, you can buy gem packs for $3.99 and $7.99. You get a whole lot of game here without dropping a single cent, so you could almost see a gem pack purchase as a tip to the developer if you’re inclined to.

Anyway, that’s how it is. Back to the game. Gladiator Manager is a game of momentum. When you’re winning, it’s a lot easier to keep on winning. You can afford all those upgrades to your compound, opening your options and keeping your gladiators happy, healthy, and well-trained. You can pay for more slaves to increase your income or guard your gladiators. You can afford those bribes during tournaments and weather those random events more easily. Your influence will also keep going up, allowing you to exert your power in other ways. But you’re not invincible. All it takes is one bout of bad luck and the whole operation might shift gears into reverse.

Yes, when you start losing it quickly becomes a downward spiral. Not only will you earn less and see your influence wane, but your gladiators will get injured and their loyalty will decrease. You’ll have less money to fix things, and random events can force you to send injured gladiators into combat, making things worse. You might eventually end up with no gladiators due to death or abandonment, and if you have no money to hire a new one you’ll simply have to drag one of your slaves up to join the active roster. Eventually you’ll run out of funds, then influence, and that’s pretty much it. Head back to the title screen and try again.

But you know what? Even losing is kind of fun in Gladiator Manager. One of the ways it really calls The King of Dragon Pass to mind is in how each playthrough feels like a unique story. There are just enough variables and random happenings in the game that it takes a very long time for any two playthroughs to feel the same. That’s a good thing, because you’ll probably have at least one or two skunky runs while you’re still learning how things work. The amusing series of events that can lead to your end makes it easy to forgive the game and fire up another run right away.

With all that said, there are some rough edges here. The UI has some sloppy bits, and sometimes text will spill out of the boxes. While the game does a decent job of teaching you the basics, some of the more advanced features aren’t as well-explained. There are bugs now and then, with things not activating properly or the flow of events playing out in a weird way. I will say that the developer seems very attentive and has been updating the game very frequently, so I expect the game to keep on improving as time passes. This review is mainly where things are at this very specific point in time. I can’t give bonus points for potential futures, so keep that in mind if you’re reading it after a month or two of updates.

Ultimately, I think Gladiator Manager is pretty neat. It doesn’t cost you anything to download the game and see a great deal of what it has to offer, and if you have any love of management sims or strategy games I think trying it out is a very cheap gamble with a potentially high pay-off. It’s not as simple as it initially seems, and learning how all of its various bits work and how to put them to work for you manages to tickle the ol’ brain muscle just the right way. Give it a shot, but be careful about trusting that Flamma fellow. He’s a rude boy.

A few months back, Hamster and SNK released Stakes Winner in the ACA NEOGEO mobile line. As I am wont to, I reviewed it and found it to be a really enjoyable and unique game that fit the needs of mobile gaming quite well. Well, now we have Stakes Winner 2 ($3.99). What are the differences? Is it better? Worse? Will it pull ahead by a nose, or is it just another old nag? I’m trying to write like an old GamePro writer. Do you like it? Probably not. Look, I’ve done so many of these games, it’s getting hard to write an introduction paragraph. The main thing is that we’ve got the follow-up to a game that surprised me in a pleasant way, and it’s time to see if this one can do the same.

Stakes Winner 2 was a relatively swift sequel, as these things go. The first game was an immediate hit in Japan when it hit in late 1995, and SNK wasn’t going to rest on its laurels. Developer Saurus was tapped to make another game in the series, and it wouldn’t be the last time it would have to take on this task. It would, however, be the last time Saurus would do so on the NEOGEO hardware. Given the quick development cycle of just one year, you can probably imagine that the game doesn’t exactly reinvent the wheel. In a lot of ways, it feels very similar to the first game. Not necessarily a bad thing, but something to keep in mind.

That means the racing action is going to be familiar if you followed my advice and played the first game. You’ll have to manage your stamina as you make your way around each track. grab useful items, and try not to run into any of the other horses while doing so. There’s a new Burst move you can use once per race in the final sprint and it can be the difference between victory and defeat. Each horse now has a stat for this ability, so you’ll want to consider that when picking between the now dozen-strong roster. Jockeys now have some special moves of their own, busted out with fighting game-style commands, and this adds yet another layer of strategy to each race. The races are faster and even more fun than before, and while I will once again bang my drum that this game is super-fun with another player, it’s good enough to enjoy even if you’re riding solo.

Those new jockey moves come courtesy of the Jockey Training selection between races, a new feature added to the game. Pay a big chunk of money, get a slick move. You can also pick these moves up if you manage to beat a Rival when they challenge you. As before, you can also train your horse in a minigame between races to get some permanent upgrades to their stats, an essential part of keeping pace with the pack as you go deeper and deeper into the career mode. You’ll also find yet another new addition between races in the form of a special shop. You can spend your hard-earned money here to buy items you can use in the next race. So here again we see the basic foundation of the first game left intact but with new things built on to add some complexity and strategy to the proceedings.

One more cool thing is that you can now choose between two… what are they called? Derbies? Well, you can pick between Europe or America this time, which means you’ve got two completely different modes to clear in story mode, each with their own tracks. Given that you will likely be playing this mobile version of the game in single-player, that kind of extra content is extremely meaningful. All the new ways to spend money add another consideration to your gameplay choices, because your final winnings is your score. If you spent more along the way, your score will be lower. To push your score higher, you have to rely less on the various helpers the game offers. In this ACA NEOGEO version, it’s even more important since you’ll be posting that score to the leaderboards to compete with other players.

Look, I’ll wear it proudly: I love Stakes Winner and I love its sequel even more. I didn’t think I would, but after giving them a fair shake I think these are some of my favorite non-fighters on the NEOGEO. The second game is one of the deeper single-player experiences available on the platform, as far as I’m concerned. I know this kind of game is odd for Western tastes, but if you’re patient with it and take it on its own terms, I think you’ll love it too. As a game, Stakes Winner 2 is excellent.

How is it as a mobile experience, though? Well, as mentioned you aren’t going to get to play the fun multiplayer mode unless you have external controllers and a desire to huddle around your mobile device. I think it’s wonderful even as a single-player experience, so it can survive that loss. As for the controls, I do have to admit that pulling off the special moves is a bit trickier than I’d like on the virtual stick. It’s a bit better to play on an external controller if you have one, but I’d say it’s still mostly fine on touch controls. Just be aware this is a more complex game than the first one and that means the controls have more to deal with.

The extra ACA NEOGEO modes are here, and the Score Attack mode is a great challenge. The Caravan mode doesn’t do much for me on this game, but you can’t win them all. The usual options are available, so you can tweak game settings, controls, and so on as you like. Hamster’s emulation is as on-point as ever, so the game looks, sounds, and plays just the way it should. I’d like to do my usual whinge about not having internet or wireless multiplayer, but I acknowledge that some of these games are so niche that I should be happy we’re getting them at all.

If you liked Stakes Winner, you’ll love Stakes Winner 2. While the core of the game remains the same and the overall presentation hasn’t changed a great deal, the additions to the single-player mode significantly enhance the overall experience. It’s a zippier game, a more strategic game, and just a better experience on the whole. There aren’t many games like this out there, especially in English, and I think those who are willing to take the gamble on something unusual will find themselves rewarded for their courage.