There are a ton of poker games on the market, and few manage to stand out. For every successful poker app, there’s a handful that follow the same formula and fail to pick up any momentum. The lack of diversity found in poker games creates an opening for games that are able to follow the basic concept of poker, but add its own spin. Jawfish Poker is a wonderful example of taking a popular idea, making a tiny change, and feeling a major impact.

Jawfish Poker is based around Texas Hold’em. Players are each given two cards, five cards are placed in the middle, and whoever can make the best five-card poker hand will win the round. Jawfish Poker takes that popular idea, and makes a change to one of the biggest parts of the game — betting. Real poker features a level of competitive betting every time new hands are dealt and new cards are shown. Jawfish Poker removes the deep level of strategy that comes from large groups and frequent betting. Instead, the system is based around one-on-one matchups where players get two choices: fold or go all-in. Serious poker enthusiasts may find this setup to be odd or downright childish, but casual fans who crave fast-paced gameplay may find exactly what their looking for.

There are two main modes to Jawfish Poker: Tournaments and King of the Hill. Tournaments are a series of head-to-head hands where players bet all or nothing and the last remaining competitor wins. There are three entry fee levels for tournaments, using in-game gold. The more gold players pay up front, the larger the prize pool is. Players who want to fight for the largest possible prize will be more interested in King of the Hill. This mode works similar to tournaments, but players can enter with various amounts of gold. The goal in King of the Hill is to continuously earn gold and battle to the top of the leaderboard in order to win the jackpot once the timer runs out. Competition is fierce in King of the Hill and users with large amounts of gold have a distinct advantage, but wisely playing the odds gives everyone a fair shot.

Jawfish Poker’s monetization comes through two forms of in-game currency: gold and diamonds. Gold is used to enter tournaments and can be won from placing high in tournaments. Diamonds are generally used alongside gold to enter King of the Hill matches and re-enter tournaments after elimination. Diamonds are useful for players who frequently enter King of the Hill, while gold is almost a necessity. Gold is so important that Jawfish Poker will occasionally give players 1,000 gold when they’re running low. Players who want more gold and diamonds can buy some for as little as $0.99. Players who wish to re-enter tournaments but lack gold or diamonds will have the option to purchase re-entry for about $1.99. The in-game currency is very reasonably priced, but there’s enough free gold given out to keep non-monetizing players happy.

Jawfish Poker may not appeal to serious poker fans. The all or nothing style relies heavily on weighing the initial odds and hoping luck is on your side for the rest. That said, the fast pace tournaments will appeal to a variety of casual poker fans and those who simply want to learn about the basic ideas to poker.

You can follow Jawfish Poker’s progress with AppData, our tracking service for mobile and social games and developers.

PLAY

Jawfish Poker takes the basics of Hold’em Poker and implements a fun high-risk, high-reward system.

Acquinity Interactive

• Partner Sales Manager
• Director of Partner Sales
• Advertiser Injections Developer
• Sr. Email Marketing Manager

App Minis LLC

• Senior Unity Game Programmer

BrightRoll

• Manager, Publisher Development
• Marketing Manager
• Account Manager (CHI)
• Associate Manager, Publisher Development

DeNa

• Performance Marketing Manager

Disney Interactive | Playdom

• Mobile Game Designer
• Sr. Game Designer

Fandango

• Social Media Marketing Manager

King

• Senior Game Developer

POPSUGAR

• Sr. Web Engineer
• Java Search Engineer

Tango

• Senior Software Engineer Client

Tradeshift

• Enterprise Sales Engineer: East Coast

Wooga GmbH

• Game Designer – New Mobile Game

Order & Chaos Duels is the third entry in Gameloft’s Order & Chaos series, which has to date included a massively-multiplayer online role-playing game known as Order & Chaos Online and a multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) game known as Heroes of Order & Chaos. The Order & Chaos series bears a strong resemblance to Blizzard’s popular Warcraft series in terms of both art style and gameplay, and Order & Chaos Duels continues this trend. While Order & Chaos Online resembles World of Warcraft and Heroes of Order & Chaos is heavily inspired by the popular Warcraft 3 mod Defense of the Ancients (and its immensely popular recent counterparts Dota 2 and League of Legends), Order & Chaos Duels sounds very much like Blizzard’s recently-announced Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft. Gameloft is well-known for putting out mobile titles that provide similar experiences to well-established franchises on PC and console, but in the case of Order & Chaos Duels, it has actually beaten Blizzard to the punch by getting its game onto the market first.

