Pocket Gamer 20th anniversary: Tower defense staples, Supercell's standards and MMO royalty

Today, we're focusing on the penultimate year in our Pocket Gamer 20th anniversary celebrations. That's 2024 if you've been keeping up. It's strange to think we've almost reached the end, covering two decades in which the face of mobile gaming has changed multiple times. And yet, whether it's the dominance of free-to-play or the rise of subscription services, we're never short of something great to enjoy, even if you despise those two things.

But before we get too deep into that, let's remind ourselves what was going on elsewhere. At the cinema, Deadpool & Wolverine stepped into the MCU in a film that genuinely surprised me. I'd never quite bought into the Ryan Reynolds Deadpool hype, but this was good fun. Elsewhere, Sonic the Hedgehog's cinematic turn continued to impress with the third entry, while Ariana Grande realised a lifelong dream by playing Glinda in Wicked. 

Over in music, Sabrina Carpenter confessed to having a caffeine addiction in Espresso, a revelation so moving that everyone in the world over listened to it on repeat. Something like that, anyway. Meanwhile, Beyoncé decided she'd had enough of R&B and pop, so she released a country album called Cowboy Carter instead. It even won a Grammy. Never let anyone tell you to stay in your lane is the message there, I guess. As for me, I became enamoured with Greetings From Suffocate City by The Funeral Portrait. You don't need to listen to even one second to figure out that particular album is emo, do you? It's all right there.

In PC and console land, Sony resurrected the platform mascot with Astro Bot. Sadly, I haven’t played it yet, but it warms my heart to know a game like this can be successful in the modern day. Even if the titular robot doesn't have the most interesting design. Alongside that, Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree was released. Despite technically counting as DLC, it's large enough that calling it Elden Ring 2 felt more appropriate. With a slightly smaller open world, though, I preferred it. And some of the bosses are fantastic. 

On mobile, it was an interesting year. We had a couple of big releases that soon vanished for various reasons, alongside many excellent ports. In fact, we had so many that Dann declared it was the season for them. Although having worked on these anniversary articles all month, it's clear that mobile has always been a great home for ports.

Balatro

LocalThunk's Balatro was a huge hit in 2024, proving that premium will always have a place on mobile. Of course, it likely helped that it was a success on PC first. Regardless, it quickly became a favourite for our very own Iwan Morris, who still regularly tries his hand at Balatro, which you'd know if you regularly read The Wrapp. The mix of roguelike deck-builder with familiar poker rules serves as the base here, with the Joker cards throwing in multipliers that elevate the experience to something that's incredibly hard to put down. It's far too complex to explain in a simple paragraph, so check out our review to learn more.

Hades

I think we can all agree that Hades is fantastic. Supergiant rarely misses, and they certainly didn't here, bringing their usual combination of beautiful art style and fantastic soundtrack to the roguelike world. Naturally, then, when it came to mobile, everyone at PG was super excited. The port was solid, too. Happy days, right? Well, it was until it got removed from Netflix. That's the danger of subscription services, sadly. This has been the fate of many games, although some have been re-released later on. Fingers crossed that'll be the case for Hades. 

Warframe

As we've seen throughout this month, many great games have been ported to mobile. However, one of the most ambitious is Digital Extremes' Warframe. This isn’t a watered-down version of the MMO either. It boasts cross-progression and cross-play, meaning you can hang out with PC and console players. Sure, you might want to use a controller rather than your touchscreen since it plays better that way, but it's still incredibly impressive how well it all came together.

Kingdom Rush 5

When it comes to Kingdom Rush, it's better to let our resident fan, Will Quick, explain to you why it's brilliant. So, that's what I'll do. Naturally, when Kingdom Rush 5 was released, he was handed the keys for a review, coming away impressed with how the team managed to mix up the usual formula a little without losing the core of the series. Did it rank among the best of Ironhide's TDs? Check out Will’s rankings to find out.

Squad Busters

Much like Hades, Squad Busters isn't long for the mobile world, with it shutting down sometime this year. Still, it's a noteworthy release for multiple reasons, particularly from a historical perspective. It was Supercell's first global launch in five years. The storied developer truly believed the MOBA-lite had potential to be the next big thing. And that seemed possible. It quickly gained popularity, and our own Iwan gave it a good review. However, Supercell have famously high standards, and once Squad Busters failed to meet them, they decided to pull the plug. While a bit brutal, you have to admire their quest for perfection. If it's not a monumental success, they quickly move on. 

Elsewhere, Wildfrost and Children of Morta were among the great indies ported over to mobile. Of course, that is merely a snapshot of everything that was released. For everything else, check out our best mobile games of 2024 list.