Top 7 escape room video games

While real-life escape rooms are fun, these video games were some of the OGs and still hold up to this day.

Escape Room

Escape room games have certainly come a long way from Escape: The Bathroom. 

Escape room games mostly started off as little flash games on sites like Newgrounds and Addicting Games. More recently they’ve blown up into a huge phenomenon as companies start to created real-life escape rooms.

These are real-life puzzle games where you have a limited time to figure out what you need to do to get out. The video games went from mostly niche flash games to increasingly popular and well-designed escape rooms.

If you’re looking to try some of the games in this subgenre of puzzle adventure games, then you’ll definitely want to check these out: 

Top 7 escape room video games

The House of Da Vinci

Da Vinci

Not a traditional room escape game, as it gives you a clear backstory as to how you ended up in the house that you’re escaping from. But all the same puzzle mechanics are there, and the story is quite an interesting one. Any room escape fan should have this game on their list, as it has everything any gamer would want.

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Mystery of Time and Space

MOTAS

AlbinoBlackSheep.com might not be a website you’ve heard about in years, but, rest assured, this game is fun.

Mystery of Time and Space is an interesting and well-developed online escape room game that focuses much more on science fiction than other games in this genre. MOTAS is one of the early successes in escape room games.

MOTAS starts with an amnestic character trying to escape a room. Things start to take a turn when time travel becomes accessible to the player. They are able to travel back to previous levels to collect items that will help solve new puzzles. The plot is interesting and definitely worth checking out.

Elements

Elements

This game is probably the largest escape room from the popular indie company Neutral. While the company has created many escape room games before, none are as ambitious or detailed as Elements. It is in-depth and detailed in ways that many escape rooms aren’t. If you’re looking for a challenge, this game is the way to go.

DOOORS

DOOORS

A great mobile option for room escape fans, DOOORS has dozens of escape levels for you to complete. There aren’t many large escape room games for mobile, so this is one that’ll really capture your attention. The puzzles also range greatly in difficulty and keep you on your toes.

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Faraway: Puzzle Escape

Faraway Puzzle

Myst is often credited for being the inspiration for many room escape games. Faraway is the best example of this, as it has taken the exploration and puzzle mechanics of Myst and placed it into an escape room setting. You play as a young explorer trying to uncover the notes that your father left about an ancient civilization in a variety of temples.

Faraway 3: Puzzle Edition Free Download ►
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The Room series

The Room game

Don’t worry, this has nothing to do with Tommy Wiseau. 

Probably the most popular example of escape room games, this series is dark and mysterious just like an escape room should be. The player slowly uncovers more of the story as they solve puzzle boxes in the room they are being held captive. The art and concept are very good, especially in a genre that is dominated by very small indie games.

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The Zero Escape series

Zero Escape

While most escape room games are made from indie companies, this series was actually created by Spike Chunsoft, a Japanese gaming giant. Each game plays out similar to the Saw films, featuring a group of kidnapped people trying to find a way to escape while being forced to play various life-threatening games. It is the pinnacle of the escape room gaming industry and highly recommended for anyone who’s a fan of this genre.

Escape reality

This is just a small portion of the expansive world of escape room games. If you’re interested in finding more games to play, then you’ll definitely want to check out our Softonic Solutions page where our community offers its recommendations of the best escape room games. You can even make your own suggestions to this list and voice your opinion on each game we chose.

How to play Matchington Mansion and create your dream home

Build the mansion of your dreams, and make your friends jealous with Matchington Mansion!

Matchington Mansion

If your dream is to have a big fancy mansion fall into your lap, it’s probably not going to happen. The good news is, you can live out this dream with an addicting app called Matchington Mansion.

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In Matchington Mansion, you play as a character who has been gifted a huge mansion and told that it only needs a little love.

Matchington Mansion screengrab 1You have some help from your best friend Tiffany, an interior designer, who is excited to help you decorate and give you tips. Upon visiting the home for the first time, the door completely falls apart after just knocking on it. You then realize that maybe this home needs a lot more work than you thought.

