Out Now: Barbarians, Buccaneers & Ballplayers Edition

Another good week for new games is drawing to a close, capping off one of the better mobile-gaming months in recent memory. This week brought us a bounty of puzzles, boardgames, action adventures, turn-based combat, and big-time strategy games. If you can't find anything you like in this batch of games you're just not trying hard enough! 

Buccaneers, Bounty & Boom (iOS and Android)

Arrrrrr, who be strong enough to defeat their foes and claim the title of Pirate King? That question lurks at the bottom of Buccaneers, Bounty & Boom, a new multiplayer, turn-based __game of pirate-on-pirate battle from the creators of Neptune's Pride.  Yes, the people who brought you weeks-long games of alliances, backstabbing, and betrayal—and inspired the creators of Subterfuge—are back with a new offering. Buccaneers, Bounty & Boom is faster paced, or can be, thanks to the ability to set turn deadlines as low as two minutes. It is a simultaneous turn-based system where all players submit their orders and then watch as pirate ships explore and attack all over the place. The __game is free-to-play though some features require a $12 IAP to unlock, very similar to Subterfuge's monetization strategy.

Meganoid 2017 (iOS and Android)

Also out now is a new Meganoid 2017 game, the latest in a series from Orangepixel that are heavily influenced by arcade games of the 80s and 90s. It’s a side-scrolling action game with a number of roguelike flourishes including randomly generated levels and the inability to escape the icy grip of death to keep on playing. You die, you start over. Meganoid 2017 is also hard. Very hard. You get three life and that’s it. You’ll go through them quickly and die a great deal on the way to figuring out the ins and outs of this one and you will not be coddled. The game, like its predecessors, very intentionally features old-school pixel-art graphics and if retro-arcade action is your thing, Meganoid 2017 is likely right up your alley. 

Commands & Colors: The Great War (iPad)

The Great War, Richard Borg's award-winning boardgame based on WWI, made the jump to Steam early this year and is out now on iPad as well. It's a turn-based strategy game that does a pretty good job emulating the give-and-take and nonstop attrition of WWI trench warfare as you take command of many of the war's famous battles. The game has a ton of rules, high complexity, a steep learning curve, and little in the way of a tutorial. It's definitely a game that will take a lot of time to really fully understand and to get fully invested most gamers should expect to seek additional information online. The Great War is a bit thick for me, but those in favor of deep, complex, warfare-based games may find this one a good fit for their tastes. Full Review Coming Soon! 

Kami 2 (iOS)

KAMI, by State of Play Games, is one of my favorite puzzle games. Its simple gameplay holds just the right amount of challenge to feel calming yet give your brain a reasonable workout. Your goal is to digitally fold colored paper across intricate designs with the goal of reaching uniformity of color in as few moves as possible. Kami 2 is out now for iOS with over one-hundred new levels. The gameplay is what you'd expect in a sequel with a few twists to discover that make things fresh. There's also a global daily-challenge mode this time around along with a Puzzle Builder where you can design and share your own puzzles. Kami 2 also has some nice quality-of-life features including color-blind mode and a low-power mode. The game is free-to-play with no ads or other annoying freemium mechanics. There are IAPs for hints, however, but the game isn't in your face about it. This is definitely worth your time if you dig puzzle games. 

Militia (iOS and Android)

If you're looking for more turn-based tactics in your life Militia, a minimalist tactical combat game, has you covered. In Militia your goal is to direct your team of units to clear successive levels of ruffians by defeating their captains (indicated by a star) in a certain number of moves before reinforcements arrive. Each of your units has a unique move and attack pattern—walk and cleave, leap and stab, ranged blast, etc.—as do enemy units. The key to success becomes figuring out where to move to get and not be gotten by the bad guys. Oh yeah, and friendly fire is very much turned on, so it is best not to whack your own guys…not a good strategy. As you clear levels your rank increases, which brings forth more challenging foes and scenarios. Militia has both a light, and more difficult dark mode, and is worth a look if you're looking for a minimalistic tactical combat game. 

RBI Baseball 17 (iOS)

Forget about "take me out to the ballgame", RBI Baseball 17 once again lets you take the ballgame to you. The game's mobile and console versions launched on the same day this week and features pretty much the same gameplay as the 2016 version, with updated rosters for all teams. Both pitching and batting are pretty easy, certainly compared to other sports games that can get quite complex, and you can get through a full game in under 20 minutes (quite a time savings from a real baseball game). Baseball is known for stats and RBI tracks and updates them throughout your season. You can fully geek out on all the metrics and use them to manage your team. 

