Mobile Games Review #105 : LOTR Heroes of Middle-Earth, Playstation Studios Mobile...

Discover our weekly review of mobile gaming news on Android and iOS issue #105 which presents you the news of April 2023! On the agenda this week: the Scopely buyout, the new Playstation Studios Mobile division, the release of Eggy Party, the Dislyte Dusk & Dawn expansion and much more to discover in this recap. We'll let you read it all below. ⬇️

LOTR Heroes of Middle-Earth to be released May 10

We start this week's recap with the announcement of the release of the next Lord of the Rings game on Android and iOS. Capital games and Electronic Arts are finally planning to release LOTR Heroes of Middle-Earth on mobile on May 10. This free-to-play title mixes references to The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings as you embark on an epic quest. After discovering the existence of a new ring of power, you'll embark on a PvP and PvE adventure punctuated by combat at turn-based. You know the drill: collect characters and upgrade them to build a team of 5 heroes capable of fighting any danger.

This new Lord of the Rings game on mobile comes 1.5 years after the strategy title Rise to War released on Android and iOS in 2021. You can already pre-register for Heroes of Middle-Earth in our article in the file and description. Be careful though, we're talking about a free-to-play title with in-game purchases and Electronic Arts, so even if you're a Tolkien fan and rich as a dragon, it might sting on the business model.

Tower of Fantasy server merge on April 17, character reruns

We continue with the server merge Tower of Fantasy. Players who have reached level 6 Wanderer on Tencent's MMORPG whose accounts participate in the server merge will receive 300 dark crystals as compensation. Like many MMOs that are no longer in their launch hype phase, Tower of Fantasy is reducing its technical load and bringing players together with the merger of seven servers in Europe and six in North America on April 17. At the same time, the game's content continues to expand from the 2.4 Under the Great Sea update, with reruns of the ice characters Saki Fuwa, Frigg and Alyss available through May 3. To boost your playing power, check out our tier list simulacra Tower of Fantasy.

Playstation launches PlayStation Studios Mobile

Video game studios have been attacking the phone format for over 10 years. Despite a few attempts, Sony has yet to make its mark on the mobile market. This week, the firm is launching its Playstation Studios Mobile division with plenty of job openings. To learn more about the future of Sony games on mobile, go to our dedicated article.

Release of Pocket City 2 that makes you a virtual mayor

Who says you can't pay to be a mayor? In Pocket City 2, the 3D sequel to the original game by Codebrew Games, you only have to pay 5.50 euros to access your own city. Then, as mayor, you can make its streets evolve, add buildings and explore your creation on foot, become a landlord and party with the inhabitants, without any microtransactions.

Packed with mini-games and as fun to play as ever, Pocket City 2 is a sandbox like we like, which honors the fun and simplicity of mobile games. And if becoming mayor is too difficult a task to accomplish alone, you can even invite a friend to join you by purchasing the game on Google Play or Appstore.

Release of NetEase Eggy Party, the mobile Fall Guys from NetEase

Running a city requires a lot of responsibility, so why not put on your eggy suit and play Intercities on your phone? Even if it doesn't have a cow, NetEase's Eggy Party, which is obviously inspired by Fall Guys, is counting on the success of Stumble Guys to make its way to mobile. Play as an egg in a crazy Battle Royale race with obstacles, dodges, jumps and improbable physics to win the trophy. This week, NetEase announced the launch of Eggy Party in the Philippines for Android players soon. So get your VPNs warmed up, there's going to be an omelet on the field starting April 21.

Pre-register for Blackpink The Game

Blinks may not be the most numerous in the Mobi.gg community, but K-pop has left its mark on mobile gaming with many collaborations. Instead of talking about the eternal boy band BTS, I'll focus on the female group Blackpink who launches its mobile game with a rather predictable name... Blackpink The Game. In this little pocket game that juggles between band management, styling and casual puzzles, you become the manager of the band of stars that compose it. You can pre-register in our dedicated article.

Marvel Snap Weekly Balancing

Marvel Snap decides to take balancing up a notch with the arrival of weekly updates. In a blog post, the Nuverse TCG reveals its over-the-air updates, which means no download is required, that will adjust the power of certain maps up or down to balance the game smoothly. Of course, Marvel Snap will continue to receive a full patch each month loaded with new content including new locations and heroes.

