Home » Articles and Reviews by 'Christian Valentin'
Hidden Gem of the Week: Sproggiwood
Sproggiwood is a charming roguelike with accessible gameplay and tactical depth; a dark fate is destined to destroy the land and a forest spirit has tasked you with defeating this coming evil. You begin as a mere farmer, with a small village, but progression soon unlocks new classes to choose from, new buildings to place, and other inhabitants to expand your home (providing various buffs and support). Sproggiwood is not as obtuse or incredibly challenging as your typical roguelike, but accessibility doesn't mean Sproggiwood is easy. Armed with various weapons, special abilities, and armor, you face a plethora of enemies, each with their own unique quirks and attributes. Some charge at you…
AndroidFracter is a minimalist isometric puzzle adventure headed to iOS and Android
In a mysterious environment of glossy black architecture and glaring illuminations, a young woman explores and solves puzzles in the upcoming game Fracter, in development for iOS and Android. Controlling the young wanderer, it's your goal to navigate this shadowy labyrinthine structure and discover its secrets, solve puzzles along the way, and bring light to the darkness. With each new room, weird new technology found, and staircase descended, Fracter reveals new tricky new challenges and creepy imagery. Not much is known about the story, but glowing-eyed figures lurking in the darkness and crawling being scuttering in the shadows hint at a dark past to uncover. Fracter doesn't have a re…
Konami reveals Castlevania: Grimoire of Souls for iOS
The popular series Castlevania is headed to mobile this year, with the recently revealed Grimoire of Souls, a multiplayer-focused hack-n-slash action game. While the game will have single player set within the gothic halls of Dracula's castle, thos initial announcment focused on Grimoire of Souls' cooperative and competitive modes. Working together with fhree other players, groups of four face other teams in head-to-head combat, or join forces to defeat bosses in a challenge boss rush mode. The game will feature familiar characters such as Simon Belmont and Alucard, as well as a number of other original fighters. No trailer is available at the moment, but you can find mor…
Puzzle game Shadowmatic is receiving an eons-spanning expansion this Thursday
2015's Shadowmatic was an interesting puzzle game, that combined a calm pace and detailed graphics with a unique mechanic revolving around shadows and perspective. Three years later, the game is getting a hefty update with the new Other Worlds chapter, adding new levels later this week. Every stage in Shadowmatic follows the same premise: a collection of oddly shaped figures and structures, constructed from various materials, hang in the air, their shadows projected onto the wall of the room where the puzze is situated. By rotating the pieces and rotating their position in the air, you can combine their weird amorphous shadows into the silhouette of a familiar shape,…
A Steel Media round-up for the week of April 9th
Here’s another weekly round-up of news, previews, and features from Pocket Gamer, 148Apps, and the rest of our sister sites. On our Youtube page, James Gilmour reviewed the narrative adventure adaptation of the book The Pillars of the Earth, a complex historical tale that revolves the village of Kingsbridge, a construction of catherdral, and an intersecting cast of characters from various walks of life in the 12th century. Over on Pocket Gamer, Dave Aubrey offers tips and hints for the recent puzzler Vandals, from how to plan your movement across levels more effectively to which tools and abilities are most useful in certain situations. And finally, Campb…
The Banner Saga 3 is slated to release on mobile later this year
Stoic's Banner Saga series has been bringing its blend of Norse myth-inspired world and strategy RPG gameplay to mobile since 2014, treating players to a grand and desperate journey across two entries. Now the third and final Banner Saga is nearing release, with mobile ports confirmed for sometime in 2018. As a series, the Banner Saga games have revolved three key facets: the choice-driven dialogue during story moments, the caravan management where you try to keep your starving struggling group alive while reacting to random events and managing your hero units, and the turn-based combat revolving around positioning and skills. The past games have covered a grueling battle for survival bet…
It only takes two fingers to pull off tricks like a pro in Touchgrind BMX 2, out now on iOS
Illusion Lab's Touchgrind BMX was a unique arcade sports game for mobile, combining jumps and tricks with a control scheme designed to suit touchscreens. Seven years later, Touchgrind BMX 2 brings a whole array of new courses, improved graphics, and those classic dual-finger controls to iOS. Mechanically, Touchgrind BMX 2 will be familiar to fans of the first; placing two fingers on the handlebars and frame, you can guide your bicycle's turns and swipe to pull of various moves when you leap off ramps. Starting with a dirt course, the sequel's tracks soont take you to desert, forest, rooftop tracks and more, complete with a number of skill-testing challenges asking you to perform specifc t…
Construct the skyscraper of your dreams in building sim Project Highrise, now available on iOS
