40 Notable Mobile Games Released in February 2020
The essential list for professionals working in mobile games industry. Also featured at PocketGamer.biz.
Major Developers and Publishers
1.Crystalborne: Heroes of Fate by Machine Zone. A new hero collecting strategy RPG released by creators of Game of War: Fire Age and Mobile Strike, 4X strategies in $1 billion grossers club.
2.Knighthood by Midoki/King. Medieval RPG from British developers released globally after 19 months in soft launch. My personal favorite from player’s POV among the new games I tried this month.
3.Om Nom Run by Koukoi Games/ZeptoLab. Endless runner with a famous adorable green monster and his friends.
4.Overdrive City by Gameloft. Car industry city building tycoon with light racing and licensed cars from major manufacturers.
5.World War Doh by JamCity. New take on Clash Royale card battler with cartoonish art direction and sometimes cheesy humor.
6.Battle Racing Stars by Halfbrick Studios. Side view platformer racing for up to 4 players from creators of Fruit Ninja and Jetpack Joyride.
7.Knockdown Heroes by Rogue Games Inc. One-on-one hero brawler in real time with cartoonish Supercell-style art direction.
8.Shadowgun War Games by Madfinger Games. Hero based FPS continues the franchise established by the previous title.
9.Dragon Quest of the Stars by Armor Project/Bird Studio/Square Enix. Global release of jRPG in Dragon Quest universe, which was available in Japan since October 2015.
10.Aces of the Luftwaffe — Squadron: Extended Edition by HandyGames. Top-down shoot ’em up, mobile port of PC/console game released in November 2017.
11.Nightfall by BBC. Mupltiplayer RPG for children where players collaborate to defeat enemies from nightmares. Also playable in browser on BBC website.
12.Dragon Raja by Archosaur Games. MMORPG built on Unreal Engine by Chinese verteran developers. Total amount of data to download before starting playing is around 4.3 Gb.
13.Kick-Flight by Grenge inc. Multiplayer aerial fighting game with anime styled art direction. The first global mobile release by Japanese developers, who are a part of CyberAgent holding.
14.Monster Hunter Riders by Capcom. Mobile entry to the famous monster hunting RPG is available only in Japan.
Licensed Games
15.LEGO Legacy: Heroes Unboxed by Gameloft. Hero collecting brawler RPG with a nice touch of humor in narrative and animations.
16.Saint Seiya Shining Soldiers by Bandai Namco. RPG with turn-based combat based on Japanese manga series.
Gaming Apps
Pokemon Home by Nintendo. Companion app for transferring pokemons between supported games and trading with other players (Pokemon Go is not supported yet). For a subscription fee of $15.99/year players get extended vault and additional features. Estimated revenue is $1.8M in the first week.
Prominent Updates
Dota Underlords by Valve. The autochess title entered Season 1 after almost a year in early access.
Noteworthy Indies
17.Cookies Must Die by Rebel Twins. Shooting platformer with character progression where you stop evil cookies from taking over the world.
18.Early Worm by Oddrock. A puzzler with slingshot mechanics — shoot a worm to the apple, repeat through 80 levels.
19.It’s Literally Just Moving by Protostar. Relaxing experience where you control and customize a mover and cut grass in the countryside. From Australian indie team, who released amazing Super Starfish in 2018.
20.Eri’s Forest by Studio Qinoko. Tower defence of a tree from invading ant-like creatures with 360 degree view around a tree trunk and fluorescent graphics. Made by two Australian indie devs.
21.Quadracade by Kieran Haden. Try to control 4 arcade games on one screen at once.
22.I Love Hue Too by Zut Games Ltd. Sequel to the puzzle where you need to distinguish almost similar color tones.
23.Shallot Town (Early Access) by Shallot Games. Detailed city building simulator with villagers collection and interior decoration.
Hypercasuals in Top Charts
24.Sort it 3D by Supersonic Games. Sort colored spheres in tubes. Debut title from studio opened by adtech company IronSource.
25.Draw Climber by Voodoo. Draw legs/wheels of different shapes for the cube character to pass the level.
