Thug Racer

Thug Racer bring Out Run on Android! It's one of my favorite game since a couple of months!

As many good game it's easy to learn and hard to master. Super simple controls: turn left, turn right and brake. An easy goal: complete 5 stages as quickly as possible. But completing that goal require a lot of practise and skills to avoid other cars, escape police patrols and avoid crashing in the walls.

Monetisation is really good: you can play the game in arcade mode (the main one) for free,with some ads from time to time at the end of a run. You can also do a one time purchase to get a new golden skin on your car, get access to the endless mode, remove the ads, and also help an indie!

Thug Racer is made by Super Coockie Games, two indie game developers from London: Dan and James

Pros	Cons	Note
Simple gameplay hard to master Great graphic style Really nice monetisation Easy to play in commute	A bit repetitive	9/10

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Cards and Castles

Cards and Castles is a fresh mix of Trading Card Game & turn-based strategy game. Lately I haven't been a fan of all the clones of Magic the Gathering that popped up lately on mobile apart from Hearthstone! But Cards and Castles get me intrigued, and pleasantly surprised.

In C&C you play your cards to create units on a battlefield, or influence them with buff and debuff. Unlike most TCG game, the battlefield is a grid with lots of cells (5*9). Consequently choosing your deck is only one part of the strategy: using your units properly on the battlefield is at least as important. You'll have to position them, calculate range etc, guess the opponent next move & cards, prepare for area damage, etc. The game has 5 different factions: Vikings, Crusaders, Pirates, Warlocks and Ninjas. Each deck can mix together 2 factions, or just use one faction, as you prefer. The difference between factions and the variety of cards available give you a lot of freedom to create synergy in your deck, and offer a deep gameplay.

C&C has a single player mode, but, as for most TCG, all the fun really start when you compete against real players. You'll have quests, monthly reward for ranked game (custom skin ...). Game is really well balanced and devs are very close from the community, listening to feedback and reacting very quickly. The game also have frequent update with new content.

Monetisation is done through pack of cards you can either purchase with real money or with the in game virtual currency (roughly one pack of card every 3-4 multiplayer game depending on quest and victory ratio (^_^) ). However to get the most rare cards you'll be likely to spend money, and the cards you get are random, with no way to exchange between players. Unlike hearthstone you can't craft the specific card you need.

Cards and Castles is made by Bit Mass, an indie studio of 5 game developers based in San Diego.
Oh and BTW the game is cross platform Android, iOS and PC (steam).

Pros	Cons	Note
Mix TCG & turn-based strategy game Well balanced & deep gameplay Challenging multiplayer Cross platform Android, iOS and PC	Singleplayer also require internet connection Monetisation: Spend to get (randomly) great cards UI is quite complex	7/10

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