Let’s get mobile
Apex Legends Mobile, Playdate, accessibility improvements, PlayStation Plus news and more.
Hello Button Pressers!
Welcome to a new week of games both good and perfectly fine, I guess.
I (Alice) would like to start by thanking Tim for taking the helm last week while I was off sick.
This week is all about mobile stuff, except for the parts that are about PlayStation. Let us know which bits you like, which bits you think could be better, and if there’s anything you’d like to see us cover in the future, either by commenting on this, or tweeting us at @TimBiggs, @Alicedkc or @_pressanybutton. We’d love to hear what you think!
Apex Legends Mobile doesn’t suck (I’m just as surprised as you are)
By Alice
Did you know that Apex Legends has a player base of 100 million people? I did not know that, mostly because I keep forgetting the game exists at all. But every time I do remember it and give it another go, it turns out to be good, so that’s nice.
Yesterday saw the release of the much anticipated Apex Legends Mobile game and it is surprisingly good, if you can look past all the usual free-to-play/EA nonsense of lootboxes and microtransactions.
The thing that impressed me most was the controls. Normally, touch controls for former console-only games are awful, nonsensical, and ruin the experience if you don’t have a Bluetooth controller handy. Apex Legends isn’t completely immune to this curse, because the controls do cover a lot of screen real estate which has led to my poor character being shot more than once by someone hiding under my thumb. But, the controls mostly made enough sense that they got out of the way and let me play without keeping them front of mind. That’s a leap beyond most other games of ALM’s ilk.
Long-time fans might be disappointed by how stripped back the mobile game is, with only ten legends and fairly limited game modes, but I actually think it’s a great idea. It makes the game more accessible to people who might not consider playing hero shooter battle royales on console but want to see what the fuss is all about. It’s also the kind of game you’d play on a long commute to work in the morning, and 8am is no time to be bombarded by choice.
Free-to-play games are a pox on the gaming world, making everything a little bit worse in the interest of making a small group of people significantly richer. But at least this one is kinda fun, so you may as well try it.
What to play
Goat Simulator+ recently joined Apple Arcade and it’s just as weird as the name suggests. Just think “what if Untitled Goose Game was open world, about goats, and didn’t have a story” and you get the general vibe. It’s a game that’s proudly full of bugs and doesn’t want you to take things too seriously, and I find it delightful.
Staying with Apple Arcade, the new release this week is Warped Kart Racers, which is like if Mario Kart wasn’t as good and had Family Guy and American Dad characters. It looks just dumb enough to enjoy briefly before moving onto something else.
New to Xbox Game Pass this week is dino park management sim Jurassic World Evolution 2, first-person photography sandbox Umurangi Generation and an early access version of Little Witch in the Woods, a very ambitious pixel RPG I've (Tim) been keeping my eye on. And tomorrow will bring Farming Simulator 22 which I know some people love but I've never really looked at. Her Story is also new on PC Game Pass, which is worth a look for any interactive fiction or mystery fan. It's a Mega CD style live action clip game, where you need to search through a police database using keywords to put together videos of a suspect interview and work out the truth.
The incredible Steamworld series is on sale over on the Switch, if you’ve somehow missed out on it. The best game of the bunch is robo-mining-metroidvania Steamworld Dig 2 at $10.49, but if you’d rather dip your toes in first its predecessor is great value at $3.75. The other games sit in totally different genres; Heist is a turn based tactical shooter, while Quest is a deck-building RPG. They’re all very good.
Tiny niche games on a tiny niche machine
By Tim
Earlier this year I covered the Playdate, a quirky handheld that comes with a black-and-white screen, an analogue crank and a full season of 24 surprising games that roll out over three months. But something I didn’t explain is what indie fans can do with the machine after that.
This is one of the most exciting bits of the whole system, and should be of particular interest to those who like their games fresh, raw, interesting, smaller-scale and relatively inexpensive.
Panic, the creators of Playdate, have invested not only in emerging developers around the world but in an accessible and free toolkit that means practically anyone can make Playdate games. And those games can be published or sold anywhere; to put them on your machine you simply go to the Playdate website, upload the file and it appears on your device.