Erin: The Last Aos Si (iOS and Android)

Turn-based tactical combat, light RPG elements, and pixel-art graphics combine in Erin: The Last Aos Si. In it you play as Erin, a sorceress on a quest to defeat Balor, The God of Blight in order to save the world from destruction. The story is based heavily on Celtic mythology and set in Scotland, which is pretty cool in its own right. Add to that some intriguing combat twists and we've got a bit of a game on our hands. Twist one is that battle occurs on a combat timeline in which you select a spell, prepare that spell, and then cast it. If you are hit while casting you lose concentration and the spell will fizzle. Spells have different casting times and creatures have varying weaknesses, so deciding what to cast is an interesting tactical puzzle.

Twist two is that the efficacy of your spells are based on timing—you touch or swipe the screen to cast them and your accuracy makes a big difference. As you adventure through the world and defeat the dozens of different kinds of beasts you encounter—which you can identify and log in your bestiary—you'll gain XP, levels, and access to new spells. Your spell book will fill up with powers of the elements and you'll acquire new and powerful magic items along your journey. As this happens, your in-combat options will grow considerably just in time to face cleverer beasts and challenging bosses. Erin: The Last Aos Si is free to try and is fully unlocked through a donation IAP where you can pay whatever you think the game is worth. Just one more unique idea in a game full of them. Erin is well worth a try if you're a fan of tactical combat and light RPGs. 

Rome Total War: Barbarian Invasion (iPad)

Follow up to the excellent iPad edition of Rome: Total War, Barbarian Invasion takes place three-hundred years after the original. The Roman Empire's reach has finally exceeded its and has split in two, ostensibly allied, sections. Meanwhile the warlike tribes long held at bay on the edges of the empire are increasingly emboldened by what they view as the waning of its power. You get to play on either side—the Eastern or Western Roman Empire, or one of several barbarian tribes including the Huns, Goths, Franks, Vandals, and Saxons.

All of the factions have their advantages and disadvantages and I find myself compelled to campaign with each, a good sign regarding replay value. Gameplay is pretty much identical to Rome: Total War—which means very good with excellent graphics—though some trappings of the game have changed, including religion, which now has a big effect on the happiness of your populace. One thing to be aware of is that once you download the game you're faced with additional downloads for English language support (for the in-game help) and audio. These take some time so work it into your expectations if you're raring to get in and conquering. Skipping these is a nice option for those who want to keep a slimmer footprint on an already crowded iPad storage drive. A full review is coming soon, but it is safe to assume if you liked the original you'll be happy with Barbarian Invasion as well.

That's all for this week's edition of Out Now - seen any other games you think people should take note of? Played any of the above? Let us know in the comments below! If you'd like your game featured in a future edition, please get in contact with us. Have a good weekend!

PT Guides: Faeria 101 - Deck-Building & Themes

Welcome back to the short strategy series, Faeria 101! Last week, we talked about how to best use the board to your advantage. Today, we’re here to talk about deck building. Specifically, building around a theme. Themes in card games can take on a few different faces, but today we'll be focusing around a few basic keywords that provide benefits and opportunities for combos.

Your Theme Is Your Strength

Faeria has a wide array of cards, and it can be hard to know where to start when you want to build a new deck. The __game provides some useful templates that can be unlocked by advancing in solo mode, but what do you do if you haven’t gotten those cards? What if you want to build your own deck from scratch?

The most important thing to remember when building a deck is your theme. Sure, you can throw all of the most powerful cards you opened into a deck and play that, but chances are you can have a stronger deck if all your cards are working toward the same goal, supporting each other.

There are a lot of different themes you can build around, but today I want to concentrate on some of the more obvious themes—and the key cards within them—you can build around. As you improve within the game, you can discover some of the more complex and trickier to play themes. Remember, complex doesn’t always mean better.

Last Words/Gift

This deck takes advantage of the keyword mechanics Last Words and Gift on cheap creatures that are then sacrificed to other effects to quickly gain an advantage over the opponent, usually by creating giant creatures to replace those that died. The strongest colours for this deck is probably green and yellow, but there are a few cards in blue (gain mana/transform creatures) and red (deal damage) that can work in the theme. No matter how you choose to build it, I’d strongly recommend green as a starting point since it has the most creatures for this theme.

