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Missileman ($2.99) by Shinnosuke Ohashi is a fast-paced vertical shooter arcade game that will keep you entertained in your downtime. If you love stylistic games and explosive missile action, then Missileman is the game for you. If you liked games like Super Mole Escape and Downwell, then Missileman will be right up your alley.

With all of the news and current events these days, I end up getting stressed out way too much lately. I find the best remedy for this is to just sit back and relax with some video games, regardless of platform. While a lot of my gaming time is done on my PlayStation 4 these days, I still spend some time with iOS games every now and then. For those moments when I just want something quick, I like arcade games because they usually offer up bite-size play sessions and I can fit in a few rounds while waiting around somewhere. When I saw Missileman on the App Store over the weekend, I was intrigued by the style and hey, how can I resist missiles and blowing things up? So naturally I had to check it out for myself, and needless to say, I’m not disappointed.

Visually, Missileman is downright beautiful. The game is rendered in 2-D with gorgeous and vibrant backgrounds that are nice to look at, though it’s hard to admire due to the fast and frenetic nature of the game. Everything in the foreground appears shiny and is incredibly detailed and textured. The colors range from soft pastel-like backdrops to more muted tones, but the explosions and lasers are as bright as ever. Animations are buttery smooth and fluid, so I experienced no lag on my iPhone 7. The soundtrack is also rather quirky and charming, adding to the frantic mood of Missileman. And to top everything off, the sound effects are fun and humorous. Overall, I think the developer did a fantastic job with Missileman’s visuals and audio.

There’s only one game mode in Missileman, and 16 stages to shoot and blast your way through. The game is also a roguelike, so once you die, you’ll have to start over from the first stage and work your way up again — the upgrades you’ve made are lost. While not everyone is a fan of the roguelike style, it is definitely a challenge and the feeling of getting through several difficult stages and beating your previous record is rather satisfying. The goal in Missileman is simple: fly on a missile and use the missiles to blast your foes out of the sky and see how far you can get. While it sounds easy enough, the game proves to be rather hard once everything is literally being thrown at you, so it’s a true test of skill.

Controls in Missileman are straightforward and intuitive, as everything is optimized for touch screens. Your character, a man on a missile, will be flying upwards automatically, so you don’t have to worry about the vertical movement too much. The game just requires use of two thumbs: the first thumb will let you move the missile man anywhere on the screen by dragging your finger around, and a tap with the second fires off a missile straight ahead. You need a combination of movement and attacks in order to make your way through the skies, as you need to avoid the scrolling walls and robotic foes. It does take a bit of practice to get used to it, but it feels natural once you do. Quickly getting the hang of the controls is key to survival, since you will want to make sure to keep your movement while also being able to see incoming enemies and walls whizzing by.

The game contains 16 stages, so it’s not completely infinite as you may imagine. Once you clear the threshold for an area, chances are you’ve leveled up your missile man, so you get skill points to spend between three attributes: Shot, Bonus Missile, or Shield. The more points you have in one attribute, the better it gets and makes your life easier. But keep in mind that once you lose all of your hearts by taking hits, you die and lose your progress in skill upgrades.

I’ve only spent a little bit of time with Missileman so far, but I’m enjoying it for what it’s worth right now. I do see where the game can be a bit repetitive since there aren’t multiple game modes and you have to start over from the beginning each time you die. There also aren’t any extras to unlock, so there’s not too much replay value aside from trying to beat your previous score. Hopefully the developer can consider adding some variety to the game in a future update to keep players interested. Otherwise, the game is fantastic with the unique visual style, awesome music, intuitive controls, and challenging gameplay.

I recommend giving Missileman a try if you’re in the mood for a fast-paced vertical shooter arcade game to kill some downtime with. You can find Missileman on the App Store as a universal download for your iPhone and iPad for just $2.99.

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Fire Emblem Heroes (Free) by Nintendo Co., Ltd. is the third mobile game from Nintendo, following the releases of Pokémon Go and Super Mario Run. For fans of the Fire Emblem games, or just turn-based strategy RPGs in general, then Fire Emblem Heroes is definitely one that should not be missed.

