Agreed. And that's also why even though the reviews it has gotten have still been somewhat positive, it almost seems hypocritical for the negatives it has gotten. It's like, hey, we got a hardcore experience but.... It's too hard for mobile gamers.
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iOS Gaming March 2016 | Your backlog grows in tiny bits
- Thread starter More_Badass
- Start date
Agreed. And that's also why even though the reviews it has gotten have still been somewhat positive, it almost seems hypocritical for the negatives it has gotten. It's like, hey, we got a hardcore experience but.... It's too hard for mobile gamers.
More_Badass
Member
Okay, my curiosity got the better of me and I picked up Dream Machine
And it's actually really good. Yes, it shares a similar concept with Monument Valley (although Dream Machine is steampunk-themed), but the games are very different
Dream Machine is an auto-movement puzzler. You need to stop/start your little robot, change its direction, and manipulate parts of the environment to navigate through the level and avoid hazards
It's polished, has cool level design, and no IAP
And it's actually really good. Yes, it shares a similar concept with Monument Valley (although Dream Machine is steampunk-themed), but the games are very different
Dream Machine is an auto-movement puzzler. You need to stop/start your little robot, change its direction, and manipulate parts of the environment to navigate through the level and avoid hazards
It's polished, has cool level design, and no IAP
Saw that on TA. Says there are boss battles? How do those come into play?
That's one of the problems with featuring being the way it is. For example, "Best New Games" is such a broad cross section of games in terms of genres, difficulty, target audience etc. Featuring is a big part of finding success, but in getting it at the top level you can't help but expose your title to a lot of the "wrong" gamers, which may end up resulting in a lot of negative reviews.
I was mainly referring to professional reviewers, but I get your point as well.
More_Badass
Member
Telepaint is out! It's from the developers of Titan Souls
$2.99
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P3UWyRbZBFU
Edit: Okay, yeah, this is super polished.
And here's Dream Machine from the other page. Check this one, guys. It's also really good and currently on sale for $0.99
$2.99
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P3UWyRbZBFU
Edit: Okay, yeah, this is super polished.
And here's Dream Machine from the other page. Check this one, guys. It's also really good and currently on sale for $0.99
hardcastlemccormick
Banned
Super Tribes is so much fun. It's like a mini Civilization, just enough of the 4X to distill down into a fast, cute game. So addictive in the same way, lots of little decisions to make every turn but never too many.
My only complaint is the art style is a little hard to read with my color blind eyes. Also I keep hitting the "next turn" button thinking it's an "OK" button to dismiss the "Your Turn" message. Oh well.
My only complaint is the art style is a little hard to read with my color blind eyes. Also I keep hitting the "next turn" button thinking it's an "OK" button to dismiss the "Your Turn" message. Oh well.
Ah.
Something we've found in the mobile space is that professional reviewers are highly unpredictable as compared to PC and console reviewers, insomuch that they seem to have a much more diverse set of expectations and personal bugbears. While PC and console reviewers tend to cluster around a similar point of view and review score for any given game, mobile reviewers seem all over the map.
To be fair, mobile games are much more varied in terms of their scope, quality, and value for money than the bulk of PC and console catalogues. Though I'd put the broad range of opinions more down to there not really being a strong consensus of what constitutes a "good" mobile game amongst reviewers.
More_Badass
Member
Not sure I agree with that, considering the vast majority of both PC and mobile games are 1) indie games of all kinds and 2) basically hundreds of thousands of free games surrounding small oases of quality releases
I should have qualified that my reference to "PC and console" as "retail PC and console".
I don't really pay attention to the professional indie PC press, so I have no idea what the trends are there.
Saucycarpdog
Member
Any impressions so far of Able Black?
PittaGAF
Member
I can't find Able Black or DIRAC for the matter in the Appstore...can you?
Saucycarpdog
Member
Nope, wonder if it's one of those times where some games get delayed till the morning or something.
