The Week's Wrapp - Cats, Capybaras and Choices aplenty

Hey there, welcome to our latest Pocket Gamer Week's 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.

Shaun Walton

Staff Writer

Lingsha was released in Honkai: Star Rail this week, and unfortunately after around 55 pulls I did not recruit, so this weekend I shall be getting as many Stellar Jades as possible to try again. Or, trying to decide if I can reasonably expense the purchase of Oneiric Shards.

I am still exploring the cosmos again with Starfield. Apparently, people were very underwhelmed with the DLC, but that seems to be the general consensus of the whole game. It is still a lot of fun for me though. Besides that, I have been having a spin on Wreckfest again. I already fully completed it on PS5, but it popped up in Game Pass so… we ride again!

Stephen Gregson-Wood

Deputy & Special Projects Editor

Capybara Go! has absolutely swallowed me whole. I’ve been playing it all week, will play it over the weekend, and will keep playing it over the next week and the next until my plump little capybara calls it quits.

Of course, whenever he does need to take a break from smashing through slime monsters like it’s nobody’s business, I go for a quick run on Choice of Life: Wild Islands, because it’s total escapism when it comes to making decisions in real life. While I can’t choose to break out into song in the middle of a pirate battle IRL, I can do so within the Choose Your Own Adventure-esque game, and even gain an extra Heart in the process. How positively refreshing

Dann Sullivan

Editor in Chief

It's still Balatro for me.

I had two flights this week. I headed out to Pocket Gamer Connects Helsinki where I was away from my lovely, trusty PC and instead spent my evenings doing a bit more mobile gaming than I normally would. I'd intended to play a little bit of the new Crusader Kings III DLC, but fate gave me to the clown, and with Jimbo I played.

I said last week that I think that Balatro is perfect for mobile and I stand by that. However, it's much more than the fact that card games feel great here, it's that the team have really used touchscreen to every advantage. Even touching a card to see the modifiers is intuitive and done in a way where you don't block off the screen with your curiousity (or, more likely, finger).

We've had a fair few run-ins now, Jimbo and I, but I'm going to keep up the intensity and try and finish off some of the collections and push further into the different colour stakes. 

Jupiter Hadley

Staff Writer

As I have been on planes an absolute ton this week, I have been downloading and playing offline games. One that’s really stuck with me, and that I think I am going to be playing over the weekend, is Cat Snack Bar.

Our middle child, Amelia, actually suggested this to me! It’s a semi-idle game where you are running little restaurants with a bunch of cats. They are running a fairy event and I just have to complete it now that I have started it!

Stephen Gregson-Wood

Deputy & Special Projects Editor

A couple of years ago, I got into Smoking Gun Interactive's Phobies, a turn-based strategy game where you battle using various fears. I eventually quit because everyone else got so much better than me, and since I don't have the most tactical brain to begin with, I didn't learn much from those defeats. Mostly, I adored the aesthetic and spending time in that creepy world. Still, losing over and over does get tiresome.

However, recently, I've wanted to play it again. This year's Halloween event, Dead or Alive, has played a huge role in pulling me back in. I plan to study where I'm going wrong in those inevitable losses, hopefully improving along the way. I sincerely doubt that, though.

Elsewhere, it's Community Day in Pokemon Go this Saturday, so I'll be hunting for a single – not hundreds, I don't believe in that business – Shiny Sewaddle. Beyond mobile, I'm still plodding through Red Dead Redemption 2. I'm not far in, but I've robbed a few trains and started bar brawls. You know, cowboy stuff.

Cristina Mesesan

Staff Writer

Following my journey from last week (when I got back into farming in Stardew Valley), I finally decided to install an app so I could mod my SV. Since this was something I’ve never done before but seen oftentimes on PC, I decided to do it for the Android version - so here I am, planning a whole new modded farm on mobile for the weekend!

Oh, and if you are curious to learn more about Stardew Valley mods and some of the best for mobile, you should keep an eye on our site next week, when I will come up with my definitive list of the best Stardew Valley mods on Android!

On to the next big plan for the weekend, I am going to travel back home so I’ve downloaded a couple of offline games to try out: My CatPots and Anna’s Monster Farm. They both look adorable, but I am most excited about MyCatPots since I love both little purring fluffs and plants. Let’s hope I won’t be disappointed. At first glance, MyCatPots has an adorable art style similar to Cats and Soup, but you can discover new cat hybrids based on the plants you cross. Looking forward to it!

So you may’ve noticed that I’ve been absent this past couple of weeks. And that’s because I’ve been on a trip to Tokyo - including a visit to Tokyo Game Show! Naturally, with plenty of time on the metro getting from place to place, I was looking for something to idle away the minutes, which is when I remembered that Balatro had just been released.

This mix of Solitaire and roguelike deckbuilder took the world by storm a few months ago, and it was only a matter of time before it made it to mobile. After having played it, I can definitely see the appeal, although I think it also has the unfortunate drawback of being hard as nails for someone who isn’t as good at card games like myself.

I played it both on the metro and on the plane, as well as while I was waiting for a connecting flight, and can heartily recommend it. Although I think Vampire Survivors will stay my go-to for whiling away a few half-hours.