In the .biz realm, we often find ourselves wrapped up in the investments, deals and stats of the gaming world (and rightly so), but it’s also important to highlight the games themselves - the fruits of the labour that can only appear after years of research, funding and, of course, development.
So here are the most exciting new mobile games right now, the developers and publishers behind them, and why, exactly, they've made the cut.
Dynasty Warriors M
Japanese powerhouse Koei Tecmo has licensed its Dynasty Warriors IP to Nexon, bringing the franchise’s next entry to mobile and blending the series’ staple hack-and-slash gameplay with classic mobile gaming features such as an idle base builder and gacha system.
Dynasty Warriors M was revealed last month as the first new game in the franchise since 2018’s Dynasty Warriors 9. The new mobile exclusive appears to reuse many assets from 9 and features 50 of its predecessor’s 94 characters, mainly obtainable via the gacha and each with their own strengths in battle.
In partnering with Nexon for Dynasty Warriors M, Koei Tecmo has put its IP in the safe hands of a mobile gaming superstar known for hits like MapleStory and Blue Archive. In fact, Nexon’s latest quarter smashed records with a 78% revenue rise in North America and Europe.
Cat Journey
The internet loves cats, and gamers love, well, games. So what could be better than a cat game? Yan Mednis’ Cat Journey is combining the two in a new platformer where players will find plenty of action and encounter fellow felines, including narrators Leo and Richie, who tell players all about the legends and secrets of the world.
Players have a range of spells and weapons to utilise in combat and need to employ their tactical side to trap and take down foes. There are a variety of levels to play already to the backdrop of cat-themed ambient music, and Yan Mednis has even been sure to include accessibility features like gamepad support.
Cat Journey has a retro artstyle that looks more cartoony than pixelated, with popping foreground colours set against darker backgrounds helping boost visibility while playing.
Space Intern
The idea of interning in space may be in equal parts exciting and terrifying, but floating interstellar with burned-out coworkers and bosses certainly sounds like it would add to the challenge. Space Intern is just that - a retro platformer that tasks players with surviving the corporatised cosmos while handling workloads and work politics.
Among the potential CV skills acquired for daring space interns are 40 levels to complete, gravity-based gameplay to platform through, synchronised swimmers to deal with (oh, and they’re jellyfish, by the way), and obviously, exploding frogs.
Space Intern has been released by Maciek Oaky, known for hypercasual game Swipe Jump 2D and platformer Pixboy. Like Cat Journey, Space Intern also features gamepad support.
Par for the Dungeon
Golf and RPGs may sound like an odd combination at first, but Par for the Dungeon has scored a hole-in-one with the merging of roleplaying and sports into one neat mobile title. It’s all about guiding Cal the golf ball into as many holes as possible, and there are more than 100 holes, in fact, each one testing players’ puzzling proficiency in reaching targets in the fewest moves possible. This is done intuitively by dragging a finger across a mobile touchscreen and aiming Cal at the hole, though there will be obstacles along the way.
A sense of progression is key to sustaining engagement with a mobile RPG, and Par for the Dungeon offers this in the form of weapons and outfits that Cal can be decked out with, as well as ranks to increase, stars and crowns to find, and challenges to unlock via meeting specific requirements.
Par for the Dungeon is the latest title from Toronto-based Sleeping Giants Games, known for its wacky and offbeat, stylised games like the American politics-themed Impeached.
Retro Kart Rush
It’s been a big month for retro-style games, with the clue even in the name for this entry: Retro Kart Rush drives players back to the 16-bit era of racing games with pixel graphics, arcade physics, and plenty of karting content to enjoy. There are single-player time trial challenges and races, multiplayer modes, multiple difficulty levels and nine characters to choose from.
With speed ramps, drifting boosts and items scattered about the courses, it’s hard not to draw comparisons to the classic Mario Kart games - especially when Retro Kart Rush has also launched on Nintendo Switch. But while still a premium game on mobile, Retro Kart Rush actually finds its most affordable home on iOS with the same full experience.
This isn’t TuanisApps’ first foray into pixel graphics either following in the footsteps of Toziuha Night, a tale about about alchemist Xandria’s quest to Dracula’s castle. Notably, neither Toziuha Night nor Retro Kart Rush have released on the Google Play Store, though TuanisApps’ more casual games like Moving Blocks Puzzle have.
