Final Fantasy 15, Puzzle Fighter, And Some Of The Best Upcoming Mobile Games

Along with their upcoming console and PC titles, Square Enix, Capcom, and Bandai Namco all had a selection of mobile games on display at their booths during New York Comic-Con. A few are already available to download from the Apple and Google Play Stores, but several of them were playable for the first time to the public at the show. Here are five of the best ones we got a chance to see.

Puzzle Fighter

Puzzle games are a natural fit for mobile devices, which makes them a suitable home for Capcom's upcoming Puzzle Fighter revival. This new installment is developed by Capcom Vancouver, the studio responsible for the recent Dead Rising games, and features characters from a variety of Capcom franchises, including Street Fighter, Dead Rising, Darkstalkers, Mega Man, Devil May Cry, and more.

As before, Puzzle Fighter is a competitive gem-matching puzzle game. You have to drag and rotate falling pairs of gems; match up three or more of one color and they'll combine into larger gems. The bigger it becomes, the more devastating it'll be for your opponent when you drop a crash gem on it. The art style may not be all that appealing, but the gameplay is fun, making Puzzle Fighter one to watch out for. The game has soft launched in some territories and will be available in more regions later this year.

Final Fantasy XV: Pocket Edition

Final Fantasy XV has been available on PS4 and Xbox One for almost a year now, but the acclaimed RPG will be arriving to two more platforms very soon. Square Enix is releasing a PC port of the game in early 2018, but ahead of that, the open-world RPG is being adapted for mobile devices as Final Fantasy XV: Pocket Edition. Unlike the original title, Pocket Edition features a much cuter, chibi-esque visual style and will not be released as one continuous adventure, but rather in 10 episodes, the first of which will be free to download.

Despite the radically different visuals and structure, Final Fantasy XV: Pocket Edition is a surprisingly faithful port of the home console game. The story unfolds more or less the same way it did in the original title, only this time it plays out from an isometric perspective, which is much more suitable to mobile devices. The touch screen controls also work well, making Pocket Edition a solid way to experience Final Fantasy XV if you've yet to play it and just different enough to try out if you have already cleared the original.

Naruto X Boruto: Ninja Voltage

Bandai Namco had a pair of Naruto mobile games on display at New York Comic-Con this year, and the more intriguing of the two was Naruto X Boruto: Ninja Voltage. Ninja Voltage is an isometric action game. Players maneuver their party with a digital control stick through different fortresses, navigating their traps and battling enemies to reach the boss waiting at the end. The game features characters from Naruto Shippuden and the next generation series Boruto, each one boasting their own unique ninjutsu attacks and abilities.

What makes Ninja Voltage intriguing are its tower defense elements. Each fortress you invade features a different placement of traps and enemies. You can also customize your own fortress, as well as invade those created by other players. Ninja Voltage doesn't yet have a release date, but it'll be free to download when it launches on iOS and Android and will have optional microtransactions.

Sword Art Online: Memory Defrag

Sword Art Online lends itself particularly well to video games, and Memory Defrag is a pretty substantial mobile game based on the series. Bandai Namco says the game features approximately 70 characters so far, and each has a fairly sizable skill tree that can be upgraded to unlock new skills and attributes. It also offers an extensive amount of missions to complete, which take you through the story of both seasons one and two, as well as the Sword Art Online film.

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More importantly, the game is fun to play thanks to its parry mechanic. Memory Defrag is a side-scrolling action game, and its missions typically involve defeating all the enemies in a stage. You move your character by holding the touch screen where you want them to go and attack by tapping, but if you hold down on the screen and swipe up just as an enemy attacks, you'll parry and be able to switch in another character for a critical attack. Sword Art Online: Memory Defrag is available now for free on iOS and Android devices.

Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Blazing

Ultimate Ninja Blazing is the second mobile Naruto game Bandai Namco had on display at New York Comic-Con, and it differs considerably from Ninja Voltage. Where the latter is an action game with tower defense elements, Ultimate Ninja Blazing is a light 2D strategy game that features characters and story missions drawn from the original Naruto series and its follow-up, Naruto Shippuden, making it an enjoyable time-waster if you're a big fan of the franchise.

In Ultimate Ninja Blazing, you take up to six characters into a battle, three of which appear on the field at one time; the remaining three can be rotated in during a mission. To fight, you drag your party members to an enemy when it's their turn and watch as they automatically attack. The gameplay is very simple, though there's some depth to it; each character has a specific attack radius, and if you manage to place them near multiple enemies, they'll attack all of them during their turn. If another one of your party members also falls in the attack radius, they'll team up to launch a more powerful tandem attack. Like Sword Art Online: Memory Defrag, Ultimate Ninja Blazing is available right now on iOS and Android devices and is free to download.