26.Slap Kings by Gameguru. Slap an opponent. Microtrend of the month in hypercasaul realm. Gameguru’s title is ahead of competition in terms of downloads.
27.Slap That — Winner Slaps All by Lion Studios. Same idea with a more realistic graphics style.
28.Slap Master by Omicron Bilisim Hizmetleri. A Turkish developer joined a slapping party.
29.Cut and Paint by MagicLab. Hypercasual craftsmanship: cut, paint and sell wooden blocks.
30.Dentist Bling by CrazyLab. Pull out, clean and decorate teeth.
31.Make it Perfect by Voodoo. Find the odd object and move it to restore order.
Premium Games
32.Company of Heroes by Feral Interactive, $13.99. iPad port of PC RTS hit from 2006. Command troops in WW2.
33.Book of Demons — Tablet Edition by Thing Trunk, $6.99. Hack-n-slash action RPG with deck building, port of Steam indie hit from December 2018. For iPad only.
34.Boris and the Dark Survival by Joey Drew Studios, $0.99. Top-down survival horror from the authors of indie hit Bendy and the Ink Machine.
35.Little Misfortunes by Killmonday Games, $6.99. Interactive story about a little girl, who is lured into woods by her new friend Mr.Voice. A title from a small Sweden indie team was available on PC since September 2019.
36.Summer Catchers by FaceIT/NoodleCake Studios, $3.99. Road trip platformer with a narrative story. Port of an indie PC game available on Steam since July 2019.
37.Genesis: Human Destiny by Khangames/Yonko Denko Koji, $5.99 (free to try on Android). Command a spaceship in a genre mix of “text quest, spaceship simulator, survival, adventure, and rogue-like RPG”.
Apple Arcade Releases
38.Crossy Road Castle by Hipster Whale. 2D platformer with procedurally generated levels for up to 4 players.
39.Charrua Soccer by Batovi Games Studio. Football simulator from Uruguayan developers. Charrua are indigenous people of South America, whose descendants live in Uruguay.
40.Loud House: Outta Control by Nickelodeon. A game for children, where you guide the characters from the Loud House cartoon to reach their objectives.
Noticed in Soft Launch
1.Plants vs. Zombies 3 by PopCap Games/Electronic Arts. Strategy game features a proven gameplay formula and adds development of the homebase on top of it. SL in Ireland, Romania and Philippines.
2.Angry Birds Tennis by Rovio. Multiplayer tennis simulator with Angry Birds characters. SL countries: Mexico & USA.
3.Stellaris: Galaxy Command by Gamebear/Paradox Interactive. Galactic scifi 4X strategy. Game expands the successful PC strategy franchise on mobile. SL in Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and Sweden.
4.One Piece Bon! Bon! Journey!! by Bandai Namco. Puzzle-batler in Tsum-Tsum style, where you blast faces of One Piece characters to combat rivals and develop an build-up an island in metagame.
5.Ivy: Stories We Play by Pocket Gems. Episodic narrative stories for mature audiences with “drama and thrills” from creators of similar app Episodes.
6.Guardian Tales by Kong Studios/Kakao Games. jRPG with real-time combat. SL in Philippines & Malaysia.
Announced (& Leaked) Games
1.Snoopy Puzzle Journey by Capcom. Blasting puzzle with an iconic American comic character in the main role. Set for release on March 03.
2.Crash Bandicoot endless runner by King. The advertisement of the game surfaced in Brazilian Facebook.
3.Warhammer Quest: Silver Tower by Perchang. Turn-based RPG with a fan-favorite license. It will see the light in 2020.
4.NBA game by Nifty Games. A new licensed NBA game is due for release in 2020. That would be a debut title for the US developer backed by VC funding.
5.Dragon Quest Tact by Square Enix. Tactical RPG in Dragon Quest universe. Announced only for Japan so far.
Cancelled & Closed Games
Forces of Freedom by Bravocompany. Developers of military FPS are out of money for server support and are going to release an offline premium version of the title.
Torikago Scrap Merch and Fantasy Earth Genesis by DeNA. Japan-only games will be closed in March due to low level of IAPs.