Order & Chaos Duels is a card battle game, but it doesn’t follow the usual barely-interactive mold set by popular mobile games such as Rage of Bahamut and Confrontation. Instead, its gameplay is more akin to titles such as Shadow Era from Wulven Game Studios — a game which proved popular enough on mobile to spawn a physical version.

In an individual Order & Chaos Duels battle, two players face off against each other and draw cards into their hand. Each card has a mana cost to play — if the player doesn’t have enough mana to play a card, they can’t play one, but conversely if they have enough mana they may play more than one. A single card per turn may be sacrificed to add a single point to the user’s maximum mana, which replenishes fully at the start of the next turn. Some of the player characters also have special abilities that allow them to temporarily gain additional mana.

Once the player has played any cards they wish to their respective area — minions to the battlefield, equipment to the hero and spells straight to the discard pile since they are immediately resolved — the “battle” phase begins. Any minions the player has on the battlefield will attack their opponent’s minions in the corresponding spaces and activate any special abilities they have. If the opponent does not have a minion in a particular space and the player does (or vice versa), the defending player will take damage.

These basic mechanics are almost identical to those seen in Confrontation, but the key difference is that battles do not unfold automatically, and players have a large degree of choice in terms of what strategy they would like to adopt. Special abilities, spells and equipment can be triggered at a strategically-advantageous time rather than automatically, and minions can be placed wherever the player likes within the confines of the battlefield. A number of card abilities mean that positioning cards is important, as they affect adjacent cards as well as the target, and the order that cards are played can be very important, too. The game’s basic mechanics are very simple to understand, but belie a considerable amount of tactical depth which makes Order & Chaos Duels a pleasure to play.

The player may collect new cards to add to their deck in several ways. First of all, the single-player campaign mode allows the player to earn various cards as rewards for progressing past a series of increasingly-difficult battles. Secondly, the game’s “Get Cards” menu allows players to acquire free cards once per day (and in exchange for soft currency after that) — rarer cards may also be acquired by expending hard currency. In-app purchases are probably not necessary to complete the single-player campaign as the difficulty appears to be paced quite well, but a common complaint about the game’s multiplayer component is that the considerably stronger rare cards acquired through spending real money are pretty much a guaranteed ticket to victory. This means the game has the potential to get quite expensive for dedicated online players, but for the most part the game doesn’t feel like it’s forcing more casual players to open their wallets.

Social features for the game include the ability to battle other players to pillage their treasures or compete in ranked matches, the ability to set up custom matches with friends (or random strangers, for that matter) and connectivity with both Facebook and Gameloft’s proprietary Gameloft Live service. The interface also promises an “Epic Bosses” component, but this is not yet implemented. The game regularly offers players the opportunity to share their achievements and victories via social media, but this is not done obtrusively and is a feature easily ignored for those who do not wish to bother their friends.

Order & Chaos Duels is a great example of how the social card battle genre can and should evolve. While its basic mechanics are not particularly original — the game as a whole is very similar to the aforementioned Shadow Era, which has been around for quite a long time now — it’s a solid game that looks great, sounds great and plays well. Given the popularity of the other Order & Chaos games on mobile, this looks set to be another strong performer for Gameloft.

You can follow Order & Chaos Duels’ performance on both iOS and Android with AppData, our tracking service for mobile and social games and developers.

Play

Accessible, strategic and, crucially, interactive; Order & Chaos Duels is an excellent example of how to make a good, playable and fun free-to-play card battle game.

