Home » Articles and Reviews by 'Jon Mundy'
Last week on Pocket Gamer - 27th February
What’s going on in the world of portable gaming? That’s the very question we ask of our sister site PocketGamer every week. To PG’s credit, they’re normally kind enough to answer. When they’re not lost in a Nintendo Switch daydream, that is. Here are the hot topics that have been getting the PocketGamer mob excited over the past seven days or so. Ask PG anything about the Switch The Nintendo Switch console hits shops this Friday, but the PG team already has its unit courtesy of Nintendo. As such, the big feature last week was PG’s hands-on preview of the diminutive handheld-console hybrid. Should you be putting in a last-minute pre-order? In addition…
Last week on Pocket Gamer - 20th February
Each week we peer nosily over the fence of our neighbours at PocketGamer. It’s a handy way to catch up on what’s going on in the wider world of portable gaming. PG is as obsessed with mobile gaming as we are, you see, but it also incorporates handheld consoles. If you can play it on the bus, they’re there. Here are the hot topics that have been getting the PocketGamer mob excited over the past seven days or so. The first mobile remaster We’re used to seeing movies, albums, and even console games remastered. We learned last week that Gameloft will become the first developer to remaster a smartphone game. That game is everyone’s favourite mobile Halo-a-like F…
Last week on Pocket Gamer - 13th February
It’s that time of the week where we check in on what our friends and colleagues at PocketGamer have been up to over the past seven days. The PG team is as obsessed with mobile games as we are, but they also cast their eyes to the wider world of portable gaming. If it’s a video game that you can play on the bus, in bed, or whilst walking along the street, they’re on it. Here’s what’s been occupying the thoughts and gaming time of the PG crew over the past week. Best multiplayer games on Android From time to time PG will provided a chunky list of the best games in a particular genre. This week’s subject was a particularly interesting one, however: multip…
Last week on Pocket Gamer - 6th February
Welcome to our round-up of the hot topics from the past week over on our sister website, PocketGamer. It’s a chance to reflect upon the past seven days or so in the wider world of portable gaming. Having been going since 2006, we reckon that this is something PocketGamer is pretty much uniquely qualified to cover. Here’s what’s been occupying the thoughts and gaming time of the PG crew of late. Fire Emblem: Heroes Undoubtedly the biggest game release of the last week was Fire Emblem: Heroes. This is Nintendo’s second mobile game after the wonderful Super Mario Run, and while we didn’t find it to be quite as accomplished, it’s still a highly polished…
Last week on Pocket Gamer - 29th January
Welcome to our weekly round-up of the goings on over at our sister site, PocketGamer. Each week we take a brief look at the key trends, biggest stories, and most interesting games from the world of mobile and handheld gaming over the previous seven days - all as refracted through the inimitable PG prism. However, we should probably start this week’s round-up with something of a sheepish disclaimer… Steel Media conference The week got off to a slightly slow start on PG, and that might have something to do with the annual Steel Media meet-up that took place in London on Monday and Tuesday. There was mutual back patting. There was excited talk about future projects. There was…
Last week on Pocket Gamer
Anyone else finding that 2017 is taking a while to wake up? That certainly seems to have been the case in the world of mobile and portable gaming. Thank goodness, then, for Nintendo. The Kyoto gaming giant recently held an event that pretty much defined our week over on Pocket Gamer. For news on that and other things we’ve been covering on PG over the past seven days, read on. Switching up a gear As 2017 ticked around we were already talking about the Nintendo Switch. Friday’s full reveal of the exciting portable/console hybrid ensured that it became our main topic for conversation. While the general response to the launch was decidedly mixed, PG editor Glen offered a more…
Last week on Pocket Gamer
What’s your New Year’s Resolution? Drink less? Exercise more? Collect every last coloured coin on Super Mario Run? Noble goals one and all. Our resolution is to talk to our family more. By that we mean the wider Steel Media family, which includes the likes of 148Apps and PocketGamer. To kick this group hug of an initiative off, then, we’re going to be taking a weekly look at what’s going on over at our sister website, PocketGamer. Switching things up We’re all about apps on AppSpy - the clue is in the title - but over on PG the remit extends to any kind of portable gaming. Again, the title. Do try and keep up That explains why the website has been getting…
Stretch Dungeon is Nitrome's latest warped mobile gaming masterpiece
There's a new Nitrome game on the App Store and Google Play Store called Stretch Dungeon. No, we weren't expecting it either. Gotta love those Nitrome guys. Stretch Dungeon is a typical Nitrome effort. That is, it's intuitive, moreish, has a pixel-art style that's somehow completely distinctive, and has that little smidgen of something different that sets it apart from the crowd. At heart Stretch Dungeon is an endless dropper. Your put-upon bearded protagonist gets freed from his suspended cage at the top of a vast vertical dungeon, and it's up to you to guide his descent. This is where Nitrome supplies its glorious twist. Stretch goals Rather than controlling the protagonist himself, or…
