#translation isn't magic and while it can be an art and creative it's also...just a job like any other lol

[buildarocketboys]

Basically, overuse of machine translation is a symptom of a problem, not the problem itself. If my company stopped using machine translation for everything today, would that stop translators being underpaid or force companies to only ever produce good translations? Absolutely not. We would still be paid the same, and probably still be expected to produce the same amount of work at the same rate, but this time without a useful tool to make our work go faster. And if we couldn't keep up to those rates or the quality took a dip because of it (and it would, if only because having to work even faster would introduce more errors), then companies would simply go somewhere else where prices were lower or where they still use machine translation or, worst case scenario, actually not bother using a translator at all and just use machine translation which is what people in that post are scaremongering about in the first place!! As with literally every other industry, capitalism is the problem, but that doesn't get solved by attacking one aspect that, while it can have disadvantages and be used to devalue translators' work, is also an incredibly useful tool when used correctly.

[serenasmith5bolg]

Step into a world of intimate beauty and confidence with our unique boudoir photography sessions.

In today's fast-paced world, taking time to embrace and celebrate your own beauty can feel like a luxury. But at the heart of every woman, there's a quiet desire to feel confident, sensual, and empowered in her skin. Our unique boudoir photography sessions are designed to awaken that confidence, guiding you into a world of intimate beauty and self-expression like never before. Whether you're looking to celebrate a special milestone, gift someone you love, or boost your self-esteem, boudoir photography is a transformative experience that makes you feel powerful and beautiful.

What is Boudoir Photography?

Boudoir photography is much more than just posing in front of a camera—it's a celebration of your body, your emotions, and your story. Originating from the French term "boudoir," meaning a woman's private room, these sessions aim to capture the elegance, beauty, and intimate essence of a person in a relaxed and personal environment.

The magic of boudoir photography lies in its ability to encapsulate every curve, every glance, and every bit of emotion, translating them into stunning, artful images that reflect the strength and confidence of the subject. These sessions typically involve soft, sensual, and sometimes nude photography boudoir setups, designed to make you feel both comfortable and alluring. You don't have to be a model to feel glamorous in your own skin!

Unique Boudoir Photography: Tailored for You

Our boudoir sessions stand out for their creativity, personalisation, and attention to detail. Every shoot is designed to capture your individuality, with a personalised touch that highlights your natural beauty. We believe that everybody is unique, and our goal is to help you embrace your uniqueness.

From choosing the right outfits to setting up the perfect lighting, we ensure every detail aligns with your vision and comfort. Whether you're opting for more modest, suggestive poses or exploring the realm of nude photography boudoir, our photographers ensure a safe and respectful environment. Our team is skilled in capturing your best angles and expressions, creating a series of photos that make you feel powerful, sensual, and confident.

Exploring Erotica Boudoir Photography

For those who want to take things a step further and explore more daring photography styles, we also offer erotica boudoir photography. This genre leans more into the sultry and seductive elements of boudoir, embracing the bold and provocative side of intimate photography.

Erotic boudoir photography offers the opportunity to step outside the boundaries of traditional portraiture, allowing you to explore your sensuality more daringly and explicitly. It's about pushing your limits while maintaining class and sophistication, resulting in images that reflect empowerment and liberation.

Although these sessions might seem intimidating at first, they are completely guided by your comfort levels and preferences. The results are visually stunning and emotionally freeing, allowing you to celebrate a side of yourself that you might not show to the world every day. Whether it's a sensual gaze, the curve of a shoulder, or the intimate touch of light against bare skin, erotic boudoir photography captures the beauty of raw confidence and desire.

Confidence, Empowerment, and Self-Love

Many people walk into a boudoir session feeling nervous or unsure of how it will turn out, but leave with an overwhelming sense of confidence and empowerment. There's something about seeing yourself through the lens of a professional photographer that can shift your perspective on your body and self-worth.

Our sessions are designed to encourage self-love. You will be guided through every step, from choosing poses that feel comfortable to capturing your most flattering angles. Every click of the camera aims to remind you that your body, in every shape, size, and form, is beautiful. This isn't just about physical beauty, but also about capturing the emotions, strength, and personality that make you who you are.

Book Your Boudoir Session Today

If you've ever considered stepping into the world of intimate photography, now is the perfect time. Whether you're looking for something tasteful and elegant or want to embrace the bolder side of erotic boudoir photography, our team is here to guide you through a safe, empowering, and confidence-boosting experience. Let us help you capture your unique beauty and celebrate the confident, sensual side of yourself that's just waiting to shine.

Step into a world where confidence meets sensuality—book your unique boudoir photography session today and rediscover the intimate beauty within you!

[m8tee-mate]

From Saguaro to Street: M8tee's Arizona Fashion Empire Rises

Arizona, a state known for its breathtaking landscapes, is now making waves in the fashion world, thanks to the emergence of M8tee's Arizona Fashion Empire. In this article, we'll take you on a journey from the iconic Saguaro cacti to the bustling streets, exploring how M8tee has woven the spirit of Arizona into a fashion phenomenon. So, buckle up as we unravel the threads of this captivating story.

Embracing the Desert Vibe: M8tee's Unique Aesthetic

M8tee's Roots in the Saguaro Desert

M8tee draws inspiration from the picturesque Saguaro Desert, where the iconic cacti stand tall against the vibrant Arizona sky. The brand encapsulates the essence of the desert, translating it into a unique fashion aesthetic that speaks to the soul of Arizona.

Threads of Tradition: Cultural Influences in M8tee's Designs

Navajo Patterns and Beyond

Delve into M8tee's designs, and you'll find a rich tapestry of cultural influences. From intricate Navajo patterns to nods to the state's indigenous heritage, the brand weaves tradition into every fabric, creating a fashion narrative that resonates with the local community and beyond.

From Sketch to Stitch: The Creative Process Unveiled

Behind the Seams: Designing M8tee Collections

Ever wondered how M8tee turns inspiration into fashion reality? Step into the atelier as we unravel the creative process—from sketching initial ideas to the meticulous stitching that brings each piece to life. It's a journey that goes beyond the hangers and runway, offering a glimpse into the heart of M8tee's craftsmanship.

Breaking Ground: M8tee's Impact on Sustainable Fashion

Fashion Forward and Eco-Friendly

In an industry often criticized for its environmental footprint, M8tee takes a different stride. Explore how the brand pioneers sustainable fashion practices, proving that style and ethics can coexist harmoniously.

The Runway to Reality: M8tee's Streetwear Dominance

From Catwalks to Sidewalks

M8tee doesn't just create fashion; it defines streetwear trends. Walk with us through the evolution of M8tee from high-fashion runways to becoming a staple on the sidewalks, influencing how Arizonans and fashion enthusiasts worldwide express their individuality.

Beyond Borders: M8tee's Global Appeal

Arizona Roots, Worldwide Reach

While M8tee proudly embraces its Arizona roots, its appeal extends far beyond state lines. Discover how this local fashion powerhouse has captured the hearts of a global audience, becoming a symbol of laid-back luxury with an Arizona twist.

M8tee's Collaborative Magic: Partnerships with Local Artists

Artistry in Fashion

M8tee believes in collaboration as an art form. Dive into the brand's partnerships with local artists, exploring how their unique perspectives infuse creativity into every garment, making each piece a wearable masterpiece.

From Online Presence to In-Person Experience: M8tee's Flagship Stores

Virtual to Reality: M8tee's Flagship Stores

In an era dominated by online shopping, M8tee goes against the grain. Walk through the doors of M8tee's flagship stores and experience fashion in a tangible way, blending the digital and physical realms seamlessly.

Style Meets Comfort: M8tee's Signature Fabrics

Comfortable Couture

M8tee understands that true fashion isn't just about appearance but also about how it feels. Explore the signature fabrics that set M8tee apart, offering a perfect blend of style and comfort.