Fast and Furious 6: The Game is based around the newest installment of the Fast and Furious film series. In the game, players travel around the city, meeting characters from the movie, and drag and drift their way through the ranks with the goal of becoming the city’s top racer. It’s a setting that looks to appeal to fans of the movie series, but the references are light enough to not push away players who aren’t familiar with source material.

The game starts off by dropping players behind the wheel and walks them through the process of a drag race. Since the race is a straight shot from point A to B, there’s no steering wheel, gas pedal, or break system. Instead, each race starts with a countdown at the end of which, the player hits a “launch” button. During a drag race, the only controls are a lever to shift gears and a nitrous oxide boost. There are also drift races, which work identical to drag races, but about halfway through a race, the gear shift lever is replaced with a drift button, and players must hold it as they float along curves. Both race types are simple enough for most players to grasp, but the timing required to compete with high-level opponents may be a bit much for some players.

Winning races and completing challenges earns credits. These credits act as one of the in-game currencies and they can be used to purchase nearly everything in the game. Players are given enough credits for a car at the start, and from there they can purchase more as they progress. There are currently about twenty cars available, and only three are available from the beginning. As players win races and advance to different areas of the city, more expensive cars become available. Fast and Furious 6: The Game isn’t going to draw in car aficionados with its relatively small array of vehicles, but fans of the movies may enjoy the style and speed of the lineup. Players can also use their in-game credits to purchase upgrades to their available cars. These upgrades improve how the car performs, but any purchase made with credits may take a few minutes to arrive.

Players who don’t want to wait can receive their purchase automatically by using gold, the other form of in-game currency, and how Fast and Furious 6: The Game monetizes. Gold can purchase everything credits can, but can also buy design changes and save time. There are various instances where players need to wait due to an energy mechanic  which limits how long a user game session time. Whether they’ve purchased an upgrade or ran out of fuel, players can continue with the action by spending gold. A little bit of gold can be earned by playing the game but more can be purchased in the shop. Gold pricing ranges from $2.99 to $99.99, although any bundle cheaper than $19.99 won’t likely be enough for serious players.

Fast and Furious 6: The Game is a fun experience. There aren’t many notable drag racing games on the market, so it still feels somewhat rare. Because it’s a licensed title, a lot of players are likely to pass on it before they try, but those who give it a shot are likely to find themselves entertained. It lacks a bit of staying power, partially because it uses a movie license, and partially due to a lack of multiplayer interaction. However, there’s still a fun experience that’s likely to draw in both racing fans and Fast and Furious fans.

You can follow Fast and Furious 6: The Game’s progress on AppData, our tracking tool for mobile and social apps and developers.

Sega’s Sonic the Hedgehog is a mobile port of the classic Sega Genesis videogame. In it, players take control of Sonic, a blue hedgehog who runs, jumps and spins like a buzz saw. New players will quickly adjust to the simple control scheme and straightforward gameplay. All players are in for a treat, as this mobile entry is an excellent new visit to a legendary game.

Sonic’s previous entries to the mobile gaming scene weren’t often met with praise from hardcore fans. Games like Sonic Jump and Sonic Dash were great, but a far cry from classic Sonic. Sonic the Hedgehog 4 captured the feel of the classic games, but ran into its own set of issues. Fortunately, Sega has been able to gather what the core Sonic audience likes and dislikes and they’ve put it all together in this outing. The biggest point of criticism Sega is likely to face is the control scheme, but the on-screen controls are some of the sharpest we’ve seen, and it feels great. Touch screen controls lack a bit of precision compared to physical controllers, but there’s still not much to complain about on this one. Sonic purists may also take issue with Sonic being able to use his spin dash (a feature not available in the original game), but many players won’t even notice as the move has become a trademark of the series.

