Gaming
TMNT Splintered Fate, Disney SpellStruck lead 20 new Apple Arcade titles
More to play!
If you’re still on the fence about about subscribing to Apple Arcade, then perhaps one of the 20 new games coming to the service can convince you. Chief among them are TMNT Splintered Fate, Disney SpellStruck, and Cityscapes: Sim Builder.
The games mentioned earlier along with a few others are now available on Apple’s game subscription service. They can be played on any of your Apple devices. Apple Arcade features games from indie titles to popular global franchises.
The extensive collection of mobile games includes many genres. Everything from fast-paced action games and fierce multiplayer competitions, to lively adventures, relaxing puzzlers, and compelling sports titles.
Watch this for Michael Josh’s favorites:
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Here are the new games available:
TMNT Splintered Fate (Paramount)
The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles have been a cultural phenomenon for nearly four decades, captivating audiences with their unique blend of action, humor, and personality. In their latest adventure, Splinter is missing and the brothers are under attack. Unravel the mysteries to discover the sinister hand behind the mayhem. Join Leonardo, Michelangelo, Donatello, and Raphael on a co-op roguelike adventure where their unique attacks combine with randomized power-ups for some gnarly fun. Search for clues and hints across NYC with help from familiar allies like April O’Neil, Metalhead, Casey Jones, and more.
Disney SpellStruck (Artist Arcade)
Developed in partnership with the co-creator of Words with Friends, comes a new enchanting word game. Set out on a journey to the Isles of Tiles with beloved Disney and Pixar characters and take on challenging crossword-style games. Players will flex their spelling skills with Mickey Mouse, Tiana, Stitch, and others in a new adventure. They’ll play with friends in online versus mode, complete daily challenges, and test their spelling power to claim the top spot on the leaderboards.
WHAT THE CAR? (Triband)
From the indie developers behind quirky hit titles like WHAT THE GOLF? and WHAT THE BAT? comes a new comedic masterpiece, WHAT THE CAR? In this hilarious racing adventure, players take on the role of an unconventional race car with constantly changing features, such as legs, wings, and even the common cold. The game features wacky physics-based gameplay, making each race a fun adventure full of unexpected twists and turns.
Cityscapes: Sim Builder (Magic Fuel Games)
This new, sustainable take on classic city-building games is optimized for mobile and created by veteran sim builders. Players take on the role of mayor, and are tasked with building carefully thought-out systems to protect the health and happiness of citizens. With a focus on sustainability, players must carefully balance citizens’ basic needs such as housing, jobs, and utilities, while considering the impact of industry and transportation on the environment. With stunning 3D architecture, Cityscapes: Sim Builder offers endless design possibilities and endless hours of fun.
Chess Universe+ (Tilting Point)
For chess lovers looking to take their game to the next level, look no further. Built by chess grandmasters and gaming experts, Chess Universe+ is playable both online and offline, where beginners and experts alike can develop their skills and rise up the leaderboard.
Disney Coloring World+ (StoryToys)
Disney fans can let their imaginations run wild by coloring their favorite Disney and Pixar characters. Using a variety of brushes, crayons, markers, and magic tools, players can customize their characters and create their own unique versions of classic Disney scenes. Once a character is decorated, it becomes a sticker that can be placed and played with in magical 3D sticker books. With each completed page, more characters and pages unlock for endless fun and creativity.
Disney Getaway Blast+ (Gameloft)
Embark on a magical vacation in this match-three puzzle game featuring fan-favorite Disney and Pixar characters. Players will match and pop bubbles, restore and design unique islands, and meet new friends along the way. They’ll collect adorable characters like Stitch, Elsa, and Maleficent, and design their vacation islands in an eccentric Disney style. Enjoy the Disney magic and charming art in this puzzle adventure.
Farming Simulator 20+ (GIANTS Software)
Experience the thrills and challenges of running a farm. Harvest an array of crops, from wheat and barley to cotton and sunflowers, and take care of cows, pigs, sheep, and horses. Sell products in a dynamic market and invest earnings into additional machinery and farm expansion. With over 100 realistic vehicles and tools from leading brands like John Deere, Case IH, and Massey Ferguson, players can immerse themselves in the farming experience like never before.
