The 'Futurama' crew returns today in a new mobile game
'Worlds of Tomorrow' blends a social sim, combat and an original story.
Good news, everyone: after no small amount of hype, you can revisit the Futurama universe on your phone. Jam City's TinyCo has released Futurama: Worlds of Tomorrow for free on both Android and iOS. It's clearly another not-so-subtle attempt to cash in on a much-loved TV series, but this title promises to do more than trade on a familiar name. It has a relatively rich story created by Matt Groening, David X. Cohen and a writing team from the show, and the original show cast is on tap for dialogue. However, the most intriguing part may be its extremely varied gameplay -- it's more ambitious than many console or PC titles in some ways, even if it's not necessarily as deep.
Worlds of Tomorrow has you restoring the fabric of spacetime through a mix of a social simulation (think The Simpsons: Tapped Out or, well, The Sims), Final Fantasy-style role-playing combat, exploration and a smattering of choose-your-own-adventure decisions. None of those are especially original, but they might maintain your interest where other, one-trick games can grow stale. Our main concern is simply that it's a free-to-play title -- it won't be so fun if you have to fork over money (or spend hours grinding) every time you want to give Bender a new costume. If TinyCo hasn't leaned too heavily on pay-to-advance mechanics, though, this could be a welcome return to a familiar cartoon.
