A few hidden gems to play after Super Mario and Spider-Man
By Ash Parrish, Andrew Webster, and Jay Peters
October was an absolutely stacked month for gaming. There’s Super Mario Bros. Wonder, Assassin’s Creed Mirage, Marvel’s Spider-Man 2, and Alan Wake 2, just to name a few. But amid all that hype, it’s easy for smaller but equally phenomenal games to get lost in all that sauce. So we gathered up a collection of recent games you might have missed but should definitely check out.
The best mobile games are ones you can understand immediately, and that’s definitely true for Subpar Pool. It’s a clever mashup of pool and golf and, despite the self-deprecating name, it’s excellent. The game comes via Martin Jonasson, also known as grapefrukt, the designer behind titles like Holedown and Twofold. His work often involves mashing two things together to create something new; Rymdkapsel, for instance, is part Tetris, part RTS.
In the case of Subpar Pool, it’s really a wonder no one has made this combo before. It works so naturally. It has the scoring system of golf, the physics of pool, and all kinds of weird video game aspects found in neither. In each run, you move through five procedurally generated pool tables, with the goal of sinking all of the balls in a predetermined number of shots. The basics are very satisfying, with a great feel to the physics and a high level of charm on display. Turns out, all you need to do to make me care about a pool ball is put a smiley face on it.
All you need to do to make me care about a pool ball is put a smiley face on it
But Subpar Pool also takes things a step further. You’ll slowly unlock different elements and rules that you can apply to each run, which drastically shake things up. These can range from giant pool balls that move slowly (and have
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