Matchington Mansion screengrab 2Just then, a new character named Rex enters, and you learn that he believes that the mansion should have been left to him. He’s planning to get his hands on it somehow so he can knock it down and build a casino on the land. Once you shake him off, you go inside and discover that the mansion is an absolute mess.

Matchington Mansion screengrab 3Here is where the game begins! Play games of matching different shapes and colors of decorative pillows, books, and other items. Three of a kind is a match, and four of a kind creates a firecracker which explodes and knocks out more pillows.

Matchington Mansion screengrab 4

Match five to create rainbows which clear pillows in whichever color that you choose from the entire board. When you win a round of matching, you earn coins and stars which you spend on decorating and renovating the mansion.

It may seem easy,  but keep in mind that you only have a certain number of moves to clear the board. If you run out, you have to start the level over. The more levels you complete, the more decorating you can do. This advances the story and allows you to unlock more rooms in the mansion to clean up.

You can  visit other players’ mansions, purchase new artwork, unlock mysterious chests with hidden keys, and work toward making the mansion the home of your dreams.

Matchington Mansion Download now ►
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Elder Scrolls: Blades surpasses 1 million downloads, but is it good?

In a world where more PC/console games move to mobile, does Elder Scrolls: Blades sink or swim?

Elder Scrolls Blades

I used to be a gamer like you, but then I took a microtransaction to the knee.

Bethesda’s director and executive producer Todd Howard said, “Blades, at its heart, is a true Elder Scrolls game.” Immediately after he said this, we were all still skeptical.  Watch the full reveal for Elder Scrolls: Blades and Howard’s pitch to gamers below:

There aren’t many success stories about a popular PC or console game getting a counterpart for mobile devices. When Blizzard announced a new Diablo game exclusively for mobile, they were nearly booed off the stage.

In its first week of early access, Elder Scrolls: Blades reached more than 1 million downloads. The number is impressive, but there are still outlying problems with the game.

Does it feel like an Elder Scrolls game?

Let’s travel back to when another game series made its journey to our smartphones: Pokémon. In its first week, Pokémon Go reached an astronomical 10 million downloads. It was the first mobile game to reach that milestone that quickly.

Pokémon GO Download Free ►
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There was one thing clear about Pokémon Go that fans realized immediately; it wasn’t a traditional Pokémon game. There were no random encounters, traditional gym battles, trades (at the time it was released), or a storyline. However, Nintendo never said it was going to be a traditional Pokémon experience. As the game edges closer and closer to 1 billion downloads, Nintendo proved that the jump to mobile can work.

Howard said that Blades feels like an Elder Scrolls game, and it does… sometimes. When you’re fighting off baddies, and looking for the best weapons for your inventory, the game has the same feel as if you were doing the same on a console.

As the evidence shows, Blades doesn’t have to be a traditional Elder Scrolls experience in order to be fun. The game can be fun at times, but it loses its luster when the developer takes our phone out of our hands and replaces it with our credit cards.

Lootboxes put fun on hold

Blades wait boxesThroughout the game, you are going to come across chests containing items to help you on your journey. In a previous Elder Scrolls game like Skyrim, all you need to do is break our your lock pick. A little turn here, a slow turn of the joystick there. Bing, bang, boom. Done.

In this game, you have to wait until a timer runs out on a chest before you open it. However, if you spend real-world money on in-game currency, you can pay to open the chest sooner. As the chests can take hours to open, players with nothing else to do in the game don’t have another option.

Microtransactions are common in free mobile games. The developers need to make their money somehow. A strategy many games take is to only have items such as new skins available for purchase. 

Pay to win

Blades lootboxesElder Scrolls: Blades has an unfortunate truth: you either buy the good weapons, or you die over and over again with the free weapons. Blades has currently made more than $500,000 from microtransactions, proving that players are slowly catching on.

Players have even taken the discussion to Reddit to ask what weapons work best. There are cases of players finding rare legendary weapons dropped from a fallen enemy only to find out that it pales in comparison to something you can just buy for $10. 

Should you play it?

