Our May Mobile Games Roundup

With May just about behind us, it’s time once again to share the mobile games roundup for this past month

Gravity Dash: Endless Runner – Jedd Goble

Working much like the morph of Geometry Dash and Badland, Gravity Dash is a challenging endless side scroller. The great thing about endless side scrollers is its procedurally-generated nature, which brings on a lot of new challenges especially as we jump and dodge deeper into the level, the “difficulty up” words pass behind the scene and we don’t know what to expect further. The challenge is to reach the furthest possible and you are your own opponent. We’re a big fan of simple concepts here and to be honest, they work best in mobile games especially for the on the move crowd that plays them. Sure, the design here seems a bit simple and rough but it has an upbeat soundtrack to keep the players engaged and doesn’t shoot up in difficulty too soon and is essentially a one button game which keeps in the formula of being easy to learn and hard to master. Addictive fun.

Shark Pool – AK Arts

At first glance, Shark Pool looks like a silly idea at best. Even its opening replicates that of the Jaws movie poster. The premise here is simple: you are a shark and you need to knock away pesky beachgoers before they float into your cave. I mean, if I were a shark, I would love some free food drifting my way but we are apparently nice sharks here so we just want to protect our turf. How do we do that? We project ourselves and hit them as many times as they need. Think Ketchapp Games’ Ballz that we looked at before. This game is really the same thing but in a boxed area with opening on all sides and people coming at all sides as well plus some objectives to achieve along the way. It’s funny how a new skin and slight changes can have a quite enjoyable outcome. Who would have thought bumping off beachgoers would be so fun?

Friends Gem for Kakao – Kakao Games

Friends Gem is a cute Match-3 puzzle game that is filled with teddy bears and cute kitties going on a treasure hunt adventure. Working very much like most other similar games but with different gem designs, Friends Gem gives its players character unlocks which is not very clear whether there is a purpose or just a collectible. It however does have multi-round levels which act as a special level to advance to the next area and such. Is Friends Gem unique? In terms of gameplay it is quite “been there done that.” However, then it does try to add in new characters with new areas and these will have some new capabilities. One of them is to Match 3 to decrease the health of some pesky enemies and make them vanish, and a few changes in the Match 3 goals to give it a less repetitive experience. The cute characters could work very well like how Dora the Explorer would appeal to kids and could be a cute game for gaming adventures with the whole family.

Zoe: Interactive Story – The Other Guys

Fresh, free, and new in this past month on Play Store comes an episodic werewolf high school story about a girl named Zoe who loses her parents and ends up living at her uncle’s home back in the town that her mother grew up. Meeting new friends, and new boys being attracted to her and weird things happening are all in her destiny. Zoe feels a little generic in its storytelling but it does have the perk of being free as episodes unlock after gaining tickets after a few hours away. While this game is meant to be choice-based, it honestly isn’t unless you want to put money into buying these crystals or gems that let you choose the other options. Your first choice comes free from the game but after that, its most probably the choice that doesn’t need extra investment that will hold the attention. It is a quick episode each time that averages around 7 minutes or so which makes it easy to take in while on the go.

Go Alien! – Baldev

Cute alien creatures will probably be what catches your eye when you first look at Go Alien! To be honest, I had given this one a shot when it first launched. Over the little while since I put it down and picked it back up, it has had an update (or more) which gave it a little more accuracy. The idea is quite simple as you propel a little alien creature through the level. There is a little moving marker that you have to press to move the distance while avoiding these other alien creatures floating about that could get in your way. It’s hard to tell at this point whether it lacks finesse and perhaps a few more updates should regulate the difficulty or at least strike a proper balance as they rearrange and improve the levels, although they do seem to be procedurally-generated. The positive behind it is that there is a variety of bat-like aliens that behave differently to give it different challenges and you do get to collect coins as you hop along the path. Is it particularly an enthralling and addictive experience? Not exactly my cup of tea as it’s a little bit too much dying and restarting for my own liking. Despite being a huge fan of Geometry Dash, the need for polish in this game is what holds back my enthusiasm.

That’s it for this month’s round-up! Did you discover any new mobile games? Share them in the comments below!