Teslagrad
Teslagrad is an indie game you may not have heard of, but it’s an absolute must-play for any platforming or puzzle game fans. The game was developed by Rain Games and initially launched on PC five years ago and later arrived as downloadable titles for the Nintendo Wii U, PlayStation 3/4, Xbox One and more. This week, it finally made its way to mobile thanks to mobile publisher Playdigious and it has proven to be a great port for handheld devices.
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The game is set in the fictional city of Teslagrad, which is apart of the larger Kingdom of Elektropia. The game starts with you controlling a young boy who is being chased by the King’s guards into the ancient Tesla Tower in the middle of town. It’s there that you start to discover the long-lost Teslamancer technology used by wizards to control electromagnetism in various ways. The story unfolds itself as you progress through the tower, which has you solving platforming puzzles and battling epic bosses.
What I really appreciate is the visual storytelling methods at play. There’s no dialogue in the game — everything you need to know is conveyed through details in the background art and through little animatronic stages plays that you stumble across as you play. Tutorials and instructions are also seamlessly built into the game itself which eliminates any standalone tutorials, text boxes, or other interruptions. The game leaves it up to the player to figure things out and progress through each section. It’s a really engaging way to develop a narrative in a game like this.
Teslagrad features challenging puzzle-platforming action and a mesmerizing art style that makes it a contender for best game of the year.
Featuring hand-made graphics and very unique art style, Teslagrad is one of those game that needs to be experienced first hand — ideally on a device with a big and bright screen. I’ve been playing it on the Razer Phone and it looks absolutely gorgeous with the enhanced refresh rate and all. The animations are super fluid and the game has an uninterrupted flow to it with no ads or menus popping up as you play. I’ve only been playing it for a couple of hours since its launch and I can already tell it’s one of the top premium games released for Android in 2018.
The touch controls are fairly well designed, although there doesn’t seem to be any options for tweaking the controls. My only gripe so far is that the floating directional pad can sometimes result in you accidentally running the wrong way right into a deadly trap. Fortunately, the game also supports Bluetooth controllers which is always a nice touch and is also compatible with the NVIDIA Shield TV and Android TV for a more traditional gaming experience.
To celebrate its launch on Android, you can get Teslagrad for 30% off for the first week. It’s a pretty great deal on a really inventive game, so if you’re the type who bemoans the sad state of mobile gaming you should make a point of supporting game developers and publishers who put out great Android titles like Teslagrad.
Download: Teslagrad ($4.89)
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