The game does have an intriguing, flowing story. It features the Blades from previous Elder Scrolls titles on a new adventure.

The game also has many RPG qualities such as customizing your character and upgrading them via EXP.

The story and combat are both enticing, but players need to realize prior to downloading that the game is not “free.” You don’t need to spend $60 like a normal new release for PC or console, but you will have to spend around $10 for decent weapons. You might also few bucks here and there if you want to skip waiting for chests to open.

If you’re looking for the next Skyrim, you can give this game a hard pass. However, if you want something small to hold you over until Elder Scrolls 6 drops, this might be your answer.

Citing “psychopath” threat, Indian cities ban PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds

Indian lawmakers target the battle royale standout.

PUBG

Some might say that PUBG’s 15 minutes of fame had come and gone a long time ago, but right when it has just started to hit its peak in popularity in India, several cities have banned it.

PUBG, or PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds, is a battle royale game in which players compete against each other one on one to be the last man standing. Equip standard weapons like guns and grenades or more unique ones like frying pans (which, incredibly, can deflect bullets if used at the right moment) to get rid of other players. Run around the maps or zoom around in cars, motorcycles, and other vehicles. The maps that you play on are quite large, and while you’re focusing on not getting killed you also have to keep an eye on the circle around the playable area which begins to shrink. Once outside of the circle for too long you begin to take damage, and if you’re not inside the safe zone in time, that can kill you instead of another player.

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Although India’s gaming scene was once underdeveloped, mobile phones have become more affordable, leading to explosive demand for games. Some countries like China have age restrictions for games like PUBG. But the sudden rise of India’s game demand outpaced its laws. Some Indian lawmakers believe games like PUBG cause bullying and violence. While many say the game is a lot of fun, Indian media have said that it’s a breeding ground for psychopaths, and recently, college students were arrested just for playing it.

This hasn’t stopped most players, though. Even if there has been a crackdown on PUBG for PC and console, the mobile edition is harder to stop, thanks to all those phones. This is very important, considering the fact that India’s mobile game market is expected to break $1 billion by next year.

Bluehole Inc., the South Korean company that created PUBG, hopes to work with Indian authorities to find a solution and foster a healthier gaming community.

Everything Apple unveiled at today’s keynote

Can Apple overthrow Netflix, Visa, and the digital news ecosystem?

Today was “Show Time” at the Steve Jobs Theater in Cupertino, and the company proudly announced four new innovations they’re bringing to the public – some won’t be here until Fall 2019, others you can get right now. Take a look:

Apple News+

Tim Cook announced at today’s keynote that Apple News has become the leading news app on mobile devices, with over 5 billion articles read per month. Now the company is aiming to widen the news net by adding a subscription service that also includes popular magazines and digital media. Cook praised “the power of journalism and the impact it can have on our lives,” and the new Apple News+ service adds big names like Time, Vogue, People, National Geographic, Popular Science, Billboard, The New Yorker, Sports Illustrated, and Fortune.

Apple News+ magazines
You can now access your favorite magazines on your phone

The service covers “over 300 magazines across all sorts of topics,” said Apple’s Vice President of Applications, Roger Rosner, “all in a single package. Once you’re in the tab, all you have to is tap on a cover and you’ll be brought to the table of contents. Some articles may even have moving images like in Harry Potter, or animated headers or cross-outs, and there will also be a section specifically tailored to your preferences and previous viewings.

Apple News+ For You
See your recommended articles and publishers all in one place

Subscribing to this many magazines would take over $8,000 a year, but through Apple, it’s all available to you for a monthly fee of $9.99. The first month of the service is free, and it’s available in the U.S. and Canada right now. Apple News+ will reach Australia and the UK later on this year.

Apple Card

Apple Card announcement
Apple cuts out the middle man, offering their own new credit card

Cook said Apple Pay is the “simplest, most secure, and private way to pay.” The service has seen a great response since its launch. According to Cook, it will soon pass 10 billion transactions in over 40 countries. To take its success to the next level, Jennifer Bailey, the VP of Apple Pay, announced that Apple has “completely rethought the credit card [to encourage] a healthier financial life.”

