Saw a game on Google Play that had great reviews (4.6k AVG with 77k reviews) so downloaded it thinking I finally might have found a good mobile game only to find it was trash like almost every mobile game I’ve ever tried.
Is it me, am I the problem, or are virtually all mobile games terrible?
Edit
Thanks for everyone’s feedback and suggestions, I’ve been trying out some of your recommendations as well as trying out Steam Link to play my steam PC games
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there are good games. but they most of the time do not get promoted. you need other websites or like reddit or lemmy with lists from actual players to find them. in store only the moneygrabs get promoted.
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Generally, the games that have a larger up-front price are good. Bonus points, if they were ported from PC or consoles and don’t track you.
Exactly this. Every non-shit mobile game I ever found turned out to be a port from either PC or console.
I’ve not found that to be necessarily true, since some games just don’t feel that great translating over to a touchscreen coming from its basis being gamepad. I’ve bought lot of games from spare Google rewards points like Dead Cells which is a good game and playable but not really comfortable enough for me to play it on mobile, and getting controller out feels like I’m defeating the point of mobile game since usually it’s something I’ll play when all I have is my phone. Not going to stuff a gamepad in my pocket.
Games that really do try to make use of the touchscreen in a great way I’ve found to actually be Nintendo DS games that were specifically designed to be played entirely with stylus. Other actual mobile games have felt more like gamepad games trying to translate over stuff to the touchscreen with non tactile elements. Kind of works, but feels off. Unless its like an RPG or a game like The World Ends with You which was made to be touchscreen from the start. That seems like a good port.
That’s why I prefer a Steam Deck or Nintendo Switch over phones for gaming 😄
Me too. If I’m at a place where I can grab a controller then usually it means I’ve got my switch or deck with me so would just opt for that if I’m in the mood for handheld. DS emulation on phone is the only one where I found the experience the best there over the alternatives I have available. Aside from an actual DS.
IMO, smartphones had the chance to revolutionize the gaming industry, but ended up wasting almost all of that potential on skinner boxes riddled with ads and microtransactions. Most of the best mobile games are ports from other systems, like the mobile edition of Minecraft and whatnot.
I think Pokémon Go was possibly the closest any major publisher has come to actually realizing the full potential of mobile games as a format, but it still fell painfully short with massively dumbed down mechanics and an absolute grindfest of a progression system.
There are still a few good indie projects out there (I like Soul Knight) but generally the mobile gaming market is so full of absolute dreck that I usually just don’t bother.
Or did it revolutionize the industry to it’s endpoint, that we just don’t want to admit was the natural conclusion of capitalistic society video games?
It’s the common denominator phenomena of all systems though. Mobile is literally the easiest point of entry to games and content in the entire world and it’s not even close with all other platforms combined. The ENTIRE spectrum of intelligence and discipline have phones (“do you all not have phones?” -blizzard DI launch). It’s in your pocket, it has all your information, access to your funds, and the majority of people probably get interrupted too frequently to scrutinize the quality of game design. It’s a cigarette hit waiting for the bus kind of vice that the rest of the majority know that the game is garbage but just don’t care- they need that dopamine hit.
There are a few hidden gems (I enjoy Plague inc. and Rebel inc. on occasion, for example), but for the most part, the majority of mobile games are mtx-laden cash grabs. So the actual quality is commensurately low because the devs figured out they don’t have to put in real effort to implement gambling and hook addicts.
There are a ton of good mobile games but the reason you can’t find them is because 99% of what you see in app stores are paid advertisements. Every section is basically paid, and the few which aren’t get botted by major companies. That app that has 5 million downloads and 4.6 average score? Most likely spammed with bots that give it 5 stars. Google Play is a disaster.
Here are some Android games I would absolutely recommend:
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Fancy Pants Adventures
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Data Wing
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The Battle of Politopia
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Sonny
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Plato
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Cube Escape Collection
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Pocket City (or its sequel)
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Bloons TD 6 (paid)
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Dicey Dungeons (paid)
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Dead Cells (paid)
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Downwell (paid)
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Baba Is You (paid)
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Levelhead (paid)
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Kingdom Rush series (paid, usually on sale though)
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If you own Netflix you get to play their catalogue of games for free. I recommend Into the Breach, Shovel Knight Pocket Dungeon, Oxenfree
I could go on, but the point is ignore everything you see on the store. The store is garbage. Try to look for games that are well-talked about online.
Edit: Forgot to mention, there’s an app called MiniReview where you can browse game reviews from people who actually care. It’s a good resource if you’re looking for good games.
A chunk of those aren’t mobile-first games. Dead cells is like an award winning game on PC and console. They’re good games. Maybe the metric should be “is this on other platforms , too?” Somehow the shitty models of mobile games haven’t fully developed on other platforms.
Polytopia is awesome. It is free to play offline, and only requires one one time purchase to play online. No ads.
Thanks for those Netflix suggestions, didn’t know about that at all.
Into the Breach was my final push into getting a netflix subscription. It’s that good.
