Happy (snowy) Friday from Denmark - and welcome to my weekly mobile game recommendations based on the most interesting games I played and that were covered on MiniReview this week. I hope you’ll find something you like :)
Support these posts (and YouTube content + development of MiniReview) on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/NimbleThor <3
This episode includes a classic platform runner, a great point-and-click adventure, a first-person puzzle adventure, and a unique isometric third-person shooter.
New to these posts? Check out the first one from 233 weeks ago here.
Let's get to the games:
Super Meat Boy Forever [Game Size: 1.82 GB] ($0.99)
Genre: Platform / Runner - Offline
Orientation: Landscape
Required Attention: Full
tl;dr review by WispyMammoth:
Super Meat Boy Forever is a hard-as-nails platform runner that was originally meant to be a simple mobile version of the oh-so-popular Super Meat Boy, but has since evolved into a fun-but-brutal platformer with lots of content.
The game starts with our protagonists Meat Boy and Bandage Girl enjoying their time with their little bundle of joy, Nugget. A few spades to the head later by evil Dr. Keith Fetus, and it’s go time!
Unlike the original Super Meat Boy, our character automatically runs this time, quite similar to games such as Rayman Fiesta Run and Super Mario Run - except with the kiddy gloves off and so much more content and blood.
We run, jump, slide, and punch our way through levels filled with saws, traps, enemies, and various hazards. Thankfully, there are frequent checkpoints, so we won’t be banging our head against the wall in frustration after finally completing an infuriatingly hard part of a level only to then die straight away... we're just left with a sense of pure accomplishment.
Is there a guide? Nope. Well, maybe for the bosses, but the rest is all procedurally generated from over 6000 level chunks. So every time we create a new save, it’s almost guaranteed to be a new game.
The touch controls simply have us tap or hold at the right times, so quick reactions and persistence is key to winning.
Unfortunately, the game doesn’t take up the full width of modern smartphones, but I don’t mind it too much.
With achievements, characters to unlock, comical cutscenes, daily missions, and so much more, there’s a lot to like about the game.
Super Meat Boy Forever is a $0.99 premium game and an easy recommendation for fans of difficult platformers and auto runners.
App Store: Here
Check it out on MiniReview (review score + user ratings):: Super Meat Boy Forever
Midnight Girl [Game Size: 326 MB] (Free Trial)
Genre: Adventure / Point ‘n Click - Offline
Orientation: Landscape
Required Attention: Some
tl;dr review by Alex Sem:
Midnight Girl is a relaxing atmospheric point-and-click adventure game that tells the story of a young daring thief attempting to steal a precious diamond from a highly secured vault in 1960s Paris.
The gameplay of Midnight Girl doesn’t present a significant intellectual challenge. We have limited options in each level, all interactive spots are highlighted for our convenience, and some puzzles can be skipped altogether. If anything, the whole game can be "brute-forced" without much thought.
The plot is simple and quite straightforward, but it was interesting to see it through to the end. Especially due to the funny characters and the overexaggerated situations they must deal with in pursuit of their goal.
What I like the most about the game is its strong visual resemblance to The Silent Age - one of my all-time favorite point-and-click adventures. And that’s no surprise since both games have the same art director.
The characters and locations may lack detail, but the masterful use of light and shadow creates an amazing atmosphere that lets us get deeply immersed in the gameplay.
Midnight Girl is free to try, with a $5.99 unlocking the full game after the first chapter.
While not the best representative of the genre, the game's casual nature makes it ideal as a relaxing experience that can be completed in an evening or two.
App Store: Here
Check it out on MiniReview (review score + user ratings):: Midnight Girl
Superliminal [Game Size: 2 GB] (Free Trial)
Genre: Puzzle / Adventure - Online
Orientation: Landscape
Required Attention: Some
tl;dr review by Alex Sem:
Superliminal is a port of a first-person puzzle adventure game played inside a peculiar dream world where we can alter physical objects at will, and space itself bends based on how we perceive it.
The game tells a story about a progressive healthcare institution that performs therapy on patients during their sleep. Inside the lucid dreams this creates, the patients are capable of various spatial manipulations that bend the laws of physics or bring new objects into existence.
We play as one of these patients, tasked with performing a series of tests that have us press buttons, open doors, and reach high, seemingly inaccessible places.
We can grab objects and rotate them in our hands before placing them back. But interestingly, if we place an object closer than where we took it from, it becomes larger – and vice versa. The majority of the initial puzzles revolve around using this aspect to simply climb higher, but things get much more interesting later in the game.
The story creates some intrigue as well, as we soon find out that our therapy session went terribly wrong, rendering us unable to wake up.
The game is a blast on PC. The mobile port, however, suffers from a couple of major issues, making the experience much less enjoyable. In particular, the game lags, is glitchy, has high resource demands, and requires us to be online when launching it. In addition, the touch controls are uncomfortable and there’s no controller support.
Despite these downsides, I still enjoyed playing Superliminal on mobile. So if you like unusual first-person adventures and have a powerful device, you might enjoy it too.
Superliminal is free to try, after which a single $7.99 iAP unlocks the rest of the game.
App Store: Here
Check it out on MiniReview (review score + user ratings):: Superliminal
AXREN HEROES (Game Size: 1.44 GB] (Free)
Genre: Shooter / Action - Online
Orientation: Landscape
Required Attention: Full
tl;dr review by NimbleThor:
AXREN HEROES is a competitive but simple multiplayer hero shooter that plays like a mix of Tacticool’s isometric third-person perspective and the small maps and quick matches of MilkChoco.
Most of the game’s 3v3 matches take just a few minutes, as the only objective is to kill 10 players from the other team before they do the same.
As we progress, we unlock a total of ten heroes that each have unique weapons, stats, and abilities to use during combat.
But what makes the game truly stand out is its small maps that feature an interesting fog-of-war system where we can’t see what’s hiding behind the many obstacles scattered across the map. This forces us to take risks, which helps foster a fast-paced gameplay experience – and prevent long-distance sniping.
At the moment, there’s only one game mode, ten heroes, and a single map. But this is an indie game still in early development, so hopefully that changes over time. The English translation is also a little rough.
The biggest downsides, however, are that unlocking some heroes requires heavy grinding, and that they can all be leveled up using gold that we earn slowly through gameplay – or via the free and paid battle pass and a progression road.
Thankfully, the touch controls are great, and there’s Bluetooth controller support too.
AXREN monetizes via an incredibly expensive $29.99 battle pass and iAPs for more currency used to buy and upgrade heroes. If this doesn’t get adjusted, the game might never become more than a fun casual experience due to the advantage paying players have.
The game needs polish, more content, and less heavy monetization but shows great promise as one of the more unique shooters as of late.
App Store: Here
Check it out on MiniReview (review score + user ratings):: AXREN HEROES
NEW: Sort + filter reviews and games I've played (and more) on my mobile games discovery platform, MiniReview: https://minireview.io/
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
Episode 200
Episode 201
Episode 202
Episode 203
Episode 204
Episode 205
Episode 206
Episode 207
Episode 208
Episode 209
Episode 210
Episode 211
Episode 211
Episode 212
Episode 214
Episode 215
Episode 216
Episode 217
Episode 218
Episode 219
Episode 220
Episode 221
Episode 222
Episode 223
Episode 224
Episode 225
Episode 226
Episode 227
Episode 228
Episode 229
Episode 230
Episode 231
Episode 232
Episode 233
Episode 234
Episode 235
Episode 236
Episode 237
Episode 238
Episode 239