Getting Over It+ (Bennett Foddy)
In this challenging platformer, players hike up an enormous mountain with nothing but a hammer while stuck in a pot. The physics-based game is designed to be tough, with every fall and failure resulting in starting all over from the bottom. Hikers who reach the top of the mountain may find themselves changed forever.
Hill Climb Racing+ (Fingersoft)
Get behind the wheel of this entertaining physics-based driving game. Players will face the challenges of many unique hill-climbing environments while gaining bonuses from daring tricks to upgrade their car and reach even higher distances. Race uphill in a variety of vehicles, including motocross bikes, monster trucks, tractors, quad bikes, tourist buses, race cars, ambulances, fire trucks, snow mobiles, and many more.
Iron Marines+ (Ironhide Game Studio)
This real-time strategy adventure in a sci-fi setting was made by the studio behind the Kingdom Rush saga. Recruit and train the greatest heroes in the galaxy, lead them into dangerous missions against nearly impossible odds, and unleash their mighty powers and abilities. Adapt strategy by changing troops’ roles even in the thick of combat, from ranger to sniper, and from flamethrowers to missile launchers. Countless enemies, adrenaline, tactics, and silly humor await in a galaxy not that far away.
Kingdom Two Crowns+ (Raw Fury)
A side-scrolling micro strategy game, Kingdom Two Crowns+ delivers a minimalist feel wrapped in a beautiful, modern pixel art aesthetic. Play the role of a monarch atop their steed and recruit loyal subjects, build kingdoms, and protect it from the greedy creatures looking to steal coins and the crown. Monarchs can also seek the assistance of a friend, working together locally in classic split screen while sitting next to each other, or on opposite sides of a device in the custom mobile feature of tabletop co-op.
LIMBO+ (Playdead)
LIMBO+ is an award-wining puzzle-platformer and indie adventure, critically acclaimed for its captivating puzzle design and immersive sound and visuals. Its dark, misty spaces and haunting narrative will stay with players long after they complete the game.
My Town Home – Family Games+ (My Town Games LTD)
This dollhouse game allows players to create their own family life stories and engage in fun role-playing games. With six unique rooms to explore, players can enjoy various family amusements and activities. These include cooking in the kitchen or playing in the garden. The game offers over 100 customizable items, dress-up games, and unique adventures where players can choose their favorite character and make their own game rules, fostering their creativity and imagination.
Octodad: Dadliest Catch+ (Young Horses)
Destruction, deception, and fatherhood. In this sequel to the splash hit Octodad, players control the titular Octodad — a dapper octopus masquerading as a human — as he goes about his life. Octodad’s existence is a constant struggle, as he must master mundane tasks with his unwieldy boneless tentacles while simultaneously keeping his cephalopodian nature a secret from his human family.
PPKP+ (SHIMADA TOSHIHIRO)
The city is suddenly under attack by creatures of Monster Corps. It’s up to the player to become the hero who will take down the monsters and revive the city. Players can gather building materials in the Scrapyard, replenish their strength in the Restaurant, learn new material in the Dojo, and get new upgrades in the Laboratory in their monster-hunting quest.
Snake.io+ (Kooapps)
The objective is fun and simple: Players start off as a small snake, and must eat pellets or other snakes for mass to grow and become the biggest one on the board; survive as long as possible to beat the highest score. Act fast with the mass-eject booster to attack and defend against other snakes to get ahead. Snake.io+ can be played anywhere, and offers live events with unique skins and real-time leaderboards to compete with other players.
Temple Run+ (Imangi Studios)
Temple Run+ brings the original exhilarating endless runner into glorious 4K. Players can now test their treasure-hunting reflexes on iOS, iPadOS, macOS, and Apple TV. Race down trap-filled temple walls and along crumbling cliffs with gorgeous upgraded graphics. Use the Apple Remote or game controllers to swerve, jump, and slide. Dodge deadly obstacles, collect coins, grab power-ups, use ancient powers to cheat death, and complete exclusive challenges to unlock new characters — even on TV.
TIME LOCKER+ (Sotaro Otsuka)
Time Locker+ is a minimalist shooter by solo developer Sotaro Otsuka. In this minimalist shooter game, the speed of time is controlled by the speed of the player’s finger. Players control a character through a series of time-based levels, where they must avoid obstacles and enemy fire while trying to defeat a variety of creatures.
