Mobile Games News Recap #90

Discover the weekly recap of mobile games news on Android and iOS number #90 to celebrate Christmas! On the agenda this week: news about Warframe Mobile, Assassin's Creed Jade gameplay leak, a raging AI war, a test beta phase for Kingdom Hearts: Missing-Link and much more to discover in this recap. We'll let you read all about it below. ⬇️

Assassin's Creed Jade gameplay leaks

Let's start this Christmas recap before the gameplay leak of the upcoming Assassin's Creed Jade that propels you into the middle of the King Dynasty to discover the Great Wall of China in a historical light. First announced at the Ubisoft Forward in September, Code Jade is revealed in a several minutes gameplay video leaked on Reddit.

We get a glimpse of two-handed combat as well as the usual parkour freedom of Assassin's Creed titles in several environments. The hero Dengling Bai will be customizable and will be able to use zip lines to travel through the game's large open world while following missions via the mini-map.

Warframe Mobile in beta on iOS

Announced last year, Warframe mobile finally gives some news with a beta on the whole month of December, reserved to Apple players. To participate in the beta of this cooperative shooter on mobile, register on the official website of the game and wait patiently for your invitation email on Testflight. As the 10-year anniversary of Warframe approaches, we're all looking forward to discovering the port of the multiplayer TPS and its famous Tenno before the official release.

Crash Bandicoot: on the Run to close on February 16

It's already the end game for King's famous endless runner on mobile. Crash Bandicoot: On the Run will be inaccessible from February 16, 2022, as announced by the developers. With no clear reason for the downtime, the mobile adaptation of Crash Bandicoot has already ended its in-game purchases. If you still bought crystals, you have two months to spend them and make the most of them, before all the developers are permanently transferred to other projects of the King Group.

Into The Dead 3 development is underway at PikPok

PikPok studio confirms that the sequel to its popular apocalyptic license Into the Dead is indeed in development. Not much is known about the release of Into the Dead 3, which will still immerse you in the canonical universe of the license, 10 years after the previous game.

According to the word of the developers for the announcement, and more precisely Mario Wynands the CEO of the studio, this third game would be bigger and much more ambitious than its predecessors, with a mixture of old characters and new survivors to discover.

Kingdom Hearts Missing-Link: test in Japan

Announced on the occasion of the 20th anniversary of the Kingdom Hearts license, the mobile opus of the saga finally gives some news for the holidays. A closed beta phase of test of Kingdom Hearts: Missing Link will start in Japan on January 10th.

Only Japanese residents of legal age and Square Enix Members are eligible to participate in test, and 1,000 of them will be able to experience the upcoming Kingdom Hearts game on mobile during this beta entitled Prototype Test.

Marvel Snap Friend Battle Mode coming in a month or two

Confirmed a few weeks ago, the Marvel Snap battle mode between friends still hasn't arrived to us. So if you're waiting for it on mobile, you'll have to wait a little longer. The Marvel Snap roadmap is planning to integrate this feature in one or two months, not before. In the meantime, you'll have to keep fighting bots and random enemies.

Silly Wisher: a parody of Genshin Impact available on the Play Store

Beware, I think there are some who have smoked a little too much fir resin. Among them, the developers of Silly Wisher, a game that completely parodies Genshin Impact. Here, your precious primogems become freemogems to be obtained by watching a commercial to make as many draws as you want on the actual banners.

And if you get filler items instead of the intended character, you'll have just drawn poop. This wishful thinking simulator is perfect for Genshin addicts who want to have it easy. The battle system itself is just a harmless slime on the screen that you harass while continuing to switch characters. The game is available right here.

Besides, you can't lose, just spam your skills on some poor peaceful creature. Once you really want to spice things up, you can play mad scientist by making completely ridiculous mixes of known characters to create your own Genshin abominations.

Age of Evolution enters early access in select regions

The new strategy game 4X Age of Evolution enters early access in France, Germany and even the UK. Travel through time and space to experience strategy in all eras, just like in the Forge of Empires pubs.

Go from the stone age and its primitive tools to the medieval era and then to our modern world. This tower defense and strategy experience takes place after a bad space trip that takes you back in time to the tribes of our ancestors.

Fortnite: collaboration with My Hero Academia

On the side of the partnerships of the week, we particularly retain Fortnite which collaborates with My Hero Academia. New collaboration between the battle royale of Epic Games and a popular shonen, this partnership offers skins playable as Izuku Midoriya in Fortnite, Kastuki Bakugo, Ochaco Uraraka and even All Might.

The arrival of this Fortnite 23. 10 update with MHA collaboration also brings One for All, which allows you to charge after a short animation and deal a lot of damage up close.

