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[Tain]

What is the smartphone equivalent of Carnage Heart EXA? What is the smartphone equivalent of Monster Hunter Tri-G? What is the smartphone equivalent of Metal Slug XX?

Are any of these games (assuming they exist) half as good as any of the above?

Some day they might get there with some genres, and in a select few genres I'm sure there are genuinely great smartphone exclusives, but in my experience with both iOS and Android it's largely Desperation Gaming.

I do wonder what smartphone games would look like if people accepted handheld game prices for smartphone games.

 

[Guevara]

Free food you find in the dumpster: Can any dedicated restaurant really compete?

 

[Oersted]

Gaming on smartphones: Can any dedicated handheld really compete?

In many cases they already lost the race. Gamingwise there is still some lead, but they will lose rather sooner than later.

 

[Nose Master]

Until there's real dpads/buttons on smartphones, not terribly interested. There's some fun touch stuff, but trying to play a platformer/anything with a digital joypad is fucking torture.

 

[ShockingAlberto]

One day smartphones are going to fully replace the handheld devices and there will be no argument of quality because there will be nothing to compare.

But until that day comes, I'll take good games wherever I can and not wish for one to die because I like the other better.

 

[Sendou]

I mean look at NFS most wanted on the ps vita and the one on the iOS, pretty much explains why the handheld is vastly better.


One is linear, very simple physics, meh graphics, no real content, same old while the other is a full on open world racing game with a lot of vehicles, races and basically exactly what you get on the consoles ( but graphics are not as good)

Then you remember the vita NFS game is pretty much just a downport with a few additional changes, imagine a full NFS game made specifically for it...

One developed by the same team that developed other versions. The iOS/Android by FireMonkeys (who the hell are they?). I'm still amazed how much effort they put into Vita and Wii U.

One day smartphones are going to fully replace the handheld devices and there will be no argument of quality because there will be nothing to compare.

But until that day comes, I'll take good games wherever I can and not wish for one to die because I like the other better.

When that day comes smartphones will be something completely different than what we understand by the word today.

 

[shinobi602]

I get that you guys like dedicated handhelds better. But you are vastly outnumbered in the marketplace.

And? There is still a very large market for dedicated handhelds. If I can't get games like Uncharted, Killzone, Luigi's Mansion, all the Mario games and other Nintendo & Sony IPs on my phone, then there's no way in hell I'll prefer it over any handheld console.

 

[Moosichu]

I get that you guys like dedicated handhelds better. But you are vastly outnumbered in the marketplace.

Think about it this way, although a lot of handheld games cost $40 dollars meaning less-sales etc. That is still 40x more per unit compared to a $1 iPhone game. Even then, there are $0.65 dollar games available for the Vita as well so you get the best of both worlds.

 

[Skilletor]

I mean, you can even get technically amazing, beautiful games on Android now, which didn't used to be the case. It was iOS or nothing. Why would anyone really buy a dedicated handheld anymore?

I get that you guys like dedicated handhelds better. But you are vastly outnumbered in the marketplace.

Cool story, bro.

/me goes back to playing Guacamelee.

Can anybody tell me what the spotpass updates for Fire Emblem were last week? I missed them because I was too busy playing Monster Hunter. Speaking of Monster Hunter, can't wait for Soul Sacrifice. I love rpgs. Oh man, when does that Mario and Luigi RPG come out?

 

[sunnz]

One developed by the same team that developed other versions. The iOS/Android by FireMonkeys (who the hell are they?). I'm still amazed how much effort they put into Vita and Wii U.

Yea good point.

Whether the current IP5 or the latest andriod phone is capable of the vita version of NFS, what I do know is that it will suck because of the touch based style of those devices.

 

[Mauricio_Magus]

Nintendo will keep making handhelds and games for the next 10 years AT LEAST(I bet more, but technology is a crazy thing, think how much we've advanced in the last 10 years)

I can see the rest giving up, but while smarthphones only have 1-10 dollar games, shit isn't just for me

 

[Hulud]

Is the 3DS selling much worse than the DS?

