Mobile Games News Review #117 : Space Invaders AR, Code Geass mobile, Tower of God New World...

In this issue 117, we talk about Space Invaders World Defense AR, one of the upcoming augmented reality titles, the gobal release of Arena Breakout, the extraction-shooter that will remind you of Lost Light, as well as Bleach Soul Resonance and lots of other mobile gaming news. Discover a maximum of Android and iOS gaming news in a single summary every week.

Pre-registration for Space Invaders World Defense

Let's start this roundup with a title that has come from another world to manifest itself on Earth on July 18. We start with Space Invaders World Defense, the next augmented reality title from Taito, who made a typo in the title on their Google Play page. 45 years after the release of the first game, you'll have to travel through different dimensions to defend the planet as an elite starship pilot. With any luck, it'll eat up less battery than Peridot, but we'll see you in the next recap to find out after its official release on Android and iOS.

Arena Breakout global release

Exfiltrate to win, that's the objective of players in Arena Breakout, Tencent's slow FPS which debuts in worldwide release this week. Stay inconspicuous, loiter, organize your inventory, adjust your equipment and assassinate your enemies stealthily to dominate the battlefield. Arena Breakout takes the same path as Lost Light on Android and iOS, drawing on the Escape from Tarkov formula to offer a different pace of action to battle royale like Call of Duty, PUBG or Fortnite. Now's the perfect time to check it out if you haven't already, and take advantage of the worldwide release.

In addition to this release, Tencent is preparing announcements for its Global Esports Summit, held on Friday and this weekend, and we'll be reporting on this conference next week.

Pre-registration for Code Geass: Lost Stories

Mobile game adaptations of anime and manga never stop popping up in our newsfeeds. This time, it's Code Geass: Lost Stories that's launching pre-registration in selected regions. The fruit of collaboration between KOMOE Technology on the publishing side and two entities for its development, this title is obviously based on Lelouch of the Rebellion. In it, you explore an alternative version of the world where the sacred British Empire rules the planet, but finds itself threatened by a rebellion led by a masked leader named Zero.

Planned as a gacha RPG, Code Geass: Lost Stories mixes 3D combat and 2D story, as we're used to seeing with visual novels on phones. Unfortunately, pre-registration for the game is not available in Europe or in many other countries around the world, so we can only hope that the game's release in 2023 will be worldwide.

Tower of God New World release date

The Tower of God: New World license is also multiplying its adaptations this year. After Tower of God: Great Journey, it's the release date ofTower of God: New World that interests us. This gacha RPG inspired by the webtoon takes up the original story of Bam and the tower, with a hundred or so characters to unlock and battle it out in PvE and PvP in a fairly classic cocktail of action. If you pre-register now, you'll get a 25th Baam SSR for the game's release on Android and iOS on July 26.

Bleach Soul Resonance pre-registered in China and scheduled for 2024

And to keep the momentum going, we take a brief detour into another major IP with the launch of pre-registration for Bleach Soul Resonance in China on the usual platforms and on TapTap in the rest of the world. Produced by NVS Games, this mobile creation is indeed officially licensed by Shueisha and should offer maximum fan service when it launches later in 2024.

Even if nothing has been clearly announced, we can see from the first images of the game that the graphics try to be faithful to the manga and that the gameplay resembles that of a 3rd-person a-rpg. You can wait patiently on TapTap or use a VPN to be among the official testers.

The Underground Blossom demo of the new Rusty Lake game available for free on Android and iOS

We're back with the demo of Underground Blossom, which is available free of charge on stores. This new opus in the Rusty Lake game series follows the adventures of Laura Vanderboom. She must unravel her past, present and potential future by solving puzzles and making choices in her destination along a train line.

This stimulating 20-minute demo is available on Android and iOS ahead of the game's upcoming release on September 27. The title may remind movie fans of the Netflix series Poupée Russe, and on the gameplay side, Underground Blossom follows on from The Past Within, the first multiplayer episode of Rusty Lake, available for 3 euros 60 on the stores.

New trailer for Pokémon Sleep

Be careful not to fall asleep too quickly, I can hear the lullaby of a wild Jigglypuff approaching. As some of you may have guessed, it's Pokémon Sleep, a game to control your sleep by making you sleep with your phone lying flat on the mattress next to you. This week, the game unveils a new gameplay trailer featuring a statistical dashboard and unlocked achievements.

Obviously, if your phone's battery catches fire during the night, contact a Carapuce or run as fast as you can to the next PokéStop, plus it'll earn you steps in Pokémon GO. On a more serious note, Pokécontrôle de la vie isn't for me, but we can certainly laugh at the one who sleeps like a Snorlax or a Psykokwak among our pals. The game is scheduled for this summer, with no precise release date.

Peter Molyneux working on a new "unprecedented" project

The famous Peter Molyneux is making a pretty big splash in the media this week by teasing... obviously... a new "never-before-seen" project with "totally unique" mechanics. Although he was very tempted to reveal the exact idea, he restrained himself by simply specifying that the game would be mainly for PC and console, as it would be rather greedy.