Baldur's Gate Alliance released on iOS

The Baldur's Gate Alliance port makes its debut on iOS for 10 euros via the Appstore. This classic dungeon-crawling experience honors the original PC and console games. Enter each dungeon and slay huge waves of monsters.

On your Dungeons and Dragons adventure, explore the world alone or with friends with puzzles, story, and plenty of powers and weapons to test. Each dungeon is unique in its design and the types of monsters it harbors so you can count on many hours of play on Baldur's Gate Alliance with your iOS device.

Demian Saga's exit

This week's releases include Demian Saga: Chrono Pirates, the first RPG from Haegin, a studio known for its game Play Together. Available in French from its launch, this gacha RPG
invites you to discover its 5 nations of heroes by collecting them and integrating them into strategic battles in PvE and PvP up to 200 players. If you like the shimmering graphics of this title and are looking for a new gacha RPG to get started on, Demian Saga: Chrono Pirates is a solid free-to-play candidate on Android and iOS.

Extension Dislyte Dusk & Dawn and addition of the Youtuber Markiplier

Another RPG gacha that has not finished making news is Dislyte. This week, the game is getting a major expansion called Dusk & Dawn Dungeon. This event and related content is part of the April Carnival.

In-game, you will find the Youtuber Markiplier as NPC but also 3 new Espers: Athena under the name of Leora, Nyx aka Elaine and Hati who will take the name of Camillea vtuber with her own social networks. Dislyte is a gacha from Lilith Games with a unique artistic direction and a brand new dungeon to discover for free on Android and iOS.

Vampire Survivors Tide of the Foscari Extension

The hit bullet hell Vampire Survivors is finally releasing its 2nd DLC on mobile called Tides of the Foscari. The Foscari Academy, a remote school trains children with extraordinary powers and abilities. Among its students, you can play as Eleanor the magician, Maruto the warrior or Keitha the archer. In addition to all of the above, Vampire Survivors also unveils Luminaire Foscari, the lady of the lake with a destructive burst of energy, which should make for a lot of new content to try out for active players.

Nintendo Live 2023 in September in Seattle IRL

After the cancellation of E3, we suspected that the studios would start to move forward with their plans. The Ubisoft Forward conference will take place in June, Playstation continues its State of Play and Nintendo announced this week the Nintendo Live 2023 IRL event in September in Seattle. In a huge Nintendo-themed space, fans of the Japanese publisher's licenses will be able to enjoy games on Switch, local tournaments and other fan service events. The event already existed in Asia and will be exported to the United States for the first time this September.

Release of Doctor WHO an unlikely Heist on Apple Arcade

The release of the last Doctor Who game on mobile didn't really convince the Doctor's fans. The Lost in Time gacha therefore returns to the shadows while the spotlight turns to the release of the next game of the license on Apple Arcade: Doctor Who An Unlikely Heist. Available via Apple Arcade subscription for 4 euros 99 / month, with a free month trial, this new title sends you in search of lost objects through space and time in a brand new plot to discover online or offline.

Indian BR Indus reaches 1.5M pre-registrations

The 100% Indian Battle Royale Indus is indeed gaining in power. Coincidence? I don't think so. The SuperGaming studio in charge of the project is delighted to announce that Indus has already passed the million and a half pre-registration mark and will soon launch its 4th round test accessible by invitation with a big focus on performance esport. Indus seems to be on the right track as the developers have recently made significant improvements to the spectator mode, vehicles and the competitive aspect of the game.

And as a statistical bonus, I can confirm that the game Hero Wars has just reached 120 million downloads, which proves that false advertising pays off.

Release of Worms WMD Mobilize Premium

One of Team17 's licenses involves earthworms and explosions. Do you know what I mean? Warrior Worms are back on the phone with the release of Worms WMD Mobilization. Destructible environments, training missions, 1v1 duels... It's all here for fans of the franchise. Discover the full game in our dedicated article.

Mobile Game Partnerships of the Week

This week's partnerships are as numerous as they are major. AFK Arena is getting an event supported by Re: Zero, Fortnite is multiplying partnerships with SNK and Coachella while the MMORPG Summoners War Chronicles is getting One Punch Man content. Several other partnerships have also made noise in the mobile community such asArknights ' partnershipwith The Legend of Neverland or Blade & Revolution with K-PoP group Mave. Cross media has never been so hot, so it's my crossover party in April!

