When Plants vs. Zombies 2 hit iPhone earlier this year it gave tower defense junkies a dose of free-to-play heroin for the addictive franchise, but Android users have had to wait until now to play it. EA not only made that surprise announcement earlier this week, but also unveiled a few other new games coming to mobile devices in the months ahead.
Notable are a pair of new puzzle games. One is created by Reece Millidge of the one-man design studio Damp Gnat. Fans of quirky puzzlers might know that name from his flash games, but Millidge’s next game is games coming to iOS this winter. First up will be Icycle; note the clever mis-spelling there. This game features a protagonist who rolls around on a bicycle in a frozen world where he uses his umbrella to solve physics puzzles. Hand draw art depicts the adventures of a hapless hero who pursues a giant snowball and occasionally is pursued by it.
Holy Water Games is behind Feed Me Oil 2. This game also features hand-drawn art that boasts a distinctly British “flavor.
Damp Gnat is also behind Feed Me Oil 2. This game also features hand-drawn art that boasts a distinctly British “flavour.” Players have to maneuver a flow of oil through each level by manipulating objects in the environment. The oil follows the laws of physics and will flow around objects, float on top of water, and break up into little drops. Players can position platforms, fans and other objects to direct the current past obstacles.
Also on revealed was Zya. No so much a game, but more of an app for creating music. Players can create their own beats, record themselves singing, and mix in musical instruments. Because mixing audio would be very hard on a phone’s processor, Zya uses cloud storage to the mix music on a remote server then stream the finished track back to the mobile device. Players can then share their songs online, even creating music videos with the in-game characters. Aside from original compositions it also lets the less musically inclined work with licensed songs including Poker Face and Blurred Lines (#THICKE).
The Monopoly franchise has appeared on mobile devices before and often gets a new coat of aesthetics, merging with various intellectual properties yet still keeping the same basic gameplay mechanics. EA is heading in the opposite direction with a pair of new mobile games that use the distinct look of a Monopoly board, but the games use the mechanics of slot machines and Bingo. Both are free to play and target the hardcore subcultures of casual gamers who like virtual slots machines and Bingo. MONOPOLY Slots has a few unique features, including the ability to run several virtual slot machines simultaneously (Mimicking the sense of staking out several machines on a real casino floor). MONOPOLY Bingo allows players to walk around a 3D world patterned after a Monopoly board and play on bingo cards with themes from the Monopoly franchise.
Details on the impending The Simpsons Tapped Out winter event weren’t available, but we were assured something is coming to that ridiculously popular game. Explosion will keep an eye on the more hard-core games in EA’s mobile line up and have more coverage as they arrive in the months ahead.
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