56 Notable Mobile Games Released in April 2020
In April there were lots of releases, but less than usual games with licensed IPs. I had to remove 5 mobile ports of successful PC/console indie titles from premium section to shorten the enormous list. Altogether there were 56 releases, 6 soft launches, 3 announcements, 3 closed games, 2 gaming apps, and 1 prominent update. This list is also featured at PocketGamer.biz.
Major Developers and Publishers
1.Legends of Runeterra by Riot Games. CCG in League of Legends world. Global launch on PC and mobile after 3 months of PC beta.
2.Dead by Daylight Mobile by Behaviour Interactive/NetEase. Asynchronous 4vs1 multiplayer action. Play as a psychopathic killer or team-up with others to escape the murderers. Licensed characters from horror movies are included.
3.Manor Matters by Voki Games/Palyrix. The first hidden object game from match3 juggernaut. With a proven interior restoration narrative between HOG scenes.
4.Disorder by NetEase. Multiplayer squad-based shooter in near-future setting.
5.Undersea Solitaire Tripeaks by Plarium. Solitaire with narrative metagame, where you renovate a town for underwater creatures in Fishdom style.
6.DragonSky by Com2Us. Mix of idle shoot’em up, merging and breeding genres. The flock of dragons is flying and firing everything on the way; summon new dragons and merge them to strengthen your gang.
7.Word Crack 2 by Etermax. A Scrabble-like word game from Argentinian creators of hit Trivia Crack.
8.Gameloft Classics: 20 Years by Gameloft (Android). Collection of 30 retro java-games from Gameloft early years ported to smartphones with emulation of keypad controls.
9.Idle Mafia — Tycoon Manager by Century Game/FunPlus. Idle clicker about mafia from Guns of Glory publisher.
10.Dino Squad: Online Action by Pixonic. Multiplayer PvP shooter with dinosaur mounts from creators of War Robots.
11.Kitty Cocktails by Rogue Game. Hybridcasual title: one-tap liquids pouring hypercasual gameplay plus an extensive meta with unlock of cats, customizations and IAPs.
12.Pinata Punishers: Idle Clicker by Rogue Games. Bash pinatas and hoard candies, click endlessly to unlock new pinatas and fight “evil pinatas”.
13.Mr. Pumpkin 2: Walls of Kowloon by Cotton Games/Lilith Games. Point-n-click adventure about life in Hong Kong slums published by creators of AFK Arena & Rise of Kingdoms.
14.Area F2 by Qookka Games. Close quarter battle FPS with breakable/reinforceable walls and roofs. Debut game by an unknown developer, which racked up over 1 million downloads in a few days. Official game website hints that Ejoy Studio from Hong Kong is behind the game.
15.Totally Reliable Delivery by We’re Five Games/tinyBuild. Delivery service simulation with wacky physics and multiplayer option. Simultaneously released also on PC and consoles.
16.RoyalCrown by Meerkat Games/LINE Games. Fantasy battle royale with MOBA-style gameplay.
17.Zombie Sniper by VNG Game Studios. Sniper shooter with undead targets from the biggest software and games company in Vietnam.
18.Idle Life Sim by Digital Things. Consumerist life simulator: build a house, get a job, buy stuff for the house. Rinse and repeat.
19.God Punch: Idle Defense by goGame. Idle clicker: build up Earth defence to shoot swarms of aliens. From multi-studio Southeast Asia developers backed by Sega.
20.Too Many Cooks by FINIFUGU/Playstack. Multiplayer cooking game, which recreates the mayhem of Overcooked on mobile, but with different gameplay and UI. Includes solo, online team and local multiplayer modes.
21.Redecor by Reworks. Interior decoration with photorealistic graphics. Debut title from a new Finish studio, which revealed $4.3M investment round alongside the game release.
22.Dicast: Rules of Chaos by BSS Company. Board-like RPG where you roll the dice to move on the board. The game from a Korean software and web development company was in production at least since 2017 and shines with high-production value.
