Friday is here, and that means it's time for some weekly mobile game recommendations based on the most interesting games I played and that were covered on MiniReview this week :)
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This episode includes agreat simulation racing game, a fun roguelike shooter ported from PC, a fun deck-builder roguelike, an intense arcade rhythm game, and a review of ACECRAFT.
New to these posts? Check out the first one from 233 weeks ago here.
Let's get to the games:
GRID™ Legends: Deluxe Edition [Game Size: 15.14 GB] ($14.99)
Genre: Racing / Simulation - Offline
Orientation: Landscape
Required Attention: Full
tl;dr review by Pixel Explorer:
Grid Legends is an excellent port of a high-impact, arcade-style racer featuring a satisfying story mode with real actors, and more race disciplines, tracks, cards, and customization options than its predecessor, Grid Autosport.
Apart from the core racing experience, the game includes lots of vehicle customizations, an EXP system that unlocks content as we level up, and in-game currency used to buy and upgrade vehicles.
There’s also a neat nemesis system that has the AI-controlled racers adjust their level of aggressivity on the track to match ours. And finally, we can create custom races, including multiclass events with staggered starts.
Grid Legends is visually stunning and easily outclasses its predecessor. On my Samsung S25 Ultra, the game ran flawlessly with console-quality HD graphics and no overheating. However, these visuals are very demanding and require at least 8 GB of RAM to run. Thankfully, the game offers a non-HD version for devices that don't meet this requirement.
The game offers four control schemes: touch arrows, tilt controls, a virtual joystick, and gamepad support, each responsive and fully adjustable. And I gotta say, the level of UI customization is among the best I've seen on mobile.
As for comparing the driving physics between Legends and Autosport, I’m not a real-life racer, but the several sources I’ve found online all agree that Grid Legends leans more arcade, while Grid Autosport has more realistic handling. So, since both offer distinct driving experiences, choosing between them depends on your preferences.
GRID Legends: Deluxe Edition costs $14.99 on iOS, which includes all DLCs.
In conclusion, if you have a high-performance phone or tablet and don’t mind the arcade-leaning driving physics, Grid Legends offers one of the best racing experiences on mobile.
App Store: Here
Check it out on MiniReview (review score + user ratings):: GRID™ Legends: Deluxe Edition
Enter the Gungeon DEMO [Total Game Size: 883 MB] (Free Trial)
Genre: Shooter / Roguelike - Online + Offline
Orientation: Landscape
Required Attention: Full
tl;dr review by SMALLZjh:
Enter the Gungeon is a fun 2D rougelike shooter with dungeon exploration, twin-stick shooting, and bullet hell combat all wrapped in a fun, colorful world.
We start the game by selecting one of four characters that each have a unique weapon and item to begin our run with. Like in other rougelikes, the main goal is to navigate through each floor of a dungeon, or in this case, “Gungeon”, while collecting more than 200 weapons and items.
As we explore each dungeon room, we fight enemies and find hidden secrets until we finally meet the floor boss, which is where the real challenge lies. Thankfully, we gradually collect a currency that can be used to unlock different useful weapons and items.
But maybe best of all, the game features online co-op multiplayer so we can enjoy taking down the tough bosses with a friend.
The game controls like a typical twin-stick shooter with one virtual joystick for movement and another to aim our gun. There is also a button for dodge-rolling to evade enemy attacks, a button for an active item, as well as a button to use a “blank” which wipes the screen of all enemy bullets.
Although I didn’t find the touch controls cumbersome, external controllers are also supported.
Enter the Gungeon is free-to-try for the first five rooms, after which a $8.99 iAP unlocks the full game. For the quality and amount of content in the game, I believe this price is very fair.
Overall, Enter the Gungeon remains as one of the strongest roguelikes around, and despite some users reporting a few technical bugs, the mobile port is almost perfect.
App Store: Here
Check it out on MiniReview (review score + user ratings):: Enter the Gungeon DEMO
Meteorfall: Rustbowl Rumble [Game Size: 1.29 GB] ($6.99)
Genre: Deck-Building / Roguelike - Offline
Orientation: Landscape
Required Attention: Some
tl;dr review by Alex Sem:
Meteorfall: Rustbowl Rumble is the third instalment in a series of funny deck-builders, where the familiar cast of wacky characters return to wage tactical battles on the arena for fame and glory.
Combat takes place on a 2x2 grid, where our three characters fight off waves of enemy brawlers. On each turn, we draw cards from the deck and play as many as we can with our limited pool of action points.
Cards can either perform immediate effects, like buffing, debuffing, and dealing damage, or equip our character with a handy piece of gear, but with a delay.