Jennifer Bailey Apple presentation Apple Card
Track and manage your spending easier than with Apple Pay’s new update.

This innovation comes in the form of the Apple Card, a new credit card that’s the result of Apple’s new partnership with Goldman Sachs and MasterCard. The new card comes with a unique number stored in a security chip, and can only be verified through touch or face ID any time you use it to make a purchase. The card also focuses on user privacy, and Apple guarantees they have no way to track what you bought with the card, how much you paid, or when the transaction was done. The Apple Card doesn’t even have any numbers or cvc; all that information is in the wallet app.

Apple Card
The new Apple card is sleek, safe, and secure.

The Apple Card was made to help users avoid high interest rates and to help keep better tabs on payments. The new Daily Cash feature also allows users to receive 2% daily cash any time you use Apple Pay, 1% any time you use the Apple Card, and 3% any time you purchase directly from Apple.

Apple Card Daily Cash percentages
Enjoy immediate cashback with every purchase you make with Apple Card

The amount of Daily Cash you can receive is unlimited, and the Apple Card will be located in the wallet app starting this summer.

Apple Arcade

Apple Arcade announcement
The upcoming Apple Arcade service offers over 100 unique games to subscribers.

Apple’s App Store is now visited by half a billion people each week, and the most popular category is games. According to Tim Cook, iOS is now the largest gaming platform in the world, and over a billion people have downloaded games from the app store: a collection of over 300,000 games, both free and paid.

Apple Arcade creator collaboration announcement
Apple is directly collaborating with game creators to bring this collection to subscribers.

Apple Arcade aims to shine the spotlight on the paid games, which are often overlooked and overshadowed by the more enticingly-priced free games. These are “games that redefine games, both curated and backed by Apple” says the company, and Apple Arcade will offer over 100 games when you subscribe – games that are not available anywhere else, and new titles will be added frequently. Even better news is that all the games can be played on or offline, and will never have ads, additional purchases, or track or mine any of your user data.

Apple Arcade affiliates
Apple is proud to have teamed up with these companies and more to make Arcade possible

Apple Arcade will be available in over 150 countries around the world this Fall, though Apple did not yet specify pricing.

Apple TV+

Apple TV+ announcement
Apple TV+ is an upcoming subscription that adds both unique and simplified content to your home.

Lastly, Tim Cook introduced a new paid subscription service to Apple TV: Apple TV+. Like Netflix, this lets users “pay for only the channels they want – all in one app with the password you already have.” It enables you to “watch everything on-demand and add-free, online or offline” with a subscription that also allows for family sharing.

Apple TV tabs
Apple’s tv streaming platform is about to become much more user-friendly and accessible

Apple TV+ has redesigned the app so that it’s both easier to use, and also offers exclusive content that’s both recommended to you and that’s completely fresh and new. It’s got movies, sports, news, network tv, HBO, Showtime, and even a kids mode that makes Apple TV+ “a safe place to explore together.”

A number of guest celebrities greeted the audience at today’s event, including Oprah Winfrey, who’s bringing a new book club to Apple. And Steven Spielberg is partnering with Apple to revive the “Amazing Stories” series he produced in the mid-80s.

Apple TV+ Steven Spielburg
Steven Spielberg made a surprise appearance, championing Apple TV+ and introducing his new show.

The ad-free subscription service will be available across 100 countries starting this fall, with “commitment to quality story-telling” that can be watched on all devices both on and offline. This also includes series such as “Little Voice,” “The Morning Show,” “Sea,” “Little America,” and the Sesame Street spinoff “Helpsters” for kids.

Apple TV+ Helpsters
Apple TV+ will also feature “Helpsters” among other programs for children.

We’ll also get the general software update that will bring Apple TV to all devices this May. For the first time, this software will also be usable on Mac (but that will be later this year). Apple has also partnered with leading Smart TV partners in hopes of integrating Apple TV and Apple TV+ with this growing market as well. Again, no prices were given yet, though a family plan was mentioned.

