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Athenion might not have the pedigree of some other deck-building card games available for mobile, but that shouldn't put you off. This is a game that's packed full of bright ideas, fresh new gameplay modes and enough content that you can lose hours of your life to.

Battles take place on a 4×4 grid, and see you taking it in turns with your opponent to lay down cards. You draw up to five cards from your deck of forty at the start of every turn.

These are the units you're playing in the fight, and they range from hulking monsters to flighty fairies, from magical trees to fearsome undead dragons.

Your cards have arrows on them that you show you which direction they can attack. You'll also notice a bunch of other numbers on the cards. These let you know the hit points a card has, how powerful its attack is and how many soul points it grants you.

Those soul points let you attack your opponent and they're the key to victory. The first player to lose all of their own hit points is the loser.

There's a lot more going on than that though. For one thing you need to pick from one of six different factions before you even get to the fights.

These factions have different strengths and weaknesses and figuring out which of them best suits the way you want to play is the first step of a pretty long journey.

Different factions have different special moves as well. Some let you link together cards to make them more powerful, others are all about sacrificing weaker units to create pockets of dark magical energy. One lets you build giant rock walls that you can use to protect some of your units or power up others.

There are single-player challenges, regular events and much, much more as well. You're never short of something to do in Athenion, and the pace of the matches lets you get a lot of them in in a single setting.

The Good

There's a staggering amount of depth to Athenion. It's going to take you a good while to get to grips with the basics and once you've done that there are layers and layers to peel back. Every time you win you'll figure out a new strategy and every time you lose you'll be trying to find a way to right that wrong.

The game looks amazing too. The cards all sport a brilliant anime art-style and you'll want to collect all of them just so you can check them out. The speed of the fights is a massive plus too – they deliver huge chunks of tactical action in the sort of short-blast sessions that are perfect for mobile play.

On top of that there's a brilliant community to the game, and you never have to wait long to find an online battle. There are a number of different modes that let you practice with different decks, take part in intriguing events and fight it out in ranked and casual multiplayer matches.

The Bad

There's a pretty steep learning curve here, so if you're not in for the long haul then you might be better finding your card-based fun somewhere else. Even when you've got the basics down you've still got a lot to learn and it can be punishing to come up against an opponent who knows more than you do.

There are also a lot of currencies, crafting materials and other rewards to figure out. The game does tell you what they do, but the tutorials are pretty brief and you're left on your own for a lot of the time to try and get to the bottom of things.

Overall

Athenion might not be the easiest game to understand, but once things start clicking it becomes something really rather special. There are some brilliant ideas here and they're woven into a bright tapestry of gorgeous visuals and wonderfully paced mobile play.

It won't be to everyone's taste, and it's fair to say that some players are going to put it down before they've even got to the good bits, but this is one CCG that it's well worth sticking with.

8.2

OVERALL

Replayability 8.1

Game Controls 8.2

Graphics 8.7

Sound/Music 8.2

Gameplay 7.8

FREE

Athenion: Tactical CCG

ZERO-bit Company Limited

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Alto's Odyssey ($4.99) by Team Alto is the highly anticipated sequel to the 2015 hit, Alto's Adventure. If you loved the first game and can't get enough, then Alto's Odyssey is a must. It's also great even if you never touched the first one, as it's a standalone infinite runner experience.

Since the App Store debuted back in 2008, I've grown a love-hate relationship with the endless running genre. I had fallen in love with Canabalt when it first came out, and it remained one of my go-to games when I was bored. Then I saw other runners come out over the years, like Temple Run, Robot Unicorn Attack, and Ski Safari, as well as clones of those as well. At some point, it seemed like every developer was releasing an infinite runner of their own, following tried-and-true formulas like Temple Run's over-the-shoulder or the classic side scrolling view. It all started to feel the same to me, and it got tiresome.

Then Alto's Adventure came along.

When I first saw Alto's Adventure, I was pulled in immediately by the minimalistic, yet gorgeous aesthetic of the visuals, especially the dynamic weather and lighting system. I was still a bit skeptical at first, but once I tried it out, I fell in love with it immediately. It was an elegant infinite runner, combining a trick system that you'd usually find in snowboarding or skateboarding games. It was different at the time.

Alto's Odyssey was first teased in December 2016, and was aiming for 2017 release, but it was delayed. Now it's here, and I must say that it's been well worth the wait.

