One of the most innovative local multiplayer games ever made is now on your phone

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If you’ve never played Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes, I envy you, because it’s high on the list of games I wish I could experience for the first time again.

Originally on VR platforms, then with console ports over time, Steel Crate Games has now released their team-based bomb defusal game on iOS and Android.

Let me paint a picture of Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes

You’re watching an action movie and there’s a tense scene where one of the protagonists finds a bomb about to detonate. This character knows nothing about bomb defusal, but they’re on the radio with a team who does. They have to work together while the timer ticks down, solving the puzzle to save the day.

That’s the game.

One player is in the room with the bomb (i.e. looking at the screen, wearing the VR headset, or holding the phone/tablet) and only they can see all of its intricacies, while everyone else uses the Bomb Defusal Manual (a PDF or printout) to figure out what kind of bomb it is, what kinds of puzzles are on it, and how to solve everything, from morse code to number puzzles to symbol decoding and more. It’s wild.

I’ve thought for a long time that mobile would be the perfect platform, since just one person could hold a phone that only they can see and you could play anywhere, and now that’s true.

If team-based bomb defusal sounds like a good time to you, you can get Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes on iOS via the App Store and on Android via Google Play for $9.99. Just…maybe don’t bring your Bomb Defusal Manual on airplanes, yeah?

Full disclosure: Jake is friends with the Steel Crate Games team. They were also booth neighbors at SXSW 2015. 

Also, ProTip: Put your manual printout in a binder in glossy, dry-erase friendly sleeves. You’ll thank me later.

What do you think? Interested in playing this game on mobile? Let us know down below in the comments or carry the discussion over to our Twitter or Facebook.

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Jake Vander Ende

Jake is a writer and game designer in the suburbs of Philadelphia. He loves action, exploration, building, filling bars, and turning numbers into bigger numbers. Someday he'll release a video game.