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Get an early look at Niantic's new AR game Peridot as gameplay video surfaces
As promised, you'll raise adorable augmented reality creatures in real-world environments
Earlier this month, we learned that Niantic is working on a new augmented reality game where you'll raise and breed adorable creatures. This is the developer that's best known for creating Pokémon GO, and its upcoming release, Peridot, sounds pretty familiar. However, if you've been curious to see what precisely Peridot brings to the table, thanks to a recent soft launch in Malaysia, the title's gameplay has finally leaked online. While we knew this soft launch would kick off sooner rather than later, now that it's underway, we can all get an eyeful of what the augmented reality pet raising game has to offer.
Apex Legends Mobile's limited regional launch kicks off in 10 countries
This testing phase will run until May 3rd
In 2021 Electronic Arts revealed it would bring its hit free-to-play battle royale Apex Legends to mobile, but it wasn't until last month that we learned the mobile interpretation entered into pre-registration on the Google Play Store ahead of an impending soft launch. Well, today is the day, Apex Legends Mobile is now available in ten select territories as a limited regional launch, and the data gleaned from this soft launch should ideally provide EA with the information needed to balance the game's matchmaking and progression systems before the official worldwide release, a good sign we are inching ever-closer to that date, whatever it is.
We're playing Star Wars: Hunters as the arena shooter enters soft-launch
Here's 30 minutes of hands-on footage
Back in February, Zynga and Lucasfilm announced Star Wars: Hunters, a 4x4 arena shooter in the same vein as Overwatch. Over the months, development continued, and this past September, we learned that Star Wars: Hunters would be officially released sometime in 2022. As Zynga gears up for this release, the title has started popping up in soft-launch in a few exclusive territories. Luckily I was able to sideload the title to take it for a spin, and so I've recorded a 30-minute gameplay video that not only explores the game's settings but also dives into its arena shooting gameplay. So if you've been eager to see exactly what Star Wars: Hunters has to offer, you're in luck, as that's what today's post is all about.
Niantic calls it quits on its Settlers of Catan AR game
Catan – World Explorers set to wind down over the coming months
Back in June 2020, Niantic announced Catan – World Explorers, an augmented reality map exploration game in the same vein as Pokémon GO, the developer's bread and butter. Catan, of course, is a popular board game that's had several digital adaptations published on the Play Store, and it would seem Niantic was chomping at the bit to utilize its AR platform to turn the entire world into a Catan gameboard, but this has not panned out. Thanks to a recent blog post, we now know Niantic plans to sunset Catan – World Explorers on November 18th. Luckily, the game never made it out of testing, and so only those living in the game's soft-launch regions will be affected.
Tomb Raider Reloaded enters soft launch in select regions
Gamers in Thailand and the Philippines can now jump in
The official Tomb Raider account on Twitter has just tweeted that there's a new Tomb Raider game coming to mobile, and it's called Tomb Raider Reloaded. It's currently in development under Emerald City Games in cooperation with the Square Enix London mobile team, and it's slated to arrive sometime in 2021.
Jetpack Joyride gets a sequel nine years later, soft launch now available
Canada, Australia, and New Zealand can now jump in
Halfbrick Studios hit gold when it released Jetpack Joyride on iOS back in 2011, so the game was ported to Android in 2012 to capitalize on this success. Sadly it would appear that Halfbrick has been treading water ever since, though it's looking like the studio is going back to its roots with the soft-launch of a long-awaited sequel. This follow-up is called Jetpack Joyride 2: Bullet Rush, and it adds gunplay into the familiar auto-runner gameplay to spice things up. Currently, the game is only available in Canada, Australia, and New Zealand, so if you happen to live in one of these regions, you can jump in today to see how this sequel stacks up.
Angry Birds Legends is a new card-based RPG from Rovio, now available in beta
Is Rovio out of ideas? Let's take a look
For the last few years, Rovio has really been scraping the bottom of the barrel with its Angry Birds franchise. It would seem the dev has been slapping the property onto just about every casual gaming genre out there, from bubble poppers to match-3 titles, and then right back to bubble poppers, Rovio is clearly out of ideas. This is probably why the company is currently testing Angry Birds Legends in the UK, Sweden, and Finland as we speak. It's a card-based gacha RPG that stars Angry Birds characters, and since it's currently in testing in select regions, I've gone ahead and sideloaded the APK (v2.0.1) in order to take a closer look.