The Future of M8tee: Innovations and Inspirations

Fashion Forecast: What's Next for M8tee

What lies ahead for M8tee's Arizona Fashion Empire? Get an exclusive glimpse into the brand's future plans, innovations, and the ongoing inspiration that fuels its creative engine.

Conclusion

As we wrap up our journey from Saguaro to Street, it's evident that M8tee's Arizona Fashion Empire is more than a brand; it's a cultural phenomenon. From its deep roots in the Saguaro Desert to its global appeal, M8tee has carved a niche that transcends borders, redefining fashion in the process.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

Q1: How did M8tee get its start in the fashion industry?

M8tee's journey began with a passion for blending Arizona's natural beauty with fashion. Founder [Name] started by designing a small collection inspired by the Saguaro Desert, and the rest is history.

Q2: What makes M8tee's designs unique?

M8tee's uniqueness lies in its fusion of Arizona's cultural elements, sustainable practices, and collaborations with local artists. Each design tells a story that goes beyond aesthetics.

Q3: Is M8tee only popular in Arizona?

While M8tee originated in Arizona, its popularity has spread globally. Fashion enthusiasts worldwide appreciate the brand's authenticity and commitment to both style and sustainability.

Q4: How does M8tee contribute to sustainable fashion?

M8tee prioritizes sustainable practices by using eco-friendly materials, ethical manufacturing processes, and a commitment to reducing environmental impact. The brand actively seeks ways to promote a greener fashion industry.

Q5: Can I experience M8tee's fashion in person?

Absolutely! M8tee has flagship stores that provide a tactile and immersive experience. Step inside to touch, feel, and experience the Arizona-inspired fashion firsthand.

This concludes our exploration of M8tee's Arizona Fashion Empire. From the roots of the Saguaro to the bustling streets, M8tee has etched a remarkable narrative in the fashion world, proving that style can indeed have a sense of place.

SHOP NOW: https://m8tee.com/ FACEBOOK: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61550856475597 INSTAGRAM: https://www.instagram.com/__m8tee/

[onlineregistrationcardforvehicle]

Nail Beauty Bar: The Ultimate Destination for Stunning Nails

In today's fast-paced world, self-care has become more important than ever. One of the most empowering ways to pamper yourself is by indulging in a visit to a nail beauty bar. These establishments have revolutionized the beauty industry by offering a haven where you can escape the chaos of daily life and emerge with stunning, perfectly manicured nails. Let's delve into what makes nail beauty bars the ultimate destination for nail care enthusiasts.

A World of Choices

Nail beauty bars are a treasure trove of options, making it possible to achieve virtually any nail style you desire. From classic French manicures to trendy ombre designs and intricate nail art, there's no limit to the creativity on display. Whether you prefer natural nails, acrylics, gels, or dip powder, nail beauty bars offer a vast array of choices, ensuring that every visit is a unique experience tailored to your preferences.

Expertise and Precision

One of the primary reasons why nail beauty bars stand out is the expertise of their nail technicians. These professionals are not just skilled; they are passionate about their craft. They stay updated with the latest nail trends and techniques, ensuring you receive the highest level of service and precision. This commitment to excellence translates into stunning results that leave your nails looking flawless and long-lasting.

Hygiene and Safety

Hygiene and safety are paramount in nail beauty bars. Reputable establishments adhere to strict sanitation protocols to protect both clients and staff. The use of sterilized tools, disposable nail files, and high-quality, non-toxic products ensures a safe and clean environment. You can enjoy your nail treatment with peace of mind, knowing that your well-being is a top priority.

Relaxation and Self-Care

A visit to a nail beauty bar isn't just about nails; it's a holistic self-care experience. These tranquil spaces are designed to help you unwind and escape from the stresses of daily life. You can sit back, relax, and enjoy a moment of tranquility while skilled professionals work their magic on your nails. It's an opportunity to recharge and leave feeling not only beautiful but also rejuvenated.

Community and Connection

Nail beauty bars also foster a sense of community and connection. Whether you're catching up with friends during a group appointment or bonding with a loved one over a mother-daughter nail date, these establishments offer a space for social interaction and relaxation.

In conclusion, nail beauty bars are more than just places to get your nails done; they are sanctuaries of self-care, creativity, and community. With their commitment to expertise, hygiene, and client satisfaction, these establishments have become the go-to destinations for those seeking stunning, healthy nails and a rejuvenating experience. So, why wait? Treat yourself to a visit to a nail beauty bar and discover the transformative power of beautiful nails.

[blorbosexterminator]

Can you recommend books written by contemporary authors that you consider good literature?

Sure! As contemporary is such a wide-term, I'll try to stick to books published within the past two decades (with inevitably a few books from the 80s and 90s making their way in) or whose author are still writing/still alive.

Zabor or the Psalms by Kamel Daoud (2017). It's a flawed book, as many on this list are. It's originaly in French, being its first flaw. And it slightly loses orientation towards the end, in my opinion. But it's still very much worth the read. The story concerns "Zabor", who believes (or is!) that he holds peoples' lives in his hand, or more accurately in his writings. So the entire book is very much concered with the art of writing, with literature, its power, limitations, etc. Being set in Morocco, it's also concerned with colonialism, religion, faith and God and all that ordeal, and it's tied pretty well with its main themes. Things become more complex when Zabor's father, who abandoned him as a boy, gets fataly sick and his other family members recluse to Zabor as a last chance to prolong his life. It can be a tedious read in a way, the prose is obsessive, repetitive, elaborative, urgent, and frantic. Which as ostensious as it can get, fits REALLY well with the book (and are all words that describe the main character). Perfect form and content complementing each other to serve the same end. I haven't yet read anything else of Daoud, so I'm not sure whether it's his personal style or designed like this for this one particular novel, but what matters is that it works really well. The novel is overall really enjoyable.

Tyll by Daniel Kehlmann (2017). A pretty ambitious novel that covers the Thirty Years' War through the use of the Jester Tyll Ulenspiegel. That sounds slightly wrong. Tyll isn't a mere propp here to allow the largely non-linear narrative to jump from one place to the other. He's an incredible depiction of a resilient, mocking, cruel, ambitious trickster. The novel crosses roads with superstition, folklore, magical realism, the pursuit of science, art, and power, all while covering a pretty turbulent period that's difficult to grasp. It's somewhat funny, dark, and also emotional without ever getting sentimental.

The Plains by Gerald Murnane (1982). This is a book difficult to speak or write about. It's just an experience I highly recommend you go through. It's a book concerened with obscurity, and more originally than anything I've ever read, disfamiliaries anything possible; I can't promise you that you would have any idea what the narrator is talking about at any given point, but that doesn't matter. The premise is deceptively simple: a filmmaker takes a journey into a fictive inner Australia to research his original screenscript titled The Interior and to receive patronage for his film that is sure to depict "The Plains" in a way nothing has ever had before. There's very little plot, dialogue, or even named characters (not even the narrator is named) but that doesn't make it at all a boring or tedious read. And it creatively concerns itself with a myriad of themes regarding culture, borders, the obsession with distinctinvness, the endless search for meaning, uttering the unutterable, all within a mirage. The prose is beautifully, neatly, elegantly and complexly clear, without ever forsaking the Obscure it's dealing with. (In the back of my head there's a connection with Conrad's Heart of Darkness that's yet too elusive to capture.)

The Last Wolf & Herman by László Krasznahoraki. ( 2009): I'd recommend a lot by Krasznahoraki but this is a good place to start. There are two short novellas in the 2016 translated edition, this one and Herman, thematically somewhat connected but are pretty much stand-alones. The Last Wolf is a 70 pages one sentence of an ex-philosophy professor telling a bored Hungarian bartender in some deadbeat German bar the story of how he got a really generous invitation to Extremadura from a foundation that wants him to write about the region in its new transformative age, which leads him to a rabbit hole with the last wolf of the region that's proclaimed to have been killed in 1983 but which has a much more complex story the narrator gets increasingly obsessed and affected by. The thing about it is this inexplicable melancholy that takes over the narrator is very easily transmitted to the reader as well. The style is just Krasznahoraki really, you either like it or you don't, but it's definitely not this indecipherable, difficult or tedious style I've sometimes seen it proclaimed as, it's actually really gripping and does a really good job of crystalizing the inarticulable without persistenting on articulating it and thus mutilating it. Also again, is emotionally honest without ever nearing sentimentality.

