Monthly Archives: May 2017

Medal Masters

Medal Masters is a free-to-play 3D mobile casual game developed by Enfeel for iOS and Android. In Medal Masters you can experience a cute, anime-inspired world that has been taken over by an army of cursed heroes and their leader, the Devil. You will need to defeat the cursed heroes with your own team of heroes and quick reflexes, working your way to the Devil himself to take him out. With so many things for you to do, a whole slew of elemental heroes for you to collect, and its reaction based Blitz skill system Medal Masters is sure to keep you busy and tapping away at your phone!

Features:

Elemental Heroes: Collect over 245 heroes, each with their own element that they have been attributed.

Upgrade and Awaken: Increase the strength of your heroes by upgrading them or awakening them into stronger versions of themselves.

Blitz System: Use your skills at just the right moments, but make sure you’re as accurate as possible while you’re tapping away to get the full effectiveness of them!

Pillage Wars: Battle against other players in Pillage Wars where it is loot or be looted. You’ll need to make sure not to anger the wrong person in fear of retaliation!

Super Senso

Super Senso is a free-to-play mobile strategy game developed by GungHo Online Entertainment America for iOS and Android. In Super Senso players can assemble a squad of vastly different units to take on other players in online multiplayer battles. Learn your units’ strengths, form the perfect battle squad, and obliterate your opponents before they have the chance to do the same to you!

Features:

Turn-Based: Senso Battles are turn-based and you will need to manage your mana carefully while creating new units to deploy on the battlefield.

Crazy Units: Mechs, dinosaurs, aliens, zombies, snipers and more can be put on your team of available units as you acquire them.

Combos: Create numerous reactions on the battlefield to unlock combo attacks that will wreak havoc on your opponent’s Senso Gate.

Acaratus

Acaratus is a buy-to-play tactical RPG developed by NODBRIM INTERACTIVE set in a medieval steampunk world where you will fight to take down an oppressive Emperor named Helios. How you might ask? With none other than your trusty mechanized battle suits and your own strategic knowledge! If you’re looking for a game that gives you great control over units and lets you fight for the freedom that you deserve, then look no further. Join up with Adina, help the rebellion, and take down emperor Helios!

Features:

Turn-Based: Battles in Acaratus are turn-based, meaning you’ll have to manage your stamina each turn to get the greatest effect out of your units.

Unit Customization: Outfit your units with little bits of steampunk goodness, changing their purpose in battle and allowing you to prepare for any situation.

Singleplayer Campaign: Fight for freedom alongside Adina, a slave owner turned leader of the rebellion.

Transformers: Earth Wars Mobile Review

By: Ojogo

 

Transformers: Earth Wars is a free-to-play strategy game for the Android and iOS devices from BackFlip Studios. You are given the task to control and manage either the Autobot’s or Decepticon’s bases on Earth as they arrive to either protect the planet with the Autobots or Destroy everything that stands in the way of the Decepticons getting all the Energon cubes the Earth has to offer.

 

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Gameplay

Earth Wars focuses and uses extensively the tired gameplay from other F2P simulation/strategy titles such as Clash of Clans and Star Wars Commanders. This just means that your overall gameplay would be focused on building thematic bases, (depending on the side you choose) gathering resources, and fellow cybertronians.

Typical to the usual gameplay of strategy games, you will have to build up resource gathering and storing structures for Energon and Alloy, two of the game’s primary resources. You are then tasked to build up your base’ defenses by creating turrets, cannons and walls as you try to stop invading players from getting your hard-earned resources. You can also gather other Autobots/Decepticons as you unlock them through the Space Bridge using crystals that you can earn in-game or purchase outright.

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Other features for Earth Wars includes an Alliance System that allows players of the same faction to band together to help one another and communicate. A PvP and campaign system where you either face off against player controlled teams or AI controlled “missions” and an improvement/leveling and rarity system for the various Cybertronians you have in your team.

Basically, BackFlip Studios doesn’t do much to reinvent the wheel with Transformers: Earth Wars. You have all the staples that you can find in a simulation/strategy game with the only difference of having an established brand as its “theme.” This is both a positive and negative when considering Earth Wars versus other similar titles in the mobile genre.

The good thing about having a gameplay that uses a lot of established staples in a genre is that the game is readily available for new or veteran players of these type of games. Being able to have a familiar entry point for something like Earth Wars is good enough to at least have new players ease into the game quite well. However, continuing on the safe route for Earth Wars limits the amount of new things people can discover in the game. With an already oversaturated market filled with simulation/strategy games like Earth Wars, the game doesn’t have anything notable to stand out except for the Transformers brand.

 

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Cybertronians

As I mentioned earlier, Earth Wars allows the collection of all the Autobots or Decepticons that the series has produced so far. Most of the designs use their Gen 1 look which is also updated to the game’s current vibrant colors and visual design. You can infact stare at them in all their Cybertronian glory in the game’s gallery mode.

 

There are currently six class types available in Earth Wars. With each class type bringing in their own share of strengths and weaknesses as you put them out in the opponent’s base. Also, deployment isn’t like the usual sim/strat setup where you can just release your units all over the base. In Earth Wars, there’s only one side of the field that you can field the robots. Your means of success would then be reliant on the choice of classes you have as your attack team, the timing and the type of activatable skill each of the three units have, and your opponent’s base building strategy.

 

The way the game has designed its battle system is what keeps attacks in game interesting even with the already tired gameplay. While this isn’t something new to the genre, at least the game forces you to systematically think of how you manage your units in battle. You can’t just willy-nilly field units out, unless you want to always end up getting clobbered by your opponent.

 

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Combiner Wars

One of the more important features the game has is the inclusion of the Combiner robots that were made famous back in the day. The Combiner Wars line of Hasbro is also included making team builds interesting. It’s also nice to see the combiner bots in action as they decimate bases so that’s another plus for the game.

 

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Paywall

If there’s one gripe I have for Earth Wars, it’s how pricey the structure upgrades are in game. You would need to spend Cybertronian coins to upgrade which isn’t normally part of the setup for any sim/strat title gameplay. While the game does reward you easily with these coins, it would mean that you would have to hold on to some of these premium currency to advance in game. While it’s not a game breaking feature, it does makes things inconvenient for those who don’t want to spend.

 

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Conclusion: Good

Overall, Transformers: Earth Wars is a game that yet again introduces takes us into a sim/strat world in the already oversaturated mobile market. It rests on its IP and better than average design and looks, while not daring to test new waters. It’s a good game to spend time on though if you’re a fan of the Gen 1 designs or a fan of the series. Not only does the game look good on mobile platforms, it at least retains the look and feel of the cartoons and updates it to the visual standards of today.

With that said however, Earth Wars is a title that doesn’t rock the boat. I would’ve wanted BackFlip Studios to have risked a few things during the development phase that would make the game just stand out somewhere. But instead we have a safe free-to-play title that panders to nostalgia and to those looking for a sim/strat title that appeals more to their Transformer tastes. The game has a lot of potential to be better and have a longer replay value. But we end up with a title that’s amusingly nostalgic and fun for a really short while.