GAMES OF THE WEEK - The 5 best new mobile games for iOS and Android - December 3rd 2020
It's that time again! Time for another entry into our long-running GAMES OF THE WEEK series.
If you're looking for the best 5 games which have hit the iPhone, iPad or Android stores this week then you've landed yourself at the exact right place at just the right time. Lucky, lucky you.
With this article, we skirt around the droves of subscription services (Apple Arcade, Google Play Pass, GameClub, Hatch, and all of their friends) which have launched onto mobile platforms over the years. We also don't factor in things like Steam Link or Google Stadia which allow streaming to handheld devices - and would open up this list to almost every game under the sun.
What that means is that our list is a finely curated list of brilliant, fresh titles which you can download and play without subscribing to, or installing, any third-party initiative. Of course, there are some great games on those services, but, let's focus on the stuff that you can grab right now.
From a long-awaited Android release for what can, simply, be described as a game about a hole, to a collecting game about gathering a massive variety of mishmash-mismatched duck, we've got something for everybody this week.
Remember, if you're looking to check through some of our previous selections then you can always do that at our Games of The Week Hub, it's a great way to find games to fill out that empty storage space on your phone or tablet. Or, if you like your news in bitesize chunks, delivered straight to your palm then maybe follow us on Twitter or join our Discord.
Anyway, without any further delay, click on the big, blue button below to find out more about what we believe to be the top five of the games which released on mobile devices over the last week.
1
The Complex
FMV games continue to evolve, with production quality and writing really starting to scale to levels that I don't think many of us thought they ever would. The Complex is basically a featured length movie with a simple-seeming left-right decision system which will drag you through an interesting, adaptive, sci-fi thriller.
It's an interesting looking story. Give the trailer a quick watch and you should know whether it's for you or not.
2
Startup Panic
The latest in a long line of tycoon game, at first glance Startup Panic doesn't look all that different from the games that came before it. Where it stands out is that it's been built around an arching story (six endings), a self-aware sense of humour, and an absence of fear regarding pivoting from one extreme to the other -- hackers, pirates and the threat of kidnappings are all mixed in there around the normal 'climb to the top' tycoon schtick.
3
Million Dungeon
Match-3 regularly steps outside of its genre, and without that happening we wouldn't have had fantastic titles like Puzzle Quest or Henry Hatsworth and, indeed, Million Dungeon. Million Dungeon uses the, now more common, 'pair to attack' technique, but built over the top of a rogue-like, RPG experience. It's a fascinating game, with a brilliant art-style. Definitely one ot look into if you're into a bit of dungeon diving and don't mind match-3.
4
Donut County
Easily one of my favourite physics games of the last year, Ben Esposito's Donut County is finally out on Android. It's a fantastic little game where you, as a rascal of a racoon, control a hole, growing it larger and larger as you consume every item through each level. In many ways it feels as flippant, colourful and fun as Katamari, and it's a game which I've returned to MANY a time as it's just so easy-going, whimsical and fun.
5
Clusterduck
Clusterduck's objective is incredibly simple: You have to hatch as many ducks as possible. However, as you hatch more and more ducks it starts getting stranger and stranger, with odd mutations starting to appear quite quickly. As new body parts appear you'll open up tonnes and tonnes of varieties of duck, but can you get them all? It's silly, nonchalant and quick fun (and free), definitely one to download for a quick go.