He also indicated that this was the first time he'd been part of the development team for one of his projects since Black and White. Even if the game is limited to a PC release, we'll be able to test it in the cloud on our phones without any worries. After that, do I really want to invest anything in an idea from this madman after the story of the curiosity cube? I'm not sure.

Need for Speed Mobile early access Australia

Fire up the big engines for Need for Speed Mobile 's early access arrival in Australia. The title is designed as an open world, with a 100km² map offering vast playing fields, challenges, new tracks, different weather conditions and multiplayer missions with online events and voice chat. 30 licensed vehicles have been announced, and you'll be able to customize them from the game's worldwide launch. In the meantime, Need for Speed mobile is reserved for Australian players on Android via the store and on iOS with Testflight.

Captain Tsubasa Ace enters early access in selected regions

Put on your boots in Captain Tsubasa Ace, now available in early access in selected regions. The anime is transformed into an interactive 3D soccer simulation with PvE, PvP and a roster loaded with iconic characters. The gacha RPG Captain Tsubasa Ace will launch with two main game modes: Dream League with complete teams to be played manually, and Ace with control of a single player and the rest managed by AI. The title is available on Play Store in Indonesia and the Philippines with a VPN.

Release of Madtale by Archosaur Games

Get your magic wands, fighting slippers and poisoned apples ready for the release of Madtale. The French-language title fromArchosaur Games, which revisits fairy tales with a dark twist, hits our Android and iOS phones this week with top-notch chara design and a roster of summer heroes. If you'd like to know everything there is to know about this complete title, check out our test of Madtale!

Oxenfree II released on Netflix

Attention Netflix subscribers, you're in for another solid game this week. Nightschool is publishing Oxenfree II: Lost Signal, the sequel to its narrative horror series on mobile, Switch, Playstation and Steam with translation in many languages including French.

The story of this new opus takes place 5 years after the first title, still in the town of Camena, where very strange radio signals can be heard. As you unravel the veil surrounding this mystery, you enter a title with an atmosphere marked by the horror films of the last century, a great soundtrack and a level of writing still on a par with its launch. Enjoy it if you're a Netflix subscriber, as the catalog of mobile titles expands every week.

Mobile gaming industry figures for the people

Competition in the mobile games market is getting tougher all the time. And while this doesn't stop the big studios from continuing to produce clones of their previous titles, it's the games that have managed to create their own lineage to endure over time that are lining their pockets.

Post-covid, the numbers aren't really coming down, and we're still looking at a handsome total of 67.5 billion spent by mobile gamers in the first half of 2023. However, the money is highly concentrated in the hands of a handful of top-spending titles, headed by Honor of Kings, Candy Crush, Roblox, Coin Master and Genshin.

Release of Lost in Play mobile game

Lost in Play mobile, the port of the best-selling Steam game, has just been released on Android and iOS to offer phone players unprecedented access to its bizarre magical world. This adventure, full of puzzles, the interplay between reality and imagination and unique creatures, is played in old-fashioned point'n click style. Follow the adventures of two dreamy children in the free Lost in Play section and unlock the full game for just over 7 euros on store shelves.

Release of Watcher of Realms, a strategic mobile RPG

This week also marked the release of Watcher of Realms, a strategic RPG with gacha. With over 2 million players pre-registered since April, the game's corrupted lands were expecting a tidal wave of newcomers for its release. The Watcher of Realms lets you deploy teams of heroes with a variety of roles in the main campaign and end-game raids. Each character influences your base, and you can take part in solo or guild missions for the game's release on Android and iOS.

Just Cause Mobile development discontinued

Just Cause Mobile has had to close down for a while. After several delays and a few test phases, this title announced at the Game Awards 2020 will never see a full release. The game has been unavailable on stores since July 3, and those who bought in-game blue diamonds during the regional test phase will be reimbursed by Square Enix. And one more game on the 2023 pile of corpses to say hello to Apex.

A bit of fan service (Pikmin and Genshin vase in 2D top down)

Two moments dedicated to the fan caught our attention on the networks. Firstly, Pikmin vases will be arriving on MyNintendo Store UK from September 15 in 3 colors. They're currently available for pre-order at 18 pounds per vase, or around 21 euros, with a cute face but slightly creepy feet, let's face it. In far-off magical lands, we find the fan art of Genshin Impact in pixel art. The ultra-successful 2D top-down view delighted the Genshin fan community this week.

The Sims 5 - Project Rene

The Sims 5, aka Project Rene, delivers news in its second making-of episode on Youtube. The game is still in its infancy in terms of development, but the studio in charge of the project assures us that the experience will indeed be available on mobile and PC, which implies long and complex tests around simulation, socialization, creative tools, outfits, furnishings and characters to succeed in creating immersion adapted to both media. We're far from having a release date on the horizon, but we'll keep you posted on the project's major news in the meantime.

Terraria has not said its last word

Creative open-world Terraria hasn't said its last word. Yet developers have been trying to put an end to the project for many years, in fact since 2015. The problem is that the game sells extremely well and hasn't lost popularity since its launch. At Mobi.gg, we even recommended it to you in a recent review, in addition to including it in our top open world games, which I invite you to check out.