Apple TV+ Smart TV partnership
Apple teams up with big names in Smart TVs with Apple TV+

This announcement marks an exciting new series of innovations from Apple, with the general theme of a safer, more private experience between the company and user, while simultaneously attempting to bolster the community’s internal networking and the sharing of culture to a medium that’s (as Winfrey put it) “in a billion pockets.”

Will you be subscribing to any of these new products? Let us know in the comments below which you’ve got your eye on, and stay tuned for more news as it’s made available.

7 best mobile coop games

Download these great games and start playing with friends!

Whether you already have a dedicated group of gamer friends to play with, or you’re looking to make new friends through a mutual game, cooperative play can be a great way to build these friendships. But most of these games tend to be for PC, instead of on a mobile or handheld platform. This can be troublesome for those who aren’t home all the time. Thankfully, there are a few coop games that are great for playing wherever you are. Here are some of these games that you can get directly on your smartphone.

7 best mobile coop games

Zynga With Friends games

You’ve probably played at least a few of these games already on Facebook. Zynga is the creator of all the “with Friends” games. Words with Friends, Draw with Friends, Gems with Friends, etc. All “with Friends” games created by Zynga can be found on their Zynga with Friends site, and will link directly to your Facebook. You can invite friends from your Facebook to join the game even if they don’t have the app on their phone. These are definitely the easiest apps to play with people you talk to regularly online.

Words with Friends Free Download ►
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Clash of Clans

Probably the most popular coop mobile game there is, Clash of Clans is an intense strategy game that focuses on clans working as a team to rise to the top. This game is a combination of city builder and battle management. While many army-based city builders will feature clans or guilds, none are as important to the player as CoC’s clans. This game has also started to venture into esports territory, which is incredible for a mobile game to do.

Clash of Clans Free Download ►
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Spaceteam

While Clash of Clans is probably the most popular coop game, Spaceteam will usually be one of the first games to come up if you are looking for a coop mobile game on Google or the App Store. This game is a lot like Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes. You and your friends have to work together to keep your spaceship running properly. Each player controls a different part of the ship and end up instructing the others on what to do. This is a perfect game for parties.

Call of Duty: Legends of War

Any fan of first-person shooters knows about COD, and they’ll be excited to have the chance at playing it directly from their phones. All the games in the series allow for multiplayer games, so you have the opportunity to play with your friends in each one. Their newest game, Call of Duty: Legends of War, is their first mobile game, and still being released in select locations. But it promises to bring a new perspective on one of the most famous franchises in history, so it’ll be absolutely worth the time to check out. It will also feature a zombie and story mode, like most other COD games.

Call of Duty: Legends of War Free Download ►
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Vainglory

In the world of Battle Royale games, MOBAs aren’t quite as popular as they used to be. But Vainglory’s fanbase has stayed strong as one of the few remaining mobile MOBAs still active. This game provides a great chance for you and your friends to fight alongside each other. The goal of the game is to destroy the enemies team before they destroy yours. You get to choose from a big cast of characters, and the game itself can feel incredibly rewarding to master. It is also a great opportunity to make new gaming friends, if you don’t have many to play new games with right now.

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The Alchemist Code

If you’re a fan of SRPGs or JRPGs then The Alchemist Code will be a great choice for you and a group of friends to get into. This game is constantly expanding with weekly updates, and features incredibly difficult challenges for you and your friends to complete. The story is as complex and interesting as you would expect any JRPG to be, while having the sophistication and difficulty of classic SRPG gameplay. You can tackle most challenges with your friends in their multiplayer quests. They even have a few limited events that can only be done through coop play.

The Alchemist Code Free Download ►
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Minecraft Pocket Edition

Minecraft is one of the most popular games in the world, and its mobile version supports many of the same features that the PC version has. You can build and create your own world with your friends, and even apply mods to experience a large variety of gameplay options. Having Minecraft on your phone will make sure you always have a great coop game to play.

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If you’re looking for games that are more party-oriented, then you may want to check out our Softonic Solutions forum on the best family game night mobile games.

