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Dr. Mario's about to lose his medical license
Nintendo will shut down Dr. Mario World on November 1st
It looks like all those pills Dr. Mario was prescribing willy-nilly have ended his career. Nintendo has announced that Dr. Mario World isn't long for this world, and so the game will be shut down on November 1st. Starting today, the title's in-game currency (Diamonds) are no longer being sold. Oddly enough, your play history will remain available after Dr. Mario World is shut down, which will be moved to an accessible web page once the servers are offline.
Contra blasts its way onto mobile as a side-scrolling shooter, and so far fans aren't happy
It's called Contra Returns, and we'd all be better off if it hadn't
Contra is a classic run and gun shooter from Konami that has seen many followups since its debut in 1987 as an arcade game. It would seem Konami saw fit to lend the license to Tencent, so TiMi Studio developed a free-to-play interpretation of the classic sidescrolling shooter. It's called Contra Returns, and it's now available on the Play Store. As you can guess, this is a gacha game that's packed with in-app purchases, as well as a VIP system, and worse yet, user reviews are pretty negative thanks to the game's aggressive permissions.
Tom Clancy's Elite Squad isn't even a year old and Ubisoft is already shutting it down
Turns out some semblance of fun is required
Well, this hardly comes as a surprise, but Ubisoft has announced that its free-to-play action RPG Tom Clancy's Elite Squad is shutting down. Today marks the last update for the title, and its servers will be shuttered on October 4th. Ubisoft says the game is no longer sustainable, which basically means it wasn't making any money. Perhaps this has to do with the heavy pay-to-win mechanics shoved into the title, or maybe it's because of the gacha that didn't offer any waifus? Either way, the game is dead less than a year from its release, which is why it's never a good idea to invest in free-to-play cash-grabs from Ubisoft.
There's a new XCOM game coming to mobile, and it's already in testing
It's called XCOM Legends, but it's a turn-based RPG for some reason
Now that the XCOM 2 Collection has finally found its way to Android, I suppose it was inevitable that 2K would be looking to cash in with a lazy mobile interpretation of the series. While there were rumblings last year that a game called XCOM Legends would be coming to mobile, it's now official the game exists, and it has already entered early access in limited territories, confirmed by PCGamesN. Sadly this game is described as an RPG, so it would seem this offshoot is forgoing the turn-based tactics of the core series to offer gameplay we've seen a thousand times over on mobile. That's right, XCOM: Legends is a squad-based gacha RPG, and it honestly looks awful.
Hot Wheels Unlimited is a shallow racing game that has the nerve to ask for a subscription
And it comes from a developer that knows a thing or two about branded cash-grabs
At first blush, I thought Hot Wheels Unlimited looked like an enjoyable children's game where kids can create courses to race on with their favorite Hot Wheel vehicles. Sadly this game is simply a shallow, boring, and cheaply developed cash-grab, just like the rest of Budge Studios' catalog. It would seem this developer has a knack for shoving Mattel properties into the lowest-quality games possible, and so Hot Wheels Unlimited's content is gated primarily behind a monthly subscription ($4.99) as if the quality of this casual racer is actually worth such a ridiculous price. It isn't, and this game should be avoided.
Game of Thrones Beyond the Wall is an upcoming mobile strategy game that clearly contains a Game of Thrones skin, and it recently entered into a beta testing phase in Australia and New Zealand. Luckily, this beta also appears to be accessible to the US, so I've installed the game so that I can go hands-on with the title to report on exactly what it has to offer.
The Mighty Quest for Epic Loot was originally a free-to-play action role-playing game developed by Ubisoft Montreal for PC. After its release in 2015, the game only lasted a year before Ubisoft shut down its servers. Never a company to rest on its laurels, Ubisoft has seen fit to bring the game back for mobile devices, and it just landed on the Google Play Store as a new release.
Bethesda’s E3 2019 show has revealed the first look at the return of Commander Keen, a platforming series that started its life as a DOS game back in 1990. It was one of id Software’s earliest titles, and its corpse has been resurrected by ZeniMax Online Studios (a subsidiary of ZeniMax Media, Bethesda's parent company) as a free-to-play reinterpretation of the series for mobile. As you can imagine, fans aren't very pleased.
Bethesda recently opened up early access for its latest mobile game The Elder Scrolls: Blades, and since we learned yesterday that this access has expanded to anyone with a Bethesda account, I figured why not go hands-on with the title so that our readers can see exactly what it has to offer. So strap in folks, because I'm predicting a bumpy ride.
Two weeks ago I wrote up a piece about a few games that were at that time listed on the Play Store for pre-registration. Well, it would appear that one of those listings has been officially released. That title is MARVEL Strike Force, and you can install it right now for free.
The original Badland was a beautiful adventure game with interesting physics, gorgeous graphics, immersive soundtrack, and enough charm to land it on my personal list of 15 hauntingly beautiful dark and atmospheric games. The game was done so well that we forgave its late arrival on Android compared to iOS, applauded it for implementing cloud save and immersive mode for gameplay, and even lauded its implementation of free to play. This is a direct quote from Ryan's review of Badland: