Find out what our super attractive, talented and modest team has planned for the weekend
Hi everyone, welcome to our latest edition of The Wrapp.
This is a chance for you to see what various members of the Pocket Gamer team are planning to play this weekend, and will hopefully give you an insight into some of the weird and wonderful things we do when we're not keeping you updated with the latest news and tips. Heck, you might even find a new game to play.
Ivan Morris
Personal writer
CastlevaniaVampireSurvivors, CastlevaniaVampireSurvivors, CastlevaniaVampireSurvivors, CastlevaniaVampireSurvivors, CastlevaniaVampireSurvivors, CastlevaniaVampireSurvivors.
I'm sorry, but as you can probably imagine, I'm really excited about the Ode to Castlevania DLC in Vampire Survivors. I'm not exactly a mega Castlevania fan, but I'd say I'm familiar enough with the series to enjoy not only seeing fan favorites from the Belmont lineage, but also some more obscure characters make an appearance in Poncle's Lightning Strike .
I'm particularly interested in the new remixes of Classicvania songs, and the fact that there are probably more than a few secrets buried in this release, given Poncle's penchant for them. So this, whether on PC or mobile or more likely both, is what will occupy my time when I have it free this weekend.
Jupiter Hadley
Personal writer
It's me, a person who only ever plays Pokemon Go consistently. This weekend I'll be hosting some Gigantamax Gengar battles for our Pokemon Go community. Last weekend we did very well with the Gigantamax Starters, completing three raids in two halves on Saturday and three raids on Sunday. I've heard that a lot of smaller communities have been struggling, so we'll see how Gengar fares!
I've also started opening Pokemon card packs in the Pokemon Pocket trading card game (god, what a terrible name). I've never liked the price of Pokemon cards, so this free way to collect cards seems great to me. Furthermore they do not take up space and do not get damaged! I'll fill my collection… slowly.
I'm still playing Neopets: Faerie Fragments to get my items in Neopets. It turns out that every day you log in you get an item in Neopets. I guess I'll play it forever if that's the case. At the time of writing, I have completed 158 levels of the 500 needed to get all the Neopets rewards. Wish me luck, as the match-3 puzzles have become quite challenging.
Dan Sullivan
Editor-in-Chief
Right, right, right. So, I'll definitely be playing Pokemon Go this weekend because of the continued thrill (yes, thrill) that comes with the new Gigantamax feature. The Starters, as mentioned by Jupiter above, were really intense and there was an amazing feeling when we managed to pull it off against all odds as a community – watching the number of Pokemon still fit drop from 120 to… well, a lot lower it was almost hypnotic.
My youngest, Robin, also had a great time playing, which I think is due to her ability to tap to cheer on the survivors – she's excited to play more and rarely strays away from Roblox or the cooperative Xbox games.
Outside of that, I will definitely move forward with my Balatro ambitions. I've completed a cycle with eight decks now and I'm enjoying the restrictions that come with the extra decks, I feel like I'm getting a crash course in some of the most extreme situations you can produce, and I can't get enough of the feeling of “I broken game but I'm winning.”
I've also downloaded several new games that I want to invest some time in: FrostpunkM/Frostpunk Beyond The Ice, Iron Roads and 'AR RPG' Landing Party… but these may have to wait until the new week.
Caterina Dellosa
Review editor
Last week's lateral epicondylitis procedure involved an ultrasound of both forearms, which showed – not surprisingly – that the site of the lesion is the EXACT position a person would be in when holding their phone in landscape mode . It turns out the cause is “overuse” and “repetitive motion” in those exact spots – the doctor caught me and I can't believe there is real medical evidence.
So, I eased the pain and took things slow with Neko Atsume 2, because there's only so much “repetitive motions” you can do when you're lazily feeding stray cats, right? Right? *sweats*
One cat, in particular, tried to squeeze himself upside down into a candy box two sizes too small, and now his X-marked butt is sticking out towards me. What a time to be alive.
Stephen Gregson-Wood
Deputy Director and Special Projects Editor
It's been a big week for the mobile world. With the arrival of the Vampire Survivors Castlevania DLC, Pokemon TCG Pocket, and Carrion, among other things, I'm spoiled for choice this weekend. So, my goal is to do my best to give all of them a chance. As Jupiter mentioned in his Pokemon TCG review, there's a lot of waiting, which gives me a lot of extra time to play other things.
Vampire Survivors has slowly crept onto my list of favorite mobile games over the past few months, proving itself to be a faithful companion on any long journey. It's full of things to do, even more so now, and is a perfect accompaniment to whatever podcast you choose to listen to to pass the time. Carrion, meanwhile, is a completely different – literal – beast. It will undoubtedly catch my attention the most, so it's probably one I'll dive into at home. I've been keeping an eye on it for a few years: playing horror? Count on me. And now it's on mobile, it's the perfect excuse to catch up.
Cristina Messan
Personal writer
This week my best friend is coming home. I haven't seen her in a long time, so I'll spend the whole weekend catching up and won't have much free time for games.
Shaun Walton
Personal writer
Shaun is away on business this weekend, but not the kind of business you'll see on the nine o'clock news.
Mihail Katsoris
Personal writer
So I started playing Mu Dark Epoch about a week ago. I've enjoyed the game so far and even made some friends there. Now we have a guild, which does quests, bosses and everything. So I will definitely spend some time playing that game.
Also, some friends started playing Throne & Liberty and kept pestering me to play with them. I downloaded the game (71 GB!!!) to try it out the other day, but haven't actually played it yet. So this is another game I'll be playing over the weekend.
Dave Bradley
COO at Steel Media
I'll have to play Balatro, right?
It was all anyone could talk about at GDC in March, but I ignored it because it was PC-only – and I'm naturally a contrarian who refuses to play what's popular among my peers.
Then it hit mobile at the end of September and I ignored it because I was addicted to Marvel SNAP and had already spent money on its Symbiote Spider-Man season pass. (By the way, my favorite SNAP card at the moment is Scream, introduced in the We Are Venom season.)
Balatro is now on the App Store and Apple Arcade and everyone is talking about how addictive it is. Even the head of Pocket Gamer, the inimitable Chris James, plays it. So the time has come: this weekend I'll find out what it's all about. Wish me luck.