Touch Arcade

While Tomes and Quests isn’t up to my long-time favorite RPG/word game hybrid Letter Quest, it’s a decent spin on the concept that could be a lot better with some usability fixes and slight balance tweaking. If you love word games the way I do, you’ll likely get your money’s worth out of it. That said, it’s not quite up to the level where I’m going to shove it in everyone’s face, which is a thing I totally do sometimes.

Aggressors of Dark Kombat is not a great fighting game, but it is a really interesting one. I recommend checking it out if you want to play something unusual in the genre, but I can’t really recommend this mobile release being the place to do so. It really screams for multiplayer, and the touch controls just aren’t up to the unique demands of the game’s quirky systems.

Jet Dragon isn’t going to be for everyone, but those with an open mind and a love of simulation games will likely be pleasantly surprised with what they find here. Those looking for a slick dragon racing game with dragon drifting and such are going to be less pleased, since that aspect of the game aims more at the strategic than the action-packed.

It’s a terrific puzzle game that is distinctive, challenging, and packed to the gills with interesting things to entice you and test you. The game has made the transition to mobile so well that you’d almost think it was meant for the platform to begin with. A true must-play for puzzle game fans, so long as you don’t mind having to have a Netflix subscription to access it.

Indeed, I can’t find many things to complain about with Laya’s Horizon as a game. It looks and sounds great. It plays well and gives you plenty to do if you’re looking to do something, while also allowing you to enjoy doing nothing in particular if that’s your present preference. It will entertain you for minutes or hours as you like.

It’s not as fancy as the Shock Troopers games but its wild premise and strong execution make it a decent highlight from the NEOGEO’s earlier years. It plays really well on mobile even if you don’t have an external controller handy, and is actually quite good for filling out little pockets of spare time during your day-to-day. A solid addition to the ACA NEOGEO mobile line, and one I can easily recommend.

Diablo 4 feels like a game Blizzard made to show it still has it. I adored Diablo 3, Hearthstone, and the first two years of Overwatch, but never really clicked much with the publisher’s releases since. Diablo 4 is a true Blizzard home run, and one I look forward to playing for years to come. Even in its current state, it is a massive win, and a superb base to build on.

On its best day, you could say Football Frenzy is an amusing way to kill a bit of time with a friend before watching a movie or while you wait for your clothes to dry. There’s some potential here to be a nice mobile time-waster, but those who must rely on touch controls and can’t pull off the troublesome means of bringing in a second player will likely find this more frustrating than fun.

Crossed Swords isn’t a game you’re going to enjoy playing every day. It’s rather substantial for an arcade game from its time and place, but even with all of that its simple block-and-counter gameplay can wear out its welcome after a while. Still, if you find yourself missing that Punch-Out!!-with-swords experience that you used to quench by firing up Infinity Blade here and there, Crossed Swords might be a decent retro substitute. It’s not the first game you might think of when you think of SNK’s long-running console, but if you give it a shot you’ll find it to be a real NEOGEO-core game in all the best ways.

Anyway, all the usual ACA NEOGEO stuff applies here. You have access to lots of options, there are online leaderboards, you can play the Japanese or overseas release, and there are the usual additional modes that allow you to take on a score challenge or see how many points you can rack up in a set amount of time. You can use external controllers or you can fly with the touch controls. Your call. The emulation is top shelf, as one would expect from the folks at Hamster by now.