Inspired by the likes of SimTower, Project Highrise is a new building management game ported to mobile after a release on PC in 2016. Rather than a hospital, prison, or railway, here you're constructing towering skyscrapers, balancing design, money, and tenet needs to make a successful building. Starting at ground level, you must place elevators, offices, structures like generators and maintenance sectors, and decide what kind of highrise you want to design. A business office? An apartment building? A multi-level mall? A combination of those? You can't just consider the layout of your building, but also plan for the needs of the people living and working within; building a trash and…
Hidden Gem of the Week: A Dark Room / The Ensign
At a glance, you might expect A Dark Room to be another text adventure, and it certainly seems like one at the start. But don't be fooled by its mysteriously minimalist beginngin. A Dark Room is a gradually unfolding piece of game design, blending elements of interactive fiction, management, RPGs, and roguelikes in a unique experience. Starting with nothing but a campfire to keep aflame, A Dark Room soon introduces you to a stranger in the forest and from there, it begins to unfurl into something much grander. Your simple camfire grows into a village, and your simple UI morphs with additional choices to order newcomers to gather resources, go hunting, and so on. Soon your grow…
Atmospheric detective game Jenny LeClue receives new gameplay trailer, headed to mobile this year
The titular child detective and her mysterious atmosheric town has been teasing adventure game fans for years, and Jenny LeClue's latest PAX trailer reveals new gameplay and 2018 release timeframe for this upcoming detective game. In the small town of Arthurton, Jenny's mother is accused of murder, and it's up to you to uncover the truth. But as you dig deeper into the accusation, Jenny LeClue unfolds into a grander narrative touching elements of horror and science fiction, with your choices affected the outcome of the story. Exploring the town - from the graveyard to town square, police station to the surrounding woods, mines and weird bunkers - you meet new characters to question,…
The Mooseman brings a folklore-inspired adventure to iOS and Android next week
A skull-masked figure moving through a misty woods is perhaps The Mooseman's most striking imagery, in this unique story-driven game releasing for the App Store and Google Play on April 17th. As the titular figure, you wander a dark forest, shrouded in mist and shadow, looking beyond the veil into other realms. Inspired by Finnish folklore, your journey takes through the spirit world and other locations found deep within the woodlands, as you solve riddles, unlock abilities to reach the mysterious Upper World, and discover the secrets of the forest. The Mooseman's minimalistic aesthetic brings its otherworldly environments to life with vivid contrasts between the darkened woods and the g…
Friday the 13th: Killer Puzzle releases on Android this Friday
Slayaway Camp was a sliding block puzzler themed after the tropes of the slasher horror genre, featuring a masked killer and stylized gore as you figured how out to navigate tight maps. Now the developers are bringing a new horror movie-themed puzzle game to Android (and iOS worldwide, following an US release earlier this year) with Friday the 13th: Killer Puzzle. As you might guess by the title, Friday the 13th: Killer Puzzle is inspired by the classic movie series, featuring over a hundred puzzles with you in control of the hockey-masked Jason and hunting victims in locations around Camp Crystal Lake and beyond. Mechanically, you move Jason with swipes that slide his hul…
A Steel Media round-up for the week of April 2nd
Here’s another weekly round-up of news, previews, and features from Pocket Gamer, 148Apps, and the rest of our sister sites. On our Youtube page, James Gilmour goes hands-on with the puzzle platformer Paper Anne, where instead of leaping around the environment, you manipulate the environment itself. The video highlights the early levels and a number of the game's Wonderland-themed mechanics. Over on Pocket Gamer, Jessica Famularo previews the upcoming port of Killing Time At Lightspeed, a visual novel that explores a lonely and poignant sci-fi narrative about passengers on a spaceship traveling at lightspeed receiving and sending messages to Earth. Unfortunatel…
Sling Ming is a swinging sci-fi story-driven puzzler headed to iOS and Android
Exploring an alien planet looks to be a charmingly fun affair in the upcoming Sling Ming, an "on-rails" adventure following a brave traveler through the mysterious environments of another world by way of oxygen pipelines. Each of the game's fifty-plus stage is a gauntlet of enemies, hazards, and puzzle elements navigated by dragging nodes to alter your path, as your titular hero swings along the pipes; timing your movement between nodes with the arc of her swing is as important as where you place nodes, letting you collect coins or dodge projectiles with your back-and-forth motions. As the narrative moves from the sunny exteriors to the deadly caverns and alien ruins within, Sling Ming in…
Hang-glide with skill in colorful arcade game Ava Airborne, out now on iOS
Laser Dog has been releasing clever arcade games on the App Store since their 2013 debut Puk, and the hang-gliding Ava Airborne looks like a welcome addition to their library with its release on iOS. As the titular Ava, you ride the winds through a hazarous sky, weaving through hoops, around killer ballons and floating barriers, deadly windmills and lasers, among other obstacles. SImple controls allow you to loop and dive with ease, gaining altutude to rise above traps or diving to gain speed; as you master the controls, you're able to collect more point ballons and unlock special contraption customizations, ranging from bottle rockets to biplane wings, while friendly companions offer a a…
