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What are some of the App Army's favourite mobile games so far in 2018?

A bit of a different Assemble

What are some of the App Army's favourite mobile games so far in 2018?
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It's Friday and I'm pretty sure you know what that means. Aside from the promise of cold beers on a sunny afternoon and getting to read Harry Slater's glorious new Hot Takes, it means it's time for our App Army to have their say.

Usually we focus on a specific game, but since it's E3 this week I thought it'd be fun to ask our game-loving community what their very favourite mobile game of 2018 has been so far. I mean, it's a tough ask I know, but we've been spoiled for choice and there's still half a year to go!

What have your favourite games been this year? Join in the conversation and let us know in those comments below.

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Robert Maines

Silverfish DX, okay it’s reboot of of an older game, but I like arcade games that you can play in short bursts.

Steve Clarke

I had three titles in mind while I was trying to choose which I felt was best, having not played them in a while felt it only fair to boot them up and give each a go before coming to a final decision. It should be noted that all three of the games I'm going to mention are excellent titles that would make a fine addition to any mobile library.

Death Coming - Asked me to sign a user agreement when launched, I refused and the game closed. Instantly out of contention, but if you don't mind potentially signing your soul away the innovative gameplay, dark sense of humour and pop culture references made this one of my stand out titles of the year.

Oddmar - A classic platforming experience that's really too good for mobiles. It's the closest your going to get to a console experience in the palm of your hand. The only downside was that after a few minutes of play there was nothing new, I'd already beaten the game and was going through the motions again. It is however still great, still downright charming and still as smooth as Stevie Wonder.

Jydge - It woz the replayability wot won it. I still find myself coming back to Jydge when I've got five spare minutes and want to make a run for one the rock hard medal achievements or fancy trying one of the levels again with a different loadout and tactics. The plethora of upgradeable equipment means you can keep coming back to any of the superbly designed levels in a completely different way. For me it's the best in what so far has been a great year for mobile gaming, may it continue!

Josef Hewitt

7 Wonders for me. It's a great translation of a great board game - reliable app, nice presentation, the expansion's now included, and I'm finally starting to win games!

Giliath Saly

PUBG Mobile, hands down. So simple and fun.

Jim Linford

I've got Fortnite on the iPhone. Yeah that's fun, but I'm looking forward to downloading the version on my Switch.

Federico Casavecchia

Oddmar for me, definitely one of the best crafted platformers released for mobile: amazing graphic mixed with good controls combined for a great experience on iOS devices

Oksana Ryan

One of my favourites this year is Death Coming. I love hidden object and quirky gameplay, and this game had it in spades. There are several large scenes to be navigated, tasks to perform and people to kill - as you play the grim reaper. The graphics are bright and gorgeous and the gameplay is well thought out, and there are cute scenarios going on that you must complete.

I found this game amusing and entertaining and it's the kind of game that can be put down and picked up later without losing the threads. Hidden object games can be predictable and mostly of a sameness but this game definitely brought a new slant to the genre. To me it was a definite winner.

Chad Jones

Brew Town! I never would have thought I would have had this much fun from this game.

Paul Manchester

Okay, for me it's got to be Trick Shot 2. I hate it, I love it, and I spend far too much time on it! The first was a great time-killer and this sequel has built on the solid foundation without radically changing the gameplay. It's definitely a game to give you those red marks on your legs after sitting on the loo playing 'just one more level'.

Warning to any sensitive souls - it can be infuriating, but for me that makes the satisfaction of achieving a hole-in-one all the more rewarding. P.S. If I can sneak in a switch title then Yoku's Island is hands-down the most fun I have had all year!!

Slava Kozyrev

Best game of the first six months of 2018? After some serious considerations I decorate The Room: Old Sins (pun intended) with the title of "The Best Mobile Game of 2018 so far". I remember like it was yesterday: the feeling of genuine awe and excitement after I launched the first original Room game on my iPad some four or five years ago. It was sitting in my iPad folder for what seemed like forever, I knew that the game made some splashes across the App Store and out of sheer curiosity I tapped the icon to see what the fuss was all about. To say that I was blown away would be an understatement.