So recently I’ve been scouring indie marketplace itch.io for Playdate games, to see what the very first wave of unofficial offerings looks like. There are some great imitations, including of Tetris, Picross and meme favourite Bird & Beans, but here are my favourite originals:
Bloom, by RNG Party Games: At $14 this game is expensive for itch in general, but it’s worth it. As a college dropout realising your dream of opening a flower store, you experience the story through text chats with your friends and family, while also managing and harvesting your inventory. Both the conversations and flowers take real time to grow, so you play in short bursts.
Super Corporate Tax Evader by 96m96m: Simple and hilarious, you’re stuffed in a closet trying to shred as many incriminating documents as possible (using the crank), while your boss and a lawyer have randomised conversations on the other side of the door. You need to stow the crank to put the shredder away whenever the lawyer is about to burst in and catch you.
Life's Too Short by Ollie Coe: A brief but funny old-school adventure game, you play as a ghost who haunts a mansion but then decides to solve the domestic troubles of a vampire couple who live there. More than any other I feel like this game shows the potential of the platform; a $1 game with great writing and some fun ideas, good for a single session of warming hipster vibes.
Bricks, Boards and Beginnings
by Alice
Tomorrow is International Accessibility Day, which has started to mean that this is the week when major companies, like Apple and Microsoft, announce their big new accessibility features. This is both very cool and important. Some of the new big things coming soon from Apple include:
Door Detection on iPhone: iPhones with LiDAR (recent Pro models) already have People Detection and distance measuring, but in a coming update your phone will now be able to recognise doors and read you the writing on the door. This will be available in the Magnifier app, which is already great for people who want to read small print.
Apple Watch Mirroring: Apple Watch already has a cool feature where people with limb differences can use the watch by gesturing with the hand wearing it. But now users can mirror their watch screen on their phone to use Voice Over commands or other input methods that are set up for iPhone but don’t work as well with Apple Watch.
Live Captions on iPhone: This is pretty much what you’d expect from the title. The iPhone can now caption conversations and audio going on around you. You can switch between Audio output (like FaceTime, or a game) or microphone input (a university lecture), so if you’re hard of hearing/deaf, you’ll be able to follow along even if the speaker doesn’t speak Auslan.
Buddy Controller: This is already a thing on Xbox (Co-Pilot), but now on Apple devices people can use two controllers to control one character. I’ve seen this used by people with limb differences so they can control a game using one controller in their hand, and another on their foot. It’s also great for people who can play with a care giver. It’s not handing full control over to someone else, but allowing people with accessibility needs to work together with someone else.
Apple, being Apple, refused to give a release date on these features beyond some nebulous “2022” figure, so it’s unclear if this will be coming in an iOS15 update or in iOS16.
Retro Esoterica
by Tim
The new PlayStation Plus subscription service is only around a month away, and Sony has published a preliminary list of games we can expect to see included. Unfortunately for retro fans, the promised library of PS1/2/3/P games is looking a bit anaemic.
This is partly because PS3 games will not be supported in Australia, but also partly because there are no PS2 games to speak of whatsoever, only one PSP game, nine PS1 games and a bunch of PS4 games that are dubbed “classic” because they’re remakes of slightly older stuff.
The service will no doubt expand in time, but if you’re hoping to recapture some old PlayStation memories and don’t fancy shelling out $155 per year for the meagre PS+ classics, I thought I’d go over some legal alternative options.
PS1: If you grab physical discs of your favourites they’ll work in any PS1, PS2 or PS3 system. But a more cost effective option would be to get a PS3 and buy the digital PS1 Classics from the store while you still can.
PS2: This is getting difficult, which is why the lack of PS2 love in PS+ is particularly disappointing. To play PS2 discs you’ll need an original console or one of the earliest PS3 models. A very limited number of digital PS2 games were re-released on PS3 and PS4.
PS3: Since Australia has no PS+ streaming option, the original PS3 console remains the only way to play these games. But the discs and systems are relatively inexpensive, the online store is still open for digital games, and it’s all HDMI so will look fine on your current TV.
PSP: You could get an original PSP and collect those tiny discs, but going for a 17-year-old handheld is always a bit of a risk, let alone one with a little optical drive inside. A safer bet would be to get a PS Vita and load up on digital PSP titles while the store is still open.