 

[BigDug13]

It is the cheapest way to have something to game on always in your pocket since everyone needs a phone, and that's just the way it is. Also as parents update their iPhones and androids every couple years, they're left with perfectly good iPod-touch-like devices that the kids can use without the purchase of more hardware.

My friend's daughter has had an iPhone 3G as a psuedo iPod touch since she was two, just because it could be loaded with videos and stuff and they had already upgraded. Now that the mom traded in her iPhone 4 for a 5, the daughter has the 4 and their youngest son messes with the 3G. The daughter is 5 and the son is like 1. But they upgraded already, so what else are they going to do with those old phones?

So yeah, stuff like that limits the need for parents to buy handheld gaming hardware.

 

[Mauricio_Magus]

Is the 3DS selling much worse than the DS?

no from what I've heard it's doing fine. I think the 3ds passed 28 million copies sold so far which is pretty nice

 

[CommonSense]

Wow...seems like I just made a thread about this yesterday. Popular subject.

 

[RM8]

Super Street Fighter IV 3D vs. Street Fighter IV Volt

Tekken 3D Prime Edition vs. Tekken Card Tournament

Castlevania: LoS - Mirror of Fate vs. Castlevania Puzzle: Encore of the Night

Super Mario 3D Land vs. Ultra Dario

Mario Kart 7 or Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed vs. Mole Kart

---

I enjoy Reckless Racing and Sonic Jump on my phone, but it's lol worthy to compare the games to those on dedicated systems.

 

[Tomat]

Wow...seems like I just made a thread about this yesterday. Popular subject.

I was going to mention this too, although your thread started out a bit differently it ended up in the same place.

 

[Skilletor]

Super Street Fighter IV 3D vs. Street Fighter IV Volt

Tekken 3D Prime Edition vs. Tekken Card Tournament

Castlevania: LoS - Mirror of Fate vs. Castlevania Puzzle: Encore of the Night

Super Mario 3D Land vs. Ultra Dario

Mario Kart 7 or Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed vs. Mole Kart

---

I enjoy Reckless Racing and Sonic Jump on my phone, but it lol worthy to compare the games to those on dedicated systems.

I enjoyed the Castlevania puzzle game.

 

[Mauricio_Magus]

Wow...seems like I just made a thread about this yesterday. Popular subject.

and I didn't like your initial statement, seemed pretty much like "yeah handhelds are dead" when they are doing amazing in japan where everyone has an amazing smartphone too(it's doing decent everywhere else). Handhelds are doing okay, dedicated games for dedicated handheld devices are still unmatched, and at the end of the day it isn't about the hardware


it's about the fucking games.

 

[Eusis]

One day smartphones are going to fully replace the handheld devices and there will be no argument of quality because there will be nothing to compare.

But until that day comes, I'll take good games wherever I can and not wish for one to die because I like the other better.

I wonder if it's possible we approach from the other direction instead, that power advances so much that you can safely replace consoles with handhelds that plug into TVs, and thus it's a moot point.

But then there are serious power/space limitations that'd have to be overcome first, and some are speculating tablets will displace consoles anyway. At any rate these handhelds came AFTER the mobile boom, and the 3DS seems to be taking off in Japan and still holding its ground in NA/Europe, and even the Vita seems to have a modest following even if it's probably not enough to sustain a system on, so it does seem to me that handhelds possibly have a place for longer than some suspect, at worst I imagine if this is the last generation it's going to be a long generation.

 

[Cipherr]

I get that you guys like dedicated handhelds better. But you are vastly outnumbered in the marketplace.

That's lovely, but pretty irrelevant. You have the 3DS closing in on 30 million. People who want to 'game' on their phones may outnumber dedicated handheld gamers 1000000000000000 to 1, but as long as a healthy ROI can be made on dedicated handheld gaming, its not going to go anywhere.

You can heckle it all you want though if it makes you feel better.

Not doing the best numbers ever != dead. So to answer the OP's question. Yes.

 

[Blearth]

Are you people gamers or are you button fans? You don't need buttons to make great games.

 

[SpaceHobo]

The media keep telling me smartphone gaming is awesome , so I go to the GAF iOS thread every month and dl the 'best' these platforms have to offer......

