Best new mobile games on iOS and Android – December 2024 round-up-Nick Gillett-Entertainment – Metro

Civilization 6: Platinum Edition – available on Netflix (Netflix)

The regular look at the last four weeks of mobile games includes three PC classics, two of which are on Netflix, and the artsy Miniatures: A Story Collection.

This month’s mobile releases include the fine-looking Zelda wannabe Airoheart, the touchscreen version of strategy game tour de force Total War: Empire, and two more crackers from Netflix in the shape of The Rise Of The Golden Idol’s mobile debut and their re-release of the mighty Civilization 6.

The Rise Of The Golden Idol

iOS & Android, included with Netflix subscription (Netflix)

Set in the 1970s, the sequel to The Case Of The Golden Idol presents you with a series of crime scenes that you need to scan for clues, each of which gives you a set of keywords.

Your job is to identify all protagonists and assemble the abstruse list of keywords into a statement describing the incident or crime that took place, in a set of discrete scenarios that eventually turn out to be very much connected.

The port to touchscreen is like coming home, feeling even more intuitive than it did with a controller.

Score: 8/10

Miniatures: A Story Collection

iOS, £2.99 (Other Tales)

Miniatures’ collection of four totally unrelated stories spring from objects you find inside a box on the title screen, each leading you into its own surreal little world.

Pitched somewhere between a digital art piece and a set of tiny point and click adventures, its beautiful, minimalist art style, mellow ambient sounds, and sparse dialogue are mesmerising while they last.

Originally released on PC, the touchscreen version works even better, although at around half an hour’s total play time, with little to draw you back for a replay, this will appeal to a fairly select audience.

7/10

Vinland Tales

iOS & Android, Free (Colossi Games)

Presented as a Viking-based survival role-player, Vinland Tales has you gathering materials to construct a great hall, then all the different buildings and crafting stations that make up a village – from huts to the shrines that let you unlock new primitive technologies.

You need workers to perform building and collection tasks, which requires new settlers, who only arrive if you maintain your settlement’s happiness ratings, which in turn requires everything from adequate housing to food rations. And that’s just the start of your chain of dependencies.

Despite that, it’s a curiously rudderless experience, providing insufficient explanation of its systems and starting lengthy timers when you want to do practically anything. Even visiting a neighbouring piece of landscape involves sitting and waiting several minutes, which either forces you to pay or close the game and come back later.

Apart from its setting and central crafting and construction mechanics, nothing about Vinland Tales feels quite right, from its random collection tasks to its continual, unsatisfying waits that seem to offer little in return.

Score: 4/10

Total War: Empire

iOS & Android, £1.99 (Feral Interactive)

First released on PC in 2009, Total War: Empire is a full-blown 18th century military real-time strategy that includes the European powers, America and India, in a proper worldwide rumble.

Battles take place on land and at sea, while the stirring martial music rouses your inner commander and his or her instinct for historic victories. It’s a shame it’s not just a tiny bit smoother.

It was buggy on its release 15 years ago and is consistent with that today, with occasional crashes and visual glitches even on a recent iPad Pro. It does work though and it’s a lot of game – and a chunky 10GB download – to take with you on the train, even if its touchscreen controls can sometimes be a bit fiddly.

Score: 7/10

Airoheart

iOS & Android, £1.99 (Soedesco)

With its cute, 16-bit pixel art looks, and text-only top down adventuring featuring sword, arrows, and bombs, Airoheart wears its inspiration on its sleeve, namely The Legend Of Zelda: A Link To The Past.

The problem with taking your cues from a game at the pinnacle of its genre, is that comparisons are never going to be kind, and that is unfortunately the case here.

From its bizarre, possibly mistranslated text interludes, to its ditchwater dull conversations, clumsy interactions, lacklustre puzzles, and poor checkpointing, this is Zelda in looks alone.

Score: 4/10

Rebel Skies – Clash Royale but slightly different (Rebel Skies Interactive)

Rebel Skies

iOS & Android, Free (Rebel Skies Interactive)

Rebel Skies offers one-on-one battles in the mould of Clash Royale, except it’s a sci-fi setting rather than fantasy, mana is now called energy, spells are command powers, and it’s played in landscape mode instead of portrait.

Levelling your deck’s three factions is also done a bit differently, but in most important respects it’s business as usual, with rounds involving deploying units from your deck, which then fight autonomously, slowly advancing on the enemy HQ.

Inevitably it’s not as polished or complex as Supercell’s now eight-year-old game. It also has a far more obvious paywall, where progress all but stops as your first faction’s cards get to around level 10. It’s not easy to predict how live service games will perform, and despite its immediate charms we suspect this one’s unlikely to reach classic status.

Score: 6/10

Civilization 6: Platinum Edition

iOS & Android, included with Netflix subscription (Netflix)

As if one full bore global scale real-time strategy wasn’t enough for one month, Netflix has released the Platinum Edition of Sid Meier’s turn-based classic for its subscribers, which includes all the game’s many add-ons and pieces of DLC.

First released on mobile four years ago, and on PC in 2016, it really stands the test of time, its absorbing tactical play surviving the move to small screen better on iPad than it does on a phone.

Annoyingly for a re-release there are still bugs knocking about, but as with Total War: Empire its scale and ambition may help you wearily overlook the odd technical hiccup.

Score: 8/10

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