APP REVIEW FRIDAY

Hello ladies and gents this is the viking telling you today we are talking about a game thats going through the mobile gaming community called.

Brawl Stars is a worthy, if simple, Clash Royale successor

For a while there, it seemed like Brawl Stars wasn’t going to make it. Supercell’s free-to-play mobile shooter soft-launched in Canada in June 2017 and then reached a few more countries this past January, but the lethargic rollout suggested that Brawl Stars wasn’t ready to join the likes of Clash Royale and Clash of Clans as an international smash.

Its creators agreed, apparently. During its 500-plus days in limited release, the Finnish studio reworked the controls and progression system, shifted the screen orientation, and made myriad other tweak. Supercell has a history of killing soft-launched games that couldn’t match its vision, but Brawl Stars finally emerged from the gauntlet alive, and seemingly better for having gone through it.

Brawl Stars smartly adapts team-based multiplayer shooters for mobile in a way that makes perfect sense for pocket-sized touch devices. It’s an objective-based shooter, a battle royale game, a MOBA-lite and more, all wrapped up in an approachable and attractive package.

Both Fortnite and PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds have been huge on iOS and Android (and everywhere else) this year, but neither is an optimal smartphone experience. They are certainly good enough if you don’t have a current console or a capable PC, or you’re just hungry for competition on the go, but they’re awkward in all of the ways you’d expect from a mobile port. They’re cumbersome and imprecise, and don’t run as well as on older devices. The oft-lengthy matches also aren’t ideal for hopping in for a quick fix.

Brawl Stars doesn’t suffer from these problems, because it’s built for mobile and cognizant of the platform’s limitations. Matches typically last a couple of minutes, and the top-down view means there’s no fussing with a camera. One virtual stick controls your character while another aims and fires your weapon; you can alternately tap the latter stick for a single shot at the nearest foe. And once your special attack charges, another virtual stick activates to aim and launch that.