Game Plan: Play cards like Voice of Hunger, Death Walker, and Shaytan Assassin to sacrifice cheap creatures like Elderwood Hermit or Bloomsprite to gain an advantage. If that doesn’t win the game, a late Soul Eater or Spirit of Rebirth should finish the job.

Green cards to consider:
Feed the Forest
Voice of Hunger
Soul Eater
Eredon, Voice of All
Bloomsprite
Elderwood Hermit
Spirit of Rebirth
Any Tiki card

Yellow cards to consider:
Demon Wrangler
Death Walker
Shaytan Assassin

Red cards to consider:
Bomb Slinger
Blazing Salamander

Blue cards to consider:
Failed Experiment
Stormspawn
Aurora, Myth Maker
Spring Mochi

Neutral cards to consider:
Village Elder
Plague Bearer

This is a sacrifice deck supported with blue. Here’s a competitive green and yellow deck.

Combat

This deck takes advantage of the keyword mechanic Combat on creatures—as well as other creatures that give you a bonus when attacking—to gain an advantage over the opponent. This deck has multiple variations, but the strongest is probably an aggressive yellow and red deck. Blue has very little to offer this type of deck. I’ve included a few cards that could help, but you’re better off skipping it altogether. Green doesn’t have a lot to add in terms of actual combat abilities, but is a great addition if you want to boost your creature’s health to keep them alive.

Game Plan: Play lots of creatures with combat abilities, keep them alive for as long as possible, and use their abilities to slowly beat down your opponent. The more times your creatures can attack, the better off you are.

Green cards to consider:
Ruunin’s Messenger
Any card that boosts your creatures’ health

Yellow cards to consider:
Khalim, Sky Prodigy
Zealous Crusader
Oradrim Sagittarius
Oradrim Monk
Flash Wind

Red cards to consider:
Gift of Steel
Herald of War
Underground Brigand
Flame Thrower
Grim Guard
Seifer, Blood Tyrant
Scourgeflame Specter

Blue cards to consider:
Aurora, Myth Maker
Frogify

Neutral cards to consider:
King’s Guard
Tax Collector

This is a basic aggressive red combat deck, and here’s a powerful red and yellow version.

Ramp

This deck attempts to get additional special lands and mana via spells and creatures before laying down powerful creatures to finish the game. This is most powerful as a green and blue deck, but replacing blue with yellow will allow you to build a more aggressive version of the theme. Red has some great cards to help finish the game, but little to help you get extra lands or mana.

Game Plan: Play early spells that create special lands, then play a game-ending creature.

Green cards to consider:
Primeval Colossus
Apex Predator
Oak Father
Seed Sower
Wood Elemental
Wild Growth
Earthcraft

Yellow cards to consider:
Khalim’s Prayer
Soul Pact
Oradrim Sagittarius
Lord of the Wastes
Azarai, Wrath of the Desert

Red cards to consider:
Crackthorn Beast
Garudan, Heart of the Mountain
Hellfire
Fire Elemental

Blue cards to consider:
Forbidden Library
Spring Mochi
Water Elemental
Windfall

Neutral cards to consider:
Cartographer
Magda, Queen of Meroval

This is a basic green and blue version of a ramp deck. Here’s a crazy version utilising Three Wishes.

These are three themes you can build around and find reasonable success with, although there are many others with slightly more complex combos that I’ve also seen do well. Don’t be afraid to experiment; just remember the more your cards work together, the stronger your deck can be!

Got any other decklists or keyword combos you want to share? Let us know in the comments below! The final article in this initial series will launch same time next - please do give us your feedback on these articles, as it helps us determine what direction we go with things like this.

Review: The Elder Scrolls: Legends

You can never have too many collectible-card games, right? Ok, no…that's not right. The CCG market may be huge but it won't support every __game that comes in search of a piece of the pie. It is accurate, however, to say that you can never have too many quality CCGs. Not everybody likes Hearthstone, after all, and it is good to have alternatives. The Elder Scrolls: Legends recently launched on PC and iPad—with releases for Mac, Android tablets, and phones on the way—and aims to be that alternative. It has a lot going for it. Legends is set in a known universe and filled with characters and places that will be familiar to fans of games like Morrowind, Oblivion, and Skyrim. It's backed by Bethesda, a top-tier gaming company, and developed by Dire Wolf Digital makers of the Eternal card __game and home to esteemed Magic: The Gathering player, hall-of-famer, streamer, and personality Luis Scott-Vargas.