Android games: Developers may soon start offering a new path to greater rewards

“Rewarded Products” will offer users virtual prizes, in-game currency, and other rewards in exchange for watching video ads

There is something about mobile apps and games that makes us not want to pay for them. Or if we are prepared to pay for an app, we think the price should be heavily reduced compared to PC or console apps and games. We might begrudgingly pay 59 cents but $2.99 feels like taking out a mortgage or a loan for a car. It is a major purchase that needs serious consideration.

The games section of the Google Play Store
Android developers need to monetize their apps and games

This puts app developers in somewhat of a bind. Developers have to eat, too, and mobile games and apps take time to build. Once they’re built, they need to be monetized. If an app is free, or too cheap to pay the bills, this usually means only one thing: ads. Even ads can fall short, though, which has led Google’s Android team to develop a new way for Android developers to monetize the games they’re distributing via the Android Play Store.

“Rewarded Products” will offer users virtual prizes, in-game currency, and other rewards in exchange for watching video ads

In a recent post on the Android Developers Blog, Google Play Product Manager, Patrick Davis introduced the idea of “Rewarded Products.” The new feature comes in the form of a new console for app developers that makes it easy for them to add rewards in their games for monetizable behavior.

The first example Google has given is a “Double Your Score” reward, which users can unlock simply by watching a video ad. In his blog post, however, Davis mentions that this is Google’s “first rewarded product offering,” which means there is a good chance there will be more types of rewards coming in the future, as well as different types of monetizing behavior too.

You might have already seen this type of reward before for things like extra in-game coins or bonus items. That is because this isn’t a new idea that Google has come up with. Developers have been using this trick for some time now. Google is merely picking up on the idea and adding the new console to make it easier for developers to implement it.

New ad incentives console for Google Play Games

The new console is currently rolling out to Android developers in beta version, with a full roll-out expected soon. What this means for all mobile gamers out there is that we might soon see our free Android games changing somewhat, so that they can include more of these prompts to take monetizable action.

We’d love to know how you feel about these types of “Rewarded Products”. Would you feel comfortable cheating the games you’re playing by unlocking coins, boost your score, or gaining bonus items by watching ads? Let us know in the comments below.

Guide to Polysphere

This free game is great for relaxing.

Have you ever stared at the sky and try to pick out shapes in the clouds? That’s basically Polysphere in a nutshell. And just like staring at clouds, the game is simple, relaxing, meditative – and now it’s right in your pocket for free.

What is Polysphere?

Polysphere ad; find perspective to solve and create masterpieces

Polysphere is a mobile game from German developer Playgendary, and at its heart is a simple 3D puzzle experience. Available for free on Google Play and in the App Store, the game is a series of ‘puzzles,’ that are all fragmented images. What you’ll see on-screen is a series of colored shapes that stationary. Your job is to drag and spin the cloud of 3D pieces around until you angle it just right and the picture becomes apparent.

Tips

The best strategy to solving the puzzle is to start by matching the colors. This is especially useful with images that only use one two or three colors. If you start by matching them together, the image will quickly become more apparent. When you’re dealing with a smattering of green and a whole sea of red, clumping the green together makes the strawberry a lot easier to visualize. Another good tip is to remember to swipe up and down, too; not just left and right. All the puzzles are 3D, so depth is just as much of a factor as width and angle.

Polysphere strawberry puzzle
Pro tip: Match the colors together, then slowly rotate the image.

Once in a while, you’ll figure out what the image is, but things aren’t lining up quite right anyway. That usually means you’ve got the image backward. Try spinning the puzzle 180 degrees to reverse it, and it’ll probably match up right to the solution.

Unwind and decompress with Polysphere

Sure there are a couple of tips to mastering the game, but for the most part, this is not a difficult game; that wasn’t Playgendary’s goal. The game’s simplistic charm and intuitive controls are the real selling point, and for the price of “free,” you can see why the game has over 10 million installs.

