The Pocket Players

I’m going to get a lot of flack for saying this, but with the release of Sonic Dash for iOS, I feel Sonic the Hedgehog is officially washed up. Not to say that it’s is a bad game – on the contrary, it’s actually quite decent, but that’s about it: decent.

Sonic Dash is another endless runner with a few fun twists on the genre and pretty backgrounds. But it’s also a cheap cash-in on the popular character, like when an ‘80s movie star makes a cameo in an Old Navy commercial. Admittedly, endless running is a perfect a fit for Sonic’s style, but I can’t help but feel that this is one game that would have been better off as a higher quality pay title, rather than a micro-transaction one. [...]

© SCEA

Ecolibrium is weird game. Not the zany, adorable kind of weird I reserve for Japanese import games, I mean weird in that I don’t know what the makers were thinking when they made it. It has a cool and unique concept that could fill an important niche on the PS Vita, but a few confusing decisions throw the entire experience off track. [...]

© Electronic Arts

To the excitement of Simpsons fans everywhere, EA released The Simpsons Tapped Out on Android after already existing on iPhone and iPad for a while. The premise is relatively simple–Homer causes a meltdown and Springfield is wiped out. And lucky you! You’re around to rebuild it. It’s a pretty basic concept and very similar to any game akin to Farmville. As you level-up, you unlock members of The Simpsons family, other characters frequently featured on the show and buildings that fans will find familiar. [...]

SpellSword is a great time-killer that I have wasted a good many breaks on . This is your classic 8-bit, 2D hack and slash with random bits thrown into the mix and it’s available on Android (free) and iOS ($2.99).

Unlike most 2D games, this one does not have you racing through levels trying to rescue a princess or find a treasure chest. Instead, you play as a young hero who’s dropped into a confined area, says witty things, and then gets swarmed by all types of foul beasts. [...]

Amelie here, resurrected.

4 Pics 1 Word, annoyingly lacking a comma in the title, is a puzzle game released by LOTUM GmbH. The idea behind the game is very simple: you are given four pictures and you need to determine what they have in common. To narrow things down for you, the game provides you with twelve letters, and the word you have to come up with is somewhere amongst those letters.

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Kingdom Conquest II is one of those games that I play despite knowing better. The premise hooks you by weaving together city building, action, and real time strategy in a way that no other franchise on Android or iOS attempts. But every time I load it up, anxious to conquer another piece of territory, those immortal words of Admiral Akbar echo in my head, “It’s a trap!”

Don’t get me wrong, I’m happily addicted and plan to keep playing for a long time. But I have identified five traps (from experience) you can fall into that can turn this fun, rewarding F2P title into a miserable chore. [...]

Ayakashi Ghost Guild is an online CCG brought to us by the delightful people at Zynga Japan, the company best known for FarmVille. It’s a simple and visually pleasing card game that requires more than strong cards to win: some proper planning with a touch of deception is also key. Available on Android and iOS, AGG is a social game where you pit your 5 ‘Daemons’ against other players to win Silver, Sealstones, and notoriety. [...]

WakeUp Club is kind of an oddball app for the PS Vita, but I think it deserves a look merely for trying something I’ve never seen before. However, I can’t just review it like I would a game; I mean, you only get to use it for about a minute each day. So instead, I plan to report on my experience with this app over the course of a few weeks and see if there’s anything of interest slumbering inside this alarmingly simple free app. [...]