The Dove's Necklace by Raja Alem (2010). This is a pretty peculiar novel that might not always be easy to stay on the same line with yet definitely worth it. It starts with a woman found dead and naked in a Meccan gritty alley, and you're being told the story by the alley itself. Then it just gets more and more complicated in every possible way, with dozens or so characters, different povs, etc. It's really grand in scope and lives up to that ambition in every way and in my opinion does every theme it takes (which are are a lot of them) justice. The prose is some of the best I've read in recent years. I would recommend though, if you are fluent in another language than English to look up that translation. The English translation is fine if it goes down to it, but it hardly does the original (especially the tone) justice; it takes a lot of liberty in "casualness" where the original is very refined, careful, and sparse.

The Neapolitan Novels by Elena Ferrante (2011- 2014). This one is self-evident lol, but if you haven't read it, I highly recommend you do. The Neopolitan Novel's place in literature and specifically Italian literature, I'm still unsure of. Elena Ferrante is maybe a a better narrator/storyteller than she is a writer (which is not to say she isn't a good writer, she's an incredible one) and it's evident in how gripping this entire story is. And with the wide-range of history and themes it covers, with dozens or so fully formed characters (not even mention the spectacular creation of the two main ones), you're abound to come across something that will particularly pique your interest.

The Door by Magda Szabó. Actually, Szabo's narrator in this novel reminds me a lot of The Neopolitan Novel's Elena. As different as it (really, not many mode points of comparison beyond the similarities between Elena and the Lady Writer), it also concerns an indecipherable relationship between two women; a young, important writer and her eccentric housekeeper. As much mutual love as grows between them, this is no wholesome novel and the book is all the better for it. The narrator is not at all likable; she's naive, selfish, irritating, self-righteous, self-victimizing, and as often aware of it all as not. The housekeeper is no angel either. Essentially, really, what is most interesting about this novel is how it deals with doing the unforgivable and the impossiblity of its resolve, yet with the inevitability of just having to live with it. Though the prose isn't really my cup of tea, and I'm sure I wouldn't actually read much by the narrator-writer [Ironic as I think the character is at least somewhat autobiographical], it's really well-written, and as far as I can tell, really good translation.

The Notebook Trilogy [The Notebook/The Proof/The Third Lie] by Ágota Kristóf. (1986-1991). I think, if you're going to read only one book on this list, this should be the one. Narrated by a nameless pair of twins (in the first one), the book starts with them being moved to their grandmother house in the (Hungarian-not a single country in the book is named, no revolution or war either. But it's clear) countryside somewhen during the last years of WWII, and carries along onto the first period of communist Hungary. The first novel uses the first person plural, the twin boys are inseparable and indistinguishable. They think, behave, and act as one. Though they are anything but naive, the style of writing is as concise as a fable's. Those kids, for all means and purposes, are what I would imagine biblical angels (TM) would be like as human children; terrifyingly ethical with complete detachment, and willngess, alongside the intelligence and capabilities, to do just about anything. And it only gets more interesting and much more complex from here. You can stop at the first and it'll be a perfect novel on its own accord. If you do continue though, be prepared to the have the story altered, affirmed, rejected and interogated in every possible way. Or you can continue, and take a page out of the book by dissecting yourself into two versions, one who did continue and one who didn't. I do believe reading this is an experience worth having in whatever case . Do read a little about the content before you read it if you do, though; the book is set during the war and doesn't shy away from anything, alongside a pretty fair amount of sexual perversion.

[gingermintpepper]

After thinking it over for a bit, I've decided that I might as well do a proper underrated 3DS game rec list. I'm a bit of an ATLUS junkie and that's gonna be pretty disgustingly apparent in this list, but it's not my fault that they released hit after hit and all of them were duly ignored.

Due to tumblr's 10 image limit (and my struggle to keep motivated to do one thing for more than three hours) I'm definitely gonna have to break this up into parts and I'm fairly certain one of these lists is just gonna be MegaTen games lmao but I'd like to let people know about these excellent titles and see if I can't at least get people interested in them so they can get more traction.

So, without further ado:

Some 3DS Games that were criminally slept on (part 1)

Monster Hunter Stories

God, where do I begin with this game. Well, the basics: It's a JRPG spinoff title of the now widely successful and popular Monster Hunter series featuring a different take on interacting with the varied and intricate monsters populating the world: Riders.

Yep, instead of hunting the beasties, you play as a young rider who's completed their intiation ritual and can now bond with 'Monsties' as they've cutely labelled the usually ferocious monsters of the wilds. The great thing is that you still fight Monsters--tons of them in fact but this isn't a paid review and in my humble opinion, the most impressive thing about this game is the visual style. The landscapes, the armour, the way they redesigned and 3DS-ified the classically hyper realistic and monstrous beasts to not only be absolutely adorable but still capable of being intimidating when the time calls for it, the stellar animation of special moves and combination attacks--it's delicious, nutritious, stupendous, I can and will consume it like it's part of my recommended caloric intake.

It's very akin to Pokemon in the way its basic gameplay premise is set up, however, instead of catching--or even indeed befriending--the Monsties in the game, you rummage through their nests and steal their eggs, later hatching them and getting yourself a brand new lightly kidnapped monster pal!

Other general things about the game:

Pros:

The armour and weapon sets for both male and female characters slap along with the general character customisation options. They're incredibly diverse (though limited in body type) and you can switch around traits and features whenever you want from your house.

The POGS--these porkers are everywhere and they serve as tiny little achievements for exploring every odd and end of the world. Also they have little outfits. They're so cute. 🥺🥺

You can actually ride the Monsties. All of em. Or, at least the ones that you have available to be your buddies. They all have exploration skills and traits that not only make exploring much more interesting but encourage you to swap out your active Monstie and play around with your options a bit.

Y'all breeding Monsties is complicated and I live for just how intense and ridiculous you can get with optimal builds for these things.

The story is really competently put together! The characters, character designs and even the internal conflict with your starting trio of characters is really compelling along with the mystery of the blight that's infecting Monsters across the world. It's not anything worth awards but it's compelling and it makes you care about the characters if that's what you're in the market for.

Amazing sound design, expansive world, everything about the presentation of this game oozes that Monster Hunter charm even if the art is cutesier than usual. You'll never get bored of its stellar visual presentation!

Available for around twenty quid on the Google Play store, so if you want, you could actually get the full game on your smartphone or tablet. Note though that it would be a battery nuker.

Cons:

If you're on a regular 3DS, frame rate drops are a given. This game kinda pushes the visual capabilities of the 3DS to its absolute limit--a lot like Okamiden did back on the DS.

One save file :( It's pretty much for the same reason as above but still.

If you're playing as the girl, you can't get male armour and vice versa. Since there's only one save file, you'll never be able to have all of the armour sets in a single playthrough and that's criminal because both of the sets for the genders are absolutely breath-taking, thank you.

I 👏can't 👏make👏my👏 own 👏Palico👏

Multi-player for this game is pretty dead seeing as it's almost five years old by now and never got much press or traction. Usually this wouldn't be an issue - this game is 99% singleplayer and you don't really need to fuss about with multi-player to have fun, but if you want to collect all the Monsties, you'll need it since the only way to get Glavenus is through pvp achievements. :/

Final thoughts: Play it if you find yourself getting tired or disappointed with 3DS Pokemon games but still want something that feels as fantastical as Pokemon. It outshines the 3DS Pokemon games at every turn and I will never be over just how thoughtfully put together and fully realised these games are. Of course, if you've ever played Monster Hunter, then you know just how intensive these games are with the lore, biology, cultures and world of their Monsters but seeing that translated into JRPG format was just very sobering and it's a game that, to this day, continues to awe me with just how much love and attention went into it.

