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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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Evoland 2 ($6.99) by Playdigious is the ultimate homage to classic RPGs that most of us grew up with in our childhood years. If you were a fan of the first Evoland, then you don't want to miss the sequel.

I grew up with consoles like the NES and Sega Genesis when I was a kid. Back then, there were plenty of great games, especially RPGs, that provided adventure and challenged players at the same time. As time went on, RPGs grew and matured, becoming much more detailed than their original counterparts and even blossoming in glorious 3D. If you're the type of person to get a bit nostalgic over gaming history, and also enjoy a ton of references, then Evoland 2 is a perfect match.

$1.99

Evoland

Playdigious

Graphically speaking, Evoland 2, like its predecessor, is rather impressive. The game provides an excellent visual timeline of the capabilities of gaming throughout the years, going from 2D and 8-bit pixels to more complex, 3D modeling systems. Still, even when you go through the 8-bit part of the game, everything is still quite detailed, so you can still make things out and it's not too plain looking. The colors in Evoland 2 are a nice, lush mix of vibrant brights and more muted, earthy tones. Animations are smooth and fluid, with no issues of laggy or choppy frame rates on my iPhone 8 Plus. The soundtrack is also a nice tribute to the classic RPGs that you've played in the past, and the game even pokes some humor into that from the very beginning.

In typical RPG fashion, players will find a storyline that is jam-packed with plenty of JRPG tropes and clichés, but done in a way that is supposed to be humorous and entertaining. You have the protagonist who doesn't remember who they are and what happened to them before the start of the game. You're in a village with various NPCs who all have their own quirks and charms. The silent hero gets sent out of the village to do some errands for someone, but you need a sword first! Help the daughter of the man who rescued you from the forest from a bunch of monsters and witness a catastrophic event that changes the world as we know it.

Yup, that sounds about right, doesn't it? Evoland 2 has the standard JRPG fare, but does it in a tongue-in-cheek way that is pretty meta and breaks the fourth wall. It makes jokes about mechanics from other games, such as The Legend of Zelda (cutting up shrubs), and there are a ton of references to look for if you've played any major RPG or adventure type game.

Since it's an RPG, players do have to go through the game in a chronological series of events, but there is the ability to grind for experience and level up. You know, when you want to be so overpowered that you can decimate anything in your way.

Evoland 2 expands on the previous game by adding in new game mechanics and elements. Instead of just the regular old adventure RPG game, Evoland 2 implements different mechanics that get introduced in games, such as shooters, card games, platformers, and more. It adds more variety than the original Evoland, and it keeps things fresh and interesting. With all of the different genre mashups involved, it's guaranteed that you'll never be bored by what Evoland 2 has to offer.

There are two ways to play the game: through the default touch screen controls, or by using a MFi controller. The touch controls, while they work, are a bit wonky in my experience. The bottom left has the non-fixed joystick for movement, and the bottom right has a fixed-position button for attacking.

While the controls do work, I found it to feel clunky at times. This is because the movement joystick freely moves around to where your thumb is, but it doesn't seem as responsive as I'd like it to be. I often found myself trying to turn and not, resulting in my attacking in the wrong spot. Or I would just run into an enemy instead. I hope that the controls get better optimized in the future, or at least allow for some customization, as there's currently no options.

On top of it all, Evoland 2 has three ways to play the game: Adventure, Good Old Arcade, or Hardcore Challenge. There's plenty of diversity offered with the different types of gameplay, and the challenge mode is great for those who want a real test of skill.

An RPG game that mixes many classic together in an all new story.

The Good

Evoland 2 is a great mashup and homage of RPGs through the years. The visuals look fantastic and are nicely detailed, even when it's supposed to be "less" detail for the old graphics. The music is excellent as well, as it serves up typical adventure fantasy fare. The different style of gameplay mechanics and elements that are introduced provide a huge variety, and it's a great way to go through gaming's history. And last but not least, the humor with the dialogue and references is top notch.

The Bad

Evoland 2 is great, but I wish that the touch controls were a bit better. It's hard to move quickly and aim your attacks properly, as it gets unresponsive and sticky at times. Hopefully the control optimization gets tweaked in future updates. For now, if you have a MFi controller, it may be the better way to play.

The verdict

As a fan of RPGs in general, I am liking Evoland 2 so far. I believe I had the original game, but didn't get around to playing it for whatever reason (this happens more often than not). The cheeky humor and references bring a smile to my face, and I love how the world transitions to different graphical styles. The soundtrack reminds me of older RPGs that I used to play too, so the nostalgia is nice. I just hope the controls get better in due time. It may just take some practice to get used to.

Evoland 2 is on the App Store as a universal download for your iPhone and iPad for $6.99. There are no in-app purchases. It's also available on Steam (PC and Mac) starting at $19.99.

8.4

OVERALL

Graphics 9

Sound/Music 9

Gameplay 9

Replayability 8

Game Controls 7

$5.99

Evoland 2

Playdigious

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