In the .biz realm, we often find ourselves wrapped up in the investments, deals and stats of the gaming world (and rightly so), but it’s also important to highlight the games themselves – the fruits of the labour that can only appear after years of research, funding and, of course, development.
So here are the most exciting new mobile games right now, the developers and publishers behind them, and why, exactly, they’ve made the cut.
Bustin’
With the slogan “Get ready to save our behinds”, Bustin’ means that literally, tasking players with providing one of the most important services of all – giving toilet rolls to those in need. It’s a twist on something everyone experienced during the pandemic, but in Bustin’s case, the player has more than enough to spare and sets out to distribute toilet rolls to everyone else.
Appropriately wacky, the game is also an arcade shooter, with said distribution taking place by launching toilet rolls from a van. Other vehicles can be obtained too, and different locations are unlockable to satisfy the urgent needs of civilians everywhere. And there are a lot of people; hordes roam the streets looking for toilet roll and can get quite aggressive if you don’t sate them quickly – having no qualms about ripping your vehicle to pieces to claim the toilet rolls inside.
Mad Carnival’s zany new title is out now as a free-to-play game on iOS and Android.
AEW: Rise to the Top
Usually, throwing people off ladders, dropping them through tables and pinning them against the floor is considered socially unacceptable. But not if you’re a wrestler. And that’s exactly what AEW: Rise to the Top is about.
As the first AEW mobile game, Rise to the Top is primarily a single-player management simulator, featuring plenty of real-world wrestlers to unlock (or at least their in-game avatars). Instead of playing as them directly, fans can manage the wrestlers they’ve acquired, upgrade them, and send them out into idle combat against foes from the AEW world in the Main Event mode or in PvP.
AEW’s first foray into mobile gaming has come just as idle has risen to the fifth-biggest genre on the platform, with East Side Games being the developer brought on board for such a project. The studio has plenty of experience in adapting TV content into mobile games, from RuPaul’s Drag Race Superstar to Archer: Danger Phone Idle Game.
Battle Cars
In a rare win for Android, TinyBytes Battle Cars is exclusive to Google Play and gives Android gamers a chance to drive fast, shoot faster, and race to victory. The idea is to test a player’s skills behind the wheel and in combat, creating something “more than just a racing or fighting game”.
Geared around PvP content, Battle Cars allows players to make their own machines and race them against others’ inventions, merging customisation with competition. That customisation can range from slapping stickers on a race car to adding a rocket booster, fire resistance, armour or even cannons.
The new title marks a deviation from TinyBytes’ prior releases – typically focused more around warfare, such as Last War: Army Shelter Battles; then again, Massive Warfare: Tanks PvP War could be seen as something of a middle ground with tanks and helicopters to navigate.
Sea of Conquest
Offering a chance to live like a seafaring pirate, FunPlus’ Sea of Conquest is a game full of treasure, magic and adventure, with the player taking on the role of a ship’s captain setting off into unknown waters. Navigating uncharted destinations, building up a loyal crew and customising the ship itself are all a part of the experience, while real-time battles in MMO fashion give that all-important bit of danger to keep things spicy.
The game features an alliance system too, giving players the chance to team up and take on quests together, be that treasure hunting or taking on the mythical Kraken.
FunPlus has a plethora of mobile publishing experience from Call of Antia: Match 3 RPG to Frost and Flame: King of Avalon. We interviewed the company’s CBO Chris Petrovic about Sea of Conquest when the game entered soft launch in late 2023.
FashionVerse
Hilfiger Ventures, Tilting Point and Brandible have partnered to launch this latest photorealistic fashion mobile game on iOS and Android, as well as on the Netflix app. Whichever way aspiring fashionistas jump in, FashionVerse tasks them with fulfilling design challenges, crafting the best outfit sets, working on mood board and more. The designs they create can be shared online and put up to community votes, with the most popular styles meaning rewards for their makers.
The fashion title was revealed ahead of time to be leveraging AI technology to discover the latest trends, with real-world fashion brands used as reference points. The lifelike avatars are modelled using AI too.
Of course, FashionVerse is only one of many games using AI technology today…