Last note: If you're still unsure about it, there's a demo available on the e-shop of the 3DS that allows you to play through the entire initial area of the game. Your data does carry through to the full release and to give you an idea of how much I've been able to squeeze out of it - my playtime for that demo is currently sitting at 22 hours. Make sure to get a hold of that Cyan-Kut-Ku!

7th Dragon III Code: VFD

The title may sound intimidating but the premise is not! A mysterious disease called Dragon Sickness spread by the Dragonsbane flowers that have cropped up all around the world. You and your team are recruited by the Nodens game company after you display extraordinary prowess in their hit virtual reality game 7th Encount. As you go through the adventure, you are tasked with finding out the truth behind the Dragon Sickness and asked to stop both it and the Dragons that are destroying the world.

This game is fun. It's another turn-based JRPG however, in this game you create all of your characters yourself from the myriad of classes available to you from the jump. Different classes of course have very different specialisations - Samurai focus on high powered cutting damage with their swords, Duelists are summoners who can influence the element of the battlefield as well as summon monsters from each element, Agents can hack into your enemies and inflict a barrage of nasty ailments, just to name a few - and you are given three teams of three characters each to experiment with different team comps and find the balance that works for you. There's also a wide variety of Dragons to hunt and kill in the game, which directly affects how infected your world is with the Dragon Sickness causing Dragonsbane. Along the way you will also come into contact with many interesting characters, concepts and confrontations that will make the task of saving the world all the more imperative.

Pros

1. The character creator and differing classes give way for tons of experimenting and playing around with your own unique approach to combat and carrying out your missions. Granted, 'character creation' is generous, it's little more than palatte swaps but the classes are really where VFD shines. Eight main classes may not sound like a lot, but the expaniveness of the character skills, their synergy with their fellow classes and the uniqueness of some of the classes in and of itself allows for so much flexibility and creativity in approaches to even tougher bosses. It also encourages the switching about of your party members to really finagle with the options available to you.

2. God this game is pretty. The locations, the character art, the creature design - all of it is gorgeous and this game capitalises on every bit of the 3DS's presentation limitations as it can.

3. You can romance anything and everyone - yes, you can even be gay/lesbian/poly in this game. In fact, one of the main characters - Julietta - is gnc and he's a constant source of joy as well one of my personal favourite characters, right behind Yuma.

4. Exploration is very very forgiving as the game has healing spots and teleport nodes all over the world to allow for quick, seamless travel between quest points without feeling like anything is too much of a hassle. There are also special enemies that allow for quick grinding as well as quick farming of money. In general, the game does a really good job of making sure that the grind is never unbearable or inconsiderate of your time.

Cons:

1. This is the fourth game in a series the West has never seen any other title for, and from the looks of it, will probably never see any other titles for. Because of that, there are some elements that may seem confusing or revelations in the plot that may seem to come out of nowhere.

2. While the visuals are great, the OST of this one is pretty short making for a lot of reused soundtracks that can get really annoying if you're like me and need your audio to be interesting or consistent so it doesn't distract you too much.

3. This one isn't really a con but it is divisive: This game gets pretty difficult at times. A few of the main dragon enemies including and especially the final boss can give you a serious run for your money in the annoy-o-meter in terms of the kind of absolute JRPG fuckery they can pull out of their magic bag of bullshit movesets and while I generally enjoy that kind of thing, I know it's not for everyone. Most regular combat shouldn't be too tricky once you have a team comp that works well together but you also need to pay attention since the same team that carries you to victory one time might be worth beans against another dragon.

Final thoughts: This is... a really good game. Interesting story, really interesting characters, pretty world and a battle system that really makes you sit down and think. There's also a demo for this available in the e-shop and while your data doesn't carry over - you do receive multiple perks for carrying over your demo data including some exclusive items that, while not game breaking, do help a ton in the early stages of the game.

This isn't a final list by any stretch of the word; I only have the energy to do these two right now, but the next games up for coverage are Ever Oasis and Stella Glow! If you're interested in my full plan of games I want to cover here then my current lineup includes: Theatrhythm: Curtain Call, Project Mirai: Deluxe, Culdecept Revolt, Alliance Alive, Radiant Historia: Perfect Chronology, Etrian Odyssey V, Devil Survivor 2: Record Breaker and Shin Megami Tensei IV: Apocalypse.

Finally, if anyone has played any of the games I mention, cover or plan to cover PLEASE REACH OUT TO ME, I AM SO LONELY IN MY FORTRESS OF SAND. On a serious note, I'd love to hear what other people who've played these games think!

Thanks for reading,

-Ginger

PS: @feralpeacock Because a million years ago, on my first underrated games post, you asked that I remember you. :D

[waynekelton]

The Best Card Games on Android & iOS

Modern digital card games combine the cerebral appeal of tactical play with the adrenaline rush of random loot and top-decking. It might seem like they’re dime-a-dozen, but the games detailed below are all absolutely worthwhile, judged on their own terms.

Some are cutthroat tests of supremacy, others bucolic come-as-you-may types, but all are thoughtful and ingenious in sundry ways. There's two flavours of card games that currently dominate the niche - highly competitive TCG/CCG multiplayer battlers derived from Hearthstone, and more cerebral or casual affairs, often translated from physical card games that already exist. We've woven the two types together into one supreme list.

What are the best iOS & Android Card Games?

Gwent

Age of Rivals

Shards of Infinity

Miracle Merchant

Meteorfall: Journey

Reigns: Game of Thrones

Hearthstone

Exploding Kittens

Plants vs. Zombies: Heroes

Frost

Card City Nights

Star Realms

GWENT

Developer: CD Projekt S.A. Platforms: iOS, Android Price: Free-to-Play (IAPs)

It took its sweet time, but the official spin-off of the The Witcher 3 card game has finally made the jump from PC to mobile. It's quite different from what it was like at launch and it's gone through several updates and revisions, meaning that us mobile jockeys get a game that's tight and quite unique compared to some of its contemporaries. It's a power-struggle between two people, but it's less about pounding each other's cards into dust or attacking life-points - it's simply a best-out-of-three bout to have a bigger number than your opponent at the end of the round.

This simple concept can inspire a surprising about of cunning and card combos, with card advantage being a very important concept. As a free-to-play game there are IAPS and micro-transactions, but it's pretty tame for the most part and you can still get access to a lot of cards through gameplay. One potential draw-back is that the meta can shift quite a lot, so knowing which cards to purchase out-right may be problematic. Still, this is a pretty great card game and a wonderful breath of fresh air for the mobile CCG market. Check out our GWENT tips guide if you want to help with getting started.

Age of Rivals

Developer: Roboto Games Platforms: iOS & Android Price: $1.99

How we forgot about this one for so long is anybody's guess, but we've fixed it now. Released in 2017, this strategy card game takes a lot of inspiration from physical design but is very much a digital game. It's more drafting than deck-building, with five phases repeated across four rounds and a game can last as little as ten minutes.

It's minimalist, but with a touch of flair as you try and draft along specific themes and build your board up as the game progresses. While it was in a bit a state when it first launched, the years since release has seen this one mature into an excellent game worth checking out if you want a break from deck-building, but still like that creativity that comes from making the best of what you draw. Check out our Age of Rivals review for more.

Shards of Infinity

Developer: Temple Gates Games Platforms: iOS & Android Price: $7.99

Ascension is a house name in deck-building card games, especially on mobile. While Playdek were responsible to bring that light into our world, Temple Gates Games have the honour of bringing the spiritual successor to Ascension to mobile - and it's one of the best card games we've played to date. The game itself is slick, well designed, and has some very interesting twists on the deck-building formula. This isn't Ascension  with a new skin, but a new game in its own right.

As for the app, Temple Gates have done a brilliant job. The game is colourful and brought to life with very few technically concerns. Everything is cross-platform and multiplayer is competently designed. If you're looking for a new card game to occupy you in 2019, look no further, and our Shards of Infinity review can tell you why.

