Mobile games certainly aren’t my thing, but there is one game that I’ve been playing continuously ever since it launched on phones around the world. It’s a game that takes one of my favorite gaming genres, 4x, and shrinks it down to a bite sized dose allowing for a full 4x experience within a reasonable amount of time. Don’t get me wrong, I LOVE dumping dozens of hours into Civilization, Age of Wonders, and Stellaris but my life is BUSY leading a coffee company. Sometimes I just need a quick hit of 4x just to get me through to the next Civ session, you know?

The game we’re talking about today is none other than the LEGENDARY Polytopia.

Polytopia is a turn based 4x game where players lead small tribes to greatness, turning a small village into a thriving empire. What is a 4x game you maybe asking? for those who don’t know, a 4x game is a strategy game that uses four main pillars of it’s foundational gameplay: eXplore, eXpand, eXploit, eXterminate. 4x’s! You explore the procedurally generated map, you expand your empire by establishing more cities and villages, you exploit resources on the map to help fund all other aspects, and you exterminate any aggressive opponents that would keep you from your rightful place as the ruler of the world! It’s a simple concept with endless deep gameplay!

What Polytopia brings to the genre is not only it’s cute polygon graphics, but gives you a FULL 4x experience in 30-45 minutes if you’re playing in one session. I can not underscore how awesome and valuable this is for anyone who loves the genre, but can’t take the time and sit down for a full multi-day game of the legends mentioned prior. Above all else, it simplifies most of the concepts that would otherwise turn people away form the genre, making it more accessible to newer player. The more 4x players there are in the world, the more these big name video game publishers will invest into the future of it. 

Not only is Polytopia one of the best bite sized 4x games currently on the market, it has quite the robust multiplayer scene as well. Midjiwan, the game’s developers, have recently launched tournaments that players can qualify for, or if you think you’re really good at leading the most dominant tribe, try qualifying for the Polytopia World Championship where the best of the best play. You will be humbled pretty quickly there, trust me. The best way I would say to play is find you a small group and play with them. Jack the difficulty of the Ai up to Crazy, and have yourself a somewhat of a co-op experience! That’s how we play here at The Pixel Parlor! Speaking of tournaments, we are looking to start hosting our own Polytopia tournament in the near future, so make sure you’re following our socials and our website for the latest on that! 

I truly believe that games like this are a rarity these days, where developers put in way more love into their work than dollars expected to come back. This can certainly be said about 99.9% of mobile games out there who exist only to such every last cent from you just to speed up building something. It’s a ridiculous trap that Polytopia avoids completely. Yes you have to pay for additional tribes to play as, but that’s it! No pay to win here. Any money spent on this game grants you tons of hours of gameplay and fun with more tribes to choose from each new game. This approach by Midjiwan is not only incredibly ethical, but completely valid especially when the game is free to download and play with a starter tribe. In my opinion it’s the perfect system for anything ever claiming to be “free to play”. 

For anyone looking for an amazing, low commitment 4x game look no further. Polytopia is not only the best one of the genre on mobile devices today, but has a long bright future ahead of it. The developers have teased a potential new special tribe coming soon, and hopefully we’ll be getting more tribes inspired by other cultures soon! This isn’t the last time we’re going to be featuring Polytopia on the Pixel Parlor. It’s a mainstay in not only 4x culture as a whole, but within the Pixel Parlor as well.

If you are interested in playing a game with us, don’t be afraid to reach out! We’d love to make a new friend or two!

Thanks for spending your time with your pals at the Pixel Parlor!