Last weekend I went with some friends to GenCon Indy. It was a blast and we got to try out some new board glare that we’ve had our eyes on.
My friend Dave picked up a couple of pre-release games like Quarriors (amazing dice deck building game), and some dominion expansions. One of the games we demoed was Ascension. Ascension is a deck building game like Dominion, but instead of piles of cards, only a few are out at a time and get replaced when purchased or defeated. I wasn’t blown away with it, but it was a cool idea. I just liked Quarriors better and we went home with it.
Fast forward to this week where Dave tells me that there is an iOS version of Ascension, and not only is it pretty good, it’s for both iPad and iPhone. I hate it when you have to purchase an app for each device instead of it being universal, so that’s a huge bonus for me.
Normally I dont write about games, but what really intrigues me about it is how seamless of a transition it is from the board game to the handheld as far as understanding of play. Literally, since i knew how to play the board game, the only part of the tutorial for the iOS game i needed was the flyouts for the cards. However, if you don’t know how to play the game, the built in tutorial is rather good.
I have yet to find a bug and thats just nutty for such potential complication as translating a board game with specials rules to a handheld device. (Granted, many more complicated games like RPGs, etc are coded on devices, but they are created with the intent of the device in the first place.) It’s just a really well done game.
There is a video of the game on iPad from Gen Con, with an upcoming expansion that ill be available through in app purchasing, but i’ve also included some screenshots.
Opening Screen:
Choose character and CPU opponent or other players for pass and play!
Have multiple games going in case you want to stop a personal game and play a new one with friends (also has online play):
Zoom in on cards to see what they do and use them while zoomed. (Very intuitive.):
View opponents hand:
View opponents previous play log:
View discard pile:
End game view showing all cards for each player and how the score was obtained:
This is just a really well put together game and how mobile games should be.
