The Weekender: Guns & Games Edition

We’re starting to get a bit inundated with interesting review projects again – we managed to cover off a few like Solar Settlers & Egypt: Old Kingdom this week, but there are more on the horizon and already out that we’ll try to keep on top off.

Generally it feels like it’s been a good month for releases, so hopefully it’s a trend that continues through to May.

Meanwhile, in mobile gaming…

Out Now

Zombicide: Tactics & Shotguns (iOS & Android) – Full Review Coming Soon!

Do you like board games? Do you like Zombies? Then it’s highly likely you’ve at least heard of, if not played, Zombicide. It’s been enjoying the fruits of several successive Kickstarters to release many seasons and spin-off physical games, and now it’s ready to take on digital platforms thanks to Asmodee Digital.

Tactics & Shotguns seems to have gone down the solitaire route for this game, with a 40 mission-long campaign that allows you to unlock up to four characters. It’s a shame, but then Zombicide’s co-op qualities could be considered fairly superficial, as there’s not as much about its design that demands more than one person run the team. Those looking for another way to play this game with friends via mobile devices will be disappointed, but if you need something to bide your time on a long-journey, this may fit the bill. The animation looks slick as least, and it seems to follow the rules quite closely.

There are also IAPs for additional scenarios/heroes.

Nomads of the Fallen Star (iOS & Android) – Full review coming soon!

Now this is something we can really sink our teeth into. This sci-fi fuelled cross between Mount & Blade & Battle Brothers seems like the perfect thing to whittle away those hours, from the same studio that brought us Star Nomad 2 a couple of years ago.

You are the leader of band of mercenaries/scavengers trying to eek out an existence in the harsh reality of a floundering colony, cut off from the rest of the galaxy. You’ve got to hire soldiers and do what needs to be done to survive, and reportedly there’s a very robust economic system that reacts to the player’s actions and decisions.

It seems like an excellent sandbox game for mobile, and we’ll bring you our full thoughts on the game as soon as we can.

Mini Gal4Xy (iOS & Android) – Full review coming soon!

Jerome Bodin gave us the rather excellent Frost back in 2016, and now he’s finally returned to the mobile stage with an altogether different proposition. Mini Galaxy is a ‘light’ 4X strategy game that offers some good, clean 4X fun. The systems are simple, yet robust, and the world is colourful and engaging enough to see you through to victory.

Every galaxy you spawn is procedurally generated, and this is meant to be a more accessible distillation of the genre, although it should offer enough for veterans to scratch that itch while they’re on the move.

The final game to catch our eye this week was The Monster Game, which is a card-based RPG that’s only on iOS but seemed interesting. There’s a danger it could be just like every other card/rpg game that’s released recently, but we’ll check it out when we can.

Updates

There’s not been many headline updates that we’ve seen, but Star Traders: Frontiers, Evolution: The Video Game and Stardew Valley have all had minor patches pushed out over the last week or so.

Last week will told you about the impending update for Star Traders involving carriers. At the time of writing, it hadn’t hit mobile yet, but in case you weren’t aware both iOS and Google Play versions of the game now have carriers, so enjoy!

Sales

As with updates, there’s nothing really that’s taken our fancy that stands-out – a couple of usual suspects are on sale again, but not at prices that are any better than what’s been done previously. If you see anything you feel should be added, let us know!

Enjoy your weekends!