New iPad Games of the Week

Square Enix's latest Final Fantasy title Mobius is now available on the App Store. Mobius is a free-to-play Final Fantasy game that was specifically created for mobile devices by some of the original creators. The game features a new story written by Kazushige Nojima, stunning 3D graphics and a new battle system with touch-based controls.

Reviews are already mixed. The game features expensive IAPs, a $19 subscription plan and a deep learning curve. It is also a hefty download at 84.1 MB and it requires an additional download of 300 MB once the game is installed. Mobius Final Fantasy is geared towards RPG fans who don't mind sitting through a lot of cutscenes and long tutorials.

On Thursday we looked at two new strategy games that landed on the App Store. The Quest is the first iPad-only title we have spotted in a long time. It is an open world RPG with a long storyline set in the kingdom of Monares. You are an agent of the king tasked with finding out what happened to the governor of Freymore, who went missing. The game features four cities and a world full of mountains, caves, lakes and forests for you to explore. You can also interact with friendly and hostile NPCs while being forced to make decisions that will determine the outcome of the game.

The Quest HD is available now for $7.99 on the App Store. It includes the ability to customize your character spells, potions to craft, a day/night cycle with changing weather and more.

It's no Pokémon Go, but if you want to collect monsters from your couch instead of going outside, Terra Monsters 3 is now available on the App Store. Terra Monsters includes over a hundred 3D monsters to collect, 3v3 3D battles and over 24 hours of gameplay. Terra Monsters 3 is $1.99 and it supports all devices running iOS 9.1 or later.

The new dungeon crawler that we highlighted last week is now available for all iOS devices. Guild of Dungeoneering was originally thought to be an iPad-only title, but it turned out to be a universal app. In Guild of Dungeoneering you become the ultimate Dungeon Master by building a dungeon around your hero and coaxing him or her through quests to restore your guild to its ultimate glory. The game is a turn-based RPG where players utilize cards to construct a dungeon full of monsters, traps and treasure. Guild of Dungeoneering is available on the App Store for $3.99.

In anticipation of the release of Ghostbusters, in theaters today, Activision, in collaboration with Sony Pictures has launched two new ghost busting games. Ghostbusters is a new console title that picks up after the ending of the reboot. Players can command a squad of rookie ghostbusters as they rid the city of rogue spirits. The game features hidden collectibles and the ability to upgrade characters with new gear and abilities. Ghostbusters is available now for $50 for the PlayStation 4, Xbox One and Windows.

Square-Enix has teamed up with Brave Frontier creator A-Lim to release Final Fantasy Brave Exvius to the Apple App Store and Google Play. Brave Exvius is a free-to-play, turn-based RPG set in the Final Fantasy universe. The game features characters and espers from the original Final Fantasy games, and it includes its own original storyline specifically created for mobile devices. In the game players can explore towns and dungeons while collecting loot and battling a variety of monsters and bosses. Brave Exvius does include IAPs and a timer energy system.

After a slow week of App Store releases, this week saw the return of Hero Siege and a few other big launches. Hero Siege: Pocket Edition has been getting slammed in the App Store customer review section after a confusing relaunch to iOS. The game does not work with most devices due to its 2GB of RAM requirement, and most of the negative reviews are aimed at the developer for not making this requirement clear at launch. The official App Store description now reads, "this game does not work on devices that have less than 2GB of RAM memory," but the warning may have come too late as some users discovered the hard way that the game does not support the iPhone 6 or earlier. You may want to read through the Hero Siege thread on Touch Arcade before making your final decision if you want to purchase the game. The good news is that the original high launch price has been reduced to $2.99 on the Apple App Store after the backlash.

A lot happened this week in the mobile gaming world and iOS. Apple held its 2016 WWDC keynote and there were a lot of big announcements made at E3 throughout the week. Apple on Monday unveiled and released the first beta of iOS 10 with new messaging features, a redesigned Music app and many more features. One of the biggest changes involves Game Center, which will no longer be available as a standalone app. Apple has removed Game Center from iOS 10 but has kept its features intacted for developers to use in GameKit.

The first iOS 10 public beta will be available in July. You can sign up for the Apple beta program here.

While overall iPad news has been pretty slow in recent months, we did manage to cover a lot of big App Store news this week. Telltale announced that its Batman game will be released this summer, and they are also planning a big Walking Dead reveal at E3 on Sunday. You can watch the announcment live on IGN at 3pm PT / 6pm ET.

The popular iPad note taking app, LiquidText was updated with mulitasking capablities this week. Users can now pay $8.99 to "work with multiple documents and webpages in a single LiquidText workspace," according to the release note. You can download the app for free from the App Store.

This week saw the return of three popular franchises, and a long awaited re-release of a classic RPG to the Apple App Store. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles has received another App Store title. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Legends pits Leonardo against the forces of Kraang, as the mutant brain attempts to terraform the Earth into Dimension X. Players can recruit the original Turtles and their pals to takedown Kraang and his evil henchmen. The game features 30 TMNT characters to unlock and an all-new chapter based on this summer’s blockbuster, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows, in theaters June 3. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Legends is available for free on the App Store.

Besides the obligatory hidden object games released every week, there were zero noteworthy iPad-only apps released to the App Store. With the lack of iPad options we've decided to look at the spooky games (and a few other big releases) released to the App Store through 05/08/16 to 05/13/16 in celebration of Friday the 13th.

Nowhere: Lost Memories is a point-and-click mystery game where you wake up with no idea what is going on. It is an immersive first person adventure, set in a weird place with a something hiding in the darkness. Nowhere: Lost Memories is available for $2.99 on the App Store for all devices running iOS 8.1 or later.