Selling too much is the kind of problem many studios would like to have, but for the creators of Terraria who are trying to move on to another project, it's a ball and chain. A solid gold ball and chain, but a ball and chain nonetheless. And it's not going to stop for the time being, even if we do get another round of last-release-really-really-real patching.

Early access for Dusk of Dragons

Dragons have been setting the summer alight since the release of Century Age of Ashes, the racing and combat game based on these fantastic creatures. This week, the early access release of Dusk of Dragons brings the scaly creatures back into the limelight. This sandbox survival game mixes base building and dragon breeding against a medieval fantasy backdrop. You can test the game's early access right now by downloading Dusk of Drag ons from the Play store.

Capcom seeks ideas for other Mega Man games

It's not enough to have profitable licenses. You also have to know what to do with them. For Capcom, who would like to better exploit its Mega Man intellectual property, that's the question. With the exception of Mega Man X Dive Offline, which is already planned, the publisher is looking to take the license in a new direction, even if it doesn't yet know what that direction will be to achieve a successful facelift.

Release of Angry King Scary Pranks by Keplerians

The Keplerians studio is known for its creations of horror and fun, both single-player and multiplayer, such as the Ice Scream series of games. The new worldwide release of Angry King Scary Pranks adds another title to its catalog. As a self-proclaimed pranker, you decide to put your life on the line to prank the tyrant of the kingdom without being spotted by his guards. As simple visually as it is in terms of gameplay, this casual title mixes puzzle, platformer and infiltration in a very light tone suitable for all ages on Android and iOS.

EA Sports FC Mobile arrives this autumn

Virtual sport continues to roll out on mobile with the release date of EA Sports FC Mobile 24, the new FIFA without FIFA rights. The date is set for September 29, and will function as a major update to FIFA mobile on mobile stores, with new game modes, additional features and other bonuses from the 2024 edition. With this announcement, EA is also taking the opportunity to give a brief update on its soccer ecosystem, including EA Sports FC Online, Mobile, Tactical, Pro and as yet unannounced projects. I can feel an overdose coming on.

And if you can't get enough of football, you can also pre-register for Soccer Manager 2024.

Return to Monkey Island to be released on mobile on July 27

The acclaimed point'n click adventure Return to Monkey Island made a splash on PC and console in September 2022. But the famous Guybrush Threepwood is also coming to mobile game stores from July 27 for 10 euros. The series from Ron Gilbert and Lucasfilm Games is surfing our phones this summer for Android and iOS gamers.

Bugsnax released on iOS

Half-insect, half-food creatures called Bugsnax are swarming the island of Snaktooth. In this new iOS release for 10 euros, you'll have to feed your friends while unraveling the mysteries of the delicious Bugnax. It's completely off the wall, but has the merit of existing, so for those looking for an out-of-the-ordinary experience, put your trust in Bugsnax. You can find the full list of new mobile releases on our dedicated page.

Raider Six, BR already available in India

After the fall of Apex, gamers set out in search of new multiplayer shooting experiences, returning to T3 Arena, Call of Duty mobile or even PUBG mobile and discovering new shooting games like Star Wars Hunters. Arena Breakout is out this week, but it's the battle royale Raider Six that occupies this section of our recap, with an India-only release on Android and iOS that you can access with your best VPN. The Indian market has been receiving a lot of investment since the start of 20223 to develop its video game scene to the next level, and we can't wait to see what it can deliver with new experiences like the upcoming Indus battle royale.

News zapping

We conclude this recap with our zapping section:

• NBA Infinite enters its second closed beta ;
• Pre-registration for Aster Tatariqus is now open in certain regions;
• Dragon POW is available at test but I haven't had access to it myself;
• Master of Knights by Neowiz enters pre-registration;
• Soul Archer Skull beta begins ;
• The MLB 9 Innings Rivals baseball game published by Com2Us is out on stores ;
• Zynga's strategic gacha Top Troops is also out;
• Pre-registration for Omniheroes begins this week;
• Marvel Snap rolls out Season 10: Rise of the Phoenix;
• Explottens: Rise of K.L.A.W is discreetly released on stores with its little cats;
• We're celebrating the 5th anniversary of Identity V, the 7th of King of Avalon and the 10th of My Talking Tom ;
• Fatty Fight PvP match-3 makes its phone debut;
• Netflix releases Ninja Turtles DLC Shredder's Revenge;
• Abyss gets a new server to expand its services;
• Warbits + will soon be available on PC and mobile, but no exact date has been set;
• The Need Night Street Underground car game has just been released;
• The bullet hell Bibots is available for pre-order before its release on August 28th ;
• Spiritle rolls out its colorful set on iOS after its recent release on Android ;
• The IDEA indie game has finally been released on Android;
• Mojo Melee's open beta launches ;
• Gig Life makes its Android debut;
• and the partnership of the week goes to PUBG mobile, which is teaming up with Dragon Ball Super to offer anime content this summer.

That's the end of review number 117, so we'll see you next week for new adventures on mobile!