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Around the Alliance - Forge Ahead Tips, Game Awards reflections, Aquarium building and much more

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Around the Alliance - Forge Ahead Tips, Game Awards reflections, Aquarium building and much more

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Did you know that Pocket Gamer is part of a massive network of websites, a network stretching well beyond our Steel Media overlords? Well, here's an article where we celebrate our part among the Steel Media Alliance, and that of some of our compatriots around the alliance.

Hello and welcome to this week's Around the Alliance, our series where we round up some of the best posts from the best mobile sites out there - that's right, from the alliance of websites that we're a part of. Think of it as us showcasing some of our work alongside that of our friends, for everybody to see.

Let's face it, there are just so many great games out there that no one site can cover every single bit of news, and that's why it's so great that there are so many sites out there covering them - this is our way of celebrating our friends, and the biggest news that we might have missed.

In this article, we've brought together articles from Pocket Gamer and our sister sites, 148Apps and AppSpy, while also featuring some great reads from Blue Moon GameTouch Tap Play and iPhoneGlance.

This week that takes the form of a top gadgets list for Christmas, some essential Forge Ahead tips, a Black Desert Mobile Review as well as some reflection on Call of Duty Mobile's award from the recent Games Awards.

So let's get on with the best of the content from the best of the best.

Click Here To View The List »

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Pocket Gamer - Is Call of Duty: Mobile really the best mobile game of the year?

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Did you watch this year's The Games Awards? I certainly didn't, I was probably too busy out-and-about doing editor-y things. Likely things like criticizing the grammar of street art, or maybe complaining about the sentence composition of an advert. That sounds like me. Anyway, The Game Awards 2019 is certainly a thing that happened, and while I'm unsure whether Hideo Kojima rode a pantomime horse comprised of Peter Molyneux and Will Wright out onto the stage, or indeed if a giant, bespectacled giraffe presented this one. One thing that I do know is that Call of Duty Mobile swooped the award for Best Mobile Game of 2019, and that's a strange thing to hear in a year filled with so many stand-out games which are moving the industry forward in areas deeper than shooty-shooty-bang-bang.

It looks like Cameron has the same feelings on the matter as me - his post directly addresses not just the seemingly shallow thought-process which went into CoD:M's victory, but also the deluge of amazing games which have been pushing boundaries this year. That's not to say that Call of Duty: Mobile is a bad game, it's an exceptional first-person shooter and it's well-refined controls and perfect pacing manages to deliver Call of Duty on mobile platforms in a way which has never been achieved before. But, it also doesn't really achieve anything in doing it beyond 'Big games can be on mobile phone' which isn't a message we're really struggling with in 2019.

Consider instead that last year it was Florence that took the award home, Monument Valley 2 the year before, and Pokemon Go the year before. These are deserving winners which pushed narratives, puzzling and the way we use our phones into new directions. Check out the post to see some of our suggestions for mobile games which also pushed barriers this year.

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148Apps - Abyssrium Pole is an upcoming aquarium builder for iOS and Android that just hit 1 million pre-registers

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Penguins are just brilliant aren't they? Flapping little flightless mites with a knack for swimming and a call that sounds like somebody trying to rev a donkey. FleroGames clearly agree, because whoever composed their trailer for Abysserium Pole (sequel to Tap Tap Fish - AbyssRium) made a clear focus on the two-tone best birds.

Anyway, enough about the penguins. The reason we're watching the trailer is that the polar-themed game has hit the amazing milestone of one million pre-registrations. That's no mean feat, especially considering that the game will be free-to-play on launch and really, rather simply, is comprised of essentially groundskeeping a chilly slice of the Antarctic Ocean.

As the article over on 148Apps details, those who pre-register will secure 1000 pearls for free on launch - although we're not sure exactly what that translates to in the frosty marketplace of the southernmost continent. I can tell you when we will know though; The 8th of January, when it launches on both the App Store and Google Play.

