For all its’ fanfare when it was released, and I was one of those in the mass of excited bodies, Pokemon Trading Card Game Pocket has been underwhelming. Even its latest event, which recently kicked off, the Wonder Pick Event Part 2, had been a bit of a whimper.

To start off, it has hardly been a proper update has it? As the name suggests it is continuing the work that Part 1 started last week, and that had more content. Pretty much all we have is the addition of a few new Blastoise items in the event shop, which is okay at best.

Whilst we all deeply love the involved worlds and storytelling of a Witcher 3 or a Final Fantasy, sometimes we just have silly, stupid fun, and that is what Snoozy Kazoo is serving up. You can now get your hands on Turnip Boy Robs a Bank for mobile and revel in the anarchy.

This is the second game in this series following Turnip Boy Commits Tax Evasion because vegetables get up to a lot more fugitive fun than we all thought. As you might have deduced by the names, both the game and the developer, we aren't in for an epic world-ending story here, just a thoroughly enjoyable stupid time.

Today is a good day for two reasons. First of all, the first Final Fantasy is coming to Apple Arcade for subscribers to have a field day with. Technically named Final Fantasy+. Secondly, this article is a flimsy pretext for me to discuss one of my all-time favourite series.

Final Fantasy is one of those franchises that you would have heard of even if you have only played Snake on a Nokia. Even the tale around its name is legendary. If you believe the story, it was to be Square's “final” attempt at avoiding bankruptcy. In reality, according to interviews with Hironobu Sakaguchi, father of the franchise, the title merely meant it was his final attempt to become a successful game developer.

HoYo is looking to ring in the New Year with Zenless Zone Zero version 1.5 placing famous in-game singer Astra Yao on the stage. She will perform at Starloop, with her trusty bodyguard Evelyn and the Proxy keeping watch for any and all conspiracies threatening the concert.

You will be able to recruit the star of the show as an S-Rank Ether Support, and she sounds pretty interesting. Astra can enter the Idyllic Cadenza state, boosting her team's attack. She will even stick around to buff should you switch members, which is perfect for a burst window. You can also use her Ultimate to heal everyone, an extra bonus.

HAEGIN has announced the latest addition to their social networking game Play Together, called the Club system. Whilst I initially read this and thought, surely they can be encouraging young players to start going to nightclubs, turns out it is just their way of saying a Clan-like system.

Misleading name aside, seriously I can’t be the only person to see Social and Club and immediately think of alcohol, Clubs are a way to get all your friends in one place for some innocent fun. It allows those of a similar mindset to communicate in Members-only chats, and to trade collectible cards to unlock rewards.

In case you missed it, Firepath Games has officially launched its fast-paced cooking sim titled Food Rush, challenging you to manage your own restaurant and serve up culinary delights for your customers. Whip your masterful dishes into shape in the kitchen, then match your customers' orders with your food to keep them coming back for more.

In Food Rush, you'll grill mouthwatering burgers and bake scrumptious desserts to keep your diner afloat. Once the customers and the orders start pouring in, you'll need to keep your wits about you to fulfil all those demands. Your time management and operations efficiency need to be top-tier - not to mention you also need to upgrade your appliances and unlock new cuisines to grow your restaurant.

Before we start with this, let's all take a moment to look above this text and admire that fantastic artwork. I love it so much. Anyway! PUBG Mobile has launched its version 3.6 update, which adds a host of changes, chief among being the Sacred Quartet mode.

Until March 5th, you can engage with this mode, complete with a beautiful floating sanctuary that is spilling out with elemental energy. Here you can interact with devices such as Fire Stones, Water Geysers, and Wood Vines to unlock special treasures. You can also access the Mystic Enclave by means of transport throughout the map for a spot of meditation and quiet contemplation.

With the New Year upon, the offices of the world have erupted into that one question asked each January; what are your resolutions? You can have the best will in the world, but sticking to these elusive little buggers is incredibly difficult, however, Habit Kingdom is a new app aiming to fix this.

When I first scanned the title I misread it as Hobbit Kingdom and got excited for some good old Tolkien fun. After noticing my error, I was a little disappointed, but then it was replaced with great wonder. I struggle with sticking with these self-improvement things like eating right and walking, so could an app help?

If you want to make a successful video game then you couldn’t really get much more of an advantage by starting with one of the world's biggest card games. This is what Mattel163 did with UNO! Mobile, and, as you will expect, I am about to rattle off some impressive numbers.

UNO! Mobile launched in 2019, which is now somehow six years ago even though it feels like six hours. Since then it has amassed over 400 million players, who have played over 30 billion games. That's 75 matches per player, although I personally have done a lot more.

There are some exciting times to hand with The Seven Deadly Sins: Grand Cross making it a New Year to remember. The New Year Festival 2025 is packing January full of fruitful events to clear and introduce the first UR double hero for players to recruit. Let’s start with that headline news.

[Light of the Holy War] Elizabeth & Melidoas is the double hero, and it must be said the design is spectacular. I am quite taken by it. To get the most of out this new duo you will need to stack your team with Demons and Goddesses, as two of their skills scale off that.