The Elder Scrolls: Legends, like most CCGs, is free-to-play and as such this is going to be less of your standard game review. You can easily try it and get some quick impressions that will doubtlessly be more valuable to you than anything I can say here. Instead, my intent is to cover what differentiates Legends from its competition and therefore makes it worth your time to try, how viable it is to play without paying, and what it takes to get to a reasonably competitive deck.

What’s Different

If it ain't broke, don't fix it. That must have been a mantra bandied about by Bethesda and Dire Wolf when designing The Elder Scrolls: Legends. The game feels a lot like playing Magic: The Gathering, more so than Hearthstone and certainly more than Faeria, and this is a good thing. Legends has the same "hey this is cool" factor that has sucked so many people into Magic over the decades. You'd play half a game of Magic and be hooked and out buying packs at your local game store the next day. It appealed to casual players who could throw together a deck to have fun right up through the super competitive crowd who like to tune decks based on metagame trends and revel in identifying and executing the correct line of play in any situation. Legends has all of this going for it as well.

Unlike Magic, however, Legends was designed for digital and is not burdened by the stack, passing priority, or tying digital cards to paper ones. It is a much smoother digital experience. It differentiates itself from Hearthstone, the king of the digital CCG world, in several important ways as well. First, the battlefield is split into two lanes. When you cast creatures, and some other spells, you must pick a lane. Creatures can only attack foes in their own lane. Adding to this, the right lane is called the "shadow" lane. Creatures cast there cannot be attacked by opposing creatures for one turn, though they can be the target of spells and creature-based abilities. So if you have a creature you'd really like to survive until your next turn, the shadow lane is your best bet. Overall, the double-lane battlefield creates a layer of decision making that is fun and compelling without bogging the game down in unnecessary complexity. It adds a lot more to the game than I expected going in.

Another difference is life-loss milestones, called runes, and prophecy cards. In Legends you start with thirty life. Every five life you lose (so at 25, 20, 15, 10, and 5 life) a rune shatters and you draw a card. If that card has the "Prophecy" keyword you can play it for free. This is huge. Not only do you gain cards to help dig yourself out of what is likely a bad board state, but you also might get to play those cards instantly and for free. It cuts the other way as well, if you're in the lead pulling a strong Prophecy card can be the nail in the coffin. There are a great many cards you'd love to see come up as a Prophecy. Cast Out lets you unsummon a creature (ideally a big expensive one that hasn't attacked yet), Lightning Bolt deals 4 damage (I've won games targeting my opponent off of a prophetic bolt), Healing Potion allows you to gain 5 health, Piercing Javelin destroys a creature, Ransack deals 3 damage and gains you 3 health, and Midnight Sweep summons a creature with Guard into each lane (you must attack creatures with Guard, same as Taunt in Hearthstone). As you can no doubt tell, runes are a major tactical component of the game and gives rise to many interesting tactical and deck building considerations.

A third big difference from Hearthstone is the minimum constructed deck size of fifty cards. This is much closer to the sixty cards of Magic than the thirty of Hearthstone and opens up some more interesting deck design space. In Hearthstone decks looking to be consistent will often just figure out the best ten playsets of cards to include, legendary singletons notwithstanding, but in Legends there's an opportunity to include several more playsets and therefore pursue different themes. Cards are organized into attributes—Agility, Endurance, Intelligence, Strength, and Willpower—rather than color and each attribute has its own identity. Intelligence features a lot of direct damage and favors trickery over brute force, for example, and Endurance cards are meant to build up your mana reserves, while Strength features creatures that hit for a ton but are relatively easy to kill. When you build a deck you pick a class, which is able to use two attributes. A Mage is Intelligence and Willpower and an Archer is Agility and Strength, for example. Calling them classes sounds like Hearthstone but it plays out much like the Magic color wheel without being a direct copy of it. The attributes and classes support a lot of different playstyles and provide lots of deck building opportunities despite what is still a relatively small card pool.

The Freemium Path

Time to address the usual free-to-play CCG question: "Can I play for free or is the game pay-to-win?" Short answer is that you can play for free and reliably build up a collection. As with any CCG, it's a matter of patience. Playing through the tutorial and finishing up Story mode provides a bunch of cards and other rewards to get you started. You level up as you go and leveling provides cards, gold, and other goodies throughout your time in the game.

