Star Wars: Galaxy of Heroes

Star Wars: Galaxy of Heroes was built by studio Capital Games on a simple promise: assemble a team from any era of the saga, from the Clone Wars to the sequel trilogy, and send it into turn-based battle against players from around the world. Controls are typically mobile — tapping selects an ability and a target, battles flow along on their own, and the player focuses mainly on building the roster, turn order, and synergies between characters, which often add up to tens of percentage points of bonus damage or defense. Collecting heroes works on a gacha principle, where new characters and their upgrades arrive through unlockable shards and random rewards, and without regularly following the current meta, it's easy to fall behind other players in guild rankings and territorial battles.

The Star Wars license gave the game an enormous roster of characters — from Vader to Yoda to villains from the Clone Wars and heroes from the TV shows — and precisely the ability to assemble a dream team across films, series, and books was the main draw since launch in 2015. Battles are clear even on a small display, the music and sound come straight from the film source material, and recognizable ability animations are a treat even for viewers just watching over someone's shoulder. Over the years the game has grown to include guild raids, territorial battles, gear mods, and regularly added characters, making it today more of a long-term, multi-year commitment than a game for a few days.

Monetization is typical for the gacha genre — progress can be sped up with real-money bundles, and without them one has to settle for a significantly slower pace of collecting shards and resources, which for more dedicated players wanting to keep up with the strongest opponents occasionally grows into a fairly expensive hobby.

Why play it: For Star Wars fans who want to build their dream team across the entire saga and don't mind a long-term gacha commitment along with extra spending.