Loop Hero – now available on mobile (Playdigious)
GameCentral’s monthly look at the best new gaming apps features an ultra violent potato and one of the best puzzle games of the year.
Whether you’re after the chaotic sugar rush of Super Monsters Ate My Condo+, the gentle and offbeat storytelling of Strange Horticulture, or the steady roguelite build of Loop Hero, this month’s mobile releases offer all the diversity, adrenaline, and weirdness you could ask for.
Shift 2 – also available on Playdate (Scenic Route Software)
Shift 2
iOS and Playdate, £4.99 (Scenic Route Software)
Shift 2’s match-four puzzling takes place on a 4×4 grid, where you can drag any row or column to form matching lines, as well as upgrading individual tiles. Each match you make merges four squares into a single new one and, like Scenic Route’s previous game Generations, there’s an awful lot more going on than initially meets the eye.
Each matching line you make increases your multiplier, which is reset every time you make a move that doesn’t trigger a match, while its three play modes completely transform the game.
Calm is turn-based, while the aptly named Frantic is timed, and Tactical mode ends as soon as you make a move that doesn’t trigger at least one match – making it vastly more complex to navigate your way through its levels, in this brilliantly conceived and mentally taxing puzzler.
Score: 8/10
Vroomies
iOS & Android, Free (Unordered Games)
Vroomies is a simply drawn top-down racing game where you swipe to turn corners and tap to hit speed-up squares. When timed correctly you earn control points that maximise your speed and let you take shortcuts.
Racing against a field of computer-controlled competitors, you earn temporary power-ups that last for the duration of the championship you’ve entered. You’ll also have to keep an eye on tyre wear, tactically pitting in when it’s time for a change.
Unlock new cars as you work your way through its tournaments, in a game that’s free to download with no microtransactions whatsoever.
Score: 7/10
Super Monsters Ate My Condo+
iOS, included with Apple Arcade subscription (PikPok)
Monsters stand either side of a teetering block of flats, leaving you to flick storeys of the building into their mouths in an attempt to stack three adjacent floors of the same colour, which automatically merge into an upgraded condominium.
Feeding the upgraded floors to your monsters triggers their individual superpowers, in a game whose action is fast, furious, and extremely silly.
Originally released in 2012, this version has lightly spruced up graphics but otherwise appears to be similar to its ageing forebear. There’s a paid version available on Android.
Score: 6/10
Loop Hero
iOS & Android, Free – full game £5.99 (Playdigious)
In a strange hybrid of roguelite, idle game, and role-player Loop Hero has your tiny dungeoneer circling a procedurally-generated looped corridor, automatically battling monsters he meets.
Encounters generate loot in the form of new weapons, armour, and equipment as well as cards, which let you expand the geography surrounding your loop, adding enemies, power-ups, and treasure chests, making each loop tougher as you level up.
Deciding when to make a run for base camp with your loot is an exercise in brinkmanship, in this highly addictive and touchscreen-friendly game.
Score: 8/10
Lost Potato
iOS & Android, Free – remove ads 99p (Erabit Studios)
Taking place on a single screen, your potato protagonist can’t actually damage enemies, and must instead punch them into spikes or projectiles to kill them.
The cute, simplistic graphics, and the helter-skelter of power-ups and different ways of killing your foes – their cartoon blood soon coating the various spiked objects – makes it very easy game to understand and enjoy.
Unfortunately, its entire mission is to get you to watch ads, which are garish and overlong, but once you’ve paid to remove them you’re left with a neatly designed, pared back roguelite about a violent potato.
Score: 7/10
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Strange Horticulture
iOS & Android, £4.99 (Iceberg Interactive)
You run a flower shop in this lavishly illustrated herbalist simulator. Customers arrive and you supply them with the herbs they need, referring to your Strange Book of Plants to identify just the right one for each job.
You’ll also need to refer to letters and other clues you receive, cross-referencing them with a map to scout out and harvest new blooms to order.
Its sedate pace, delightful art style, and distinct personality translate well to touchscreen, the page turning and clue sorting lending itself nicely to the tactile environment.
Score: 8/10
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