When I was in high school, I was introduced to my first Fire Emblem game, which was Fire Emblem: The Blazing Blade. It was from this moment that I fell in love with the intricate turn-based combat system that required much more strategy than anything I’ve played before, and the anime-style artwork for all of the characters was beautiful to behold at the time. While I found the game to be rather unforgiving with the permanent death for fallen allies (there was only one difficulty level at the time, and I lost several important heroes), I still enjoyed playing it, though I do recall needing some help from my boyfriend at the time for tougher battles. Since then, I’ve picked up a few more Fire Emblem games for the systems I have (but not all), and have thoroughly enjoyed them. When I heard a few weeks ago that they were coming out with a mobile version of Fire Emblem, I was pretty excited — the touch screen would be a great and intuitive control scheme for the classic combat system that the franchise is known for. Now that it’s here, I have to say, I’m not disappointed.

Visually, Fire Emblem Heroes is downright gorgeous. If you’ve played any Fire Emblem game before, then you will feel right at home with the game’s beautiful graphics, ranging from the shiny menus to the detailed maps and arenas. One of the biggest improvements, though, is the artwork for each of the hero characters that you’ll come across, which include all of the older heroes from previous games as well as some new ones just for Heroes. I feel that the art for previous heroes has been revamped, so they all look even better than the games that they were in before. However, during battle, all character sprites are done in a more anime-like “chibi” style, rather than the pixelated sprites from previous Fire Emblem titles. Animations in the game are buttery smooth and fluid, so there is no lag on my iPhone 7. The game’s music is also just as you’d expect from a Fire Emblem title, so it’s rather captivating and exhilarating, especially when you’re in the midst of a battle. On top of everything else, there is fantastic voice acting for all of the characters that you’ll hear throughout the game, which is nice.

Since Fire Emblem Heroes is a free-to-play game, it does have an energy system, which is referred to as “stamina” here. Each battle you go will cost some stamina, but it replenishes over time, so it’s not too bad. You can also earn orbs that can be used to recruit allies (heroes from other Fire Emblem games), crystal shards that help you level up characters faster, and dueling crests for PvP duels against players from all over the globe. In the beginning, you’ll only have access to the story maps, but eventually more areas get unlocked for you as you play, including Special Event Maps, Arena Duels, Training Tower, and more. As you successfully complete missions, you can earn rewards, such as orbs or crystal shards, and sometimes new heroes will join your army after you defeat them.

The combat system in Fire Emblem Heroes follows in the traditional Fire Emblem style, which takes place on a grid and is turn-based. Players take their turn first, moving all of their units and attacking if possible, before the enemy takes their turn. To move your units on the grid, just tap on the hero you want to move, and then you’ll see squares highlighted in blue or red — the blue indicates where they can move to, and red shows their attack range. If an enemy is within range, you can just drag your hero on top of the enemy to attack. You can also do the same with allies, except that will reinforce the target’s attack (or heal them if you have a healer) rather than damage them. Buttons at the bottom of the screen let you view danger areas and end your turn without moving or taking action if need be.

I found the touch screen to work much better than previous iterations, since everything feels faster, rather than having to trace your path one square at a time with physical buttons. And once your heroes special abilities are charged up, they’ll perform them automatically on their next attack, which is much more streamlined.

Each character on your team has the potential to level up and become stronger. However, to do this, each individual hero must perform an action (such as attack an enemy) to gain experience points, as it isn’t like Final Fantasy where all team members get experience points at the end of a battle.

For those who are new to Fire Emblem, it’s important to remember the weapon triangle system, because that shows what each weapon type is strong against and weak to, and this is key to successful battles. Essentially, lances are strong against swords, swords are strong against axes, and axes are strong against lances. Bows are great against flying units (pegasus and wyvern knights, for example) but they can only attack from at least two squares away, and tome users can only do ranged attacks as well.

I’m still early on in the game, but I’m pretty happy that I can finally play Fire Emblem on my iPhone. The graphics look amazing on Retina screens, the artwork for characters and battle sprites is well-done, the music and voice acting is incredible, and the controls for combat feel much more intuitive on touch screens. The game is also pretty generous with giving you the premium currency at a steady pace, but you can also purchase more if need be. The story is fairly captivating and there are plenty of other modes to keep you busy for a while, and overall the game is great for both newbies and veterans alike.

I highly recommend checking out Fire Emblem Heroes if you’re a fan of Fire Emblem or turn-based strategy RPGs in general. You can find Fire Emblem Heroes on the App Store as a universal download for your iPhone or iPad for free with in-app purchases.

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