You might also like....

Mystic Vale (iOS | Android) - A very similar game to Shards, Mystic Vale is another deckbuilding game that uses the same base premise, just with a different theme and a different twist on the usual proceedings. This one was developed by Nomad Games, and while entertaining in its own way it doesn't really shake up the genre as much as it needs to really stand out.

Miracle Merchant

Developer: Arnold Rauers Platforms: iOS & Android Price: $1.99 / Free with IAP

Tinytouchtales' Card Thief has been a staple on this list since its inception, but there are other great card games the developer has made. Their most recent release was Miracle Merchant, a game about trying to craft potions for customers in need of a remedy or other liquid solution. You must juggle the competing but equally important needs of satisfying customers (by brewing exactly what they asked for) and maximising profits (because making potions is expensive and that Porsche won't pay for itself).

Miracle Merchant is solitaire card-gaming at its finest. The art style is impeccable, and the tactical decision making is incredibly deep. Assembling a potion of four cards sounds easy, but actually with negative cards to consider, and the fact that if you fail to make a potion you will lose the game, you have pick and choose your battles in terms of how 'good' to make the potions for customers, especially considering you need to maximise profit as well. Read our Miracle Merchant review for more.

You might also like...

TinyTouchTales have done plenty of great card games, from Card Thief and Card Crawl, to Potion Explosion.

Meteorfall: Journey

Developer: Slothwerks Platforms:  iOS, Android Price: $2.99

Challenging and Stimulating: In the happier sessions, Meteorfall ends with a successful final showdown against the aptly-named Uberlich. Working backwards from that ultimate battle to the four starting characters is much more challenging than the squidy art and breezy interface might suggest.

This is a game that's been wonderfully supported post-release, with several major content expansions at the time of writing. What's better, it's all been given away for free! There's a reason this won our Reader's Choice Game of the Year 2018 award, and our Meteorfall review can tell you why.

Reigns: Game of Thrones

Developer: Devolver Digital Platforms: iOS, Android Price: $3.99

The Pinnacle: The meme/phrase "living your best life" is not often one you hear applied to a videogame, but we can think of no title that's more applicable than Nerial's licensed Game of Thrones version of their hit card/monarch simulator Reigns. As Brittany mentions in her review, this is hands-down the best version of the Reigns formula, and it helps that it involves and engaging and popular IP.

The typical Tinder-style swiping mechanics coupled with the usual medieval hilarity and tough choices is coupled with some subtle new twists, where players get to try and rule the Seven Kingdoms as one of nine iconic characters from the show (which are unlocked over time). All this is enabled through the guise of Melisandre - you're essentially playing out her visions of how these characters might get on sitting atop the Iron Throne. Licensed games often get a bad rap, but they can now look to this game to wash away all their sins. This is how you do it, folks. Read our Reigns: Game of Thrones review for more.

Hearthstone

Developer: Blizzard Entertainment Platforms:  iOS, Android Price: Free (IAPs)

The Gold Standard: Stop me if you’ve heard this one before: a rogue, a priest and a warrior walk into the bar. Players struggle to reduce the opponent life to zero as players get more mana (read: energy) to fuel stronger minions and more devastating spells. The power curve and rarity drop rate are a little punishing, but later expansions and patches have remedied this somewhat. Hearthstone’s card battles unfold on a tavern table, in the middle of the hub-bub and merriment of a chaotic Warcraft scene, usually narrated in a dwarven brogue.

Yes, the card game itself is solid and as stripped-down as it can be without being simplistic, but Hearthstone flashes of creative genius and setting go well beyond the card base. The animations and sound design have been polished to a mirror sheen, and the gameplay, love it or hate it, is the standard because of its sterling quality and undeniable fun factor. Just don’t sweat the meta or top-tier competition, because then the grind will eat up your life.

Exploding Kittens

Developer: Exploding Kittens Platforms:  iOS, Android Price: $1.99

Outrageous fun: A game of hot potato with a nitroglycerine-infused feline escalates until every player save one has met their maker. Fiery kitty death and simple humor belie a take-that game which puts everyone immediately at each other’s throats. Hostility and sabotage are the name of the game, because each player has only one life to live, and one defuse card to keep that hairball from becoming a fireball.

The game is a childish, cartoonish pastiche of obvious joke made too hard too often, but despite the unapologetic unrefined everything, it remains one of the best guilty mindless pleasures around. If you ever need a reason to froth at the mouth and fling spittle at your fellow humans over fictionally threatening cats, look no further: Exploding Kittens is simply an excuse to have a good time, a cheeky pretext. Irksome, shameless and perfect it its base way.

Plants vs. Zombies: Heroes

Developer: Electronic Arts Platforms:  iOS, Android Price: Free (IAPs)

Food for thought: This franchise has reinvented itself several times since the original’s premier success. The sequel to the tower defense titan dallied with free-to-play energy timers and premium unlocks, then the series experimented with the FPS arena shooter, releasing Garden Warfare. Along the way, some of the magic and charm was lost. Plants vs. Zombies Heroes is an inspired and refreshing late entry into the game series, translating the original tower defense themes to a CCG with some nifty changes. Perhaps the coolest single defining feature of PvZ: Heroes is the asymmetry: one player represents the zombies shuffling forward for a quick bite while the other coordinated the plants fighting to repel the undead.

The power dynamic between the two sides is unusual and distinct, recalling Netrunner more than Magic or Hearthstone. The flow of new cards into eager players hot little hands, the balance between card strengths and their relative availability as well as the overall strategic robustness of the game are all top-notch. This core gameplay shines along with the visual polish and jazzy flair the series has come to be known for. Plants vs. Zombies Heroes is a fun late entry that deserves more love.

Frost

Developer: Jerome Bodin Platforms:  iOS, Android Price: $3.99, $4.49

An evergreen choice: This one stands out from the other members of this list on two fronts. Firstly, for its palette, which is as frigid as monochrome as you’d expect. Secondly, because its gameplay is survival-based, not just thematically but actually. Gathering supplies, fending off nasties and keeping the elements at bay take every possible trick the cards will give you. Better performance will net you better tools, but unlike other games, Frost’s best rewards are a sense of security and temporary respite.

In other words, the game won’t see you chasing exhilarating high score or excitement, but rather staving off the undesirable. Loss aversion, the fear of breaking a fragile equilibrium, the game daring you to take only appropriate risks when the phrase is a hollow oxymoron. The game rewards you with the chance to keep playing, keep exploring its stark dangers and bag of tricks. Read our Frost review for more.

Card City Nights

Developer: Ludosity Platforms:  iOS, Android Price: $0.99

Solo-play stalwart: The characters are idiosyncratic, the game-within-a-game conceit a little cheeky but still refreshing, the consistent tone humor-ish, deadpan. Beating certain keystone characters unlocks their signature, ultra-powerful cards whose effects even jive with that character’s personality. In other words, there is a correspondence between writing, characterization and deck archetypes between. Never quite a rollicking good time or agonizing head-scratcher, the deckbuilding and collecting (yes, there are boosters, no nothing is truly ultra-rare) of Card City Nights makes for an easily enjoyed and easily binged experience.

Star Realms

Developer: White Wizard Games Platforms:  iOS, Android Price: Free, with content parcelled out as IAP ($4.99 for the full set)

Interstellar Deck-Building: This game marries the level of expansion and customization of a TCG with the bite-sized crunchy decision-making of a deckbuilder. Its combat elements and faction-specific combos make for a serious nostalgia trip for those looking to revisit memory lane without first collecting, collating and crafting a custom deck just for the occasion. Star Realms’ many expansions, rapid-fire gameplay and clear iconography make it a compelling addition to the game enthusiast’s roster and an easy must-have.

We have a Star Realms review if you want to know more.

