Picky Gamer Apps #9

The weekly Picky Gamer Apps column is dedicated to mobile games and apps a picky gamer wants to have. I’m focusing on the games and will be dropping some occasional applications that will help in your gaming lives.

Here is the selection of games for this week: ‎

• Hyperball
• ‎Polysphere
• Eternium

Hyperball

Hyperball is a Rocket League copycat for mobile devices. You can tell that the game isn’t finished yet with many features still missing, but it’s already trending in iOS charts.

I was on the fence of adding Hyperball to the list of Picky Gamer Apps primarily because it’s not an online multiplayer. The cars you are competing against are in facts bots that don’t lag out or disconnect while you switch to airplane mode. To my opinion, even without online multiplayer, Hyperball is better than 80% of games on online app stores because:

• Simplicity — download and start playing
• Not bloated with in-app purchases. Just pay $3 to remove adds, and you are all set. Everything else offered is cosmetics.
• Fun and addictive gameplay.
• Short game sessions.

Hyperball is not hard-core experience, but a good way to “kill time” without sending your brain into overdrive. Eventually, the game will receive multiplayer functions and online ladder, creating a competition environment, until then I recommend scoring goals against bots and enjoying the injections of serotonin.

iOS Link

Android version hasn’t hit Play Store yet, but you can find APK.

‎Polysphere

I recommend Polysphere for the pickiest of gamers, and for that matter, for people who don’t care about gaming at all. It’s a simple puzzler which gives a 3D projection of a broken image you need to restore by changing the angle of projection. Polysphere offers to subscribe with a ridiculous weekly fee off the bat, and after seeing it, I almost decided to remove the app off my phone immediately. I’m glad I didn’t though because the section of the game outside the subscription area gave me a really good time.

The game looks and feels neat and fresh. All you can see during the gameplay is the image you’re trying to recreate by rotating it in 3D space. Some images unlock with ads, and there are many ad/subscription free puzzles. Download the game, and you can enjoy the hell out of the free experience for many hours. You could also sign up for the 3-day trial period and enjoy the ad-free experience with no strings attached as long as you don’t forget to cancel the subscription in time.

Don’t look at Polysphere as a brain training tool. It will help you relieve stress and relax, preserving your brain from at the end of a long week.

iOS Link

Android Link

Eternium

I’m a big Diablo 3 fan with deep runs in multiple seasons, and for many years I have been looking for a perfect Diablo surrogate for mobile devices. Eternium has come reasonably close to a great match, though I will be spending more time playing it to make sure.

Welcome to one of the most touch-friendly RPG dungeon crawlers you have ever played designed with user-experience in mind. Most mobile Diablo rip-offs on mobile make it quite hard to control the movement of your character and cast spells in the correct direction. In Eternium, you send the character where you need with a tap and cast spells with simple and easy-to-remember gestures.

At first, the two separate in-game currencies got me worried. There is easily obtainable gold and Gems, which you are supposed to purchase with in-game currencies. You need Gems to open chests lying throughout the dungeons, speed-up upgrades et cetera. I quickly found out that microtransactions aren’t an issue because you can:

a) Get it easily

b) Get by without it.

The game designers are sort of giving you the opportunity to spend money, but your refusal doesn’t cut into the core gameplay.

Eternium has story-mode which doesn’t interfere with the core gameplay. It’s a good source of Gems and additional loot. The title has a pretty good crafting and unique ability to upgrade progression systems that will keep you occupied for a long time.

Overall, Eternium is one of the best mobile games I’ve stumbled upon recently, and I can’t recommend it enough.

By the way, I was pleasantly surprised at the relatively low battery power consumption rate.

iOS Link

Android Link