Stretch DungeonWhy Pokemon GO is the perfect fit for the Apple Watch
Apple recently announced the new Apple Watch Series 2, and alongside it imminent support for Pokemon GO - pretty much the biggest mobile game ever. There may be some doubters out there, but we reckon it's a perfect fit for the smartwatch form factor. But wait - gaming on an Apple Watch? That's a bit of a bad idea, isn't it? If you're talking about traditional concepts of gaming - and even smartphone gaming - then we wouldn't argue with you. The Apple Watch Series 2 is going to be pretty much identical to the first Apple Watch externally, which means it has the same tiny 1.65-inch display. The CPU is an improvement - it's dual-core and 50 percent faster - but still can't offer anything like…
Sushi Go is the tastiest iOS card game we've played in ages
Sushi Go has just hit the App Store, and it's one of the most compelling card games we've played on iOS since Card Crawl. Not that you'd necessarily suspect as much by looking at the screenshots. It looks like a cutesy casual management game, right? We can understand the misapprehension. In actual fact, Sushi Go is a faithful conversion of a real and much beloved physical card game from Phil Walker-Harding. The idea is to assemble hands from a deck of sushi-themed cards that gets passed between two to five AI or human-controlled players. Counting the calories Each tasty morsel of Japanese cuisine has its own unique value and scoring potential. For example, maki rolls aren't worth anythin…
Mario comes to iOS - 5 more Nintendo franchises that could get the iPhone treatment
Well, who would have thought it? Mario is getting his very own iOS game. Which leads us to thinking about all the wonderful Nintendo IP that could be put to use on iPhone and iPad. Many of us never thought we'd see the day that Nintendo makes a Mario game for another platform, but mark it in your diary. September 7th 2016 might be the day that Apple announced the iPhone 7, but we suspect it will go down in history as the day that Miyamoto (Mr Nintendo himself) cropped up at said event and announced Super Mario Run. This is no crass conversion of a Nintendo 3DS game. Nintendo is far too proud and considered for that. Rather, it's an original game made with the mobile format in mind. To put…
One More Jump and 5 more warped iOS platformers
One More Jump is out now on the App Store, providing a brashly brutal twist on the classic platformer template. The action is flipped 90 degrees, so your little square character is running (sliding?) up the screen rather than from left to right. Also, each configuration of platforms is a self-contained world, so jumping off the edge will bring you around to the other side. It's a pretty mind-warping take on the platformer, and it's not alone on the App Store. Here are five more warped iOS platformers that don't play by the rules set forth by Mario, Sonic and co. Gunbrick We're used to our platform characters being living creatures of some kind, or at least some kind of entity with a na…
The 6 iOS games you should download for your new iPhone 7
Apple is announcing the iPhone 7 later today. Inevitably, it'll feature a faster processor and better GPU than the one you'll find in the already pretty speedy iPhone 6S. It's also set to have a more vibrant display, and will probably have a refined 3D Touch input system, making the display even more sensitive to pressure. All of which means, of course, that it'll be absolutely brilliant for games. These six examples should be among the first things you download for the iPhone 7 when it hits shops later in the month. Warhammer 40,000: Freeblade Warhammer 40,000: Freeblade is a decent-but-dumb on-rails shooter set in the humourless Warhammer 4K universe. So why include it on this list?…
Noodles was one of 2015's most blissful iOS puzzlers - and it's now free
Noodles is Apple's Free App of the Week, making right now the perfect time to try out one of the most moreish puzzlers of 2015 - if you haven't already. The game belongs to a growing list of polished, gentle puzzlers that place the player into an almost zen-like state. There's no frantic rush to solve each of its puzzles, and simply interacting with its components is a tactile joy. Noodling around Your goal in Noodles is to link up a series of pipe pieces by rotating them in place. If you've ever played Pipe Mania (also known as Pipe Dream), or even the hacking mini-game in Bioshock, you'll be right at home with the concept. There's no pressing time constraint here though - no rush of wa…
Lumines: Puzzle & Music and 5 more top console to iOS conversions
Lumines: Puzzle & Music is out now on iOS, and it serves as a timely reminder of what a truly great block-dropping puzzle game this was when it first dropped on PSP way back in 2004. The concept is simple - form large areas of colour by rotating and shifting four-block clumps, with each block conforming to one of two colours. As this is happening, a timeline sweeps along the bottom of the screen according to the techno track playing in the background, granting you precious time to assemble larger combos before they are cleared. This is undoubtedly the best mobile version of Lumines yet, which got us to thinking about other top notch console to iOS conversions. Whether they involved a…