Other iOS & Android Card Game Recommendations

We're keeping the list pretty tight at the moment, but there's way more than twelve card games to celebrate, with more on the way all the time. Every now and then we'll rotate games out for other games, but we don't want those past greats to be forgotten:

Knights of the Card Table

Race for the Galaxy

Calculords

Card Thief

Ascension

Lost Portal CCG

Pathfinder Adventures

Solitairica

Flipflop Solitaire

Guild of Dungeoneering

Lost Cities

Eternal Card Game

Pokemon TCG

Reigns: Her Majesty

Shadowverse CCG

What would your list of the best card games look like? Let us know in the comments!

The Best Card Games on Android & iOS published first on https://touchgen.tumblr.com/

[waynekelton]

The Best Card Games on Android & iOS

Modern digital card games combine the cerebral appeal of tactical play with the adrenaline rush of random loot and top-decking. It might seem like they’re dime-a-dozen, but the games detailed below are all absolutely worthwhile, judged on their own terms.

No luck of the draw? Perhaps some quality strategy games you can play without internet instead!

Some are cutthroat tests of supremacy, others bucolic come-as-you-may types, but all are thoughtful and ingenious in sundry ways. There's two flavours of card games that currently dominate the niche - highly competitive TCG/CCG multiplayer battlers derived from Hearthstone, and more cerebral or casual affairs, often translated from physical card games that already exist. We've woven the two types together into one supreme list.

Recent Releases

Not everything release gets to claim a top spot, either because there's no room for it or we weren't fans of it at review - maybe we haven't reviewed it at all yet. Still, it's worth letting you make up your own minds so here's a summary of card games released recently:

Fluxx Digital

Age of Rivals (Review)

Developer: Roboto Games Platforms: iOS & Android Price: $1.99

How we forgot about this one for so long is anybody's guess, but we've fixed it now. Released in 2017, this strategy card game takes a lot of inspiration from physical design but is very much a digital game. It's more drafting than deck-building, with five phases repeated across four rounds and a game can last as little as ten minutes.

It's minimalist, but with a touch of flair as you try and draft along specific themes and build your board up as the game progresses. While it was in a bit a state when it first launched, the years since release has seen this one mature into an excellent game worth checking out if you want a break from deck-building, but still like that creativity that comes from making the best of what you draw.

Shards of Infinity (Review)

Developer: Temple Gates Games Platforms: iOS & Android Price: $7.99

Ascension is a house name in deck-building card games, especially on mobile. While Playdek were responsible to bring that light into our world, Temple Gates Games have the honour of bringing the spiritual successor to Ascension to mobile - and it's one of the best card games we've played to date. The game itself is slick, well designed, and has some very interesting twists on the deck-building formula. This isn't Ascension  with a new skin, but a new game in its own right.

As for the app, Temple Gates have done a brilliant job. The game is colourful and brought to life with very few technically concerns. Everything is cross-platform and multiplayer is competently designed. If you're looking for a new card game to occupy you in 2019, look no further.

You might also like....

Mystic Vale (iOS | Android) (Review) - A very similar game to Shards, Mystic Vale is another deckbuilding game that uses the same base premise, just with a different theme and a different twist on the usual proceedings. This one was developed by Nomad Games, and while entertaining in its own way it doesn't really shake up the genre as much as it needs to really stand out.

Miracle Merchant (Review)

Developer: Arnold Rauers Platforms: iOS & Android Price: $1.99 / Free with IAP

Tinytouchtales' Card Thief has been a staple on this list since its inception, but there are other great card games the developer has made. Their most recent release was Miracle Merchant, a game about trying to craft potions for customers in need of a remedy or other liquid solution. You must juggle the competing but equally important needs of satisfying customers (by brewing exactly what they asked for) and maximising profits (because making potions is expensive and that Porsche won't pay for itself).

Miracle Merchant is solitaire card-gaming at its finest. The art style is impeccable, and the tactical decision making is incredibly deep. Assembling a potion of four cards sounds easy, but actually with negative cards to consider, and the fact that if you fail to make a potion you will lose the game, you have pick and choose your battles in terms of how 'good' to make the potions for customers, especially considering you need to maximise profit as well.

You might also like...

TinyTouchTales have done plenty of great card games, from Card Thief and Card Crawl, to Potion Explosion.

Meteorfall: Journey (Review) (GOTY 2018)

Developer: Slothwerks Platforms:  iOS, Android Price: $2.99

Challenging and Stimulating: In the happier sessions, Meteorfall ends with a successful final showdown against the aptly-named Uberlich. Working backwards from that ultimate battle to the four starting characters is much more challenging than the squidy art and breezy interface might suggest.

This is a game that's been wonderfully supported post-release, with several major content expansions at the time of writing. What's better, it's all been given away for free! There's a reason this won our Reader's Choice Game of the Year award, you know.

Reigns: Game of Thrones (Review)

Developer: Devolver Digital Platforms: iOS, Android Price: $3.99

The Pinnacle: The meme/phrase "living your best life" is not often one you hear applied to a videogame, but we can think of no title that's more applicable than Nerial's licensed Game of Thrones version of their hit card/monarch simulator Reigns. As Brittany mentions in her review, this is hands-down the best version of the Reigns formula, and it helps that it involves and engaging and popular IP.

The typical Tinder-style swiping mechanics coupled with the usual medieval hilarity and tough choices is coupled with some subtle new twists, where players get to try and rule the Seven Kingdoms as one of nine iconic characters from the show (which are unlocked over time). All this is enabled through the guise of Melisandre - you're essentially playing out her visions of how these characters might get on sitting atop the Iron Throne. Licensed games often get a bad rap, but they can now look to this game to wash away all their sins. This is how you do it, folks.

Hearthstone

Developer: Blizzard Entertainment Platforms:  iOS, Android Price: Free (IAPs)

The Gold Standard: Stop me if you’ve heard this one before: a rogue, a priest and a warrior walk into the bar. Players struggle to reduce the opponent life to zero as players get more mana (read: energy) to fuel stronger minions and more devastating spells. The power curve and rarity drop rate are a little punishing, but later expansions and patches have remedied this somewhat. Hearthstone’s card battles unfold on a tavern table, in the middle of the hub-bub and merriment of a chaotic Warcraft scene, usually narrated in a dwarven brogue.

Yes, the card game itself is solid and as stripped-down as it can be without being simplistic, but Hearthstone flashes of creative genius and setting go well beyond the card base. The animations and sound design have been polished to a mirror sheen, and the gameplay, love it or hate it, is the standard because of its sterling quality and undeniable fun factor. Just don’t sweat the meta or top-tier competition, because then the grind will eat up your life.

Exploding Kittens

Developer: Exploding Kittens Platforms:  iOS, Android Price: $1.99

Outrageous fun: A game of hot potato with a nitroglycerine-infused feline escalates until every player save one has met their maker. Fiery kitty death and simple humor belie a take-that game which puts everyone immediately at each other’s throats. Hostility and sabotage are the name of the game, because each player has only one life to live, and one defuse card to keep that hairball from becoming a fireball.

The game is a childish, cartoonish pastiche of obvious joke made too hard too often, but despite the unapologetic unrefined everything, it remains one of the best guilty mindless pleasures around. If you ever need a reason to froth at the mouth and fling spittle at your fellow humans over fictionally threatening cats, look no further: Exploding Kittens is simply an excuse to have a good time, a cheeky pretext. Irksome, shameless and perfect it its base way.

Plants vs. Zombies: Heroes

Developer: Electronic Arts Platforms:  iOS, Android Price: Free (IAPs)

Food for thought: This franchise has reinvented itself several times since the original’s premier success. The sequel to the tower defense titan dallied with free-to-play energy timers and premium unlocks, then the series experimented with the FPS arena shooter, releasing Garden Warfare. Along the way, some of the magic and charm was lost. Plants vs. Zombies Heroes is an inspired and refreshing late entry into the game series, translating the original tower defense themes to a CCG with some nifty changes. Perhaps the coolest single defining feature of PvZ: Heroes is the asymmetry: one player represents the zombies shuffling forward for a quick bite while the other coordinated the plants fighting to repel the undead.