Plants vs. Zombies 3 leaves pre-alpha testing, enters soft launch in select territories
EA hasn't released Plants vs. Zombies 3 just yet
Electronic Arts recently revealed that Plants vs. Zombies 3 has finally left its pre-alpha testing phase and has now entered into a soft-launch release cycle for select territories, and the Philippines is the first country to gain access. More countries will be added to the soft launch list in the future, though EA is still tight-lipped about any sort of expected time frame, and so the development of Plants vs. Zombies 3 will continue to trudge along during this technical testing phase.
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Pokémon Rumble Rush started out as Pokéland back in 2017, but it soon fell off the map. As of this morning, the title has made a reappearance, but it will now be known as Pokemon Scramble SP in Japan and Pokémon Rumble Rush internationally. In light of this news, it would also appear that the western version has made its way to the Australian Play Store as a soft-launch release.
It has been seven years since Mojang released Minecraft on Android. There used to be a demo on the Play Store back in the early Pocket Edition days, but it was removed in 2013. Well, that's all in the past now. Mojang recently added a new demo listing to the Play Store, and it's called Minecraft Trial. It's a soft-launch title, so it isn't available in the US just yet, but if the reviews are anything to go by, then it's clearly available in a few other regions.
Now that Fortnite has taken over mobile gaming news for the week I bet Tencent is none too pleased that PUBG Mobile has taken a backseat. Well, to ensure that PUBG Mobile gets its own press coverage Tencent has soft-launched a lite version of its battle royale shooter in the Philippines. It's based on Unreal Engine 4, and it's optimized for devices with low RAM. This ensures PUBG Mobile Lite will be compatible with low-end Android devices without necessarily compromising the gameplay experience of the original release.
Supercell's mobile multiplayer combat game Brawl Stars has apparently found a lot of success on iOS despite its year-long existence as a soft launched title that few could access. The thing is, Android users never heard one word about a release on our platform, so as you can imagine, fans on our side of the fence were starting to get real antsy. Luckily the devs hinted at an Android version over the weekend and have delivered today by soft launching the game in a few select countries around the world. The official date of the iOS and Android release is still unknown, but it's definitely great to see some movement from the company in this regard. So let's hope we all get to play this real soon.
It isn't often that Atari brings new games to the Play Store, which is why I wanted to take a closer look at their upcoming release Night Driver. If the name sounds familiar, well, that is because it's an old arcade game originally developed by Atari back in 1976 that was also ported later to the Atari 2600 and Commodore 64. This soft-launched mobile version is supposed to be a reimagining of the original racer, with all-new graphics and gameplay. It's also a free-to-play title with plenty of in-app purchases. So don't get your hopes up too high just yet.
Harry Potter: Hogwarts Mystery may not be the first officially licensed Harry Potter game on Android, but it's probably going to be the most popular, at least until we see what Niantic has up its sleeve for its upcoming augmented reality title Harry Potter: Wizards Unite. Only just recently has Harry Potter: Hogwarts Mystery arrived on the Play Store as a soft-launch title, which means it's getting close to an official release. But since there is still no hard date set for when that will happen I have decided to sideload the APK in order to see what it has to offer and share my thoughts.
DC Unchained is without a doubt DC Comics' take on the popular free-to-play mobile brawler Marvel Future Fight. You form teams of three heroes and villains to take on level after level of nondescript henchmen, all for the purpose of slowly but surely unlocking and leveling up your favorite characters from the comics. So while it is nice that we now have a DC-themed brawler to play with our favorite childhood DC Comic characters, the gameplay in this FTP mobile brawler is just as uninspired and grindy as ever.
Despite the fact that excitement for endless Angry Birds iterations and spin-offs more or less died over a year ago, the Angry Birds movie is scheduled to hit theaters next month. (Apparently creating a 90-minute CG movie, complete with Hollywood talent, marketing, and distribution, takes a lot longer than making a 2D physics game.) Developer Rovio is pumping up the promotion machine starting with Angry Birds Action!, a 2.5D twist on the classic slingshot formula. At the moment it's soft-launched in New Zealand, but the game should be heading to other territories well before the May movie release.
[Non-US Only] Age Of Empires: World Domination Soft Launches In The Play Store For Certain Countries
Talk of Age of Empires coming to Android has existed around the water cooler for over two years now, since Microsoft gave developer KLad license to make games with the property. We expected something to arrive long before now, but we understand. Sometimes resources take a while to gather, and you don't want to move with an army that's unprepared. But the time has come, and Age of Empires: World Dominance has now invaded the Play Store.
If you're feeling a bit diabolical today, just be patient – Dungeon Keeper has begun its slow rollout on Android. This refresh of the classic strategy/tower defense game is currently only available for download in Canada, Australia, and Singapore, but is slowly hitting more countries over time. Prepare your minions.