Now back to 2018. The blood is still strong with The Room: Old Sins after all its previous instalments. It still feels fresh and original with some minor, but qualitative, tweaks and improvements. Fireproof Games definitely honed their craft throughout all these years and attention to detail is other-worldly. Apart from the game being supreme by itself, my choice is also predicated upon the fact that my mom - who is going to turn 70 at the end of this year and who is an active user of my family's very first iPad (iPad 2) - after some initial hesitation decided to check the game out together with me.

1.5 hours of game time flew like an instant after which our breezy cakewalk through the game was stopped by our inability to progress any further. Afterwards she said that she "never saw anything so real, ingenious, and breathtaking on an iPad" and that "the game felt more like an art than just the game". I was so proud that she liked it as though the Room: Old Sins was created by me.

Other notable mentions are: Meteorfall, Ovivo and Oddmar.

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Funem

I play a major amount of mobile games on both Android and iOS and have been involved in a lot of betas, but there are only a few I play regularly. One of them was released in beta some time ago then had its full release a few months back, and I still play a level or two on my morning journey to work every day. That game is Shadowgun Legends.

They pretty much nailed the controls which is not always that easy in a third-person shooter. The graphics, if your device can handle it, are console quality without exaggeration. The devs chose the free-to-play route, you can pay to bump up your weapons and armour, but unless you have the skills to back it up you will be taken down in PvP by a free to play player. Other use for gold is cosmetic features, like hats, stickers, or colours you can apply to your existing armour.

Don't be surprised if you pass another player who looks like a cat or Egyptian Dog god. The single-player campaign is good, though levelling XP can take a while to grind through, but I have never regretted the time I put in to it. Madfinger has been updating the game since beta, adding new content and feature which bodes well for the future of the game. It's a great time waster which, ultimately, all games are and one of the best releases of 2018 (so far).

Roman Valerio

Would you like to know what if feels like to be a tiny candle that has just 10 seconds of life before it burns into oblivion? Try it for yourself by playing Candleman, which in my opinion rightfully deserves the title of 'The Best Mobile Game of 2018 So Far'.

This stunning masterpiece comprises six chapters of majestically beautiful levels allowing you to completely lose yourself in their eye-popping surroundings. Excellent sound effects help full immersion into the game and create a gloomy, suspenseful atmosphere. Candleman is dark and full of terrors, but fear no more as where there is a light, there is a way.

Ed Davis

I am constantly downloading games, deleting them and re-downloading them. But, one of the few that has been on my go-to list this year has been Alto's Odyssey. The simple gameplay, like its predecessor, along with the progressively challenging tasks, makes for an enjoyable experience.

This version takes place in a desert landscape which includes architecture fitting for that scenario. The changing weather can make it challenging to see the surrounding area, but this feels almost intentional. The game has stunning graphics and runs extremely smoothly.

Dries Pretorius

Mobile Devices like the iPad are particularly well suited to Board Games and Adventure Books. The more moving parts there are, the more convenient the game engine makes it. The sheer amount of book-keeping in Talisman's The Dragon expansion has caused much groaning, all the mathematics are conveniently handled by my tablet. Pathfinder Adventures is another example of this digital board game treatment. I enjoy both Pathfinder and Talisman and I've sunk heaps of time and money into both, but random element of digital dice drive me up the walls.

The benefits Antihero derives from its mobile platform are not the same as Pathfinder and Talisman - there are no complex mathematical probabilities or random number generators. The platform serves as a slick presentation for an RPG turn-based strategy hybrid, closer to Warbits than the D&D mobile ports that provide its context.

Each crime lord you face has a personality that translates into a play style. There's Skullduggery, Sneakery, and Stabbery tech trees and win conditions, the trick is in seeing what kind of game your opponent is trying to play, and then undermining their efforts while forwarding your own against their resistance.

One game for instance saw me go toe to toe for territory control against my opponent, trying to funnel his attacks into territories with ambushes in wait, while muscling him out with my gangs. Unexpectedly he steamrolled into my territory, seizing all my properties, my economy, and means of unit production. My only assets, being two gangs which escaped the slaughter, became my centrepieces, racing to assassinate enough targets to fulfil victory conditions before my opponent fulfilled economic or political conditions, or cornered my rogue units. In the end, my guerrilla tactics won out by a narrow margin in what is one of my most intense board game experiences to date.

