The best of Asian mobile gaming: August 8 to 15

Want to know about the best in Asian mobile gaming? Then you’ve come to the right place. If your game isn’t here, or if you have a new game, please pitch it to us at news[at]gamesinasia[dot]com!

Shoot-em-up

Thunder Raid

by Tencent (China)

[fve]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U0wkCjFeLb8[/fve]

Move aside, Tiantian Kupao, because we’ve found a new favorite game. Thunder Raid from Tencent takes your bullet-hell shooter and modifies it for mobile. While the endless scrolling is a bit reminiscent of Tencent’s other games, you can’t deny that the mechanic makes this shmup perfect for playing single-handedly while on the go. Visuals are great, gameplay is smooth and fun, and planes and pilots are aplenty. Our only gripe with this is the energy system and lack of stages: your background tilesets do change, but there is not storyline, and your goal is to only get as far as you can.

Still a great game, though. Thunder Raid is available on iOS and Android and you can log in with either Facebook or Wechat. The official trailer has been used to illustrate this review as it’s next to impossible to take a screenshot and not die.

Battle of Airway

by Tharros Game Studio (India)

This Indian-developed shoot-em-up is a rather pleasant surprise. For one, the art style is gorgeous and the attention to detail even more so. Secondly, the control scheme has you touching and dragging your character making it a seamless on-the-go experience. Oh, and there’s a bit of a story that involves you finding a lost sibling. Doing so demands collecting candies, stars and assorted power-ups, and of course, defeating enemies both big and small.

Right now Battle of Airway is on iOS only and demands a one-off premium purchase of $1.99 for the full game. However, you will need an iPad 3 or an iPhone 5 at the minimum to play this. But if you don’t own either, it should be hitting Windows Phone and Android soon.

Strategy

The Knights of Mira Molla

by Nubee (Japan)