The Best Handheld/Mobile Game of 2016

HONORABLE MENTION: POKEMON GO

It’s award season here at Twinfinite! Starting with a few runner ups, let’s look back at the best mobile and handheld games from this year, and our 2016 winner!

Pokemon GO was a true phenomenon this year. The combination of the nostalgia that we all associate with Pokemon with the exciting new technology that is augmented reality made this game a hit worldwide. Finding and capturing Pokemon in the real world never lost its allure, and hunting down all 150 pocket monsters proved to be an addicting challenge.

On top of the catching aspect were the battles and gyms. Taking down another trainer’s Pokemon and claiming the gym for our own team added a competitive aspect the likes of which the main Pokemon series hasn’t seen in years. The free-to-play structure of the game only made it more accessible. While there were options to buy Poke Balls and Potions, these items could also be earned in-game just as easily.

Possibly the most enjoyable part of Pokemon GO, though, was the unanticipated social aspect. Players worked together to find rare creatures, benefit from the effects of lures, and take down enemy gyms. Taking a walk and tracking down a mysterious Pokemon with friends made it more fun to simply get outside, and millions of players did in hordes.

But for all of Pokemon Go’s successes, the game was incredibly flawed at launch. The app continuously crashed and even though its performance did improve, the experience didn’t expand much beyond catching and taking gyms. It’s still one of the most unique and memorable of experiences of the year, but its flaws keep it from becoming the revolutionary title it could have been.

HONORABLE MENTION: FIRE EMBLEM FATES

Fire Emblem Fates released on the tail of the massive success celebrated by Fire Emblem Awakening. But the next chapter in the strategy RPG series opted for a slightly different approach. The story begins with the player character, a member of the royal family of Hoshido, being captured and raised by Nohr. The two nations have been locked in a brutal war for generations. The player character is quickly approached by their family from Hoshido and given a choice: return to their family and country, or stay with those who raised them. This choice is actually separated into two distinct games, Fire Emblem Fates Birthright and Conquest.

The gameplay and structure should be familiar to those who have spent time with Fire Emblem Awakening. You engage in tense, strategic battles where death has a lasting impact, and every character has set of skills that can be exploited on the battlefield. Not only that, but love still blooms in the midst of warfare. Figuring out which pairs work romantically and watching as your team grows closer is as fulfilling as ever, with plenty of new personalities to meet.

The two games offer up different stories and gameplay challenges, making it worthwhile to experience both sides of the conflict. A third side was later released called Revelations, which adds another foil to proceedings and further changes up dynamics. No matter which of the three you play though, they all feature excellent characterization, difficult and thoughtful battles, and beautifully realized worlds.

The splitting of the stories into multiple games may not have been the most popular decision with consumers, but the three titles combined offer hundreds of hours of enjoyment.

SECOND RUNNER UP: ZERO TIME DILEMMA

Zero Time Dilemma continues the fantastic visual novel series, featuring a new narrative and fleshing out the bizarre world even further. The game takes place between Virtue’s Last Reward and Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors. A new cast of nine characters has been captured and must survive a series of deadly gauntlets set up by a mysterious figure known only as Zero.

Exploring the nuclear bomb shelter which serves as the game’s setting, escaping the dastardly puzzle rooms, and building relationships with other characters and means that there is always something compelling to accomplish. The puzzles are expertly crafted, and truly make you feel like you are overcoming near impossible odds. Each character is likable unique, with every member bringing his or her own strengths and weaknesses as you work together to try and survive.

The fact that it’s disconnected from the other two games lessens its impact, but it’s still a very strong experience in its own right. It’s easy for newcomers to the series to jump into, and the heavy reliance on puzzles means that those who don’t want to play a strict visual novel have other activities to distract them.

FIRST RUNNER UP: CLASH ROYALE

The brilliance of Clash Royal is in its simplicity. The battlefield is comprised of three lanes. The two outer lanes each have a small castle in the middle of the path while the center lane is home to a large fortress. The game ends when one player’s fortress is destroyed. The two players each build a deck of cards and use these to summon units, slowly working to take down enemy troops and wear down the defenses of the castles.

Each card features adorable art and the characters slowly waddle down the lanes, throwing comically large bombs and raining down volleys of arrows. Figuring out which cards to put into your deck is a task in itself, with plenty of strategy lying in composition and how you use the cards at your disposal.

Each match only last three minutes, so you need to strategize at a blistering pace, quickly tearing down the initial defenses so you can dismantle your opponent’s fortress before the clock ticks down. You only get several cards in your hand at a time, and because your elixir currency is often depleted faster than it refills, you need to carefully choose which cards you will send into the fray.

The one thing that brings Crash Royale down is its heavy reliance on microtransactions. If a player has put more money into the game than you have, it’s likely that they’ll win. It makes for an frustrating experience, especially if you just want to hop in for a quick match but can never seem to find victory.

WINNER: POKEMON SUN AND MOON

The Pokemon series has never been one for innovation. The setting and creatures are swapped out with each release, but the basic structure never changes. Pokemon Sun and Moon toys with the series’ structure like no entry has before it, making for a much more robust monster-catching experience.

The new region of Alola feels different from any other locale in the series. Rather than just featuring new cities and routes to explore, the region has its own, glowing culture. Gym battles are replaced by the island trials, tasking young trainers with overcoming various challenges in order to prove themselves as trainers and build up enough strength to take on the Kahuna of each of Alola’s four islands.

It isn’t the biggest changeup, but it’s enough of a shift to breathe some life back into the series. The characters are also much more dynamic and fleshed out. While the story is as cookie-cutter as always, it doesn’t feel as superfluous as it did in previous games.

The battle system hasn’t evolved much, only seeing a couple of small changes, but why fix what wasn’t broken. After taking down a particular Pokemon, the effectiveness of each of your Pokemon’s moves on that particular creature is now shown. This makes it much easier for newcomers to enjoy the game without memorizing dozens of types and how they interact.

The new Pokemon are also great. They fit the aesthetic of the region, and the combinations of types that are present give battles a lot more variety. One of the best changes was the removal of HMs. If you need to interact with a rock blocking the path or a small shrub you can’t step over, you just need to pull out your Ride Pager. Over the course of the story, several Pokemon will be registered to the pager and you can summon them at any time to give you a lift, smash boulders, or even fly you to another island. They interact with the world in the same way you do, making gameplay much more seamless.

Yes, it’s another Pokemon game. But it’s also the most the series has changed in years, featuring a much better realized world and a slightly altered structure that gives the story a bit more diversity. Pokemon is still the perfect game to play on the go, and Sun and Moon might just be one of the best games in the series.