GAMES OF THE WEEK - The 5 best new mobile games for iOS and Android - November 19th 2020
It's that time again! Time for another entry into our long-running GAMES OF THE WEEK series.
If you're looking for the best 5 games which have hit the iPhone, iPad or Android stores this week then you've landed yourself at the exact right place at just the right time. Lucky, lucky you.
With this article, we skirt around the droves of subscription services (Apple Arcade, Google Play Pass, GameClub, Hatch, and all of their friends) which have launched onto mobile platforms over the years. We also don't factor in things like Steam Link or Google Stadia which allow streaming to handheld devices - and would open up this list to almost every game under the sun.
What that means is that our list is a finely curated list of brilliant, fresh titles which you can download and play without subscribing to, or installing, any third-party initiative. Of course, there are some great games on those services, but, let's focus on the stuff that you can grab right now.
From tile-based, collectable-card-game battlers through to zombie physics games, we've got a little bit of everything here for you this week. But, that's not all, we've also got a dip into a fantastic port of an award-winning aRPG, as well as two, great narrative exploration games.
Remember, if you're looking to check through some of our previous selections then you can always do that at our Games of The Week Hub, it's a great way to find games to fill out that empty storage space on your phone. Or, if you like your news in bitesize chunks, delivered straight to your palm then maybe follow us on Twitter or join our Discord.
Anyway, without any further delay, click on the big, blue button below to find out more about what we believe to be the top five of the games which released on mobile over the last week.
1
The First Tree
A few years back there was a massive surge of having foxes as protagonists, but one of the most beautiful games among that mass of games was The First Tree; a stunning game which follows two stories. The first is a a fox trying to find her missing family, and the second is a son trying to reconnect with his father.
It combines an emotional story and a truly memorable setting, and it looks absolutely fantastic on mobile.
2
DeLight: The Journey Home
DeLight tells the emotional story of a blind girl and a stray dog that she comes to call her friend. You have to guide the protagonist as they try to survive their wartorn city and find her way back to her parents.
If that's not compelling enough, then just take a look at the stunning design work which has gone into peeling back the world as Sammy explores and becomes familiar with their surroundings, peeling back the darkness of the unknown.
3
Book of Beasts
We've mentioned Book of Beasts a fair few times this year, and for good reason. It's a clever fusion of a tile-placement game with a CCG game (Think of Card City Nights, or FF8's Triple Triad), with directional placement essential to victory. There's much more going on though, for a start the spell systems and the CCG elements, as well as the lore in general, really make it stand out from the pretenders.
4
Moonlighter
At times it certainly feels like we see a lot more mobile games heading to other formats than the other way around, this week is an exception, with both The First Tree and also Moonlighter coming to mobile. Moonlighter is one that we've been watching for a while now, not least because the development team has done an absolutely amazing job of switching out mouse & keyboard or the controller for the touch-screen, with some truly clever changes to make it's aRPG night-time sections feel dynamic and tight.
If you're up for selling your loot during the day, and tight fights at night, then Moonlighter is one for you.
5
Bridge Constructor: The Walking Dead
I've lost track of how many Bridge Constructor games there are now, but the reason they keep being made isn't simply because there are always more licenses that can be strapped onto it. No, no. It's because the pure, easy to convey puzzle nature of its touchscreen-perfect physics gameplay has been tweaked to perfection by the developers and they're not afraid to tinker with new ideas to continue showing off just how well they've got it down.
Sure, the IP might seem a little tired, but it's quite fun having zombies fall into traps or plummet to their doom, and there's no better brand to pair with if you want to deliver zombie chaos to your series.