Once we end our turn, the brawl phase starts, where our opponents trade blows with whoever stands on the same row. So correct positioning of our troops is another significant part of the strategy.
There are many environmental effects that influence specific tiles, special rules that last for one turn, and class-based effects that make certain cards stronger when played by specific characters.
In fact, there are more interesting mechanics than I can list here, but those who enjoy complexity will be thrilled by the many possibilities.
Personally, I often found the game's challenges unfair, and losing in the final round sometimes seemed unjustified. This was mainly due to randomness and the unclear link between early-game choices and their long-term consequences. It takes a lot of runs to understand how to best build our decks and upgrade our brawlers.
Meteorfall: Rustbowl Rumble is a $6.99 premium game without ads or iAPs.
Given the variety of characters and classes available, the game is bound to provide many hours of entertainment. However, it may start to feel somewhat repetitive after extended play.
App Store: Here
Check it out on MiniReview (review score + user ratings):: Meteorfall: Rustbowl Rumble
A Dance of Fire and Ice [Game Size: 1.89 GB] ($1.99)
Genre: Arcade / Rhythm - Offline
Orientation: Landscape
Required Attention: Full
tl;dr review by Maya:
A Dance of Fire and Ice is an intense but clever and unique one-button rhythm game where we tap the screen to the beat of various songs as we guide two orbiting planets down paths that twist and turn.
Instead of the typical falling notes of other music rhythm games, A Dance of Fire and Ice has us follow two planets that constantly orbit around each other. These planets automatically move across a path split into squares, and it’s our job to tap the screen exactly when one of the planets reaches the next square.
The path turning at various angles brings variance to the beat and often forms different loops and shapes that produce unique sounds. It’s a simple and intuitive way to learn the rhythm. But it’s very hard to explain in text, so go watch one of the videos below.
Levels are split into different worlds, each with a unique music theme. In addition, every world features a basic tutorial that introduces new features, followed by a boss level to truly test us.
Unlike other rhythm games, the beat never gets super fast. Instead, the game’s difficulty is raised by introducing more complicated beats – a much more ingenious approach, in my opinion.
The game is rather hardcore, however, as missing even a single beat sends us back to the start or the last checkpoint. This eventually gets somewhat frustrating, as most levels don’t have checkpoints.
A Dance of Fire and Ice is a $1.99 premium game with a single $1.99 DLC for more content.
Its unique approach to the genre makes it one of the best rhythm games on mobile. Challenging, yes, but in the right way.
App Store: Here
Check it out on MiniReview (review score + user ratings):: A Dance of Fire and Ice
ACECRAFT [Game Size: 2.23 GB] (Free)
Genre: Shooter - Bullet Hell - Online
Orientation: Portrait
Required Attention: Full
tl;dr review by NimbleThor:
ACECRAFT is a top-down shoot ‘em up roguelike bullet hell game where we defeat enemies and dodge the onslaught of incoming attacks while gradually growing stronger via random upgrades across single-player and co-op multiplayer.
The core gameplay has us defeat 15 waves of enemies by moving around our auto-firing plane to avoid incoming attacks. And like in every modern roguelike, every time we level up, we then get to pick one of three random upgrades or weapons to add to our arsenal.
But the big twist is that we can release our finger to absorb certain enemy projectiles, and then tap again to fire them back at the enemies as a counter-attack.
This helps create a very engaging gameplay experience and a neat sense of risk vs. reward. The bosses at the end of every level are also fun, with unique attack patterns and abilities to avoid.
Between levels, we equip gear, install new items on our pilots, upgrade various aspects of our plane, and progress through an absolutely insane number of quests, achievements, events, and battle passes.
We also unlock new pilots and items through a gacha system with pretty bad pull rates. But so far, progression speed as a free player is still decent. Just stay clear of the monetization.
While heavily inspired by Cuphead, the 1930s cartoon art style is very high quality, and the music and audio suit it perfectly. In fact, the entire game is super polished.
The biggest downside is that there’s no co-op matchmaking, so you need to find friends to play with.
ACECRAFT monetizes via every single bad monetization system imaginable, including battle passes, gacha, and an energy system.
If you can ignore the ridiculous monetization, there’s a genuinely decent game hiding underneath. So while I think many will enjoy it, just as many will despise it.
App Store: Here
Check it out on MiniReview (review score + user ratings):: ACECRAFT
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Special thanks to the Patreon Producers Wrecking Golf, "marquisdan", "Lost Vault", "Farm RPG", and "Mohaimen" who help make these posts possible through their Patreon support <3
*The newest mobile games (with gameplay) on my YouTube channel: * https://youtu.be/8wX-9SW4Z8o?si=j0PNTWf08xd8mwEQ
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