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 turn-based strategy game.
Besides our review, PG covered the release with a bunch of beginner’s tips and a look at the game’s F2P structure. How much will you realistically need to pay during your time with Fire Emblem: Heroes? Does this affect the enjoyability of the game?
It’s a thorny topic with any big mobile game these days, so the PG team is hoping to make this ‘F2P Inspector’ feature a regular occurrence with major releases.
Super Mario Run on the bank
Sticking with Nintendo (it's having quite the 2017, and it’s only been a month), the week started with the news that the company’s first mobile game, Super Mario Run, had been downloaded a whopping 78 million times.
The bad news is that only around 5% of those 78 million actually splashed out for the full game. That’s just 4 million people, which is well short of the double-digit millions Nintendo was expecting.
We’ve still got the Android version of Super Mario Run to come, of course, so there’s still time for Nintendo’s slick autorunner to make a success of it.
Game of the week
Fire Emblem: Heroes might have been the biggest mobile game release of the week, but it certainly wasn’t the best. That title surely has to go to The Frostrune.
PG describes Grimnir Media’s beautiful game is a “mythological point-and-click puzzler made by true viking enthusiasts”. If that hasn’t sold you on its charms, we don’t know what will.
The production values are sky high, and the audio design truly excels. This is one atmospheric adventure game.
