Mobile Games News Review | Week of 25 April - 1 May 2022

Check out the weekly recap of mobile gaming news on Android and iOS for the week of April 25 to May 1, 2022! We'll let you read it all below. ⬇️

On the agenda this week: the beta of Torchlight Infinite, finally a release date for Diablo Immortal, plagiarism at Tencent, the Worlds of TFT and much more to discover in this recap.

New mobile game releases and announcements

1️⃣ To open the news ball in style, we start with the closed beta of Tochlight Infinite which launched last weekend. We note that the closed beta is not so closed since we all received invitations from the team and the game is directly available on the website. However, it was a long awaited opportunity to get our hands on the new title from XD Entertainment. As a fan of the Torchlight license since its early days, I was not disoriented. The graphics are sublime and faithful to the usual atmosphere.

Moreover, there are 5 playable character classes: the Commander of the fantasy dwarf robots, the mage Spacetime Witness, the Frostfire and its fiery projectiles, the Divineshot as an agile shooter and the good old Berserker with a giant blade.

As for the gameplay, it's quite pleasant although a bit too simple and too directional for the moment, and this unfortunately remains present after hours of farming. For the moment, the title is very promising and shines especially with its VFX, its environments and its characters, all more colourful and enjoyable than the others.

2️⃣ Straight out of a time portal to childhood, Adibou comes to mobile to immerse us in a modernised version of this 90s game.

Offered by Ubisoft and Wiloki, a company founded by the children of the co-creator of Adibou to revive the license, this title was released on April 28 on Android and iOS. It features Adibou and his unwavering smile, but also his companions and everything that has made young and old children happy. So, one, two, three, three little cats...

3️⃣ Let's get back to our more traditional news by donning armor and headset for the announcement of the release date of Diablo Immortal and even its PC version. Posted this Monday, Blizzard's official announcement promises to be able to play Diablo Immortal starting June 2, 2022 and indicates the PC port of the mobile version, which seems to indicate a game environment similar to what titles with official emulators like Genshin Impact can offer. For more info on the content of the game, go to our dedicated article!

4️⃣ The space exploration MMO OGame is celebrating its 20th anniversary. In addition to blowing out those candles, the title will soon land on mobile, surely later this year. As a reminder, OGame was first released in 2002 and tens of millions of players have tried it. You begin your adventure as a modest young colony and try to rise to the rank of intergalactic power with a powerful fleet.

5️⃣ In addition to the release of Adibou, Ubisoft said this week that it was launching the Rainbow Six mobile apha after a trailer that created quite a bit of hype in early April. Unfortunately, Europe is not part of the roadmap for this first regional test as only players living in the US, Canada and Mexico will be able to take part. However, the R6 team has indicated that they will be offering more tests in other regions in the coming months.

6️⃣ Project Arrival is once again entering closed beta in the UK and Canada with a digital human as a companion and adventure guide. Sweetly named Lydia, this supposedly hyper-realistic AI and digital individual is made with the NVIDIA Omniverse and you'll be able to meet her in the post-apo world of Project Arrival during the beta test which is currently running and will end on May 2.

7️⃣ Also in beta, Honkai Star Rail is offering new players to join the adventure. After a test last October, the next game in the Honkai universe of Hoyoverse is expanding its tester base. For the others, you will have to wait a little longer before discovering this new RPG at turn-based mixing puzzles and narration carried by your journey between different planets on board the Astral Express.

8️⃣ Square Enix's famous license, Echoes of Mana was released on April 27 on Android and iOS to the delight of nostalgic fans. A new opus in the series after the remake of Trials of Mana, Echoes of Mana continues Square Enix's great editorial line, which wishes to revive the licenses that made all its glory, with notably the adaptation of all the Final Fantasy and Mana on mobile, in addition to new titles to revive its dynamics on a booming support.

9️⃣ The new game in the Evil Nun series: Evil Nun Rush is launching pre-registrations. Developed by Keplerians Horror Games, also behind the Ice Scream mobile license, this title will plunge you into the secrets of the story of William Bismarck, the Blue Handed Child. In Evil Nun Rush, you will have to solve mini-games at full speed and face all the challenges the Nun has in store for you.

Each puzzle and story fragment aims to lock you into the game while offering increasing difficulty linked to a system of power-ups. Evil Nun Rush is now available for pre-registration on Android and iOS.

🔟 For fans of slightly muscular third-person shooters and apocalyptic scenes, a new game is coming to Android soon. Indeed, pre-registrations for ZOZ Final Hour have just opened and you can already find gameplay from this NetEase title that combines zombies to slaughter and a random story between seven possibilities, each game.

1️⃣1️⃣ Tired of forgetting the simple English words that would help you better understand those games you love but will never be translated into French? Try Influent, a game released this week on Android and iOS that lets you play with your environment to learn a new language. Frankly, who learns things better than by virtually knocking them out with a flying assault machine? You should also know that French, Korean and Italian are available for free, but you can add other languages as paid DLC, including English or Japanese for 4 euros. This would still be cheaper than a month's subscription to Babbel.