23.Dirt Bike Unchained by Red Bull. Extreme motocross racing from a media company disguised as an energy drink producer.
24.Blade X Lord by Applibot. US & Canada release of hero-collecting RPG, which enjoyed 10M downloads in Japan since October 2019.
25.NeMO-NET by NASA (iOS). Ocean research game, where you help in mapping coral reefs in real life by identifying and classifying coral 3D photos in the games while travelling on your underwater vessel.
Gaming Apps
Facebook Gaming (Android). Global launch of the app, which aggregates content from Facebook groups and pages on games, hides instant games inside, but it’s primary focus — watching game streams and streaming mobile gameplay.
My Nintendo by Nintendo (Japan). Read news, watch videos and buy games for Switch. The latest update of the app on Google Play was in March. But news about the app launch didn’t break outside of Japan till April.
Prominent Updates
Fortnite by Epic Games. Fortnite was finally launched on Google Play. In launch comments Epic Games criticized Google for showing too many cautionary popups, when users are launching apps downloaded from 3rd party sources.
Licensed Games
26.Nerf Epic Pranks! by Homa Games. The first hypercasual game with a license. A simple cover-up shooter.
27.Millionaire Live by Sony Pictures Television. TV show with a famous slogan “Who wants to be a millionaire?” is coming to mobile. You can win real money, if you are a US resident and can choose the right answer in less than 15 seconds.
28.Mass for the Dead by Crunchyroll Games. Dark fantasy RPG based on Overlord anime series.
29.Pat the Dog by Plug in Digital. Swipe to launch the dog as far as possible. Based on the cartoon TV series, which was based on the mobile game Space Dog, which is now defunct.
Noteworthy Indies
30.Fancade by Martin Magni. Not just a game with tons of levels but an engine/level editor for creating your own arcade and puzzle games and levels and for sharing them with the community.
31.Bark Park by Ancient Games. Multiplayer action, where you need to dominate the dogs’ park: drink water from a fountain, pee on trees to gain territory, bark and fart on rival dogs.
32.Gumslinger by Itatake. Wacky physics shooter.
33.Just Survive Arena by Juicy Beetle Games. 2D arcade game with a cartoonish art direction where you need to stay alive in the arena full of moving obstacles and traps.
Top Downloaded Hypercasuals
34.ASMR Slicing by Crazy Lab. Slice different objects to evoke relaxing sounds, just like on YouTube videos.
35.Get the Girl by Gamejam Co. Pull the spins in a proper sequence to solve a puzzle and let the boy meet with the girl.
36.Go Knots 3D by Rollic Games. Untangle colored chains.
37.Rage Road by Hypernova/SayGames. Car chase shooter.
38.The Cook by Playday/SayGames. Cooking game.
39.Bake it by Kwalee. Create a cake according to a customer’s order.
40.Border Patrol by Homa Games. Now a direct copy of Papers, Please without any nightclub bouncers.
41.Bead Sort by Supersonic Studios. Sort colored beads into the matching colored bins.
42.Hide ‘N Seek! by Seenax/Supersonic Studios. Simple stealth game: stay out of the seeker’s vision field.
43.Wobble Man by Ohayoo. Puzzler starring a secret agent, who climbs the floors of an endless office tower one store at a time. Next game from Japanese studio owned by ByteDance (TikTok).
44.Super Salon by Lion Studios. Makeover salon: make masks, remove black dots, trim eyebrows, etc.
45.Draw Joust! By AYA Games/Voodoo. Draw your own cart silhouette and defeat the rival.
Premium Games
46.Levelhead by Butterscotch Shenanigans, $6.99. Platformer about interstellar delivery with an emphasis on level editor and user generated content in Super Mario Maker fashion. Simultaneous release on mobile, PC and consoles. From creators of indie hit Crashlands.
