The holidays are barely a stone's throw away, and game studios and publishers are warming up their engines for the upcoming season. This week has seen the release of much awaited games for mobile devices, from point and click adventures games in a grim and rather dysfunctional fantasy world, to the tapping and swiping madness with superheroes and super villains alike, to a less frantic and more thoughtful game of cards, er, scrolls. Welcome to Level Up!, Android Community's weekly games roundup for December 12, 2014.
Game of Thrones: The Adventure Game
Topping our list is Game of Thrones, from developer Telltale Games, well known for games with memorable characters and deep story lines. Set in the world of the hit HBO series, Game of Thrones puts you in the shoes of the fictional House Forrester, loyal to the Starks of the north. While the game does borrow lore and characters from the TV show and the novels, most of the characters and the plots are entirely new, giving players the freedom to make a name for themselves in Westeros.
New York Comic Con's anticipated game has finally arrived! Marvel and Kabam have worked together to bring a game that is not a tie-in to any movie. At least not yet. Set in the Collector's makeshift arenas, players take on the role of the unnamed Summoner as he or she fights against Kang the Conqueror over the ISO Sphere, an object of immense power that no villain, such as Kang the Konqueror, should get their hands on. Build up your team of supes, both heroes and villains, to thwart Kang's plans. And while doing so, enjoy the console-quality graphics.
Card games are nothing new but Mojang, famed creators of Mnecraft, still want to bring something new to the table. Or board rather. Combining the best of card and board games, Scrolls gives you control over 350 fully animated scrolls, or cards, as you pit them against AI or other players in a board game. Perhaps more interesting than the game itself, it is the promised balance of in-game purchases, which are limited to prevent abuse and pay-to-win scenarios, which could make or break Scrolls' reputation.
And if you're in the market for a more traditional kind of TCG, Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Generation, which has just landed on Google Play Store, has you covered.
Updates
More than just new games, a few of fan favorites have also seen a fresh coat of paint this week. 2D side-scrolling Minecraft-like Terraria gets a massive update worth 1,000 new items. That's quite a load of new stuff that includes 30 new block types, 100 new enemies, four new bosses, 8 new NPCs, and 15 new pets. An update hits the retro-ish racing game Asphalt Overdrive bringing new cars and a new mode to this Asphalt spin-off. Take your pick between a white Lykan Hypersport and a blue Renault Alpine and ride off into the sunset with the inappropriately named Joyride Race mode, where you can drive and drive and drive until you die of boredom. Or hit something. Angry Birds Star Wars gets another installment, building up on the growing interest behind the upcoming seventh episode. No need for intros here, Revenge of the Pork definitely smells fishy. Or porky, in this case.
Coming Soon
The year isn't over yet but we already have something to look forward to next year. Ubisoft and classic game "porters" DotEmu are joining forces to bring one of the hit strategy games to Android. Be sure to mark your calendars for January 29, 2015 when Heroes of Might and Magic III lands on Google Play Store. Transformers fans cry for joy or cry in pain, TRANSFORMERS: Battle Tactics is coming to Android next year, no date announced yet. A tactics game for Android is nothing out of the ordinary. But super deformed/chibi Autobots and Decepticons? Hey, at least it's the classic Generation 1 roster and not a certain director's abomination.
Be sure to check out our Gaming tag portal for other new games and updates you might have missed this week.