The Wrapp - Palmon, Pokemon, and EpicGamesStoremon

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.

Jupiter Hadley

Staff Writer

Oh wow, the first Wrapp of 2025. I gotta say, new year, same old me! It’s Community Day Classic in Pokemon Go this weekend, so I will be going out and playing in hopes of collecting more shinies and hanging out with friends. After going to Pocket Gamer Connects London over the week, I do feel a little too into games and my phone so will be taking a bit of a break to focus on catching up with work and relaxing.

Catherine Dellosa

Reviews Editor

Apart from lamenting my RNG fate in Pokemon TCG Pocket (I STILL haven’t completed the Genetic Apex deck going into 2025), I’ll be busy with Palmon: Survival this weekend because it seems I haven’t had enough of capturing creatures in the wild and adding them to my collection just yet. I’ve been dipping in and out of this new Palworld-esque adventure from Lilith Games since my Ahead of the Game feature, and I have to admit that I’ve grown a bit attached to my Pokemon - er, Palmons - now. 

I can’t say I’m any good at this, though - I’ll have to wait for Will’s beginner’s guide on it if I want to know what I’m actually doing wrong. But until then, I’m just going to ride around on my unicorn and watch my Palmons do forced labour in my camp while I amass an unholy amount of wealth - what a way to start the new year.

Will Quick

Freelance Writer

While the new year has already been filled with gaming, with prospects already on the horizon, I’ve got a few choices in my sleeves. In addition to playing through Palmon: Survival without needing to survive and getting closer to Balatro when IRL poker won’t cut it, I’m looking forward to what’s coming next. The biggest thing I’ve been alerted to (thanks to Cat) is Dark And Darker for mobile. I’ve already shared some thoughts that I don’t think it’s the most… stable game, but I still had fun, and I want to see how it’ll translate.

I’m also looking closely at the list posted in the podcast channel for new games. Some I recognize from previous episodes, but others are totally new to me. I’ll dip into them, focusing mainly on Super Farming Boy and LOK Digital… just because.

Shaun Walton

Staff Writer

We are back from quite a long break since the holidays, but my New Year isn’t really focusing on the “new” part. Thanks to binging a lot of Outside Xbox videos I convinced myself to throw money at IO Interactive and buy Hitman 3, and it is magical. I can’t stop playing it, time just slips away, so I will be on this most of the weekend, I assume.

Having said that, the second phase of Wuthering Wave's current update dropped recently and brought Roccia with it. I will have to set some time aside to work out my current choice paralysis thanks to that. Roccia is a fantastic Sub DPS for Rover (Havoc), but I recently maxed out Danjin for that role. And any Astrite I spend here is less I have for Shorekeeper. Decisions, decisions. 

Dann Sullivan

Editor in Chief

The start of this week was Pocket Gamer Connects London and so my weekend is going to feature something that was shown to me at the event: Wordpix. It’s a kinda ‘image prompt’ led ‘Arrowords with friends’ (If they go with that on the marketing, you heard it here first), where players have five letters they can drop into a grid to score points. It’s currently in soft launch here in the UK and I’ve already played it a lot since it was shown to me.

In other news, I finished my Pokemon Trading Card Game Pocket collection, with each core card from each pack, so won’t be actively investing time into it — however, I am excited to hear about the new Time & Space packs coming next week.

Outside of mobile, I’ve been playing (and will continue to play) Dynasty Warriors Origins, which is pretty good — even if it does seem to have looked to classic 90s RPGs for inspiration over moving in the direction that might have been expected… still, it’s nice that Warriors is back after its seven-year hiatus.

Cristina Mesesan

Staff Writer

Now that we've stepped into 2025, I am older, I’d like to say “wiser”, but I still think I am quite a “noob” when it comes to taking care of my body. I’ve had some health issues which have been accentuated since the holidays, so my goal is to try and spend more time working out and trying to make some healthier habits for a gamer.

I plan to spend some time stretching and exercising, and a set time (about 2-3 hours/day) gaming. As for the games, I am really excited to try delving deeper into Go Go Muffin, and also try to complete as many of the new events in Cookie Run: Kingdom as I can. I’m really excited about trying out and discovering unique teams to beat the Boss Rush event, and better my timers. Don’t worry, I am sharing all my findings there!

I’ve always been a bit of a Sweeney-sceptic, but after the last month or so I think my respect has grown for him a substantial amount. Say what you like about his crusade against Apple but I think it’s safe to say that he’s definitely sincere in his belief that Epic is/should be the leader in fighting the big bad monopolies. How much Epic itself falls into that category is up to you.

The recent updates to the Epic Games Store, I think, will prove to be a watershed moment. Because when people on mobile hear “free” they’re likely to both be more sceptical about it, but also intrigued. Premium mobile games have always had a tough time being accepted by people for a so-called “smaller” platform, despite there being some fantastic releases that are under that banner.

And with the lack of significant, community-beloved competition like Steam I reckon that there’s going to be a large amount of people who do want a third-party option for their gaming.

Stephen Gregson-Wood

Deputy & Special Projects Editor

Continuing my tradition of being late to everything, I've recently started playing through God of War Ragnarok. It comes after having a perfectly middling time with Far Cry: New Dawn. Sometimes, an average game is worse than one that's laughably bad, so I've opted for something I'm certain I'll have strong opinions about, one way or the other. 

As for the world of mobile, I'm going to see what all the fuss is about with Archero 2 - check out our tier list if you're diving in too. It's quickly shot past one million downloads on Google Play alone, and I enjoy a good roguelike, so it sounds promising. Beyond that, I might also check out Tile Tales: Pirate. Our App Army readers seemed to enjoy it, and they know mobile. Plus, the art style is incredibly charming, which never hurts.