Fullmetal Alchemist Mobile launched in China

Square Enix has a lot of work to do with the beta of Kingdom Hearts: Missing-Link but also with the launch of Fullmetal Alchemist Mobile in China. First released as a Japanese exclusive in August 2022, the title is finally leaving the Japanese territory to reach China.

For the moment, no worldwide release date has been announced, but it's reassuring to see Square Enix's title open to another market. So, we're still waiting for it to be able to relive the adventure of the Elric brothers who try to resurrect their mother, as in the original manga.

Esport Pokémon Unite 2023 Championship Series

As Pokémon Unite reaches 100 million downloads, Nintendo's MOBA unveils its 2023 content and, more importantly, the future of its scene esport. The Pokémon Unite Championship Series 2023 will begin in February with qualifiers by region, including Europe, and more than $1 million to be pocketed in total with half going to the world championships.

There are two ways to qualify for these phases: by participating in the regional qualifying tournaments and by earning Championship Points and moving up the rankings. If you are interested in the competition, you can find the dates of the regional tournaments on the official website of the game.

Global early access to Brown Dust 2 on January 10

The famous game developer and publisher Neowiz invites you to discover Brown Dust 2 in early access from January 10th to 17th. A turn-based RPG with a strong community, Brown Dust invites players to test this second opus and then fill out a questionnaire at test, and to enter all those who complete the questionnaire in a draw with Google Play and Apple cards to be won.

And, with the game's cartridge mechanics, you'll get the full nostalgic vibe of Brown Dust 2 by completely changing the game genre with a cartridge switch. We look forward to your first impressions in January!

Epic Games must pay $520 million to the FTC

Fortnite and Epic have a hefty bill to pay in addition to Christmas presents. With a total of $520 million to pay to the U.S. FTC, in charge of ensuring consumer rights, Epic was keen to explain. But let's go back to the two charges that caused this half-billion dollar fine.

First, the video game giant is accused of violating the Child Protection Act by over-optimizing the incentive to purchase items and skins, then it's its system of pushing users to make unwanted payments that is later retained by the FTC. A simple click was enough to use parents' money, the collection of information on minors, and the dark patterns were everywhere in-game, with a purchase cancellation hidden under a half-ton of parameters to avoid any reversal.

Launch of the manga Arknights Rhodes Kitchen - Tidbits

RPG gacha Arknights is offering a bit of reading for the end of the year by launching its new manga series entitled Rhodes Kitchen - Tidbits. Illustrated by Bakanoko, this original work follows the daily life and interactions of the Operators around their meals.

And since it's all about food, Arknights is also inviting its players to take part in a cooking contest with posts on social networks against rewards to be won until January first.

Microsoft attacked by gamers in Activision Blizzard King buyout

If we thought that Microsoft was going to get slapped on the wrist by takeover control bodies around the world, and it happened, for its acquisition of Activision Blizzard King, we were far from imagining that the problem could also come from below. Among us plebs, 10 gamers in the United States have decided to do their part to bury this deal by filing a complaint against Microsoft for anti-competitive practices. Why? Because we can do that in the US.

The ongoing AI war

I'd like to take this opportunity to tell you about the little drama that is shaking up the world of video game and film artists because of artificial intelligences for image creation. The main professional platform of these artists is Artstation and, if you load the site, you will see that the homepage accumulates many images with the AI logo crossed out in the anti-IA fight.

There are currently big debates around the place of AIs, the legitimacy of posts of AI creations on a platform like this one where artists sometimes spend hundreds of hours to create a single work without any guarantee that it will not be used by an AI that will take a few seconds to create a new one. That's it for this little parenthesis that shakes up the industry at Christmas!

The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel - Northern War smartphone RPG announced

This week also saw the announcement of a mobile RPG by UserJoy Japan based on the yet-to-be-released anime The Legend of Heroes: Trail of Cold Steel - Northern War. In addition to the story of the anime, this title will be completed with an original story arc and unique characters in addition to the background battles.

The new anime The Legend of Heroes is scheduled to be released on January 8, 2023, so you can at least get a glimpse of the game's universe in pictures to see if it interests you, even though it has only been announced for Japan at the moment.

Wild Rift patch 4.0

We conclude this recap with the arrival of Wild Rift patch 4.0. Among the big news, we find the respawn of the inhibitors as on the LoL PC version, the long awaited arrival of Zoe and Zeri and several other new features. For example, in very late game, in order to avoid that the games last forever, the towers will start falling by themselves if they are still alive, to open the lanes. I let you discover the complete patch on the official website or go traumatize people with Zoe's bad tricks directly in the Summoner's Rift.

Merry Christmas to all!

More mobile games news each 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 #89 was about Rogue Company Elite pre-registration, NBA All-World release date in augmented reality, Wild Rift 3.5b patch with Lillia and much more to find in our news.