Blaugust Day 7 -Mobile games part 2

I would never have imagined that I would have more than one post on Mobile gaming but when travelling and I have no choice, it gives me an opportunity to explore games I wouldn't consider otherwise.

The first of my next two games I've been exploring is Fallout Shelter. I know I'm a little late to the party on this, but this is an incredible little game, released by Bethesda as a pre-taster of the upcoming Fallout 4.

Taking on the role of the overseer of a shelter or Vault, surviving a nuclear winter, you manage people with various skills to operate various rooms producing food, water and power inititially and later building other rooms with various functions to promote happiness and health of the Vault Dwellers as well as living quarters allowing two Dwellers who love other very much to bring another dweller into the world, who can then work for the betterment of the society. Some of the cheesy chat up lines used during this courtship are hilarious.

My favourite part of the game is that can equip dwellers to venture out into the wasteland, as you do in the Fallout games, to forage for equipment and bottle caps, the Fallout world's currency.

Next up is Angry Birds 2, the latest release from Rovio after the huge success of Angry Birds and it's various spin off games. The game has already beaten records with over 20million downloads in its first week, something that it took the original Angry Birds 9 months to do, some five years ago and speculation is that the studio that created the game, Rovio, are currently worth 9 billion dollars.

As for the game itself, it's just as addictive as the original. It has a few new mechanics, though I've only been through the first dozen or so levels, and has Facebook integration so you can compete against friends. 

The game is a very simple concept (fire birds from a catapult to destroy pigs hiding in various destroyable structures) but they are fiendishly difficult at times. Add to this that failure means starting the level again again, unless you pony up gems for an extra bird, which are earned to some degree in game, but conveniently available via most major credit cards. Also you only have so many tries at a level before you have to either wait a certain amount of time for more loves or again, get your wallet out. This feels like a blatant cash grab and I don't recall the original game being so mercenary. 

Overall, a great game that's very familiar to players of the original but ultimately frustrating due to micro transactions.

This post is part of the Blaugust 2015 initiative. If you are interested in taking part, all the information can be found by clicking the logo below.