© 2024 KMUW
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

Games To Keep In Your Pocket

I’ve been away from home a lot lately, so I haven’t been playing much in the way of console or board games lately. I always have a few games with me though, on my smartphone.

Final Fantasy Record Keeper is a fairly simple game that has you collecting heroes from all 13 Final Fantasy titles and playing through iconic battles from those games. You can collect weapons, armor and magic to customize your characters and make them stronger. New content is released regularly, too, which keeps me coming back. The game is free, and although you can pay to be able to play the game faster or to get more powerful weapons, it isn’t necessary to pay to play the game.

Steven Universe: Attack the Light is a short RPG that plays and feels a lot like Super Mario RPG did on the Super Nintendo. The game is based off of the Cartoon Network show "Steven Universe," but doesn’t require you to know anything about the show. Even so, if you weren’t a fan of Steven Universe before playing this game, you probably will be afterwards. The game is colorful, cute and has a pretty great story written by the same people who write the show. Best of all, unlike nearly every other mobile game I’ve played in recent memory, it has no in-app purchases or microtransactions. You buy the game once and you can play it as much as you’d like. It’s great for both short bursts of play when you have a minute, or playing for a few hours on an airplane.

Nintendo announced recently that they’ll be developing games for smartphones, too. With Nintendo’s reputation for quality, which is sometimes lacking in smartphone games, I’m interested to see if these end up being fun and worthwhile, or just quick cash-grabs.

Samuel McConnell is a games enthusiast who has been playing games in one form or another since 1991. He was born in northern Maine but quickly transplanted to Wichita.