Sonic the Hedgehog comes with more than just the original game. The introduction of the time attack mode allows players to try completing each stage as quick as possible. There are pre-set time limits that provide little challenge, but the game also comes with a leaderboards feature that lists the best times of other players. Each individual stage has its own leaderboard, giving players numerous chances to race to the top. Sonic the Hedgehog also comes with twelve achievements. None of the achievements are inherently easy, causing them to add an extra layer of replay value. Achievements, time attack, and leaderboards are all small additions that work together in creating one of the best Sonic the Hedgehog experiences. With classic characters Tails and Knuckles featured as unlockable content, the replay value only soars higher.

Sonic the Hedgehog is a great example of how to release a classic game on mobile devices. Outside of small gameplay additions, like spin dashing and saving between levels, this is the same Sonic the Hedgehog people have been playing for more than 20 years. Long-time players will love to know there are no in-app purchases nor any obstructive ads. Time attack and leaderboards add a nice competitive aspect to the experience, while achievements increase the replay value. The only potential issue stems from the touch screen controls, but most players will simply need some time to adjust. The $2.99 price tag is perfect for long-time Sonic fans who want a great mobile version of the game, and cheap enough to invite new players.

You can follow Sonic the Hedgehog’s progress with AppData, our tracking tool for mobile and social apps and developers.

PLAY

A classic game with sharp controls and modern features.

Acquinity Interactive

• Partner Sales Manager
• Director of Partner Sales
• Advertiser Injections Developer
• Sr. Email Marketing Manager

App Minis LLC

• Senior Unity Game Programmer

BrightRoll

• Manager, Publisher Development
• Marketing Manager
• Account Manager (CHI)

DeNa

• Performance Marketing Manager

Disney Interactive | Playdom

• Mobile Game Designer
• Sr. Game Designer

Fandango

• Social Media Marketing Manager

King

• Senior Game Developer

POPSUGAR

• Sr. Web Engineer
• Java Search Engineer

Tradeshift

• Enterprise Sales Engineer: East Coast

Wooga GmbH

• Software Engineer – Backend
• iOS Games Developer
• Game Designer – New Mobile Game

EA inviting Sim City Social refugees to Plants vs. Zombies Adventures – Last month we reported that game developer and publisher Electronic Arts announced that on June 14 it will retire three of its Facebook games: Sim City Social, The Sims Social and Pet Society. Today we’ve learned that EA is inviting Sim City Social players to play the beta for the highly anticipated Plants vs. Zombies Adventures Facebook game via emails. The game will launch publicly on May 20.

DreamWorks, PikPok and Verizon promote Turbo with mobile game and $1M in rewards – DreamWorks Animation announced it is promoting its upcoming film Turbo with a mobile game by developer PikPok, which will feature a contest with $1 million in total cash prizes. The Turbo Racing League mobile game is available on iPad, iPhone, iPod touch, Android handsets and tablets, and Windows Phone 8, but players on Verizon, which is presenting the $1 million Shell-Out contest, will have access to unique content. You can read about the contest rules in detail here.

Former New York Times digital and mobile products manager joins EA’s Board of Directors – Game developer and publisher Electronic Arts has appointed Denise F. Warren to its Board of Directors. Warren is executive vice president of the digital products and services group and former chief advertising officer at The New York Times Company. The announcement comes on the heels of EA’s Q4 2013 earnings report which revealed the company earned $104 million in revenue from mobile, and its increasing focus on mobile and digital products.

Elephant Mouse launches Star Trek Rivals – Mobile game developer Elephant Mouse announced the launch of a free-to-play card battle game based on the recently released Star Trek Into Darkness feature film. The game will feature more than 100 cards for players to collect, representing characters, starships and technoolgies that appear in the film. The game is avilable to download for free from the iTunes App Store.

Sonic The Hedgehog debuts on Android – Game developer and publisher Sega announced that the 16-bit Genesis classic Sonic The Hedgehog has launched on Android. The game, which was already available on iOS, is now available to download from the iTunes App Store for $2.99.

