Sound clever in meetings with this concise snapshot of the new games you need to know about.
Here every Friday you’ll find big games gone global, fresh soft launches, the latest release dates and everything in between.
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Mystery Matters (Playrix)
A Game of the Day feature on the App Store alerted us to Playrix’s new game yesterday. It’s a match-and-makeover game, but one with a spooky theme and some hidden object levels thrown in too.
Final Fantasy VII Ever Crisis (Square)
Square’s latest FFVII spin-off is out now globally on both iOS and Android, and close to the top of the US and UK iOS charts after a long pre-order campaign.
Square will be hoping this one fares better than its previous FFVII spin off, battle royale The First Soldier, which was shuttered a little over a year after it launched.
Gwen’s Getaway (Ubisoft RedLynx)
Surprise! Ubisoft’s Helsinki studio, best known for the Trials games, is entering the match-and-makeover genre with this newly soft-launched puzzler.
It’s now available on iOS and Android in Finland, India, Philippines and the UAE, with more regions to come. Ubisoft Abu Dhabi has also helped the game’s development, said Ubisoft.
Moomin: Puzzle & Design (Rovio)
A second match-and-makeover game from Finland has gone into soft launch this week: Rovio’s Moomin: Puzzle & Design.
It’s now available on iOS and Android in the US, Japan, Finland and Poland. The above footage was taken from a soft launch build over a year ago, so it may not reflect the most recent iteration of the game.
eFootball 2024 (Konami)
The football game formerly known as PES has just launched its new season with updated teams and new features. It’s not the big deal it once was after a shaky transition to go both crossplatform and free to play, but it has quietly been performing pretty well in the last year. It earns Konami nearly $20m in a good month, according to Appmagic data.
Dark & Darker Mobile (Krafton/Ironmace)
This cult PC game takes extraction shooter mechanics and transplants them into a fantasy dungeon setting. And now it’s coming to mobile through PUBG publisher Krafton, though there’s no release date yet.
The announcement, made last week, was simply to confirm Krafton has the rights to release a mobile title – so it’s some way off.
DubDub: Obby Games (Smirk)
This iPhone-only game takes the popular ’obby’ idea from Roblox and carves it out into its own game. It has a neat TikTok-like UI and UGC tools built-in, so players can build and share their own obstacle courses.
Vikings: Valhalla (Emerald City/Tilting Point)
This builder-battler is based on the Netflix series of the same name, and is out now through the streaming service’s app.
It was co-developed by Tilting Point and Emerald City Games, which also helped make Star Trek: Legends and Tomb Raider: Reloaded.
Cypher 007 (Tilting Point)
Apple announced Arcade’s September line-up this week, and the most notable game of the four is Tilting Point’s James Bond game, Cypher 007.
It’s a top-down stealth action-adventure that involves classic villain Blofeld brainwashing our hero and holding him in a “mental prison”, according to the press release. It’s coming on September 29.
My Talking Angela 2+ (Outfit7)
This one’s coming to Apple Arcade September 9, an IAP and ad-free version of Outfit7’s existing virtual pet game.
Japanese Rural Life Adventure (Game Start)
The third of the four Apple Arcade games announced this week is coming on September 15, and is another Stardew Valley-like farming adventure. Love the blunt title, too.
Junkworld (Ironhide)
Kudos to Ironhide for getting that Apple Arcade cash for what will be its fifth tower defence game on the service. This is coming on September 22.