PittaGAF
Member
PittaGAF
Member
More_Badass
Member
Port of Retro City Rampage DX - $4.99
https://appsto.re/us/e2C4ab.i
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JuVrtMQUBxw
https://appsto.re/us/e2C4ab.i
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JuVrtMQUBxw
More_Badass
Member
Telepaint is my favorite game this week so far. A lot of levels, simple touch controls but tricky puzzles, and very polished right down to the menus.
You can even pause the gameplay and activate portals while time is stopped, so that puts the emphasis on planning rather than fast-paced arcade-y puzzling
You can even pause the gameplay and activate portals while time is stopped, so that puts the emphasis on planning rather than fast-paced arcade-y puzzling
infiniteloop
Member
dang, not heard of this before. looks great.
crazyivan19
Member
Has anyone heard or has there been any news at all on Game Dev Story 2? Has this been abandoned at this point? I tried doing a general search both here and on Google and didn't really find anything.
If it's dead, does anyone have any other similar recommendations? I mean, besides the other Kairo games.
If it's dead, does anyone have any other similar recommendations? I mean, besides the other Kairo games.
I have the PS4 version. It's a pretty fun little arcade game. Kind of a mix of original GTA games and the hectic zaniness of the Hotline Miami with an even heavier focus on humor. Fun and should be a great fit for mobile. Not quite enough to push me to double dip, but recommended for those who never played it.
More_Badass
Member
Never was vaporware and never disappeared. You can follow the dev's regular progress updates on their TIGSource devlogI just remembered Warbits was a thing, thinking "I wonder whether that ever came out". I had written it off as vapourware as it disappeared for more than a year. Nice to hear it's out of vapourware, so I'll look forward to it.
I just remembered Warbits was a thing, thinking "I wonder whether that ever came out". I had written it off as vapourware as it disappeared for more than a year. Nice to hear it's out of vapourware, so I'll look forward to it.
I'm still so taken aback by the beta's polish. It's so great already
In other news, Plants vs Zombies Heroes:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fUIY8GfBFCs
More_Badass
Member
April 19th!!!!!!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7VfJXezMwDc
Thirty years ago, London was stolen by bats. Now, Hell is close and immortality is cheap, but the screaming has largely stopped
Fallen London, acclaimed literary RPG and winner of The Escapists Best Browser Game 2009, has been reimagined for iPhone!
Welcome to a dark and hilarious Victorian-Gothic underworld, where every choice has a consequence from the style of your hat to the price of your soul.
For those who love to read and for those who love to play, Fallen London offers you a unique narrative which evolves with every choice you make. Define your destiny through the stories you embark on and the character you cultivate.
Theres a whole world of opportunity waiting for you beyond the iron bars of New Newgate Prison. Who are you going to be?
- Literary RPG with over 1.5 million delicious words
- Choose from a miscellany of avatars and gender options
- Befriend, beguile or antagonise hundreds of characters from diplomats and devils to Clay Men, Rubbery Men and the elusive Masters
- Increase a vast array of character qualities, shaping your character as you go
- Hundreds of items, outfits and pets available in the Bazaar
- Forge your own path through a dark Victorian city and beyond!
Inkle better watch their back now that Failbetter is moving into mobile
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7VfJXezMwDc
Thirty years ago, London was stolen by bats. Now, Hell is close and immortality is cheap, but the screaming has largely stopped
Fallen London, acclaimed literary RPG and winner of The Escapists Best Browser Game 2009, has been reimagined for iPhone!
Welcome to a dark and hilarious Victorian-Gothic underworld, where every choice has a consequence from the style of your hat to the price of your soul.
For those who love to read and for those who love to play, Fallen London offers you a unique narrative which evolves with every choice you make. Define your destiny through the stories you embark on and the character you cultivate.
Theres a whole world of opportunity waiting for you beyond the iron bars of New Newgate Prison. Who are you going to be?
- Literary RPG with over 1.5 million delicious words
- Choose from a miscellany of avatars and gender options
- Befriend, beguile or antagonise hundreds of characters from diplomats and devils to Clay Men, Rubbery Men and the elusive Masters
- Increase a vast array of character qualities, shaping your character as you go
- Hundreds of items, outfits and pets available in the Bazaar
- Forge your own path through a dark Victorian city and beyond!