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BlueMoonGame - Black Desert Mobile Review

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Have you been playing Black Desert Mobile? Heck, it seems like everybody has been. The mobile MMORPG (Dare I say, MMMORPG) seems to have been on everybody's phone recently - my social media timelines have been full of people tinkering with the character creator with the same devotion others gave to it in the original release. It's a sweeping world and I was really impressed with the depth and width of the game's environment - although it did take me a while to get used to the controls. 

Blue Moon Game have similar opinions to me, it seems. In their review, they declare that Black Desert Mobile has a world "that it is richer than most other MMORPGs on the market." While also pointing out another essential element to an MMO's success: "Also, the player base for this game is huge, which is one of the main things that determine whether or not an MMO will live long."

Pop over and give it a read if you're undecided on whether to throw yourself into a new, epic MMO. Maybe they'll help you decide whether it's time.

4
AppSpy - Marvel Contest of Champions celebrates its 5th anniversary in style with a cinematic trailer that hints at the game's future

We have a bit of a quandary here at Pocket Gamer, one which Touch Tap Play seems to have happy toddled past. We still haven't quite figured out how to talk about hypercasual mobile games. Most of the problem is that we call them hypercasual mobile games, while only a tiny, tiny, tiny portion of their users would even bother grouping the games into the same group. Do we call them 'Small, micro-action games that, frankly, most of us end up playing after watching their advert for the 10th time after playing another small, micro-action game?" That's probably a better name, but I doubt that even we could pull off the SMAGTFMOUEUPAWTAFT1TAPASMAG acronym.

Touch Tap Play have solved the problem by diving straight into much-needed guide content for the sorts, specifically for the magnificently-titled Forge Ahead. It's a game about smashing the pudding out of things so that you can forge better and better weaponry. Basically it's like the ARPG crawl of 'kill more enemies, get components, get a bigger sword, kill bigger enemies' but without all that boring enemy slaughtering. They've got the best tips for sailing through the addictive tapping, refining and forging game, and it's well worth a look if you feel like you've been wasting time at the forge.

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Touch Tap Play - Forge Ahead Cheats: Tips & Tricks Guide To Forging the Best Swords

We have a bit of a quandary here at Pocket Gamer, one which Touch Tap Play seems to have happy toddled past. We still haven't quite figured out how to talk about hypercasual mobile games. Most of the problem is that we call them hypercasual mobile games, while only a tiny, tiny, tiny portion of their users would even bother grouping the games into the same group. Do we call them 'Small, micro-action games that, frankly, most of us end up playing after watching their advert for the 10th time after playing another small, micro-action game?" That's probably a better name, but I doubt that even we could pull off the SMAGTFMOUEUPAWTAFT1TAPASMAG acronym.

Touch Tap Play have solved the problem by diving straight into much-needed guide content for the sorts, specifically for the magnificently-titled Forge Ahead. It's a game about smashing the pudding out of things so that you can forge better and better weaponry. Basically it's like the ARPG crawl of 'kill more enemies, get components, get a bigger sword, kill bigger enemies' but without all that boring enemy slaughtering. They've got the best tips for sailing through the addictive tapping, refining and forging game, and it's well worth a look if you feel like you've been wasting time at the forge.

6
iPhone Glance - Great Gadgets for Christmas

Apparently Christmas is a thing which is coming up incredibly soon - who knew? Naturally, that means that every storefront is vying for your megapounds, spacebucks or other local currency. iPhone Glance, who are new to our Around the Alliance series this week, have gathered together some of their favourite deals from around the internet. There's definitely a trend to be found in their selections for the list: battery packs, earphones and more - this is a list built for those of us who use our phones a lot, and feel like we need to be more efficient in how we use it.

That said, there's also a Nintendo Switch on there, as well as the Echo Flex. If you're really struggling for a last-minute gift for one who games then you don't need to look much further than their list.

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Dann Sullivan
Dann Sullivan
A job in retail resulted in a sidestep into games writing back in 2011. Since then Dann has run or operated several indie game focused websites. They're currently the Editor-in-Chief of Pocket Gamer Brands, and are determined to help the site celebrate the latest and greatest games coming to mobile.