For a few years now, I have done some traditional Game of the Year honorifics where I've given props to titles via various categories and finished with the silly exercise of trying to rank the top ten games of the year in an ordered list to declare a "winner."

There's still value in this, I think, but I have nevertheless decided to do something a bit different. Mobile is a strange landscape that feels like it gets stranger every year, and it causes a lot of people to overlook the entire landscape unless some splashy PC or console phenom gets ported. I get the logic here in entirely, and I also think that it would make for a list of games where I say Balatro is a really great game not entirely useful.

So instead I am just going to highlight some mobile titles from this year that I think folks should give a fair shake, even if they haven't heard of them or generally don't play mobile games in any dedicated sense. Here they are below:

When I started playing Dungeons of Dreadrock for the first time, I had no idea the amount of tricky surprises that were awaiting me. It was the combination of clever wrinkles as well as their novelty that made it one of my top games of 2022. With a sequel, though, how do you recapture that same magic? Dungeons of Dreadrock 2 has a few new tricks up its sleeves to keep veteran players on the hook, but I'm not sure any of the innovations here will win over any new fans.

Return to Dreadrock

The App Store description for Dungeons of Dreadrock 2 accurately describes it as "episode 2" of what now seems to be a series. This game takes the exact same look, feel, setting, and story of the original Dreadrock and continues pushing it forward.

In this game, you play as a priestess of the Order of the Flame and use your unique, magical skillset to solve 100 more puzzles within a different part of Dreadrock's dungeons. This means you'll still be scooting a hero character around single-screen, grid-based hallways, but you'll be taking advantage of powers imbued in your staff and other collectibles and items to solve increasingly intricate challenges.

More story, more action, more dread

With this in mind, Dungeons of Dreadrock 2 wastes no time getting immediately complicated in the ways that made the first game such a unexpected delight. On top of that, this game leans more heavily into its story, which both help flesh out the world but also provide nice breaks between stretches of puzzling.

By starting somewhat complicated, though, Dungeons of Dreadrock 2 seems like it has to find increasingly byzantine ways to stretch its mechanics in later stages of the game to feel like it's continuing to up the ante. While some of this results some of the same highs that made the first game world feel so real and controllable, there are also times where the envelope feels like it's pushed a little too far. Whether it's the limits of the game's single-finger control scheme, levels of abstraction that disrupt the otherwise grounded feel, or some combination of the two, late-game areas can feel hard to enjoy outside of appreciating their design on a somewhat academic level.

New players beware

If you are wondering at this point whether this game is for you, I'd say that if you enjoyed the first Dungeons of Dreadrock and saw it through to the end, then there's a lot to like in 2. Otherwise, I'm not so sure. In a lot of ways, the first game feels like a prerequisite to this one, to the point that a new player will likely have a hard time following the story or understanding game concepts that are more gently introduced in the original game.

All that said, Dungeons of Dreadrock 2 is very accommodating when it comes to figuring out how to move forward in it. Every level has multiple hints players can use at their discretion, with the final hint offer typically spelling out exactly what you need to do to reach the next place you have to get to.

The bottom line

I am still enamored with the way the Dreadrock games establish a consistent logic and tight scope to each and every one of their puzzles. Even when tasked with juggling what feels like a slightly unwieldy set of concepts in this latest game, there are still those magic moments where everything clicks and you spot a wild solution right away. Perhaps Dungeons of Dreadrock 2 could have done with a little less envelope pushing, but I am glad it exists nonetheless.

Wuthering Waves is here to make our New Year a very joyous one indeed with the arrival of Version 2.0, dubbed All Silent Souls Can Sing. This massive new update also coincides with the game's PlayStation 5 launch, and it is incredibly easy to set up your existing account. I did it immediately.

You will travel to the beautiful new nation of Rinascita, where Echoes live harmoniously with humans. They even function as vehicles here. To celebrate their Sentinel, the people used to host Carnevale, a festival of music, art, and joy. It has been dormant for a while, but the people are clamouring for it once more, and you arrive just at the right time.

We don’t do TV show reviews here, but I feel like Squid Games Season 2 didn't hit as hard as the original did. Maybe because it was released in that lazy week between Christmas and New Yaer. Cultural phenomenon or not, however, its release does mean some shiny new content for Squid Game: Unleashed.

It will all kick off tomorrow, January 3rd for those reading after today. Straight from Season 2, you can try a round or two of Mingle, with the objective being to find and occupy a safe room before the timer runs out. If you are outside, you are eliminated, and your phone explodes. Maybe not, but that would be hilarious.

Infold Games is starting the year with a bang, pun very much intended, with the Nightly Rendezvous update coming to Love and Deepspace. Yes, I am covering this entirely because I thought of that terrible joke and I regret nothing. Now I am committed so let’s get into it!

Love and Deepspace is celebrating its first anniversary, lasting until January 19th for three weeks of many rewards. Xavier, Rafayel, Zayne, and Sylus will each have a limited five-star Memory to collect, with Night of Secrecy, Misty Silhouette, Intertidal Zone, and Absolute Zeal available up for grabs.