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Almost all mobile-only games from mobile-only game developers and advertised in mobile-only environments are trash. Look for mobile games related to other gaming environments or advertising channels. Android games through Humble Bundle are great (although they don’t do mobile-only bundles any more?). Android ports of PC or Switch games tend to be pretty good. Open source Android games run the gamut of quality, but the ways they are bad are the same ways open source PC games are bad, not the very different set of ways that mobile games are bad (microtransactions, ads, etc).
Humble Bundle got bought out by IGN in 2017 and has been trash ever since.
Wow yeah that explains a lot.
After trying bunch of Android games I found Nintendo DS games that can be entirely played with a stylus have been the best games to emulate and play on mobile.
Edit: Kirby Mass Attack is great and felt like a native experience.
Some others that might be worth trying.
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/boards/925329-nintendo-ds/65539209
Any particular suggestions that you’ve enjoyed playing? I’ve mostly been playing GBA pokemon romhacks (Radical Red mainly) and Fire Emblem Romhacks.
Kirby Mass Attack is one I enjoyed and played all the way through. You flick around bunch of kirbies so it feels like a very polished mobile game with it being entirely touched based and no reliance on trying to emulate tactile buttons on a flat screen.
Warioware touched is fun for a quick session. I haven’t tried tried Legend of Zelda Phantom Hourglass yet, but it looks promising. It’s also entirely touch based.
Great suggestions, thanks!
Another good Kirby one is Canvas Curse, entirely touch based. Any of the many puzzle vns on DS should be good too, like hotel dusk or 999
I find Dark pattern games site to be fairly informative on which mobile games are good and which are not. The Healthy Games section has bunch of good games while the dark games section has games you should actively avoid.
If game is listed as healthy and has a good rating there’s a pretty good chance for it being actually good.
That’s a great resource thanks!
If you want good mobile games, look out for paid ports of PC indies, like:
- Door Kickers: Action Squad
- Baba Is You
- Bad North
- Bridge Constructor Portal
- Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night
- Crypt of the Necromancer
- Dead Cells
- Don’t Starve
- Don’t Starve: Shipwrecked
- Downwell
- Forager
- GRIS
- Retro City Rampage DX
- Reventure
- ScourgeBringer
- Sparklite
- Teslagrad
- This War of Mine
- Turnip Boy Commits Tax Evasion
Meh, whole they’re undoubtedly great games, the experience on mobile just isn’t.
Just download a SNES/Genesis/GBA emulator, no need to waste time sifting through the piles of shit that is mobile gaming.
GBA emulation is the best. All the games are meant for small screens and modern hardware has absolutely no issues with emulating the GBA. It has soooo many games. You can also get ROM hacks (most common for Pokemon games), which are fan edits to games. Some of which are such massive edits that they’re basically entirely new games only using the existing framework for the style of gameplay.
Only downside is controls. Touch screens are simply not as good as physical controls. I don’t recommend trying any games that require fast paced and precise controls, as you will hit wrong buttons plenty. You can get Bluetooth controllers to help with this I think, though I’ve never personally tried them. I’ve also seen “case controllers”, which go around your phone and make it sorta like a Switch form factor.
My hard and fast rule is, “Don’t play freemium games.” The second I see stars, coins, tickets, tokens, I’m out. I exclusively play what are mostly ports from console. Trials of Mana, The Alliance Alive HD Remastered, Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney Trilogy, Danganronpa, Spiritfarer, Oxenfree, Stardew Valley, Minecraft etc. I also have Apple Arcade from my Verizon package, and I play the Netflix games. Avoid freemium / gacha / IAP-riddled games, and some of the ports are at least decent.
Absolutely agree on the freemium bullshit. Haven’t seen a single one that was worth playing.
I’ll also add on a handful of suggestions if anyone enjoys puzzle games: The Room series (4 games in the series), and The House of Da Vinci (3 games in the series, heavily inspired by The Room).
Personally don’t mind freemium games, I don’t care about wait times and shit, just play the game at my own pace.
What I do hate is FOMO, I’m an all-or-nothin’ kinda gamer. If i feel pressured to play because I might miss an exclusive item, I’m out.
Actually, if you have Netflix, there’s a decent number of good mobile games through that
huh I had no idea! thanks
It could just be you are not the target market for these games and you see through the bullshit. A lot of them are designed with shitty dark patterns to keep you coming back for more. Also, a lot of those reviews are probably fake to draw in the curious.
It is really hard to find good mobile games.
Most games are just blatant pay to win fronts. I especially despise those “idle whatever” style games where you wait for your ‘money’ to rake up. Boring stuff.
With smartphones getting more and more powerful, I miss sophisticated games on it. And I am not talking Skyrim here. Even most stuff we could play on Newgrounds 15 years ago blows most of the shit in the store out of the water.
There is just not a big enough market for it, it seems.
May I interest you in The Elder Scrolls III Morrowind ?
I call those idle games battery killer sims. You do nothing on the game, it has no merit whatsoever.
Leaving those games open, especially during the summer, degrades your battery so much.
Mobile games aren’t games, or at least not what I’d consider a game. Mobile “games” are simple puzzles, swipe action fighters and click-and-wait builders. They are built around the concept of microtransactions and are in place to make developers money and to be a time-suck for the end players.
those are actually… games. But also, beyond that, been playing some fun platformers and having a blast! Oddmar & Suzy Cube are 2 stand outs I’ve been enjoying.
