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Transformers Legends hits iOS, another mobile card battle game for Western markets [Video]

Rick Martin Rick Martin
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When Japan’s DeNA initially teamed up with Hasbro to bring the Transformers franchise to mobile games, I was pretty pleased. Like most kids of the 80s, I’m a big fan [1]. Transformers Legends has been out on Android for a while now, and the title was just released for iOS as well, so I’ve been testing it out over the past few days. The game comes from DeNA subsidiary ngmoco, but like most games from the card battle genre, Western audiences might need a little more hand holding than folks in Japan — especially casual mobile gamers. Thankfully, the folks over at Kotaku have published a brief guide on the basic principles of Legends, so I encourage you to check it out. As for me, I enjoyed the familiar characters, as well as the act of collecting and upgrading cards. Finding new cards using the ‘space bridge’ is sort of fun, as is enlisting the help of other gamers in your battles. Legends also features real-time events which last (from what I can tell) for several days, and if you do well during those events, you’ll be rewarded with a variety of items. Given that DeNA has already managed to…

When Japan’s DeNA initially teamed up with Hasbro to bring the Transformers franchise to mobile games, I was pretty pleased. Like most kids of the 80s, I’m a big fan [1]. Transformers Legends has been out on Android for a while now, and the title was just released for iOS as well, so I’ve been testing it out over the past few days.

The game comes from DeNA subsidiary ngmoco, but like most games from the card battle genre, Western audiences might need a little more hand holding than folks in Japan — especially casual mobile gamers. Thankfully, the folks over at Kotaku have published a brief guide on the basic principles of Legends, so I encourage you to check it out.

As for me, I enjoyed the familiar characters, as well as the act of collecting and upgrading cards. Finding new cards using the ‘space bridge’ is sort of fun, as is enlisting the help of other gamers in your battles. Legends also features real-time events which last (from what I can tell) for several days, and if you do well during those events, you’ll be rewarded with a variety of items.

transformers-legends5 transformers-legends1

Given that DeNA has already managed to pull off a card battle hit in the US market with Rage of Bahamut (we previously talked with them and developer Cygames about it here), ostensibly they know what it takes for Legends to become a hit as well.

But unlike Bahamut, there’s not a referral code system for Legends, so I’m quite not sure how the game will be promoted. The Transformers brand is certainly strong and should attract a number of fans like me. And so far it seems to be performing respectably on the app charts in English-speaking markets like the US, Canada, the UK, Australia, and Singapore.

I have a short demo video of the game above if you’d like to learn more. Again, as with many card battle games, it may take a little bit of time to grow on you. But I’m looking forward to playing some more, and digging a little deeper.

If DeNA wants a big marketing push for Legends, the company certainly has the cash to do so. It was just announced that the company’s revenue for the fiscal year 2012 amounted to over $2 billion, with $775 million in operating profit.

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  1. In fact, I still closely follow the careers of my favorite Transformers to see where they are today.  ↩

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Growing well in Southeast Asia, Nijibox launches ‘JKT48 Card Battle’ in Indonesia

Rick Martin Rick Martin
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Following up on its Fantasia games series, Japanese game publisher Nijibox launched a new card battle game on the Southeast Asian feature phone games platform this week. It’s called JKT48 Card Battle. The title is free to play, featuring the pop idol group JKT48, the Indonesian sister group for the popular AKB48 supergroup from Japan. Many of our readers are no doubt are aware that AKB48 has its own card battle game, so it’s perhaps inevitable that this mobile social game concept be adapted for Indonesian consumers as well. Available in both English and Indonesian, the game is first released for Indonesian carrier Indosat, and after July 7th it will be available on all carriers. The game features a rock-paper-scissors competition where you can win new cards and compete against other players. You can also train and merge your cards to create a stronger collection, accumulating as many of the 180 JKT48 member cards as you can. A Nijibox representative tells me today that the company is doing very well on the Kotagames platform so far, so much so that they are currently focusing their global resources on the Southeast Asia region. While they can’t disclose specific user numbers, I’m…

new-jkt48

Following up on its Fantasia games series, Japanese game publisher Nijibox launched a new card battle game on the Southeast Asian feature phone games platform this week. It’s called JKT48 Card Battle.

The title is free to play, featuring the pop idol group JKT48, the Indonesian sister group for the popular AKB48 supergroup from Japan. Many of our readers are no doubt are aware that AKB48 has its own card battle game, so it’s perhaps inevitable that this mobile social game concept be adapted for Indonesian consumers as well.

jkt48-tall

Available in both English and Indonesian, the game is first released for Indonesian carrier Indosat, and after July 7th it will be available on all carriers. The game features a rock-paper-scissors competition where you can win new cards and compete against other players. You can also train and merge your cards to create a stronger collection, accumulating as many of the 180 JKT48 member cards as you can.

A Nijibox representative tells me today that the company is doing very well on the Kotagames platform so far, so much so that they are currently focusing their global resources on the Southeast Asia region. While they can’t disclose specific user numbers, I’m told that the figures are well into the hundreds of thousands. This regional games market is growing rapidly and they think that Nijibox has an advantage.

Currently the Kotagames platform has over 2.5 million gamers, primarily across the Southeast Asia region.

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