The Wrapp - Combative kanji, greedy goblins, and paradoxical Pokémon

Happy Friday, folks. It's once again time for The Wrapp, our weekly series where we chat about what we're playing over the next few days. This week, the sun gets a shoutout for its heating capabilities while Iwan mucks about with the N-Gage. Elsewhere, the promise of dual wielding has pulled Shaun back into a former gacha RPG flame, and Catherine is striking fear into the hearts of her enemies, with words.

Jupiter Hadley

Staff Writer

Hate to say it, but with the heat we are getting in the United Kingdom, I am going to be mainly sitting in front of the aircon, hoping that I can catch a breeze! I might end up playing inside only, so no Pokemon Go! I have been enjoying Goblin Sushi lately, especially as the more I play, the more I learn about the best upgrades for my next run of creating sushi and paying off my landlord.

Dann Sullivan

Editor in Chief

A few weeks back I received one of the incredibly cool Playtiles units in the post. I've not managed to sit down with it properly despite all of my ambitions, but this could very much be the weekend. Otherwise I’ll be hiding from the nightmare orb in the sky and trying to keep both cool and hydrated.

Iwan Morris

Staff Writer

So, funnily enough it’s retro gaming that’s caught my eye this week. Well, if you can call the N-Gage retro (which you can). I’ve been really getting interested in a tabletop RPG called Rifts, which sees a post-apocalyptic Earth filled with visitors from far-flung settings ranging from fantasy to sci-fi and beyond.

Shockingly, a kitchen-sink setting like that with all its evocative art and concepts has only had one game. Rifts: Promise of Power on the N-Gage was a surprisingly well-received, full-fledged, turn-based RPG set in the same world as the TTRPG.

Unfortunately, as you might expect, this was an N-Gage-only project. So getting my hands on it is next to impossible. But researching it was a fun dive into the very early days of mobile gaming.

Shaun Walton

Staff Writer

Back in October last year, I had the opportunity to review Blue Protocol: Star Resonance, and I loved it. It's Genshin Impact without the gacha. My issue, however, was class paralysis. There were two DPS jobs I would never pick between. Now, as well as bringing the Fairy Tail collaboration, Season 3 also released the Twin Striker class, which wields two axes. I am a sucker for dual wielding. So, I am diving back into Blue Protocol and will be cleaving my way through any and everything. I expect this to be S Tier in our Tier List, or I will be rioting. With axes.

Catherine Dellosa

Reviews Editor

I’ve been slaving away under the Big Brother-esque eye of the Duolingo owl for a few weeks now, so WamojiSword immediately caught my eye when Iwan covered it earlier this week. It promises to imbue my name with the power of the ancient gods so I can put yokai in their place, and while I doubt it’ll help me learn any new kanji (I can barely even memorise basic hiragana), it’s nice to think my name can actually strike fear in the hearts of virtual demons (although I don’t doubt that hearing “Cat” in many households really can strike fear in the hearts of many).

With all this power in my name, shall I be the next He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named? Only time will tell. 

Will Quick

Freelance Writer

These past few Wrapps, I realise that I've been playing a lot of the same games, but I haven't made much progress. They've become sort of like tasks that I had to check off on my phone. I will say that Voidpet Dungeon wins the award for longest free play before hitting what I would call a possible pay wall. Maybe I'll come back to it, maybe I won't. We'll see how it evolves.

I've been learning a lot about animal medicine recently, so I think it'd be cool to see if there are games about being a vet of some kind. Plenty of human doctor games and shelter games, so let's see some presence for the animal docs!

Stephen Gregson-Wood

Deputy Editor

As has become tradition, whenever Pokémon TCG Pocket releases a new expansion, I'll dip my toes back in for a little while. Although I must admit, I'm not overly enamoured with Paradox Drive as a theme, largely because I thought Scarlet and Violet were abysmal, particularly the Paradox Pokémon themselves. They were either uncanny past variants or awkwardly designed robotic future versions. That said, Iron Hands did prove useful in raids, so I don’t hate it. Of course, it helps that Hariyama is such an awful-looking Pokémon in the first place that it can only be improved. Anyway, maybe they can win me around by spicing up the TCG Pocket meta.