The big updates of the week

1️⃣2️⃣ In its latest update, T3 Arena offers two new heroes. Still in early access, the title adds Hunter and Judex, respectively shooter and fireworks specialist. In addition, we discover the lab, which gives access to a constantly renewed catalogue of maps and game modes.

1️⃣3️⃣ Even though AFK Arena's 3rd anniversary events are not yet coming to an end, Lilith Games' title has its eyes on the future. In patch 1.88, the new awakened hero Thane joins the AFK Arena roster and brings with him the addition of Awakened Wonder Journeys: we tell you all about it in our article.

1️⃣4️⃣ Still going strong, Brawl Stars reveals its season 12 entitled Stunt Show. It's a chance to discover two new stuntmen: Janet and Bonnie. The start of the season will be highlighted by Golden Week which promises free rewardslogins every 24 hours to unlock more brawlers. Details of this update can be found at Mobi.gg.

1️⃣5️⃣ The mobile TPS and FPS market is also welcoming some new releases this week. Among the most notable is the announcement of Call of Duty mobile Season 4: Wild Dogs. New features in Season 4 include the Satellite and Kandhor Hideout maps, as well as the new Land Warfare game mode, which you can read about in our full article on the subject.

1️⃣6️⃣ Fortnite is welcoming some well-known street fighters. As the partnership between Fortnite and Street Fighter is in full swing, two iconic characters from the versus fighting license are making an appearance in Epic Games' Battle Royale: Sakura and Blanka.

1️⃣7️⃣ Meanwhile, PUBG: New State continues its partnership with Among Us while signing a crossover with the NieR game series. This will be an opportunity for Square Enix to promote its license with iconic characters like 9S and 2B from NieR Automata. Emotes and cosmetic gear will also be available for a limited time.

1️⃣8️⃣ Ahead of the upcoming May update on Clash of Clans and Clan Capital, the leak of a new unit is quickly making the rounds in the community. Speculation of this new Clash of Clans unit is based on an official animation video titled Lost and Crowned.

Called the "Colosseum Carrier", this unit would, according to some, be designed to transport resources. But more likely, the aircraft could fly over enemy areas to drop bombs on enemy buildings and troops. In addition, the Colosseum Carrier could heal allied troops from the air to enable them to last longer in battle.

For those who are not so keen on leaks, you should know that the unit has already been found in the game's source code. We also discover the CoC raid weekends and the clan capital!

Between depression and plagiarism: industry news on mobile

1️⃣9️⃣ Fun fact of the week: Pokémon GO could reduce some symptoms of depression. At least that's what a study by the London School of Economics and Political Science suggests. In particular, the study uses Google Trends search data and the Google Misery Index, which does exist, to quantify the number of depressed individuals and how often they search for words like "depression", "anxiety" or "stress" by region, for example. According to statistics from 2016 between before and after the release of Pokémon GO, the game could reduce depression in part by encouraging regular exercise and socialising. When you put it like that, it doesn't sound like you'd have to be a genius to come to that conclusion, but some people have found something to occupy themselves with in new studies on the mobile market.

2️⃣0️⃣ Bad week for Honor of Kings, the Chinese version of Arena of Valor, which is once again facing accusations of plagiarism. The accusation comes from NetEase, which points to the slightly too strong inspiration of Honor of Kings' promotional visuals compared to those of the successful campaign of its narrative mobile game title For All Time.

With no clear resolution yet, this story adds to a long history of close ties between Tencent and recurring plagiarism. Still, it's not as good as Teemo's copy-paste of Tomee in the game I am Hero, against whom Riot Games launched a legal action last January. A low-cost version of the little scout we like.

Alongside this copy of marketing material, the international adaptation of Honor of Kings, Arena of Valor, is launching its 5v5 Friend Fest on 31 May.

Esport The Riot universe in the spotlight with Wild Rift and TFT Worlds

2️⃣1️⃣ KT Rolster wins the Wild Rift Champions Korea Spring 2022 also known as the WCK. After winning the 2021 edition, KT Rolster retains their title as Korean champions by defeating Team Freecs 4-3. The winners of this year's event will take home $24,000 compared to $16,000 for second place and $12,800 for the runners-up.

2️⃣2️⃣ The TFT Worlds took place from 29 April to 1 May, and cock-a-doodle-doo, since among the 32 qualified players, 4 French players were present to defend the colours of our country: Double61, Un33d, Voltariux and Coco. The participants competed all weekend on Set 6.5 to win the biggest share of the $300,000 total cash prize. At the time of writing, the results are not yet available, but you can find them on our website on Monday.

Soothing conclusion with Puffpals: Island Skies

2️⃣3️⃣ To close this recap in a happy and good mood, I suggest you go and discover Puffpals: Island Skies, a relaxing, cute and colourful game offering a soft life simulation, a la Animal Crossings, currently undergoing participatory funding on Kickstarter. With an initial goal of $75,000, the studio has already raised more than $1 million and should be released on PC, mobile and Switch, even if the release date is surely far away!