Upcoming iPhone and iPad games - Magic: the Gathering, Yesterday

Every Friday, we like to finish off the week by looking ahead and talking about the iPhone and iPad games that are just over the horizon.

While we champion games that are exclusive to iOS, a good port never goes unnoticed at Pocket Gamer towers.

Especially games that are obviously much more suited to the touchscreen. Magic: The Gathering will likely feel more natural on iPad than other formats, while in Yesterday, you can just tap on interesting objects and hotspots to investigate.

Note: Dates, prices, and features are subject to change at the whim of the developer and Apple's approval team. Dates were correct at time of publication.

Magic: The Gathering - Duels of the Planeswalker 2013
By Wizards of the Coast - out on iPad on June 20th (source)

The first Planeswalker game was well loved on Xbox Live Arcade. It managed to ease in new players (scared off by the game's notorious complexity and impenetrable cost), without shedding too much depth. But playing cards on a controller wasn't exactly ideal.

Thank the Vodalian Goddess, then, that the sequel is coming to iPad. On tablet, playing cards is as easy as dragging them out of your hand, and tapping for mana is as simple as, well, tapping.

If you've never played it, Magic: The Gathering is about decimating your opponent's health by laying down offensive cards, while protecting your own life by casting defensive spells. You'll also need to top up your mana supply by tapping land cards.

That's the basics. But when you take into account the more complex cards, different statuses and ailments, the four distinct phases of each battle, and helpful planeswalker allies, you start to see how deep this game runs.

The iPad version will have a full campaign mode to work through, and online multiplayer over Game Center. There's a deck builder (with star-rated recommendations for each card) and lots of snazzy special effects for each spell. It's out on the 20th.

Yesterday
By Pendulo Software - out on iPhone and iPad on June 21st (source)

Spanish studio Pendulo has had a spotty history when it comes to comedy point and click adventure games. Maybe something gets lost in the translation, on maybe games like Runaway and The Next Big Thing are just not that funny.

Yesterday, however, is darker and considerably more bleak than the company's previous games. It's still got a comedic streak, but this is a story about ritual murder, satanism, suicide, the occult and even the downfall of modern economics. It can be a little tough to swallow, at times.

There are three main playable characters - rich boy Henry White, dumb lug Samuel Cooper, and suicidal amnesic John Yesterday. They'll pop off on a globe-trotting adventure to figure out why some psycho serial killer is knocking off homeless people. It spirals out to a story about centuries-old secrets and ancient cults.

It works quite well on iPad. Every object you can click on pops up a little graphic novel panel to show the hotspot in more detail. Using objects together is just about dragging them on top of each other. And there's a button to reveal all the tap-able areas in the room.

We'll find out whether Yesterday's story can fill the big shoes of its subject matter when we review it next week. It launches on June 21st, says Bulkypix.