ToG #235 – Tennis Champs Returns and The Swords

In this quick and efficient episode, Todd and Jared talk gaming news, some updates to games, “out now on Android”, and a bunch of news.

We then touch upon a couple of the bigger games we did not try this week.

Then we get into the games we did play…

Todd – Fantasy Mage ($2.99, iOS, Illogical Games) – this game might look a bit like iOS classic Solomon’s Keep, but it does not play that way. The controls are not great, the graphics stutter, the menus are a bit obtuse and plain, and the overall feel of the game is “not quite ready for prime time”. There are elements of the game that could be good, but they need a lot of work if they ever want to get there. Hold off on grabbing this one…it is not recommended.

Jared: Forbidden Desert ($6.99, iOS, Button Mash Games Inc.) – Jared enjoyed this take on one of his favorite board games, but he found it to be a bit too “by the books”. It does not leverage what the iPad can add to the adaptation of the board game and it becomes more like the exact visualization of the board game put onto digital form. That is not a bad thing, but it could have been better. The game itself is great and it plays out just fine here, but it is a bit of a toss-up as to which version to get…physical or digital.

Todd – Tennis Champs Returns (Free, iOS, Uprising Games) – This is an iOS port of a classic Amiga game from 20+ years ago. It starts you off with a quick character creation and then walks you through some tutorials. Almost immediately you can feel the subtle greatness of this game, and especially its controls. They are nuanced and offer finesse that you would not expect from touch controls. And the tennis matches are very fun because of it. There is a learning curve here but it is approachable and everything just gels nicely. Todd highly recommends you check this out. It is certainly the best tennis game on mobile and one of the best sports games too.

Jared – Momoka ($6.99, iOS, Felwig Games) – Jared liked, but did not love, this platformer. There are nice things going on here and the look/feel of the game is wonderful, but it suffers from a very poor map and that makes poking around the world needlessly tedious. At $6.99, this is a wait and see type of game. Patches could make this great or a price reduction could make it feel like a better value. Hold off for now.

Todd – The Swords ($2.99, iOS, Lee-Kuo Chen – A Ride Into the Mountains) – this niche game has a classical calligraphy look and a zen like feel as the player uses various swipes to control the brush-stroke “sword” in the game. It plays a bit akin to Fruit Ninja, but it is more varied in what you need to do in each level and you receive no “score”…the goal is to simply finish each stage successfully and to move on in the story. It is very atmospheric and it plays well, but it is short and some of the levels can be a bit frustrating. Todd thinks it is worth checking out, though, and it could be worth a purchase if you like what you see.

And that does it for another week of ToG.

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The show is: @TofG
Jared is: @TheQuacko
Todd is: @toddias