“It doesn’t really have an objective,” wrote one 5-star reviewer. “Tranquil music plays while I spin the fragments round and round in space. There’s no pressure to achieve anything. I don’t have to slay dragons [or] play like I’m some kind of sharp shooter. With this game, I don’t have to be anything, just have fun. This is a great game for relieving stress, and just relaxing.”

Polysphere unicorn puzzle
After a busy day, chilling with Polysphere is very therapeutic

Polysphere takes up 54M of space and is available for free right now. Grab it today and enjoy!

Polysphere for Android Free Download ►
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How Nintendo could conquer mobile gaming

Here’s how Nintendo could take the lead in mobile gaming.

The invention of the smartphone sent shockwaves throughout the gaming industry. Most of the public now had powerful computers in their pocket, and hundreds of thousands of games to choose from. Unlike console and PC games, most mobile games are free to play, allowing the player to use real money to buy in-game content that would be difficult or impossible to obtain otherwise. This monetization model has proved to be extremely successful, and as of summer 2018, mobile games make up 51% of the gaming industry’s revenue (console games make up 25% while PC games make up 24%).

Nintendo was struggling around the time when mobile gaming was really hitting its stride. Nintendo’s Wii U was getting crushed in the console gaming market due to underpowered hardware and bafflingly awful marketing. After a few years of slugging along, the 3DS became a highly successful portable console, but still faced harsh competition from mobile games. Nintendo faced multiple quarters where they operated at a loss. Facing investor pressure, Nintendo went back on their statements against mobile gaming and entered the market in 2016. Despite its necessity, it was a surprising move considering how traditional and stubborn Nintendo is known to be.

How Nintendo currently approaches mobile games

Super Mario Run

As a console manufacturer, Nintendo designs its mobile games to be supplementary experiences. What this means is that Nintendo is not trying to make mobile games that imitate or replace their full-fledged console entries. Instead, they tend to have simpler, more lightweight gameplay that appeals to a mobile audience. Nintendo does this in order to create brand awareness for their properties among the enormous mobile game market, ideally encouraging customers to buy Nintendo consoles and games. With this in mind, it’s extremely unlikely that we’ll see any full-blown, high production value Mario or Zelda games on mobile any time soon.

So far, Nintendo has released five mobile games: Miitomo, Super Mario Run, Fire Emblem Heroes, Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp, and Dragalia Lost. Interest in Miitomo, a diet version of the 3DS game Tomodachi Life, waned quickly in the months after its release. Super Mario Run, however, ended up becoming a decent success for Nintendo, who translated the classic 2-D Mario formula into that of an endless runner. While the game’s first few levels are available for free, players must spend $10 to unlock the full game, leading to widespread criticism. Fire Emblem Heroes and Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp both became much more profitable games, despite lacking the massive brand recognition of Mario. Both games follow a more traditional free-to-play model, and feature microtransactions. Dragalia Lost is largely seen as a generic mobile gacha/collection game with higher production value.

Before you ask, Nintendo was not involved in the development or release of the smash hit Pokémon Go, though former president Satoru Iwata was involved in its conception. Nintendo does not fully own the Pokémon franchise, and licensed out its characters to developer Niantic through The Pokémon Company. Despite this, the success of Pokémon Go caused Nintendo’s stock value to skyrocket, further showing them the potential of mobile gaming.

While Nintendo has been heading in the right direction since the fiscally disappointing release of Super Mario Run, here are some ways they could really shake up the mobile games market.

How Nintendo could succeed with mobile games

1. Stick to the free-to-play model

Though Super Mario Run was successful, it did not meet Nintendo’s fiscal expectations. Super Mario Run had all the ingredients of a record-shattering hit, so why didn’t it happen? Even with one of the most recognizable brands in the world and the proven endless runner formula, general audiences could not get behind the game’s $10 price point.

Mobile gamers are used to being able to download games for free, with the ability to purchase in-game content in small increments. Games like this can be mostly be played in their entirety for free, and money is only needed for exclusive content or power-ups. Super Mario Run, on the other hand, locks most of the game behind the $10 paywall and does not feature microtransactions. $10 is a huge price for entry in the world of mobile games, and Super Mario Run has since failed to hit the 10% premium adoption rate that Nintendo hoped it would.

