The Wrapp - The Queen's Gunbit, excellent avians, and space parties

Hello! And welcome back to The Wrapp. After all the excitement of the 12th Pocket Gamer Awards, it nearly slipped my mind that we still needed to let you all know what we're playing this weekend. But fear not, the powers of a recurring to-do list have come in clutch. 

This week, Iwan finally breaks his long-standing relationship with Vampire Survivors and Balatro while Shaun is doing all the reaching he can for a tangential Vikings Super Bowl win. Elsewhere, Dann is going to be building an empire or two, and Toni is indulging in all things cat-related.

Jupiter Hadley

Staff Writer

As much as I play Pokémon, I am also a huge fan of Neopets. Neopets is primarily a web-based game, but they’ve released a companion app that they have been adding games to. This month, they are running an event where you need to play solitaire on this app and submit it to win a bunch of prizes. As someone who LOVES winning prizes on Neopets, I will be playing the very boring game of solitaire now, all weekend. Who knows, maybe I will get good at it.

Iwan Morris

Staff Writer

So, I actually have a lengthy bus journey coming up. But unfortunately, I’ve had probably the best (and for this job, worst) gift possible - an e-reader. So now I have to, gulp, better myself by reading! Specifically, The Lord of the Rings, which has had something of a resurgence in popularity recently.

Not to worry, though, because Shotgun King has proved to be a surprisingly enjoyable little game to play. I’ve sort of bounced off of Vampire Survivors recently, and my lack of talent at Balatro has grated a bit. But Shotgun King has that lovely mix of exciting action and familiar traditional tabletop rules that really draw me in.

So, I’ll keep you posted next week on how I enjoy them!

Will Quick

Freelance Writer

As we enter the weekend, I'm sure many of us (I know I am) are looking for ways to unwind. There are so many ways to do this that don't involve gaming, but hey, gaming is a lot of fun, and sometimes the weekend is all we have to catch up on our backlogs because of the endless sales… You know who you are, and I'm one of them. The good news for me is that I've got a party to go to, an astro party, in fact. An Astro Party EX to be specific.

It's a multiplayer game, so I'll need to drop by the Discord and maybe get some friends to play locally so I can read the vibes of this party.

Shaun Walton

Staff Writer

Birdwatchers, be on the lookout, because there has been a report of a Superb Owl flying about this weekend. Oh, sorry, that's the Super Bowl. Terrible joke? Yes, but you can only tell it once a year, so we must all suffer.

Yes, it is the Super Bowl this year, and in lieu of the Vikings, I'll be supporting the Seahawks; go Darnold. As such, I am still in the Retro Bowl groove, taking the Vikings to where they belong: the Retro Bowl. I am aided by my two star WRs, whom, by virtue of their initials, I refer to as Wheelbarrow and Peanut Butter. Peanut Butter is a TD machine.

Dann Sullivan

Editor in Chief

I care not for Shaun’s owl, no matter how excellent. I will be spending this weekend with the Apple Arcade port of Civilization, especially as I’m interested to see if there’s multiplayer and how it works. 

In addition to that, I’ll be returning to Hitman as the account merge has now officially happened, meaning I can bring my decade of Xbox progress over to mobile and get back to whatever ridiculous, Rube Goldberg madness I was working on.

Toni Oisin H.C.

Freelance Writer

I think I must’ve been influenced by last week’s Wrapp, as everything I’ve played since is rather cat-themed. I’m still working my way through Little Kitty, Big City in short bursts, which I’m very much enjoying (give me all those shiny things!), but a couple of days ago, I also picked up cute city builder Minami Lane. I’ve already finished the campaign mode, so I’m totally ready to jump into sandbox mode and attract as many of the local kitties to my town as possible.

Stephen Gregson-Wood

Deputy Editor

There are a few new releases that have caught my attention this week, and I'm delighted to see that a few of them are premium. While I don't believe that free-to-play is entirely synonymous with terrible, it's nice to buy something once, and that be it. In particular, it's Backpack Battles and Countless Army that have caught my attention. 

Backpack Battles is a mix of strategy and inventory management, where you fill up your bag with gear and then hope you've found enough synergies to best your opponent's luggage loadout. Meanwhile, Countless Army is a reverse tower defence where you're the one invading. I've often wondered what it'd be like to command an army that's happy to run down a path to certain death in the hopes of doing one pixel of damage to a tower, so now's the time I find out!