Very Little Nightmares+ (Bandai Namco Entertainment)
Enter the world of Very Little Nightmares+, a puzzle adventure game that blends cute and creepy. Help the Girl in the Yellow Raincoat survive in a hostile house and find a way to get her out. As she awakens in an unknown mansion, the player must guide her through each room. Navigate a vast maze filled with life-threatening traps. Avoid enemies and discover intriguing puzzles to finally pierce the secrets of this strange house.
Pricing and Availability
- Individual (US$ 14.95)
- Family (US$ 19.95)
- Premier (US$ 29.95)
We didn’t have the best impression of Stellar Blade after spending time with the demo. Unlike certain players who poured a full game’s length of hours playing, our reception was lukewarm due to various reasons. But after finally having some time to focus on it, we now have a better understanding of its charm–and that goes beyond character design.
The game’s director has been ever-present in various gaming and tech news websites sharing nuggets about the game and reacting to the many comments made about the proportions of its female characters. That’s a rabbit hole we’re not diving into. Instead, we’re piggy-backing on one of his responses: Just pick up a controller and play it.
Steep combat learning curve
Stellar Blade’s combat didn’t click with us right away. But that’s because we approached it more like a hack-and-slash and not for the precise combo-parry sequence that it demands. A fellow reviewer aptly described our experience: It was a lot more “Soulslike” than we anticipated.
It took a while to get over that hurdle. For one, this writer isn’t particularly fond of Soulslikes. Skill issue. That’s tough considering a big part of this game’s charm is its combat. We can’t say that it fully clicked with us, but it certainly has its moments.
In combat, you have to pay attention not only to your enemy but also to how the protagonist, Eve, acts in different combo animations. If you’re not careful, you might find yourself getting hit during a lull in your combo.
You don’t have to memorize every single combo, although if you could, that’s certainly an advantage. We can compare the practice to memorizing combos of characters in Tekken, although at a milder rate.
Parrying is tricky but that’s not the only way to counter your enemies. One of the first skills you unlock is one that lets you get behind your enemy after they unleash a fatal attack (cued in with blue indicators) and hit back with your own counter. The animation looks so good that you’ll feel like an absolute badass every time you do it. It’s one of the moves that never got old throughout the entire playthrough.
As you progress through the game you’ll unlock ranged weapons that will expand your combat capabilities further. Hard combat enthusiasts should have a field day.
For more casual players, there’s no shame in switching to Story Mode which is what we did for about 70% of the playthrough. It’s easier, sure. But it can still present challenges especially during certain encounters.
The boss battles are TOUGH
We’re going to chalk this up again to skill, and perhaps patience, issue. But Stellar Blade’s boss battles are incredibly tough. Not to the point that you’ll want to throw your DualSense controller though.
What can make it frustrating is that the patterns of the enemies, especially the earlier bosses and mini-bosses, are easy to track. But they’re not exactly easy to deal with.
Parrying becomes an even more critical skill in these encounters. It’s one of the reasons why we opted to slide down the difficulty. Otherwise, this writer will never finish the game.
Pulling from different games, worlds
We have seen many compare Stellar Blade to the Nier games. Other than the setting, another big contributing factor in that comparison is the soundtrack.
During roaming, exploring, and combat, the music will change from time to time. However, they stick to this theme that’s a little eerie. It’s hard for us to describe but it’s almost like a crescendo that never quite swells up. It matches the game’s world perfectly — it feels hollow and devoid of life but still has a sliver of hope.
Combat isn’t the only thing you’re doing here. While it’s mostly linear at first, Stellar Blade offers a healthy mix of exploration, platforming, and puzzle-solving.
The puzzles don’t get in the way of the pacing. They’re quite engaging and offer a decent level of challenge. Roaming and exploration will yield you loot to improve your gear and stats. Occasionally, a Naytiba (the game’s primary foils) will surprise you for a good jumpscare moment.
Stellar Blade doesn’t reinvent anything nor does it offer anything particularly new or groundbreaking. But everything it borrowed from other games is retrofitted to match the game’s vibe and overall aesthetic. The result is a polished experience of familiar gaming mechanics.
Eve
Another aspect that did not grab us as much during the demo is the main character, Eve. The first hour of the game doesn’t do much to endear the player to her.
That slowly changes as you play through the game. Through a mix of cut scenes and world-building collectibles, you get a better sense of what Eve is, her mission, and ultimately her purpose.
