The Wrapp - Roguelike samurai, monster farms, and mumblecore narratives

Hey there, welcome to our latest edition of The Wrapp.

This is a chance for you to see what the various members of the Pocket Gamer team are planning to play over this weekend and will, hopefully, give you an idea of some of the weird and wonderful things we get up to when we’re not keeping you up to speed with the latest news and tips. Heck, you might even find a new game to play.

Will Quick

Freelance Writer

After highlighting Chronomon and In Their Shoes news, I've amended my app search for the upcoming week: I need more monster-taming and narrative. The latter might get more of my attention because story-driven games (maybe with some puzzle elements) could be a great alternative to doom-scrolling. There's plenty of potential to weave all sorts of content into a narrative tapestry to hold the devastated attention spans of all age groups, just gotta figure out how to make it seamless.

Also, monster-taming will never not be popular, and though I've covered it in the past, there's always a new one out there that hopefully mixes up the genre a bit.

Catherine Dellosa

Reviews Editor

Shogun Showdown is out now on mobile thanks to Crunchyroll Game Vault, and I'm working on a little something for it, so that's going to keep me happily busy this weekend. I'm always up for a little roguelike adventure, and when you add pixel art and feudal Japan into the mix, there's just no way I can resist. 

That said, I'm having a bit of an internet crisis at the moment, so I'm also hoping the Wi-Fi gods will look favourably on me so my samurai can go on an uninterrupted quest to take down the shogun this weekend…otherwise, I'm going to have to go out and touch grass instead. The horror!

Cristina Mesesan

Staff Writer

I have no big plans for this weekend - I am hoping I’ll manage to play some TFT and explore Gordian Quest a little bit. That one seems like something that those who love a one-time purchase can enjoy. I particularly like the fact that it’s pretty similar to Path of Exile in the sense that you can pick a hero, and then select from all the available skills and passives to make it your own.

I can’t comment on the visuals, since they’re not exactly my cup of tea, but they aren’t bad. So yeah, if time allows, I’d really like to dive deeper into Gordian Quest and try to come up with a fun build for the Warlock - or Golemancer (who knows, maybe I’ll even try two characters if I have the time).

Jupiter Hadley

Staff Writer

I am back! This weekend is a little busy. There are some Shadow Raids happening on Saturday, which I am excited about, in Pokémon Go. It’s not an extremely useful Pokémon, but I do enjoy getting out and about with my friends. I am also likely going to be playing some Neopets Faerie Fragments, which has had a grip on my time lately. 

Iwan Morris

Staff Writer

I’ve been seriously eager to have a go at Thronefall, which makes the fact that it’s iOS only incredibly unfortunate. However, I have caved and decided to grab Flappy Bird from the Epic Games Store. Weirdly enough, I never played it that much back in the day before it got deleted. And I was genuinely surprised I didn’t have any of the excellent Kingdom games on mobile as I did on PC, so pretty soon I’ll add those to my usual rotation of Balatro and Vampire Survivors.

Toni Oisin H.C.

Freelance Writer

This is extremely silly, but my partner and I are dead set on 100%-ing SpongeBob SquarePants: The Patrick Star Game while it’s on Game Pass. No, really. It’s totally ridiculous, and it’s nice to wind down with a game that’s not too challenging at the end of a long day. I’m in way too deep now and I NEED to find all of those damn mayonnaise jars.

Shaun Walton

Staff Writer

Sadly, this weekend I am having a social life, so there will be minimal time for gaming. This works out quite well, though, as I am at the stage with SD Gundam G Generation ETERNAL where I am out of things to do. I will just be slowly tooling up my two SEED teams to reach 300k Power. Currently, I am at 280k, and it is becoming a challenge, but I shall persevere!

Mihail Katsoris

Staff Writer

I won't really have much time to play anything new over the weekend as I'm travelling back home tomorrow. So...probably just some Marvel Snap, Teamfight Tactics and Ludus at the airport. 

Dann Sullivan

Editor in Chief

I feel like I’ve let my Pokémon TCG Pocket game slip; the promo cards selection is full of gaps, and I can’t quite figure out how I’m meant to have acquired them. Sometimes, you can click on the cards to find out where they’re from (or, even Google it to try and find out), but answers are scarce, and so I’m not quite sure what to do. Ahhh!

Outside of fretting over missing promo cards. I’m going to be deciding on whether I should cave to pressure and get a Crunchyroll subscription. I’ve been watching the library build up, and the recent addition of Shogun Showdown might just be the final straw. Shogun Showdown, for those of you who aren’t aware, is a run-based game where enemies move spaces when you do. You have to beat overwhelming odds by carefully building a hand of weapons (with varying range and attack damages), and then using them while also avoiding enemies.

It’s almost a perfect game, with the only thing missing being a fun little replay of all of the moves and attacks at high speed after you finish a level.

Well, I guess actually, I’ve made my decision… I’ve convinced myself. I guess I’ll be playing that this weekend too.

Stephen Gregson-Wood

Deputy & Special Projects Editor

Throughout June and July last year, Squad Busters became my second-screen companion while watching Euro 2024. Apparently, my waning attention span means watching a mere 90 minutes of football without additional stimulation has become an impossible task. Anyway, since then, I've dropped off the game completely. Though fun, it lacked the sticking power Supercell were hoping for and has struggled ever since.

In response, they've released a major update that promises to reinvigorate the whole setup. It introduces a Hero system that should make matches more engaging and tactical. Whether or not this proves enough to change Squad Busters' fortunes remains to be seen, but I'm intrigued enough to check it out over the weekend.