Elder Scrolls: Legends also has the usual daily quest feature, worth 40 to 50 gold each. A pack is 100 gold so you can earn one pack every couple days from questing alone. Quests can be fulfilled in either Play mode (casual or competitive games against other players) or the Arena draft (both solo and against other players). Most are not focused on winning, but things like playing creatures, equipping items, and the like. This makes it possible to complete them even with less competitive decks. Taking on other players in Play mode also yields 15-35 gold and a card (with a slight chance at scoring a pack) for every three victories which can speed up the pack-acquisition rate.

Legends also awards soul gems (dust) for playing against the AI in Practice mode. There are three levels of difficulty that earn an increasing amount of gems per victory: Novice (5), Adept (10), and Expert (15). It sounds like you can earn up to 300 gems a day this way, though I didn't grind that much to confirm. To put that in context, a common card costs 50 gems to craft, rares are 100, epics are 400, and legendary cards cost 1200 gems to craft. It's a slow-and-steady route to be sure, but Practice mode is also a good way to quickly test and tune new decks.

Last but not least is Arena play. Arena is Legends' draft mode and comes in both solo (AI) and versus (other players) mode. In solo arena you must play and defeat eight AI opponents before facing a boss. In versus arena you play seven human opponents. In both cases you continue until you've won nine or seven games or accrue three losses. It costs 150 gold to enter the Arena and prizes scale based number of wins. If you get to seven or nine you'll earn around 150 gold (so your entry back), three packs, and a rare or better card. Two wins, on the other hand, is worth 50 gold, one pack, and a rare—roughly breaking even. If you are good at drafting this is a really good way to build a collection quickly.

If you're willing to do some grinding you can expect to earn anywhere from several packs a day (assuming you are good at drafting and have the time to play that many matches) to a pack every two to three days. The alternative method, of course, is to just buy packs. There are a couple decent deals as well, including a one-time get-you-hooked package of ten packs and some other cosmetic stuff for $5.

Picking Up Playsets

The next question for any CCG is "What does it take to be competitive?" At this point, I have opened thirty-five packs. According to Legends' collection tracking metric that is 54% of the game's Core Set (and only set to date). That's just single cards, however. As any CCG veteran can tell you playsets, in this case three of a card, drive consistency and consistency is what separates good decks from mere collections of cards that sometimes get you the win. Here's where I'm at with playsets:

For commons I included cards where I had two copies because it is relatively cheap to craft a common and I wouldn't think twice about completing a set if needed. I do have two copies of another 33% of the rares, but crafting one requires 100 soul gems—a good chunk of my total—so I did not count these as having a playset. For legendary cards I assumed having one was a playset, although this is only true for unique legends—there are many where you can play more than one copy in a deck.

As you can see, I have just over half the cards but only 27% are playsets…what does that mean in terms of viability? I experimented with a great many deck classes and ended up gravitating more toward classes with Intelligence and Willpower—two attributes with solid common removal cards. The fifty card deck limit, rather than the thirty you find in Hearthstone, opens up deck-design territory but makes it harder to field a consistent deck with a limited card collection. My decks either used playsets of common and some rare cards or made due with groupings of similar cards—two mana creatures with roughly the same stats that can defend early or five-to-six mana mid-game threats, for example.

I found these decks to be decent but not great. They were able to beat the Practice mode AI on novice and adept difficulties regularly but struggled at times on expert where the decks are stacked with playsets of strong rare, epic, and legendary cards. Facing other players offered mixed results. Against other newer players with similar collections I was able to hold my own and then some. But when I ran into a player who clearly ran sets of epics and many legendary cards I would get run over.

The bottom line is that 35 packs just doesn't do it. In every single deck I've built I long for more of the cards that work well and better cards to replace the ones that are sub-optimal. This is a familiar sensation, because, of course, it is also very much like Magic: The Gathering and Hearthstone. My guess is that another 25 to 30 packs and associated crafting would be enough to get the right playsets to build in consistency and effectiveness in a some decks, especially if you were to focus on a few of your favorite attributes.

All the Platforms

As I mentioned earlier The Elder Scrolls: Legends has launched on PC and iPad and is slated to arrive on Android Tablets in April, Mac OS in May, and on Mobile Phones in early summer. This is significant because not all CCGs have opted to support phones due to the difficulty in providing a quality experience on a smaller screen, among other reasons. It's pretty unlikely I'll play many Legends games on a phone, no matter how well the app is designed, but I do like the option to build or tweak a deck while I have a few minutes somewhere. I'd also wager grinding out gems in Practice mode on a phone will be more than doable.