Kabam to implement Google+ Sign-In – Social game developer Kabam announced that it will be the first games company to implement Google+ Sign-In. The new integration will provide users with a simple and secure sign-in process on Kabam.com and the ability to engage users with interactive posts, which allow players to share content and prompt friends to take specific actions in their games.

Corona Labs announces Dilbert Game Jam — Venture-backed mobile software company Corona Labs has teamed up with the creator of the Dilbert comic strip Venture-backed mobile software company for a mobile game development contest. Developers are invited to create a winning a game with the Corona SDK and Dilbert artwork. The winner will have the opportunity to publish the the game to major app stores. Additional prizes include yearlong subscriptions to Corona SDK Pro, iTunes gift cards and more. The contest runs from May 14 through July 12 with winners to be announced on July 19. You can read more about the Dilbert Game Jam here.

Google announces game services — During Google’s sixth annual I/O keynote in San Francisco Google’s vice president of Android product management Hugo Barra announced the launch of Google’s equivalent to iOS’ Game Center, Google Play game services. The new feature allows developers to add cloud sync to any game, so users can save their data like player progression and game state across any Android device. Additionally, Google Play game services adds leaderboards and achievements support as well as a new multiplayer feature. Also, game services isn’t limited to Android apps, the service can be integrated into an iOS or web app, allowing cross-platform play.

Coming in at the No. 2 spot for the second week in a row is GamePoint’s German word game WortSalat with 19,556 new MAU for a gain of 64 percent. 2Bsocial’s dinosaur-themed Jurassic Farm took the No. 3 spot with 18,903 MAU for a gain of 27 percent. Coming in at the  No. 4 spot is Turkish developer Consala’s Pirate-themed Son Korsan with 18,283 MAU for a 57 percent gain. Finally, closing out this week’s list top emerging games on Facebook is Spanish developer Pot Country’s País do Baseado with 18,120 MAU and a 25 percent gain.

This week also saw significant gains in emerging apps outside the top 5. Starting at the No. 8 spot through the No. 11 spot, Bytro Labs’ Supremacy 1914, Spelpunt’s Spelpunt Bingo, Idea Channel’s CASTLOT and Akamon Entertainment’s Roulette all showed a gain of 97 percent. Lastly, Webkinz Friends from developer Ganz came in at No. 14 spot with a gain of 95 percent.

	Name	MAU_ESTIMATExxxxx	Gainxxxxx	Gain,%
1.	SlotoQuest: Gambling Adventurexxxxx	91,210	+19,901	+ 28%
2.	WortSalat	50,117	+19,556	+ 64%
3.	Jurassic Farm	90,212	+18,903	+ 27%
4.	Son Korsan	50,117	+18,283	+ 57%
5.	País do Baseado	90,212	+18,120	+ 25%
6.	Royal Casino Slots	96,477	+14,981	+ 18%
7.	KnobelParty	75,976	+14,854	+ 24%
8.	Supremacy 1914	20,047	+9,860	+ 97%
9.	Spelpunt Bingo	20,047	+9,860	+ 97%
10.	CASTLOT	20,047	+9,860	+ 97%
11.	Roulette	20,047	+9,860	+ 97%
12.	Ashtaria	30,070	+9,696	+ 48%
13.	TheFacemons	30,070	+9,696	+ 48%
14.	Webkinz Friends	19,865	+9,678	+ 95%
15.	Warzone	40,094	+9,533	+ 31%
16.	Crazy Car	50,117	+9,369	+ 23%
17.	ILikeBasketball	50,117	+9,369	+ 23%
18.	Motorcycle Madness	60,141	+9,206	+ 18%
19.	EcoCity	60,141	+9,206	+ 18%
20.	Playwright Slots	60,141	+9,206	+ 18%

All data in this post comes from our traffic tracking service, AppData. Come back next week for our top weekly gainers by monthly active users on Monday, our daily active users on Wednesday, and the top emerging apps on Friday.