Inkle better watch their back now that Failbetter is moving into mobile
PittaGAF
Member
LOL.
This is Lost Socks devs answer to people stating the game is not a good mobile game because it's a hardcore game (a ridiculous stance imho, but to each its own).
So this 'gaming in 2016'.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HlMqwLgCg00
This is Lost Socks devs answer to people stating the game is not a good mobile game because it's a hardcore game (a ridiculous stance imho, but to each its own).
So this 'gaming in 2016'.
I like Clash Royale a lot, btw
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HlMqwLgCg00
Nice. I am, as you can tell from my earlier posts, pretty annoyed too by mobile gaming site reviews that appear to basically downgrade their final score because it's too difficult.
I know reviews are subjective and their own opinion but I feel like difficulty shouldn't be a factor in why they score a game lower (since that generally seems to be the only complaint about the game). If the game was unfair or based purely on luck, that's a different story. Lost Socks is a game of skill and precise timing.
Saucycarpdog
Member
Consider me excited! More text adventure games is never a bad thing.April 19th!!!!!!
Inkle better watch their back now that Failbetter is moving into mobile
PittaGAF
Member
Yeah, +10000.
I understand someone doesn't like the game.
It's ok.
I understand someone says it's too difficult, ok.
(So far I never read someone found the game frustrating but it could be).
But what I do not understand is that a review site downgrade the score because the game is made for a hardcore audience, so it's not a good mobile game. (And this happens occasionally, because in other circumstances this was never a problem).
Even better...if you read the thread it's almost implied that the game would be more suited to a console.
To me this is a huge plus (and I agree the game would be praised on a console).
I find this a bit ridiculous because in the same timeframe I read an excellent article, on the same site, about Crash-lands being considered 'less' on Steam just because it was for mobile first, and the author was worried about this common sentiment.
(I don't own Crashlands so I'm not talking about the game in particular).
I do not care that much...I almost never read reviews (on any website)...but we all know, absurd as it is, that a 4 star or a 5 star review can be life or death for a indie dev.
It's not that I'm pissed because I don't agree with the review (I almost never do, even with other websites)....it's the principle that it's flawed imho.
That's why I linked the dev polite and humorous answer, it was brilliant.
Yes, I agree. Although they are still "good" scores, it may give pause to some buyers (especially PG's statement in the conclusion that the game's good parts are out weighed by the "bad" parts).
Maybe it's the cartoony graphics that make it looks casual compared to a game like Downwell or twitch games that wear difficulty on their sleeve. But it's still, as you said, flawed reasoning when it was basically the "hardcore" nature of the game that is cited in those reviews as why it was too hard for mobile and thus given a lower score overall.
Grr, App Store is down. Http://1.1 Service Unavailable, it says. Hope it comes back up soon, itching to buy Retro City Rampage and going to finally dip into Sorcery!
Fallen London looks AWESOME. Can't decide if I want to just wait or start playing the browser game.
And it's back up!
Edit: Retro City Rampage is pretty great. Driving controls take some getting used to, but it's a blast to play. The control menu also still shows the Xbox controller, hah.
Fallen London looks AWESOME. Can't decide if I want to just wait or start playing the browser game.
And it's back up!
Edit: Retro City Rampage is pretty great. Driving controls take some getting used to, but it's a blast to play. The control menu also still shows the Xbox controller, hah.
I dunno guys. If he found the game hard to the point of frustration, should he give away 5 stars even though he has mixed feelings towards the experience? No review gave the game a full score, so there must be some merit to their opinions, even though I also frequently disagree with them.
It's just my opinion that if a game is unfair or has too much luck involved, that's worth deducting points for.
I feel Lost Socks is more skill than luck. Why would a game like Super Meat Boy get universal praise even though that has to be one of the most frustrating experiences even on console? Because it's hard as nails but never the fault of the game design. Its that it takes skill to an extreme level. Lost Socks isn't even close to being that hard so is it being unfairly treated just because it's on mobile?
Games like League of Evil got high scores. So maybe it's merely the fact that it looks like a casual game which is also not a valid reason to criticize it.