Release of Raging Bytes (premium, 8 euros)

This week, KEMCO publishes its premium game Raging Bytes for 8 euros on Google Play and Appstore. In this pixel art title, experience the 1970s in the United States in the midst of the zombie apocalypse. The story of Ben, a policeman who is trying to find out if the government has fallen as the infection spreads, is not really gory as the graphics remain cute but is close to a classic zombie movie with fights at turn-based as an extra.

Lushida: Origin in Singapore and Malaysia

Available for free on Android and iOS, Lushida: Origin launches in Singapore and Malaysia this week. Its pleasing visual style showcases the strategic board and the 100 available characters divided into 7 combat classes that will be essential in lifting the veil on the alien civilizations in the story.

But don't draw your VPNs too quickly, this title published by Electronic Soul is only translated into simplified Chinese for the moment so it might put most of you off. The strategic RPG Lushida Origin could well arrive in Europe in the future since Electronic Soul has already published games abroad like BarbarQ 1 and 2.

Release of Obey Me! nightbringer, otome game and rhythm game

Male fan service in gacha and visual novels is omnipresent, especially in Asian mobile games. This time, it's the women's turn to get a kick out of Obey Me! Nightbringer, an otome game with a rhythm background. I don't have much to say about the game except that there is romance in the air and mini-games to spend a few entertaining hours in front of your screen for free on Android and iOS.

Mobile game anniversaries

We continue with the anniversaries to celebrate this week. Summoners War Sky Arena and War Robots are definitely the dinosaurs of the anniversary section as they both reach 9 years of existence this month. Much younger and freshly arrived, Play Together celebrates its 2 years of activity and Elemental Titans blows its first candle with new content.

The point esport PUBG Mobile

For this week's esport update, I'd like to remind you that the PUBG Mobile Europe Spring 2023 tournament is underway with a total cash prize of $100,000. You can enjoy the finals matches during the weekends before the end of the month as the tournament will officially end on April 30. The match schedule and live streams to follow are available on the official PUBG Mobile Europe YouTube channel. After the pool phases, the 16 best teams will start the next phase of the championship and the French team Game-lord is doing pretty well!

You can find the links of the games in our recap article in description if you want to give strength to the teams present.

Closing of English Disgaea RPG & Valkyrie Rush

The chapter of closures is not ending every week. We say goodbye to Disgaea RPG in English which will only keep its Asian section open. But we also put in a coffin the mediocre game Valkyrie Rush Idle & Merge published by Com2Us.

We are far from the catastrophic announcement of the disappearance ofApex mobilebut we would like to have a week without closing to make you happier stories next month. Gods of mobile gaming, if you can hear us, please accept the sacrifices of the beginning of the year and stop this massacre.

Launch of the Blue Archive Schale Store

2023 marks the arrival of a lot of merchandise. At Mobi.gg, we are waiting for the ridiculous but cute figurines from the Eggy Party game presented at the beginning of this review. But Com2Us launched its Summoners War store recently and this week the Blue Archive gacha from Nexon opens its merchandising section under the name of Schale Store. All items in the Blue Archive store are available for pre-order with additional international shipping charges. The current collection represents the Kivotos Halo Festival with stickers, water bottle, acrylic characters, pins, jacket, mouse pad and even a sports towel.

Savvy Games Group acquires Scopely for $4.9 billion

After Take-Two bought Zynga and Microsoft bought Activision Blizzard King, a new studio is making the news about video game studio acquisitions. It is Scopely, the publisher of Star Trek Fleet Command and Kingdom Maker (among other big mobile games). This week, Savvy Games Group is buying Scopely for a $4.9 billion deal. To know everything about the Scopely buyout and the biggest video game deals, go to our dedicated article.

More mobile gaming news this week

Thank you all for reading this far, and see you next week for more mobile gaming news! If you missed last week's news, our previous recap #104 was about the release of Harry Potter Magic Awakened, the release of Higan Eruthyll, the arrival of a new Ubisoft game on mobile and much more to be found in our news.