Hi everyone, and welcome back to My Week Unwrapped, where I discuss all the games I’ve been playing over the last seven days. It’s been another busy week, with one of my most anticipated ports arriving. I also played a few games I hadn’t heard about before, as well as a Netflix game I was looking forward to. There’s quite a bit to discuss, so let’s get started.

Superliminal

I’d been hoping that Superliminal would come to iOS ever since it was first released on other platforms. I’m a big fan of games that play with perspective and it also looked reminiscent of The Stanley Parable. So I was thrilled when it finally got announced for mobile. And it arrived this week. I spent about 20 minutes with it and was enjoying the humorous narrator and working out the puzzles in each room, but had to stop abruptly due to severe motion sickness. I’ve wanted to continue playing, but I’m afraid to because it took me a long time to recover from that one session. It sucks that I’ve been unable to play some of my favorite games because of this. The Talos Principle is another that I had to abandon far sooner than I wanted to because of motion sickness. Thankfully, Superliminal is free to download and try before buying the full game. So you can see for yourself if it bothers you before spending money on it. I do recommend trying it, but you can also watch some of my gameplay video below to see what it’s like.

The Dragon Prince: Xadia

As a fan of the show The Dragon Prince, I was excited to see that Netflix was releasing a game based on the show. The Dragon Prince: Xadia is an action RPG in which you play as one of several characters from the show and take on different missions. It’s actually a bit more difficult than I expected, as I’m being forced to dodge if I don’t want to take too much damage from enemies. Aside from that, it’s online-only, feels like a free-to-play game and seems a bit buggy. I wanted to like it, but it feels very generic aside from the characters being from the show. There’s also a battle pass and dailies and other annoying “engagement” things that I would expect from a free-to-play live service game, not a premium game. My last session with it also was a buggy mess, as I couldn’t figure out a way forward and then an enemy wouldn’t die even with its health bar depleted. I tried abandoning the mission and that wouldn’t work either, so I ended up just killing the app. The multiplayer is also not too well thought out, as I couldn’t find anyone to join me. Overall, not a particularly good experience. Feel free to try it if you already have a Netflix subscription but I wouldn’t subscribe just for this game.

Towerful Defense: A Rogue TD

Towerful Defense is a roguelike tower defense game in which you have one tower to protect earth against aliens. You pick up abilities and upgrades that can help you and you can either manually use the abilities or set them to go off automatically. If you do that, the whole game becomes about the skills and upgrades you choose, as it will play on its own otherwise. On my second attempt I managed to get to the boss, but he completely overpowered me and I didn’t stand a chance. I’m not really sure what I could have done differently, as I was doing well up until that point. I like the general idea, but I’m not sure it’s something I’m going to keep playing to try to beat. Also, I should mention that the game is free to play and supported by ads with a one-time IAP to remove the forced ads. But you’ll still have opt-in ads available after you pay for the premium version. I’m not a fan of that, especially for a game that’s available on Steam without opt-in ads. I think the premium version should be fully premium without any way to get hit with an ad. Just keep that in mind before you pay for it. But in any case, I do think it’s worth trying for free for yourself. You can also watch some of my gameplay video below.

Squell

Squell is a word game in which you have a grid of letters and need to slide rows or columns to make words. The catch is that you have a limited number of moves before the game ends and each time you slide a row or column over one letter, you use up a move. The only way to earn more moves is by making words with vowels, as you get an extra move for each vowel in the word. It’s an interesting idea, but not the best game to record gameplay of, as you want to take your time and really think out your moves. If you don’t, you may end up in a position where your only option is to use up several moves to make one word, which is going to be hard to recover from. Again, I recommend checking out some of my gameplay video below to see what it’s like, but it only costs $2 so it’s not a huge gamble if you want to try it for yourself.

Kingdom Rush 5: Alliance TD

I wrote about Kingdom Rush 5: Alliance last week, but I’ve since finished the main campaign. As I said, the Steam version includes all the heroes and towers that cost extra on iOS, so I decided that it was ok to use them. I still struggled with some levels, but in the end managed to finish the game with 3 stars on every level. It was fun, but I really do wish the mobile version didn’t cost more than twice as much to get everything that’s in the Steam version. If you’re ok not having access to everything, I think you still get a decent game for $7, but that’s only if you’re not tired of the formula yet. I have more videos on my YouTube channel if you want to see other heroes and towers in action.

Genshin Impact

And last, I continued working my way through the summer event in Genshin Impact. I spent the last few days playing through Kirara’s quest, which involved three little wooden men arguing over whose clan defeated a dragon. It was a fun, tongue-in-cheek story that I wasn’t expecting, since it wasn’t the main story. Overall, I really enjoyed this year’s summer event. I still have some chests to find, but I think I’m finished otherwise. Again, if you haven’t been playing much lately, this is a really good time to get back into it.

And that’s everything I’ve been up to this week. I also binged all three seasons of The Bear, saw the absolutely bizarre Longlegs in theaters, as well as Deadpool & Wolverine. Anyway, let me know in the comments which games you’re playing and I’ll see you back here next time with more of My Week Unwrapped.