I am MT: Card Battle starts off by letting the player choose between three characters. Once the player has decided which character he or she wants to use, they’re thrown into a well-detailed tutorial. The game holds the player’s hand as it introduces various aspects of the experience, such as the flow of a battle. In I am MT: Card Battle, players will build a team out of five character cards (and an optional card borrowed from another player), then watch as those characters fight through a level, with the ultimate goal of defeating a final boss. Battles are almost completely automated, allowing players to change only the position of their characters so they can best utilize their strengths. Some players may be instantly turned off by the automated battle, but those who stick around will find a lot more depth between fights.

I am MT: Card Battle features a ton of customization options outside of battle. Completing a stage will unlock other character cards and equipment. Character cards can either be added to the team or may be fused with other cards to increase that card’s stats and level. When a card’s level is high enough, it can be combined with collected equipment and it will evolve into a more powerful form. As players progress through levels, enemies quickly get stronger, so it’s important to not only strengthen cards frequently, but to strengthen all cards on the team. In some cases, players may opt to switch cards out for new ones, and I am MT: Card Battle frequently gives out new cards, but others may be purchased via the in-game shop.

I am MT: Card Battle monetizes entirely through in-app purchases, with only one form of in-game currency: Runes. Early in the game, runes are supplied often, and a large amount is used during the tutorial. After the tutorial, runes can be occasionally earned by completing various in-game challenges, logging in daily, and by progressing through the game. Even with the numerous opportunities to earn runes, the amount earned is less than practical. If they want more, users can purchase runes in two ways. The first is a monthly pass that gives 100 runes per day for 30 days for $4.99, provided the player logs in daily. Otherwise, runes can be purchased in bundles starting at 60 runes for $0.99 up to 7770 runes for $99.99. Smaller bundles of runes won’t provide much value to the player, since anything less than 300 runes will only buy increases to inventory and friend list limits.

Overall, I am MT: Card Battle is a fun game that Is likely to attract casual players and some hardcore players looking for a lighter experience, The automated battles may not appeal to many and the limited interaction with friends can be a bit of a let-down. That said, the simplicity to I am MT: Card Battle will draw in many players and its depth will likely keep them sticking around for a while.

You can follow I am MT: Card Battle’s progress with AppData, our tracking service for mobile and social apps and developers.

Play

A game that’s easy to grasp, but carries a lot of depth.

Pet Rescue Saga, which first launched on Facebook in October 2012, joins Candy Crush Saga and Bubble Witch Saga as the third mobile title from the U.K. company. Pet Rescue Saga is a match-3 puzzler in the same vein as the mega popular Candy Crush Saga. The title will launch with more than 72 levels, providing cross-platform gameplay across mobile and Facebook, meaning a user’s game state including their leaderboards, scores and progress remain synchronized. Cross-platform play has been a feature that has shown to be very successful for King’s mobile games so far. Pet Rescue Saga for mobile was developed by King’s Malmo studio.

King’s 70 DAU is significant because it topped Zynga’s 52 million DAU, which it announced during its latest earnings call. When comparing the companies, King is a private company with 450 employees, while on the other hand, Zynga is a public company with a much larger workforce.

Chief marketing officer of King Alex Dale told us King reached 70 million DAU by making easy-to-understand games which are designed for their respective platform.

“First, games need to be playable by a mainstream audience, you can’t succeed with a game at scale that requires you to learn moves or takes a great deal of time to progress,” he tells Inside Mobile Apps. “It has to be quick and easy to understand. Second, the type of games that best suite mobile are casual games, not a first-person shooter.”

For its games on Facebook, King says Candy Crush Saga currently has 14.7 million DAU, Pet Rescue Saga with 5.7 million DAU and Farm Heroes Saga with 49 million DAU.

Tommy Palm one of the leaders behind Candy Crush Saga on mobile and it’s successful implementation of cross-platform gameplay, explains that it gave the same treatment to Pet Rescue Saga on mobile.

“We rewrote the entire code, so that it should feel like it’s made for mobile,” he says. “Everything is responsive and native to the platform on both operating systems.”