The power dynamic between the two sides is unusual and distinct, recalling Netrunner more than Magic or Hearthstone. The flow of new cards into eager players hot little hands, the balance between card strengths and their relative availability as well as the overall strategic robustness of the game are all top-notch. This core gameplay shines along with the visual polish and jazzy flair the series has come to be known for. Plants vs. Zombies Heroes is a fun late entry that deserves more love.

Frost (Review)

Developer: Jerome Bodin Platforms:  iOS, Android Price: $3.99, $4.49

An evergreen choice: This one stands out from the other members of this list on two fronts. Firstly, for its palette, which is as frigid as monochrome as you’d expect. Secondly, because its gameplay is survival-based, not just thematically but actually. Gathering supplies, fending off nasties and keeping the elements at bay take every possible trick the cards will give you. Better performance will net you better tools, but unlike other games, Frost’s best rewards are a sense of security and temporary respite. In other words, the game won’t see you chasing exhilarating high score or excitement, but rather staving off the undesirable. Loss aversion, the fear of breaking a fragile equilibrium, the game daring you to take only appropriate risks when the phrase is a hollow oxymoron. The game rewards you with the chance to keep playing, keep exploring its stark dangers and bag of tricks.

The Elder Scrolls: Legends (Review) 

Developer: Bethesda Platforms:  iOS, Android Price: Free

Devastating combos: Bethesda’s entry into online card battling has the normal variety of twists on the race-to-zero archetype that most card battlers end up parroting to some extend or another. It has two lanes, one of which is a ‘shadow’ lane granting cover to units slotted there. The other change is truly radical though, and alters the core idea of card advantage. Players who lose a large chunk of life in a single turn get extra draws as compensation the next turn.

This acts as a huge counterbalance and means that showy and impressive turns in some cases actually become victims of their own success. Getting the most bang from your buck from each and every card still matters, of course, but the card-draw granted from life loss is a devious catch-up mechanism, especially when combined with the ‘Prophecy’ keyword.. Standard, with not much else to distinguish it from the crowd aside from the setting and its tweaks to the formula, but a worthwhile entry with intelligent design and classic appeal for Skyrim fans.

Card City Nights

Developer: Ludosity Platforms:  iOS, Android Price: $0.99

Solo-play stalwart: The characters are idiosyncratic, the game-within-a-game conceit a little cheeky but still refreshing, the consistent tone humor-ish, deadpan. Beating certain keystone characters unlocks their signature, ultra-powerful cards whose effects even jive with that character’s personality. In other words, there is a correspondence between writing, characterization and deck archetypes between. Never quite a rollicking good time or agonizing head-scratcher, the deckbuilding and collecting (yes, there are boosters, no nothing is truly ultra-rare) of Card City Nights makes for an easily enjoyed and easily binged experience.

Star Realms (Review)

Developer: White Wizard Games Platforms:  iOS, Android Price: Free, with content parcelled out as IAP ($4.99 for the full set)

Interstellar Deck-Building: This game marries the level of expansion and customization of a TCG with the bite-sized crunchy decision-making of a deckbuilder. Its combat elements and faction-specific combos make for a serious nostalgia trip for those looking to revisit memory lane without first collecting, collating and crafting a custom deck just for the occasion. Star Realms’ many expansions, rapid-fire gameplay and clear iconography make it a compelling addition to the game enthusiast’s roster and an easy must-have.

Hall of Fame

We're keeping the list pretty tight at the moment, but there's way more than ten excellent card games to celebrate, with more on the way all the time. Every now and then we'll rotate games out for other games, but we don't want those past greats to be forgotten. Below is a list of previous members of this list, lest we forget:

Knights of the Card Table

Race for the Galaxy

Calculords

Card Thief

Ascension

Lost Portal CCG

Pathfinder Adventures

Solitairica

Flipflop Solitaire

Guild of Dungeoneering

Lost Cities

Eternal Card Game

Pokemon TCG

Reigns: Her Majesty

Shadowverse CCG

What would your list of the best card games look like? Let us know in the comments!

The Best Card Games on Android & iOS published first on https://touchgen.tumblr.com/

[waynekelton]

The Best Card Games on Android & iOS

Modern digital card games combine the cerebral appeal of tactical play with the adrenaline rush of random loot and top-decking. It might seem like they’re dime-a-dozen, but the games detailed below are all absolutely worthwhile, judged on their own terms.

No luck of the draw? Perhaps some quality strategy games you can play without internet instead!

Some are cutthroat tests of supremacy, others bucolic come-as-you-may types, but all are thoughtful and ingenious in sundry ways. There's two flavours of card games that currently dominate the niche - highly competitive TCG/CCG multiplayer battlers derived from Hearthstone, and more cerebral or casual affairs, often translated from physical card games that already exist. We've woven the two types together into one supreme list.

Age of Rivals (Review)

Developer: Roboto Games Platforms: iOS & Android Price: $1.99

How we forgot about this one for so long is anybody's guess, but we've fixed it now. Released in 2017, this strategy card game takes a lot of inspiration from physical design but is very much a digital game. It's more drafting than deck-building, with five phases repeated across four rounds and a game can last as little as ten minutes.

It's minimalist, but with a touch of flair as you try and draft along specific themes and build your board up as the game progresses. While it was in a bit a state when it first launched, the years since release has seen this one mature into an excellent game worth checking out if you want a break from deck-building, but still like that creativity that comes from making the best of what you draw.

Cultist Simulator (Review)

Developer: Weather Factory Platforms: iOS & Android Price: $6.99 

We were excited when we head that the indie hit card game Cultist Simulator was heading to mobile. While it's a niche proposition on PC, as a mobile game it's excellently suited to fit in with the on-the-go drop-in/drop-out playstyle of mobile gamers. Even in a market as arguable crowded as mobile card games, Cultist Simulator manages to slide right in and carve out its own little spot, offering a great combination of roguelike and narrative design elements, similar to what Reigns does but with more moving parts.

The mobile app is an excellent translation of the PC game, and works like a dream. Very replayable, you won't regret embarking on this particular quest to unlock the mysteries of the occult.

Shards of Infinity (Review)

Developer: Temple Gates Games Platforms: iOS & Android Price: $7.99

Ascension is a house name in deck-building card games, especially on mobile. While Playdek were responsible to bring that light into our world, Temple Gates Games have the honour of bringing the spiritual successor to Ascension to mobile - and it's one of the best card games we've played to date. The game itself is slick, well designed, and has some very interesting twists on the deck-building formula. This isn't Ascension  with a new skin, but a new game in its own right.

As for the app, Temple Gates have done a brilliant job. The game is colourful and brought to life with very few technically concerns. Everything is cross-platform and multiplayer is competently designed. If you're looking for a new card game to occupy you in 2019, look no further.

You might also like....

Mystic Vale (iOS | Android) (Review) - A very similar game to Shards, Mystic Vale is another deckbuilding game that uses the same base premise, just with a different theme and a different twist on the usual proceedings. This one was developed by Nomad Games, and while entertaining in its own way it doesn't really shake up the genre as much as it needs to really stand out.

Miracle Merchant (Review)

Developer: Arnold Rauers Platforms: iOS & Android Price: $1.99 / Free with IAP

Tinytouchtales' Card Thief has been a staple on this list since its inception, but there are other great card games the developer has made. Their most recent release was Miracle Merchant, a game about trying to craft potions for customers in need of a remedy or other liquid solution. You must juggle the competing but equally important needs of satisfying customers (by brewing exactly what they asked for) and maximising profits (because making potions is expensive and that Porsche won't pay for itself).

Miracle Merchant is solitaire card-gaming at its finest. The art style is impeccable, and the tactical decision making is incredibly deep. Assembling a potion of four cards sounds easy, but actually with negative cards to consider, and the fact that if you fail to make a potion you will lose the game, you have pick and choose your battles in terms of how 'good' to make the potions for customers, especially considering you need to maximise profit as well.

You might also like...