I've played extensively on both the PC and iPad versions of the game and am very happy with both. I haven't run into any bugs or even annoying UI decisions, which is saying a lot. The iPad app is very good and has all the same functionality as the PC version. Legends looks and plays great on my iPad Pro, and unlike Faeria and even Hearthstone, I prefer it to the PC version.

The Verdict

There is a good freemium path in Legends. It isn't quite as easy to build up your collection as it is in Faeria, but it does feel easier than in Hearthstone, especially if you are good at drafting in the Arena and are willing to grind out some games in Practice mode. I estimate that once you get to the 60 to 70 pack range you should have the card collection necessary to field some strong, consistent, and competitive decks. What's more, I really like the game, how similarly it plays to Magic, and how it differentiates itself from Hearthstone and other digital CCGs through lanes, runes, deck size, and attributes. If you like Magic: The Gathering and are looking for an alternative to Hearthstone, The Elder Scrolls: Legends is definitely where I'd put my time and money.

Review: Tokaido

Five years after Tokaido’s original release, its digital analogue is finally here. This __game was designed by Antoine Bauza, of Ghost Stories, Hanabi, and 7 Wonders fame. The game’s namesake and setting both come directly from the fabled road leading from Kyoto to Edo (modern-day Tokyo). Anywhere from three to five travellers brave the four-day journey on Tokaido, represented in-game as a linear path with six different location types. As both the game’s paper rulebook and app tutorial have rather ornately put it, the players “will pass through magnificent countryside, taste delicious specialties, purchase souvenirs, benefit from the virtues of hot springs, and have unforgettable encounters”.

Players move along Tokaido, stopping each turn at various spaces that represent the enriching experiences while keeping a close eye on their dwindling coins. Three inns along the way will offer them a meal. More to the point, the travellers collect and score points in a variety of categories mainly involving set collection. First, each player is dealt two of the ten possible travellers, each representing a unique player power. To offset the varying utility of their asymmetrical abilities, travellers also have different amounts of starting coins. Players pick one of the two travellers and the initial turn order is decided randomly.

Each turn, the furthest back player moves forward to a space of their choosing. Farms (yellow) give three coins; Panoramas (green, white, and dark blue) offer sketches of an idyllic scene that scores increasingly greater points as it nears completion. The first part of a sketch is worth 1 point, the second 2, the third 3 and so on. Each colored panorama space represents a different scene (rice paddy, mountain, ocean). Temples (red) allow players donate one through three coins to the shrine, yielding as many points right away. At the end of the game, players are ranked by the generosity of their donations, scoring a bonus 10-7-4-2 points in order of largesse, with friendly ties. Villages (black) sell three Souvenirs, each priced anywhere from 1 to 3 coins. Souvenirs come in four varieties: foodstuffs, small objects, clothing, and art. Each set of souvenirs scores depending on its diversity. The first type is worth 1 point, the second 3, the third 5 and the final one 7 points. Hot Springs (light blue) give either two or three points. Encounters (pink) usher players towards a chance meeting with a random benefactor, providing one of several beneficial effects. Inns break up the __game into fourths, with one at the end of each quarter of the game. There, players buy a dish, priced 1 to 3 coins and worth 6 points. Once everyone reaches the final space, bonus points are awarded for various achievements and the aforementioned temple contributions. Highest scorer wins.

As you might have guessed from slogging through my slavish description of the rules, almost anything you do nets you points. It’s a bit like sitting in the audience for a taping of Oprah or Ellen that way. The game presents a few tactical decisions over an average playtime of twenty-five minutes, with a dash of randomness to keep things interesting. Money is always tight, and the final scores are always close. Despite this, the game is neither very cutthroat nor demanding. Its limitations for clever play are not necessarily a drawback so long as you have healthy expectations for what the game is, and can provide. The boardgame is a solid light gateway game, and the app reproduces many of its original virtues along with some new advantages.

It’s impossible to give a full evaluation of Tokaido without at least nominally praising its looks. Tokaido is a game with presence and restraint. A virtual sea of white surrounds anywhere you look. The frames which actually contain colors show them to be relatively placid. The shapes are soft and rounded, the animations cutesy. There are no edges or borders. Fortunately, these aesthetic choices dovetail nicely with the game’s mechanical and thematic trappings. Characters are, well, full of character as they putter across the screen, giving a little bow after each move, for example. And the locations you visit look piquant and inviting, from the trio of hogs romping across a farm space, the furoshiki and konpeito for sale in the village spaces, to the baboons soaking in the thermal springs.