If you’re familiar with the animé Violet Evergarden, Eve and that show’s protagonist share a similar character arc. They initially seem one note and bland, but the layers are peeled back as you learn more about them and how they relate to the world and the people around them.
Is she hot? Hell yeah. But as cliché as it is, she’s certainly more than what meets the eye.
Should you play Stellar Blade?
Unlike the PlayStation 5 exclusive that immediately preceded it, Stellar Blade has plenty in common with past PS5 exclusives — visually captivating, cinematic experiences, with satisfying gameplay.
Its level of challenge is closer to Sekiro and Bloodborne but it’s also not quite as difficult. In the same category but certainly not in the same stratosphere.
It also has an alluring charm that goes beyond its aesthetics. As mentioned earlier, nothing about it is particularly new or groundbreaking. But it’s polished and cohesive. There’s something about the overall feel of the game that draws you in and makes you want to see it through.
Stellar Blade is a Day 1 purchase if you’re up for the challenge. And if you consider the game director’s goal of having a high quality AAA console game from South Korea which is dominated by PC and mobile gaming, we say they did just that. Now, it’s just up to us to pick-up the controller and play.
Get your game on with the Lenovo LOQ 2024. This capable laptop is your entry point to PC Gaming and a lot more.
It comes an absolutely affordable price point: PhP 48,995.
You get capable hardware and the hood to support gaming and more. The Lenovo LOQ 15IAX9I runs on the 12th Gen Intel Core i5 processor and Intel Arc Graphics.
Those are key to bringing unreal graphics to this segment. Supporting latest tech like DirectX 12 Ultimate, players are able to enjoy high frame rates on the Lenovo LOQ.
Creating content? It comes with AI Advantage to help boost performance. Engines and accelerators boost the media processing workloads especially for creatives. It also works with Intel’s X Super Machine Learning, Leading to images that are as close to reality.
The laptop supports a configuration of up to 32GB of RAM and 1TB of SSD Storage.
As for its display, the device has a large 15.6-inch, Full HD panel that is more than enough for gaming, video editing, content consumption, and whatever else you do on a laptop. This display has 144Hz refresh rate, 300 nits brightness, and anti-glare.
Videos come out clear, crisp, and realistic. Audio is punchy and as loud as it gets. Windows Sonic elevates it more when you use headphones. And it just takes a few minutes to render HD videos on editing software.
As it runs on Windows 11, if you are going to use it for work, you can take advantage of various features. The Lenovo Vantage Widget is there for constant reminders, Copilot will help you organize your tasks, and Microsoft Edge is there for casual browsing.
There is an assortment of ports at the back for easy connectivity. And as this is meant for gaming, we put it to the test. Racing that looks better with high frame rate? Check. Shooting titles that require heavy work? Not a problem. You can play all your favorites and not worry about performance.
Best of all, it takes less than an our to juice up this laptop all the way to 100%.
So, whether you’re looking to get started with PC Gaming, or an upgrade for work and entertainment needs, the Lenovo LOQ has you covered.
This feature is a collaboration between GadgetMatch and Lenovo Philippines.
Rabbit and Bear Studios and 505 Games’ Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes is now available across multiple platforms. One of the most anticipated JRPGs in recent memory may now be played on PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox X|S, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch. Moreover, it may be accessed on PC via Steam, the Epic Games store, and GOG.
Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes is crafted by game developers Junko Kawano (Suikoden I, IV) and the late Yoshitaka Murayama (Suikoden I, II). The title features a modern take on classic 2D side-scrolling games. It has a six-character battle system, meticulous 2D sprites and 3D backgrounds, and a riveting story. As the name suggests, you can play over 100 characters.
GadgetMatch had the privilege of playing the game’s early preview here: Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes First Impressions
The refreshed environment immediately stands out. There is more detail, depth, and movement compared to how side-scrolling games of the past used to be played. The game lets players choose their party mates. Meanwhile, the actual combat is turn-based, giving players room to strategize what sequences or gimmicks to select.
With more than 100 characters to choose from, the game also allows players to appropriately select heroes fit for certain regions and dungeons throughout the story. Moreover, some are designated catalysts that can give you access to more of the world’s treasures. In between, users may enjoy mini-games, like the fishing side quest in the preview. The collected fish can be part of another mini-game — cooking — as ingredients for recipes you can cook with.
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