TinyTouchTales have done plenty of great card games, from Card Thief and Card Crawl, to Potion Explosion.

Meteorfall: Journey (Review) (GOTY 2018)

Developer: Slothwerks Platforms:  iOS, Android Price: $2.99

Challenging and Stimulating: In the happier sessions, Meteorfall ends with a successful final showdown against the aptly-named Uberlich. Working backwards from that ultimate battle to the four starting characters is much more challenging than the squidy art and breezy interface might suggest.

This is a game that's been wonderfully supported post-release, with several major content expansions at the time of writing. What's better, it's all been given away for free! There's a reason this won our Reader's Choice Game of the Year award, you know.

Reigns: Game of Thrones (Review)

Developer: Devolver Digital Platforms: iOS, Android Price: $3.99

The Pinnacle: The meme/phrase "living your best life" is not often one you hear applied to a videogame, but we can think of no title that's more applicable than Nerial's licensed Game of Thrones version of their hit card/monarch simulator Reigns. As Brittany mentions in her review, this is hands-down the best version of the Reigns formula, and it helps that it involves and engaging and popular IP.

The typical Tinder-style swiping mechanics coupled with the usual medieval hilarity and tough choices is coupled with some subtle new twists, where players get to try and rule the Seven Kingdoms as one of nine iconic characters from the show (which are unlocked over time). All this is enabled through the guise of Melisandre - you're essentially playing out her visions of how these characters might get on sitting atop the Iron Throne. Licensed games often get a bad rap, but they can now look to this game to wash away all their sins. This is how you do it, folks.

Hearthstone

Developer: Blizzard Entertainment Platforms:  iOS, Android Price: Free (IAPs)

The Gold Standard: Stop me if you��ve heard this one before: a rogue, a priest and a warrior walk into the bar. Players struggle to reduce the opponent life to zero as players get more mana (read: energy) to fuel stronger minions and more devastating spells. The power curve and rarity drop rate are a little punishing, but later expansions and patches have remedied this somewhat. Hearthstone’s card battles unfold on a tavern table, in the middle of the hub-bub and merriment of a chaotic Warcraft scene, usually narrated in a dwarven brogue.

Yes, the card game itself is solid and as stripped-down as it can be without being simplistic, but Hearthstone flashes of creative genius and setting go well beyond the card base. The animations and sound design have been polished to a mirror sheen, and the gameplay, love it or hate it, is the standard because of its sterling quality and undeniable fun factor. Just don’t sweat the meta or top-tier competition, because then the grind will eat up your life.

Exploding Kittens

Developer: Exploding Kittens Platforms:  iOS, Android Price: $1.99

Outrageous fun: A game of hot potato with a nitroglycerine-infused feline escalates until every player save one has met their maker. Fiery kitty death and simple humor belie a take-that game which puts everyone immediately at each other’s throats. Hostility and sabotage are the name of the game, because each player has only one life to live, and one defuse card to keep that hairball from becoming a fireball.

The game is a childish, cartoonish pastiche of obvious joke made too hard too often, but despite the unapologetic unrefined everything, it remains one of the best guilty mindless pleasures around. If you ever need a reason to froth at the mouth and fling spittle at your fellow humans over fictionally threatening cats, look no further: Exploding Kittens is simply an excuse to have a good time, a cheeky pretext. Irksome, shameless and perfect it its base way.

Plants vs. Zombies: Heroes

Developer: Electronic Arts Platforms:  iOS, Android Price: Free (IAPs)

Food for thought: This franchise has reinvented itself several times since the original’s premier success. The sequel to the tower defense titan dallied with free-to-play energy timers and premium unlocks, then the series experimented with the FPS arena shooter, releasing Garden Warfare. Along the way, some of the magic and charm was lost. Plants vs. Zombies Heroes is an inspired and refreshing late entry into the game series, translating the original tower defense themes to a CCG with some nifty changes. Perhaps the coolest single defining feature of PvZ: Heroes is the asymmetry: one player represents the zombies shuffling forward for a quick bite while the other coordinated the plants fighting to repel the undead.

The power dynamic between the two sides is unusual and distinct, recalling Netrunner more than Magic or Hearthstone. The flow of new cards into eager players hot little hands, the balance between card strengths and their relative availability as well as the overall strategic robustness of the game are all top-notch. This core gameplay shines along with the visual polish and jazzy flair the series has come to be known for. Plants vs. Zombies Heroes is a fun late entry that deserves more love.

Frost (Review)

Developer: Jerome Bodin Platforms:  iOS, Android Price: $3.99, $4.49

An evergreen choice: This one stands out from the other members of this list on two fronts. Firstly, for its palette, which is as frigid as monochrome as you’d expect. Secondly, because its gameplay is survival-based, not just thematically but actually. Gathering supplies, fending off nasties and keeping the elements at bay take every possible trick the cards will give you. Better performance will net you better tools, but unlike other games, Frost’s best rewards are a sense of security and temporary respite. In other words, the game won’t see you chasing exhilarating high score or excitement, but rather staving off the undesirable. Loss aversion, the fear of breaking a fragile equilibrium, the game daring you to take only appropriate risks when the phrase is a hollow oxymoron. The game rewards you with the chance to keep playing, keep exploring its stark dangers and bag of tricks.

The Elder Scrolls: Legends (Review) 

Developer: Bethesda Platforms:  iOS, Android Price: Free

Devastating combos: Bethesda’s entry into online card battling has the normal variety of twists on the race-to-zero archetype that most card battlers end up parroting to some extend or another. It has two lanes, one of which is a ‘shadow’ lane granting cover to units slotted there. The other change is truly radical though, and alters the core idea of card advantage. Players who lose a large chunk of life in a single turn get extra draws as compensation the next turn.

This acts as a huge counterbalance and means that showy and impressive turns in some cases actually become victims of their own success. Getting the most bang from your buck from each and every card still matters, of course, but the card-draw granted from life loss is a devious catch-up mechanism, especially when combined with the ‘Prophecy’ keyword.. Standard, with not much else to distinguish it from the crowd aside from the setting and its tweaks to the formula, but a worthwhile entry with intelligent design and classic appeal for Skyrim fans.

Card City Nights

Developer: Ludosity Platforms:  iOS, Android Price: $0.99

Solo-play stalwart: The characters are idiosyncratic, the game-within-a-game conceit a little cheeky but still refreshing, the consistent tone humor-ish, deadpan. Beating certain keystone characters unlocks their signature, ultra-powerful cards whose effects even jive with that character’s personality. In other words, there is a correspondence between writing, characterization and deck archetypes between. Never quite a rollicking good time or agonizing head-scratcher, the deckbuilding and collecting (yes, there are boosters, no nothing is truly ultra-rare) of Card City Nights makes for an easily enjoyed and easily binged experience.

Star Realms (Review)

Developer: White Wizard Games Platforms:  iOS, Android Price: Free, with content parcelled out as IAP ($4.99 for the full set)

Interstellar Deck-Building: This game marries the level of expansion and customization of a TCG with the bite-sized crunchy decision-making of a deckbuilder. Its combat elements and faction-specific combos make for a serious nostalgia trip for those looking to revisit memory lane without first collecting, collating and crafting a custom deck just for the occasion. Star Realms’ many expansions, rapid-fire gameplay and clear iconography make it a compelling addition to the game enthusiast’s roster and an easy must-have.

Hall of Fame

We're keeping the list pretty tight at the moment, but there's way more than ten excellent card games to celebrate, with more on the way all the time. Every now and then we'll rotate games out for other games, but we don't want those past greats to be forgotten. Below is a list of previous members of this list, lest we forget:

Knights of the Card Table

Race for the Galaxy

Calculords

Card Thief

Ascension

Lost Portal CCG

Pathfinder Adventures

Solitairica

Flipflop Solitaire

Guild of Dungeoneering

Lost Cities

Eternal Card Game

Pokemon TCG

Reigns: Her Majesty

Shadowverse CCG

What would your list of the best card games look like? Let us know in the comments!

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