Best of all, the app presents and collates its dry information in a clean, accessible way. Clicking on another player’s portrait pulls up a summary of their collection, breaking down points by general categories and the specific items therein. In short, the app succeeds in presenting Tokaido as a journey because it devotes so much space to the road and its characters. It does this without giving the game short shrift, too, by niftily tucking away and compressing the necessary dry game tidbits. This follows the trend of other digital game adaptations like Sushi Go or Patchwork by prioritizing a sense of place and presence over literal reproduction of analogue tokens, dice, or cards. Tokaido was a golden opportunity for such streamlining, which makes the flaws of its implementation harder to bear. It nailed the big stuff but is lessened by a few bugs and the omission of some must-have features.

First among these faults is the lack of any kind of save feature. I can forgive the app for being memory-intensive; pretty hurts, after all, so when my processor runs a little hot on my lap I just pretend it is a miniaturized kotatsu. What I can’t forgive is how exiting an in-progress game for more than a few seconds means abandoning it entirely.

This cardinal flaw is exacerbated by the game’s second misstep. While the AI provides a decent challenge, there is no way to speed up or eliminate the animations. So the bulk of time spent during the game is unavoidably concerned with watching the models walk. If you’re in a scenic mood or want to check another player’s scorecard, then fine, but there is zero possibility of a quick game or a series of decisive, exciting back-to-back turns. Ditto for online mode’s synchronous-only play. 

Lastly, on-release the store page listed its compatibility with pretty much every iThing under the sun, which has led to a bevy of grumbling reviews from consumers struggling to run it on older devices. It wouldn’t run at all on my first-gen iPad mini, and encounters a niggling but not deal-breaking bug on the iPad 4. (If you can’t exit a Panorama screen, for example, you need to touch the OK button repeatedly for up to a half-minute until it exits to the main map) This is a very nice game which needs a workhorse to run smoothly, and should be advertised as such.

Conclusion

If someone took the linearity of Candy Land, added smart decision points, traded its kitschy artwork for a modern, spare look, bleached its jewel tones, and blanketed it all with enough negative space to make a whiteout blush, the result would look and feel like Tokaido. But is the gameplay equally as blissed-out? And if so, is that such a bad thing? To both, I’d answer no, not really. It is a gentle stroll of a game, incredibly soothing to gaze at passively. It almost goes without saying, but to really enjoy Tokaido, you must really enjoy the journey.

News By Numbers - March 27th, 2017

Welcome to the latest edition of News by Numbers, where we highlight some of the can't-miss mobile gaming news each and every week.

Hades' Star: 3 month alpha

Hades' Star, a science-fiction mobile MMO with a great deal of promise, has completed a 3-month alpha testing period. The __game has launched on Android in Canada and will do so soon on iOS as well. This will serve as a beta for the __game and depending on how things go the game will head to other countries thereafter. Players in the US and larger European countries may have to wait some time to get to exploring, but we'll keep you posted.

Wartile: 4 diorama battle boards

Wartile, a game on our 2017 watch list, has cleared alpha testing and is now out on Steam Early Access. It's a real-time tactical combat game where bands of miniatures battle it out on beautiful, hand-crafted, dioramas. There are four such dioramas in the game now along with three unique Viking classes to choose from and many different figurines to collect and customize. This one is coming to mobile eventually, and I can't wait to see it on my iPad Pro.

Fighting Fantasy Legends: 6 second snippet

Nomad Games, makers of various Talisman digital offerings and the forthcoming Smash Up! , teased the name of a new game via a very short video. Fighting Fantasy Legends is the name, and that's about all we know at this point. Nomad will reveal more at EGX Rezzed in London this week. Legends will fight, though, that you can count on.

Warhammer Quest 2 The End Times: 7 classes

Warhammer Quest is getting a sequel, aptly named Warhammer Quest 2: The End Times. The original was developed by Rodeo Games which dissolved and reformed as Perchang, makers of the game by the same name. Perchang announced the making of End Times, with a release for iOS and Android in the Fall. Not much is known about the game, though it's a safe bet it'll be a turn-based dungeon crawler. The screenshots on Perchang's site are pretty impressive in 3D as well. The original had seven playable classes, four to start and three unlockable, we'll see what options the sequel has in store. Oh, and there's some talk about a prophesized cataclysm, the end of the world, and forces of chaos…or was that in the news? One of the two.