47.Ultimate Custom Night by Clickteam, $2.99. 50 characters from cult horror game series Five Nights at Freddy’s and custom difficulty settings. The game was released on Steam in June 2018.
48.R.B.I. Baseball 20 by MLB, $6.99. Official baseball simulator from Major League Baseball
49.Carcassonne — Tiles & Tactics by Asmodee Digital, $4.99. News installment of the classic strategy board game.
50.Evolution: Education Edition by North Star games, $4.99. Digital version of the board/card game built on the theme of species evolution.
51.Beat Hazard 2 by Cold Beam Games, $4.99. Twin-stick shooter in space, which generates your ship, enemies and weapons based on music on your phone (or streams music from internet radio).
52.Beyond This Side by Crescent Moon Games, $2.99. Point’n’click adventure from a prolific indie games publisher & developer. Main character Sam is looking for his disappeared wife. Police found only her severed hand…
Apple Arcade Releases
53.Legend of the Skyfish 2 by Crescent Moon Games/Mother Gaia. Fantasy action adventure with puzzles in The Legend of Zelda style.
54.Scrappers by Q-Games. Beat’em up with robot characters, who collect trash in post-apocalyptic world. Up to 4 players on co-op.
55.A Fold Apart by Lightning Rod Games. A puzzle, where you need to fold the level to help characters meet.
56.Beyond Blue by E-Line Media. Narrative adventure game with underwater swimming simulation and ocean exploration.
Noticed in Soft Launch
1.Spyjinx by Bad Robot Games/Epic Games. Strategy RPG in secret agents setting: build a base and infiltrate other player bases with a squad of your agents. In collaboration with filmmaker J.J. Abrams. Beta test on iOS in Malaysia, with Australia set to follow soon.
2.Disney Mirrorverse by Kabam. One more hero collecting RPG with Disney/Pixar characters like Disney Sorcerer’s Arena, released last month, and Disney Heroes: Battle Mode. This time with real-time combat and “realistic” graphics style (well, more closely resembling characters in animated movies). Available in Philippines on both systems.
3.Crash Bandicoot Mobile by King. Endless runner. Finally King is showing a mobile game based on prominent IP from the parent Blizzard Activision company.
4.Pocket Politics 2 by Kongregate. Idle clicker, where you choose a candidate among satirical versions of American politicians and click to raise funds for the presidential campaign. Soft launched in Philippines on iOS and Android.
5.Rumble Hockey by Frogmind (Supercell). Hockey inspired 1v1 slingshot game with animal characters. Very similar to Rumble Stars Football from the same team. SL territories on iOS and Android: Australia, Canada, Finland, France, Romania, and Spain.
6.Train Riders by Sybo. Endless runner. Try to spot any difference from the evergreen hit Subway Surfers except the title.
Announced Games
1.KartRider Rush+ by Nexon. Kart racer gathered 3M pre-registrations in April. The title will be released in Q2 2020.
2.Forager by HopFrog. Survival crafting indie hit will come to mobile after release on PC a year ago. Mobile release date is unknown.
3.Danganronpa games by Spike Chunsoft. 3 mobile remakes of the main titles in Japanese franchise about high school students, who are forced into a killing game.
Cancelled and (Almost) Closed Games
1.Vainglory by Super Evil Megacorp/Rogue Games. Pioneering Western mobile MOBA narrowly escaped the shut down. New publisher Rogue Games abruptly stopped supporting the game due to server hosting costs. The game stayed afloat thanks to original developer Super Evil Megacorp. Servers are running but without social features and IAPs. Developer hopes that in the future players community will be hosting game servers.
2–3.Sega Heroes & Crazy Taxi Idle Tycoon by Demiurge/Sega. Match3 RPG with Sega characters & idle tycoon are shutting down in May after developer Demiurge was bought back by former co-founder and CEO.
4.Pokemon Rumble Rush by Ambrella/The Pokemon Company. One of numerous Pokemon collecting games, launched globally in July 2019, will cease operations in July 2020.
