
Last week saw the Pocket Gamer Podcast keeping Will and Iwan in rotation, but I'm swapping in for our resident newshound this time around to talk zombies in card games and toxic gas in meeting rooms.
Will launches right into the spooky season with Marvel Contest of Champions, where the Founders’ War Saga is currently underway. Joining Isophyne, Lumatrix, and Solvarch is the ultimate Eidol Imperiosa, along with Dracula and Franken-Castle just in time for Halloween.
We talk a bit about the clever pun-ness of Frank Castle's Punisher before moving on to an equally Halloween-themed event within Marvel Snap, which is bringing hordes and hordes of the undead to the fray. This ties in with the Marvel Zombies show, and in the card battler, you'll get to see Zombie Scarlet Witch and Headpool in action.
But also also also, did you know that Epic Games Store has been giving away freebies that rotate each week? Will gives us the skinny on Doodle Devil and a free Firestone reward pack, and if you pay close attention to the info on this episode, you might just discover how humans can attain ultimate knowledge from a simple fruit.
Speaking of freebies though, we dive into a closer look at a few games that are trying to break the mould when it comes to monetisation - Ananta and Duet Night Abyss. It's an interesting would-be trend that might just be the so-called "Genshin-killer" people have been buzzing about, because these two are apparently going to try to forego the tried-and-tested gacha monetisation model in favour of paid cosmetics. Whether or not that works in the long run remains to be seen, but it's interesting to see some big players trying to shift things around.
That said, what is free-to-play at the moment is Hello Kitty Merch Match, an adorable match-3 puzzler where you hoard Sanrio-themed merch to clear a board. Honestly, it can't get any better than that. It's out now, and if you're a fan of collecting stuff but you've never had enough shelf space, now's your chance for vindication.
And finally, we leave one more spooky-ish news in the form of Clash of Clans' Revenge Button, where the devs have locked themselves in a meeting room to endure punishments that the community of players have voted on while they go through a Reddit AMA. It's horrendous, it's funny, it's genius.