The visual aesthetic is expressive with character designs that remind me of Roald Dahl's books and Oliver Twist. The campaign weaves a story of life on the streets with a steady introduction of game mechanics. A deep and complex turn-based strategy experience I highly recommend for fans of the genre, and mobile gaming as a whole.

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Mark Abukoff

I know posted about this not long ago. Obviously I like Trexels 2 cause it's a well-made Star Trek game, but mostly I like it because it shows potential. Maybe for what someone else can do, with better graphics and less grinding for resources. I like the idea of building up your ship, training your crew, and doing not only ship vs ship but turn-based tactical away team missions. It could bring something like Star Trek Online to mobile.

The missions are not all about shooting aliens. You need science to heal injured Klingons and neutralise plant creatures which are basically harmless, but will attack if attacked, and you need engineering skills to hack forcefields and activate different platforms on planets to accomplish your mission. To do that, of course, you have to man various rooms on your ship to produce power, science, and command. With those resources you can train personnel for increasingly difficult away missions, primarily against the Borg and Klingons. You also use resources to build more resource-building rooms. You know the drill.

On away missions I find myself having to activate beacons and fight through opposition to get to injured people before they die. I'm a little tired of the retro-pixelated thing. It's good for nostalgia, but I want something sharper. So far, Star Trek Trexels 2 is worth the time spent grinding, and I'm hoping that someone picks up the ball and goes farther with it.

Star Trek Trexels is currently on soft-launch in the Philippines and Malaysia.

Armaan Modi

I really liked Friday the 13th. It's funny and includes cartoony gore and it's a puzzler! There are a number of levels and the music and cutscenes are also good.

Quincy Jones

Honestly I have not been very impressed with a lot of what came out this year. That said, there was one game that I still have on my device: Death Coming! I'm a huge fan of Party Hard - it's a game that stays on my device to this day - so Death Coming was an instant favourite.

There's something about finding interesting ways to send the little pixel people to their maker that always brings a smile to my face. The controls in this game were flawless and the humour factor was off the charts. It's a game that's bound to make anyone laugh or at least chuckle. Each area gave you additional challenges to complete that added a bit of difficulty, but were always satisfying to see the resulting effects. Also, the angels patrolling make things very interesting as well. It's a great pick up and play game for sure

There's tons of replay here, but let's be honest - who doesn't love wiping out a city of pixel peasants? Definitely a must-have for everyone especially Party Hard fans

Emily Sowden (Yes, I want to join in!)

I've seen a LOT of games pass through my various devices this year from shooters to puzzlers and artsy platformers and, shock horror, it's a puzzler and a 3D platformer that's got me tied.

Firstly, as you'll see from everyone's responses above, Death Coming is an amazing game. It's hilarious, dark in all of the right ways, meticulous, and you sincerely need the correct strategy to take out seas of pixel people to meet your quota. You can't just tap wildly to clear out this one.

Moving away from dark and focussing more on light, Candleman is my other favourite so far this year. I wasn't expecting much when I started playing as I know it'd been on PC before coming to mobile (and some ports are a little shaky), but I was hooked from the first level.

The levels are super simple, but so cleverly laid out that you've got to think about the perfect times to use your flame. You only have ten seconds before you're little more than legs with a burnt-out wick, so every moment of light is precious. Aside from killer controls and mechanics, it's got a hell of a story, visuals, and soundtrack to boot. It's not perfect, but very few games are.

What is the App Army? The App Army is Pocket Gamer's very own community of mobile game experts. Each week, we provide them with a bunch of free codes and early access to the hottest upcoming games so they can provide their thoughts in features like this. To join, simply follow this link to the page on Facebook and request access. We'll get you in right away!
Emily Sowden
Emily Sowden
Emily is Pocket Gamer's News Editor and writes about all kinds of game-related things. She needs coffee to function and begrudgingly loves her Switch more than she lets on.