$4.99

Alto's Adventure

Snowman

$0.99

Ski Safari

Defiant Development Pty.Ltd

$0.99

Ski Safari 2

SLEEPY Z STUDIOS PTY LTD

Visually, Alto's Odyssey retains the same simple and clean look that the first game has, except it now takes place in a desert dune with various biomes and temple ruins rather than a snowy mountainside. With this in mind, Odyssey features a much more lush and detailed world than its predecessor, and it introduces new obstacles that can either help you or hinder you, depending on the situation. The dynamic weather and lighting cycles mean that the backdrop is constantly changing and shifting, and it's still just a sight to behold. Animations are buttery smooth and fluid, and I had no issues with lag or choppy frame rates on my iPhone 8 Plus.

The soundtrack is pretty marvelous as well. While the first game's soundtrack was a bit more whimsical, Odyssey's music feels more ambient, atmospheric, and serene. It reflects the overall tone of a desert oasis, and it's rather immersive. The sound effects are realistic, and it all adds another layer of depth to the game, especially with the weather sounds. Overall, Team Alto has once again knocked it out of the park in terms of visual and audio design.

While the Alto games were never story driven, there's a lot of secrets to discover in Odyssey. It's an infinite sandboarding adventure, and this time, there's a variety of biomes to discover as you explore the endless desert oasis. The biomes range from regular old dunes to canyons and temples. On top of that, players will find hot air balloons that they can bounce off of, and even tornadoes that give them some hang time for more tricks.

The controls remain the same as before. Alto and his friends move forward automatically, but you tap to jump and do a long press while in the air for backflips. Doing backflips over chasms grants a slight boost in momentum, and that can help you get across the gap. You can jump into tornados to get lifted into the air, or jump on top of the hot air balloons to bounce off.

A new mechanic is the wallriding. When you have the Sandboard, you're able to ride along certain walls. When these come up, just tap-and-hold to ride the wall and go up higher. You can use these to propel yourself and jump off to do tricks. Some chasms also require wallriding to get across, but you can't wallride while flipping, so make sure to keep that in mind.

There are coins to collect, which you can spend in the Workshop to get upgrades for power-up items, like the Coin Magnet and Lotus Flower (protects you from crashes). There are also one-time use items that you can purchase, such as the Helmet (saves you from one crash) and Chasm Rescue pickaxes. The Wingsuit makes a return, of course, allowing you to fly once it's charged up from doing tricks. There are also some new items: Mysterious Radio, once bought, will appear randomly and drop something useful when there's someone on the other end. There's also the Sandboard and Compass, but you'll have to find these in the game first before you can purchase them.

The goals have made a comeback as well, with a total of 180 to strive for. They come in sets of three, and you'll have to complete all three before you level up and gain access to the next set of objectives. Once you've done all three, you earn the stars and level up. When you level up, you'll gain access to Alto's friends, who you can then play as. Each one has their own set of strengths and weaknesses, which you'll have to discover as you unlock them.

One character is better at backflips than others, while another has longer invincibility frames, another is faster, and someone else is better at jumping. Each character is good for achieving something that isn't possible with another.

If you don't feel like stressing out over goals, then just hop into the Zen Mode. Here, you don't have goals, points, coins, or power-ups to worry about. It's just you and the desert, and if you crash, you just pick your board up and keep going. Alto's Odyssey also has the Photo Mode, accessible from the Pause menu, where you can capture stunning moments from your desert adventure to share with others.

Alto and his friends have moved from snowboarding mountains to sandboarding dunes.

The Good

Alto's Odyssey may have taken about three years to make, but honestly, it's been well worth the wait. The game is absolutely gorgeous with the desert landscape and dynamic weather and lighting effects. The new biomes give the game even more variety as far as what you see, and they're quite stunning to look at. And the new mechanics, like the tornados and hot air balloons, made a great game even better, as it just improved upon the original template.

The goals system keeps the game interesting, and if the last one proved anything, it's the fact that you'll always come back and try to complete them all for the other characters. The game has high replay value, and it's just a joy to play.

The Bad

The only negative is that some of the goals are super hard to complete, and you may be stuck at one level for a long time. But that just means that the game is challenging, and you'll have a reason to keep playing.

The verdict

Alto's Odyssey is an improvement on an already great, classic iOS game. I never thought that you could improve on perfection, but Team Alto has done it. The graphics in Odyssey look even better than the first, and those were already great. The music is soothing and immersive, the new mechanics just add another layer of depth to everything, and there's high replay value. I mean, honestly, what more do you want? Plus, it's a premium game with zero in-app purchases, which is a rarity these days.

This game took three years to land in our hands, but Team Alto proved it was worth the wait. The desert has never looked so good before.

Alto's Odyssey is available on the App Store as a universal download for your iPhone, iPad, and Apple TV for $4.99.

9.7

OVERALL

Game Controls 10

Graphics 10

Sound/Music 10

Replayability 9.5

Gameplay 9

$4.99

Alto's Odyssey

Snowman

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