Nintendo seems to have learned from its mistake, as moving forward, all of its mobile games have followed the tried-and-true freemium model. If Nintendo is to become successful in the mobile games market, they need to follow the established formula and make the barrier for entry as low as possible.

2. Nintendo should start with high profile franchises and work their way down

While Nintendo’s main objective with mobile games is to increase brand awareness of their IP’s, they need to prove themselves in the mobile arena first by releasing games based on their most popular franchises. Nintendo wisely chose Mario Kart as their upcoming mobile game, as the franchise is far and away the most popular racing series in the world. By establishing consumer trust with bite-sized versions of AAA franchises like Mario Kart, Zelda, and Donkey Kong, Nintendo can give themselves more freedom to experiment with lesser-known franchises.

Nintendo could drum up more interest in some of their more niche franchises like Star Fox, Pikmin, or F-Zero by introducing new games in the mobile game market, creating more mainstream brand awareness and possibly leading to more mainline entries in the series on consoles. Newer Nintendo franchises like Splatoon or Arms could also benefit immensely from the awareness that comes with a popular mobile game.

3. Design social games

If there’s one thing to be learned from Pokémon Go, it’s that social mobile games are the best kind of mobile games. A huge part of Pokémon Go’s success was that the game encouraged you to seek out fellow players and encourage your friends to download the game. Games that encourage sociability create long-lasting communities. Allowing players to team up with (or against) friends helps organically spread the popularity of the game, and this combined with the free-to-play model can lead to thousands of players at least trying out your game. Social features, as well as social media integration, are key to a mobile game’s success, and Nintendo must incorporate these features into all of their mobile games moving forward.

Do you enjoy Nintendo’s mobile games? Which Nintendo games would you like to see on mobile? Let us know!

Apple rumored to be developing Netflix-like gaming service

Is Apple about to make a huge splash in the gaming industry?

Rumors are swirling that Apple is in the early stages of developing a subscription-based service for games, similar to Netflix’s model for movies and shows. There are few details about the service beyond this, as we don’t know if this service is being developed for mobile devices, home computers, or both.

Making a gaming service is a puzzling move on Apple’s part for multiple reasons. Even though Apple basically created the mobile gaming market with the App Store, they’ve never really gone all in on the gaming industry. Though Apple has placed tight quality control restrictions on the App Store, for the most part, they’ve been content to lay back and get their (sizable) cut from in-app purchases. Additionally, though Macs have received increased support from game developers over the years, the vast majority of PC gamers play on either Windows or Linux. Apple does not seem to mind this as their core Mac audience usually buy their devices for business or creative purposes. With this in mind, it’s relatively safe to assume that Apple’s upcoming gaming subscription service will focus on mobile gaming.

What would an Apple gaming subscription look like?

A subscription for mobile games wouldn’t make much sense, as the most popular mobile games by far are free titles that heavily utilize microtransactions. Why would anyone pay to play free games?

To make the subscription price worth it, Apple would have to offer some sort of premium content. Games could lock special levels, characters, or power-ups behind the subscription service, incentivizing hardcore players into subscribing. This model would make financial sense, as research has shown that mobile games make their money not from casual players, but from “whales.” Whales are hardcore players who pour tons of money into freemium games. Locking content behind a subscription would encourage whales and completionists to make the dip. There’s also the possibility that instead of locking content, the subscription would give a small amount of money to spend in every game included in the service. This would give players a brief glimpse into the premium side of popular games, encouraging them to spend more money after their subscription credits run out.

Another possibility is that Apple could focus on “premium” iOS games rather than free to play ones. These games are often console quality and cost around $10-$20, but don’t feature additional microtransactions. Examples of these games include Civilization VI and XCOM: Enemy Within. Apple could allow subscribers to play these games at no additional cost, which would encourage people to play these games who would have never before considered them due to their price.

By combining these two ideas, it’s possible that Apple could have a success on their hands. The subscription hinges entirely on how it is embraced by whales. If whales don’t see value in paying for a subscription, the service will fail.