Card Thief: #9 paid iPhone app in the US

Card Thief, the stealth-based Solitaire-style follow up to Card Crawl, released a week ago and was heavily promoted by Apple as part of their Indie showcase. As a result, the game went as high as the number 9 spot on the US App Store chart (so far). According to Arnold Rauers, the developer, Card Crawl peeked at 37 in the United States. What a difference Apple's support can make. The success is well deserved and you can check out Michael's five-star review.

Also: @cardcrawl 's all time top paid iPhone apps (US) best was 37. on the 13th of March 2015 - @cardthiefgame is at 25. right now.

— TiNYTOUCHTALES (@tinytouchtales) March 21, 2017

iPad: 9.7 inch

Apple revealed some changes to its iPad lineup. The Air brand is to vanish and be replaced by a 9.7 inch iPad with the faster A9 processor called simply the "iPad". This entry level iPad comes in 32GB (pretty laughable today) and 128GB storage sizes and costs $329 for the 32GB option, which isn't bad, or $429 for the storage upgrade (pay the storage tax if you can). The new iPad is available now. There's also a 9.7 inch iPad Pro on the way with an improved A9X processor and a 12-megapixel camera. Do people take pictures with their iPad Pros? Seems awkward.

Super Mario Run: $10

Super Mario Run launched three months ago after what felt like many more months of hype and prime App Store positioning. Nintendo went the surprising free-to-try route with a $10 IAP to unlock the full game. Players used to freemium revolted and the reviews were pretty merciless. Now the plumbers are out on Android with the same pricing model. This time, they have included the following very early in the game's description, "Super Mario Run can be downloaded for free and after you purchase the game, you will be able to play all the modes with no additional payment required. You can try out all three modes before purchase: World Tour, Toad Rally, and Kingdom Builder." There are still a pile of one-star ratings, but considerably more five-star ones to offset them. Lesson learned?

Age of Rivals: 12 characters

The collectable-card and civilisation building genres collide in Age of Rivals, a fast paced, two-player card drafting game that plays out in about 10 minutes. Throw in the history theme and it's a lock for me to give it a go. The game is out on PC and Mac (via Steam) now and will be on iOS and Android in a couple months. You can also play it free on Kongregate if you're willing to enable Flash.

Hearthstone: 18 new elementals

The Journey to Un'goro expansion is bringing a new tribe to Hearthstone: elementals. Mike Donais, Hearthstone's game-design big wig, discusses the new tribe in this article, including their synergistic strength. Playing an elemental leaves some latent energy swirling about which other elementals can use via Battlecry abilities the following turn.

A whole slew of elementals are joining the game when the expansion drops and 18 existing cards are being converted into elementals. All of the cards with "Elemental" in their name—Water, Frost, Fire, Earth, Rumbling, and Unbound—for starters along with obvious converts like Dust Devil, Fireguard Destroyer, and Ice and Magma Ragers. Some big names are joining the tribe as well, both Ragnaros', Al’Akir the Windlord, Baron Geddon, and Neptulon are now elementals.

The Elder Scrolls: Legends – The Fall of the Dark Brotherhood: 25 missions

The Elder Scrolls: Legends just launched on PC and iPad and a new expansion is already on its way. The Fall of the Dark Brotherhood includes 25 new story missions where you can earn playsets for 40 new cards featuring members of the Dark Brotherhood. The story is linked to the journal of Cicero, the mad jester from Skyrim and the new cards are spread across all five of the game's attributes. The story is broken up into three parts, each of which can be purchased in game using cash or gold, and all three will be available for $20. The Fall of the Dark Brotherhood will be available April 5th.

Vainglory: London's O2

Some esports news for you - Super Evil Megacorps have announced the venue for their new 'Unified' Spring Championship tournament for their mobile esport Vainglory. The top six teams from both North America and top six from Europe will compete until there is only one champion, with the winning team automatically qualifying for the 2017 World Championship later in the year.

This will be the first big tournament to take place after the 2016 World Championship, and is heading to London's O2 on May 19th - 21st. This will make it the biggest mobile esports tournament to have been held in the UK so far. You can visit the official Eventbrite page for more information and ticket prices.

That's it for this edition of News by Numbers. If you've got a news item worth sharing send it my way on Twitter @MrVigabool and it may show up in a future edition.