Touch Arcade

In a lot of ways, Baldur’s Gate: Dark Alliance is going to scratch your itch for a Diablo-like game on mobile. It has random loot with colorful names. Lots of baddies and barrels to bash. You can quaff those health and mana potions like you chugged Big Slam Pepsis back in high school. It’s fun. Really, really fun most of the time. The times when that slips, it can be absolutely miserable. I really can’t stress enough how annoying the platforming can be, and there are a couple of bosses that be can really nasty too.

Pocket City 2 is the perfect example of building on what people loved in the original game while adding a ton of optional quality content. I didn’t realize how much I’d end up just exploring my own city until I played Pocket City 2. It isn’t a super deep experience like the hardcore builders on PC, but that’s exactly what makes it good. This is a relaxing game that can be tweaked to your liking in terms of difficulty.

Just remember that it originally released in 1990 and that the six year gap between it and Big Tournament Golf was a massive one in terms of game design evolution. This is a simple, straightforward game of golf with very few frills and practically no depth. Maybe that’s okay sometimes.

The only aspect that might put some off, is in how Sid Meier’s Railroads isn’t as deep as many other games in the genre. Barring that, Sid Meier’s Railroads is an easy recommendation for everyone even remotely interested in train management and simulation games.

Brotato runs seem to last just long enough for a good hunker without requiring you to settle in for a full-on butt-freeze. It’s a more direct game that gives you a lot less space to work with, and this is the fruit of that. Maybe that is what you are looking for; maybe it isn’t.

It is fantastic to see a big-budget release like this work out of the box on Steam Deck while managing looking and playing so well. The game itself has a few frustrating moments, but it still gets my highest possible recommendation for Steam Deck owners hoping to play it on the go.

This wasn’t SNK at its best, and its usual proficiency at sports games didn’t come through here. It’s more of a historical curio than anything at this point unless you have a personal connection to it, and I’d probably be comfortable calling it the worst of the games selected for the mobile ACA NEOGEO line thus far. Not even worth even a few measly bucks in quarters, but then again, it never was.

In its current state, Terra Nil is excellent, but it is held back by some bugs and glitches that required me to to replay specific portions of levels. It has a solid base for sure, and I look forward to playing it on and off over the coming weeks and months once patches arrive.

Voice of Cards: The Isle Dragon Roars is a polished albeit straightforward RPG with a gorgeous aesthetic and amazing music. Despite a few issues with the port, I definitely recommend checking it out on mobile.

Stakes Winner gets some extra credit just for being something a little off the beaten track, but it is a genuinely excellent arcade game all on its own. SNK had a knack for this sort of thing, and the end result is a horse racing game that I think anyone can enjoy even if they have zero prior interest in the sport.