Whatever the case all the reviews I've read say almost the same things out it being difficult and frustrating (maybe one review led to the others following in step). But I don't think any of them say it's because of poor game design. It just isn't a valid point.
That's just my opinion.
Saucycarpdog
Member
I think it has more to do with how some treat mobile. While I don't mind some difficult experiences, many reviewers out there see mobile as a fun side-platform and don't care for playing difficult games on it or dedicating a lot of time to one mobile game. I remember listening to a TA podcast a while back where even the guys said that they like there mobile games to be short and sweet experiences, so long and staggering games tend to put them off.
I don't think it's that simple. It's not like people think "well, the game is too hard, so I will check the negative list and dock one point". Most reviewers simply rate the game according to their feelings towards the experience.
Both games (SMB and Lost Socks) demand high skill, but maybe the core of one game handles the frustration better than the other. Maybe to them while the core gameplay is fun, it's not fun enough to make the frustration (skill based or not) worth it, while maybe SMB core is so much fun that it renders the level of frustration irrelevant.
In the end, the level of frustration is relative to the rest of the experience. If the challenge somehow tarnish their experience, maybe the experience itself wasn't great enough to begin with. There are plenty of very challenging mobile games that were highly praised.
The normal version of RCR was pretty mediocre and I don't want to know how furious a certain part of the game will be with a touchscreen. It already controlled horribly on the other platforms (yes, I know the difficulty was part of the joke).
I'm still so taken aback by the beta's polish. It's so great already
In other news, Plants vs Zombies Heroes:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fUIY8GfBFCs
Not the PvZ game I wanted
Where is my Garden Warfare on iOS? The card game hype is really going strong and everyone is jumping on it. Let's see when it dies down again.
infiniteloop
Member
Well, I'll just say if you read through the TA thread that the overwhelming majority of people seem to think the game is more fun than frustrating. So maybe these reviewers are in the minority. There are a bunch of comments on the PG article as well that are asking the same thing about why it was given such a relatively low score in comparison to the heaps of praise gamers seem to be giving it.
I don't know anyone who has played it who would say the experience itself is "not that great".
But it's all opinion. And in this case, I vehemently disagree with the opinions of said "professional" reviewers.
And you're right that other challenging games have gotten good reviews. I think Lost Socks is at a disadvantage because I would be willing to bet that a lot of reviewers may be coming into this looking at the cartoon graphics and thinking of a Rayman more casual experience. And that may have hurt compared to something like SMB which was immediately labeled and marketed as a hardcore experience.
I love SMB but my personal opinion would be that it is more frustrating than Lost Socks.
PittaGAF
Member
The weird thing is that in the review, never the game has been stated frustrating.
On the contrary, the reviewer even says that even if the game is brutal, he kept playing because it was very fun.
(And imho that's the point of the game).
So the final score surprised me, because during the review he never mention a 'negative' (the fact that the game is not 'suited' to the TA audience is mentioned in the thread comments).
IMHO the reviewer just sucked at the game
Add to the fact other brutal games or 'games not suited to the TA audience' got better scores, was a bit more off putting.
Anyway there is no point arguing with a review...the most pissed are probably the devs even if they showed a lot of humor and fair play with that video.
.IMHO the reviewer just sucked at the game
This. For both the TA and PG reviewers IMHO.
More_Badass
Member
Unfortunately, no. Not really in the mood for a high score-chasing puzzler atm
One Foul Note
Member
I honestly found the difficulty in Lost Socks to be frustrating rather then rewarding. So I can relate a bit to those reviews (although I must admit that it is a rare day that I generally agree with TA on anything.)
PittaGAF
Member
Well it's totally ok of course, but at least you say it.
(I'm truly sorry you don't like the game).
PittaGAF
Member
infiniteloop
Member
anyone heard of chariot? just popped up on Apple TV:
https://twitter.com/AppleTV_Gaming/status/708029777010147332
https://twitter.com/AppleTV_Gaming/status/708029777010147332
More_Badass
Member
Not sure. Going by this comment from the TA forums (actually in response to your post
Is it just a score chasing game?
Are there puzzle elements?
)
