Find out what our super attractive, talented and modest team have planned for the weekend
Hey there, welcome to our latest edition of The Wrapp.
This is a chance for you to see what the various members of the Pocket Gamer team are planning to play over this weekend and will, hopefully, give you an idea of some of the weird and wonderful things we get up to when we’re not keeping you up to speed with the latest news and tips. Heck, you might even find a new game to play.
Iwan Morris
Staff Writer
CastlevaniaVampireSurvivors, CastlevaniaVampireSurvivors, CastlevaniaVampireSurvivors, CastlevaniaVampireSurvivors, CastlevaniaVampireSurvivors, CastlevaniaVampireSurvivors.
Sorry, but as you can probably guess I’m really excited for the Ode to Castlevania DLC in Vampire Survivors. I’m not exactly a Castlevania mega-fan, but I’d say I’m familiar enough with the series to get a kick not just out of seeing fan favorites of the Belmont lineage, but also some more obscure characters making an appearance in Poncle’s bullet-heaven hit.
I’m especially interested in the new remixes of classicvania tracks, and the fact that there are probably more than a few secrets buried in this release, given Poncle’s proclivity for them. So this, either on PC or mobile or more likely both, is what’s going to be taking up my time when I have it free this weekend.
Jupiter Hadley
Staff Writer
It’s me, a person who only ever plays Pokemon Go consistently. This weekend, I will be running some Gigantamax Gengar battles for our Pokemon Go community. Last weekend, we fared very well with the Gigantamax Starters, completing three raids at two times on Saturday and three raids on Sunday. I heard a lot of smaller communities struggled, so we will see how Gengar does!
I have also started opening Pokemon card packs in Pokemon Trading Card Game Pocket (god, what a terrible name). I never liked the price of Pokemon cards, so this free way to collect cards feels great to me. They also don’t take up room or get damaged! I will be filling my collection… slowly.
I am still playing Neopets: Faerie Fragments to get my items in Neopets. It turns out, that each day that you log in, you get an item in Neopets. I guess I’ll be playing it forever in which case. I have completed, at the time of writing this, 158 levels out of the 500 needed to get all of the Neopets rewards. Wish me luck, as the match-3 puzzles became quite challenging.
Dann Sullivan
Editor in Chief
Right, right, right. So, I’m definitely going to be playing some Pokemon Go this weekend because of the continued thrill (yes, thrill) that comes with the new Gigantamax feature. The Starters, as Jupiter mentions above, were really intense and there was an amazing feeling as we managed to push through against the odds as a community – watching the number of Pokemon still fighting-fit ticking down from 120 to… well, much lower was almost hypnotic.
Even my youngest, Robin, had a great time playing, which I think was down to her being able to tap to cheer on the survivors – she’s excited to play more, and she rarely strays from Roblox or co-op Xbox games these days.
Outside of this, I’m definitely going to be pushing forward with my Balatro ambitions. I’ve completed a run with eight of the decks now and am enjoying the restrictions that come with the extra decks, I feel like I’m getting a crash course in some of the more extreme situations you can manufacture, and I can’t get enough of the feeling of ‘I’ve broken the game but I’m winning’.
I also have several new games downloaded that I want to invest some time in: FrostpunkM/Frostpunk Beyond The Ice, Iron Roads and ‘AR RPG’ Landing Party… but, these might have to wait for the new week.
Catherine Dellosa
Reviews Editor
Last week’s lateral epicondylitis procedure involved an ultrasound scan of both forearms, which showed – not surprisingly – that the site of injury is the EXACT position a person would be in when holding a phone in landscape mode. It turns out that the cause is “overuse” and “repetitive motion” on those precise spots – the doctor has found me out, and I can’t believe there’s actual medical proof.
So, I’ve been easing the pain and taking it slow with Neko Atsume 2, because there’s only so much “repetitive motion” you can do when idly feeding stray cats, right? Right? *sweats*
One cat, in particular, has tried to stuff itself headfirst into a cake box that’s two sizes too small, and now its x-marked butt is sticking out at me. What a time to be alive.
Stephen Gregson-Wood
Deputy & Special Projects Editor
It’s been a big week in the mobile world. With the arrival of Vampire Survivors’ Castlevania DLC, Pokemon TCG Pocket and Carrion, among other things, I’m spoilt for choice this weekend. So, my goal is to do my level best to give all of them a shot. As Jupiter mentioned in her Pokemon TCG review, there’s a lot of waiting around, which gives me plenty of extra time to play other stuff.
Vampire Survivors has slowly crept up my list of favourite mobile games in recent months, proving to be a faithful companion on any long journey. It’s just brimming with things to do – even more so now – and makes a perfect accompaniment to whichever podcast I choose to listen to while away the time. Carrion, meanwhile, is a different – literal – beast altogether. Undoubtedly, it’ll command more of my attention so is probably one I’ll dive into at home. I’ve had my eye on it for a few years – playing the horror? Count me in. And now it’s on mobile, that’s the perfect excuse to catch up.
Cristina Mesesan
Staff Writer
This week my best friend is coming back home. I haven’t seen her in a long time, so I am going to spend the entire weekend catching up and won’t have a whole lot of spare time for games.
Shaun Walton
Staff Writer
Shaun is away ‘dealing with business’ this weekend, but not the kind of business that you’ll catch on the nine o’clock news.
Mihail Katsoris
Staff Writer
So I started playing Mu Dark Epoch about a week ago. I enjoy the game so far and I’ve also made some friends there. We have a guild now, doing quests, bosses, and all that. So for sure, I’ll spend some time playing that game.
Also, some friends started playing Throne & Liberty and kept bugging me to play with them. I downloaded the game (71gb!!!) to try it out the other day, but I haven’t really played it yet. So that’s another title that I will be playing over the weekend.
Dave Bradley
COO at Steel Media
I’m going to have to play Balatro, aren’t I?
It was all anybody could talk about at GDC in March but I ignored it because it was only on PC – and I’m naturally a contrarian who refuses to play the thing that’s popular with my peers.
Then it came to mobile late in September, and I ignored it because I was addicted to Marvel SNAP and I’d already dropped money on its Symbiote Spider-Man season pass. (My current favourite SNAP card is Scream, introduced in the We Are Venom season, by the way.)
Balatro is now on the App Store and on Apple Arcade, and everyone is talking about how engrossing it is. Even Pocket Gamer’s boss, the inimitable Chris James, plays it. So the time has come: this weekend, I will be finding out what the fuss is all about. Wish me luck.
Will Quick
Freelance Writer
Even though Halloween is over, I’m still in a spooky mood. I’m setting out to explore the world of mobile gaming to find a truly good horror. Whether or not it scares me is extra, I just want it to be good. There are only two rules in my search: It can’t be a port of an existing horror game and it can’t be an internet flash game. The journey will be difficult, but I think it’s worth it for a good scare that you can carry in your pocket.
To get me into the spirit, I’ll start with My Little Blood Cult which is more of the Cult Of The Lamb variety of horror game. I’ll also be investigating Death Note and seeing if there are any popular games bearing its name, considering that the series ended in the mid-2000s and there hasn’t been a continuation. I’ll be watching the development of Death Note: Killer Within and questioning why it’s not going to launch on mobile.
