My intro to video games coincided almost perfectly with the release of the Super Nintendo. Maybe I’m a Luddite or ridiculously nostalgic, but the video games that I enjoy the most tend to be those which remind me of sitting on the floor in my friend’s wood-panelled basement or pouring quarters into sketchy arcade machines. With the 8-Bit Gaming Conference returning to Dublin this weekend, 28-29 July, I’ve collected a few of my favorite phone games with a throwback flavor.
THE RPG
Stranger Things: The Game (Android, iOS)
Created as a tie-in to the Netflix series, Stranger Things: The Game is a beautiful pastiche of early-Nineties RPGs and particularly reminds me of Zelda: A Link to the Past. It’s 100% free — no ads, no freemium content — and has a large enough map and enough characters and side quests to be enjoyable throughout the entire plot. While some of the Easter eggs (promo clips from the second season) aren’t likely to be exciting to Stranger Things fans at this point, it’s a solid enough game that even non-viewers are likely to enjoy it. In particular, the quests in and out of the Upside Down were satisfying.
THE CLICKER
Crashy Cats (Android only)
They’re cats, they wear hats, and they smash things. That’s the whole raison d’etre of Crashy Cats, a clicker/side-scroller in which your goal is to maximize the dollar-value of your cats’ wreckage, knock over some Jon Arbuckle-looking guys and boop dogs on the head, all while wearing novelty hats. It has a pretty standard freemium model, in which you can exchange real cash money for additional coins and fish (which buy accessories and cats) but it keeps the ads to a minimum and it’s playable without spending a cent. It loads fast and the bonus rounds are Nyan Cat-themed.
THE WARGAME
The Battle of Polytopia (Android, iOS)
I found Polytopia while looking for an Android knockoff of Freeciv (itself an open-source knockoff of Sid Meier’s Civilization). The debut offering of Swedish game studio Midjiwan, Polytopia features a simpler game mechanic, with options for timed play or world domination, and both single and multiplayer modes. It’s ad-free but only offers 4 of its current 13 tribes for free — additional tribes run €0.99 – €2.89. Polytopia doesn’t restrict itself to vaguely-historical civilizations: Atlantis and elves inspired two of the paid tribes. Randomly generated maps and a difficulty scale from ‘easy’ to ‘crazy’ increases the replayability, though the map maxes out at 324 tiles. I can’t wait to see what Midjiwan puts out next.
THE PUZZLE
Gerrymander: Rig the Election (Android, iOS)
I love Gerrymander for its wry sense of humor. Pick a political party (red or blue, wink wink) and redraw districts to ensure that your side swings the election! Gloat as your opponent whines about the injustice! Celebrate over the corpse of representative democracy! Gerrymander has somewhat more invasive ads than the above games, and while it advertises 50 base levels with randomly generated maps, the scaling difficulty means it can be tough to unlock the later levels without opening your wallet. Still, the therapeutic nihilism, snide descriptions and unique puzzle mechanic make it worth a play.
