Not Necessarily The Mobile Games News: Space Hulk Ascension, Battle Academy 2, and Below

Beam me down.

Yesterday was positively turgid with game announcements that many readers (quite rightly) blew up my inbox about. All three of these games — Space Hulk Ascension, Battle Academy 2, and Below — would be entirely welcome on tablets and mobile devices, and in some cases it would be downright surprising if they weren’t coming to touchscreens.

After the break, (mostly) definitive answers about if and when to expect this trifecta on your iPad.

Space Hulk: Ascension

Danish devs Full Control announced that standalone Space Hulk expansion Ascension is incoming – chock full of customisation and RPG elements whose absence from the iPad version I bemoaned last year. Your squads in Ascension will be persistent from mission to mission, levelling up and accessorising with looted tchotchkes and learning that the power was inside them all along. Heartwarming and exactly the kick in the codpiece that Space Hulk for iPad needed.

But. Yesterday’s reveal said that Ascension was coming to Steam in Q4… and not a peep was said about iPad. I contacted Full Control commandante Thomas Lund and asked if Ascension would be making its way to mobile as well.

“Unfortunately no,” Lund told us. “The light that we use to explore and discover the levels requires heavy use of dynamic light. And that’s simply not mobile-friendly hardware wise. For Space Hulk we could bake the light – but that’s impossible for how we use it in Ascension.”

So there you have it: the reason you’re not getting more Space Hulk on your iPad is the accursed light. If you’re a vampire, this must be doubly frustrating for you.

Mobile Status: Exterminatus

Battle Academy 2

Yesterday Slitherine revealed that the sequel to Battle Academy — one of best iOS wargames of all time — was imminent. We’ve been waiting for Battle Academy 2 since November of 2012, and it will finally launch for PC on September 12th, said yesterday’s press release.

But what about iPad? The tablet version of BA2 is absolutely still coming, Slitherine tells me, but rather like they’re doing with Buzz Aldrin’s Space Program Manager, the mobile version will launch a little behind the PC version to benefit from some more time in the oven. How long after? No one knows, but it’s definitely coming this year, I’m told.

Mobile Status: Mobilizing for deployment

You forgot to pay the toll, comrade.

Below

While not strictly speaking a Super Brothers project (there’s a whole dev blog post that addresses this in excruciating detail), the strikingly beautiful Below is being assembled by some of the folks who were part of the Super Brothers team that created iOS instant classic Sword & Sworcery EP. Surely then, it’s only logical to assume that fantasy adventure Below will see an iOS release as well?

Not all that logical, sadly. Microsoft is publishing Below, which is to say that they’re footing part of the bill (if not all of the bill) to build it. The game will be launching on Steam and on Xbox One whenever it’s done — and Microsoft are probably not too eager to drop a big-name title onto the App Store while they’re still doing CPR on Microsoft Surface.

Mobile Status: Hidden in the moon grotto