The majority are shit , clones of other successful , but shitty games or freemium games with 5 minutes of content before the devs try to gouge you for your house , your car and your first born.

Not for me I'm afraid.

 

[Colonel Mustard]

They're releasing controllers for those games now. But the fact is that consumers like you, willing to pay full price for a "full experience" game, are shrinking.

Games that aren't designed around a console's inputs are garbage.

 

[Skilletor]

Are you people gamers or are you button fans? You don't need buttons to make great games.

Certainly not, but some great games wouldn't be very good games if they had no buttons.

 

[Mauricio_Magus]

Are you people gamers or are you button fans? You don't need buttons to make great games.

I'm a fan of good games, and the way gaming is monetized in smarthphones simply doesn't work that well with the games I enjoy, it's all microtransactions and small experiences, I have tons of games on my iPhone but it's simply no match for my 3ds.

 

[btkadams]

Aside from the buttons, do people even see the differences of the quality of the games on dedicated consoles and the one of the smartphones?

is this a serious question? name the highest quality, smartphone-exclusive game so we can find something comparable (genre-wise) on vita/3ds/other-dedicated-consoles.

 

[ronito]

Are you people gamers or are you button fans? You don't need buttons to make great games.

then what's phone gaming's excuse?

 

[Guevara]

Are you people gamers or are you button fans? You don't need buttons to make great games.

Theoretically that might be true but I've yet to see the proof.

 

[RM8]

I doubt anyone actually prefers phone games, they just don't care about handhelds enough so playing 5 minutes of tap-tap-swipe-swipe here and there is enough for them, plus it's cheap and it has the graphics!

In my experience, I can take the game I like the least from my 3DS collection (being Pokémon Rumble Blast) and it's still better than everything I've played on an iPod, phone or tablet. The limitations are huge, it's not really about graphics.

 

[cm osi]

Are you people gamers or are you button fans? You don't need buttons to make great games.

you need them to play better

 

[Mauricio_Magus]

is this a serious question? name the highest quality, smartphone-exclusive game so we can find something comparable (genre-wise) on vita/3ds/other-dedicated-consoles).

I'd guess some crap like Infinity Blade

the only games I'm actually amazed at are the cave ones, but those are ports anyways

 

[Cipherr]

Are you people gamers or are you button fans? You don't need buttons to make great games.

I'm by far a gamer. I lean towards the games with buttons, because currently the best mobile games I have played, all run on the dedicated handhelds with buttons.

Its all about the games.

I'd guess some crap like Infinity Blade

the only games I'm actually amazed at are the cave ones, but those are ports anyways

Yeah, I have said this before, but the vast majority of my favorite 'Phone' games, are games that are ports from handheld/consoles.

 

[Zia]

Nope, and that's why the market is shrinking at an increasingly rapid rate. Convenience, aesthetics, usability, games like Year Walk and Ridiculous Fishing. No way traditional handhelds can compete

 

[ShockingAlberto]

I will say while I have no doubts phones can produce good games, the vast majority of the time I pull out my phone to play a game, I play a word-maker or maybe a runner.

Though I am starting to get super annoyed with runners now.

And it's not like I play different ones. I briefly experimented with Wordament instead of Scramble CE, but the minute+ wait times between rounds basically killed that thing for me.

 

[Sgt.Pepper]

I liked iOS gaming a lot, but I'll be honest and say that there aren't many games that matched the quality from games of dedicated handhelds.

That's not to say there's a lot of trash in the mobile market (which is true), because there's also a lot of garbage on the handheld side (also true).

Fact, most of the best handheld games come from Japan which validates owning one (as far as I'm concerned). Most western devs prefer consoles (more mainstream) or mobile gaming (cheaper and most widely available to everyone).

 

[Blearth]

I doubt anyone actually prefers phone games, they just don't care about handhelds enough so playing 5 minutes of tap-tap-swipe-swipe here and there is enough for them, plus it's cheap and it has the graphics!

In my experience, I can take the game I like the least from my 3DS collection (being Pokémon Rumble Blast) and it's still better than everything I've played on an iPod, phone or tablet. The limitations are huge, it's not really about graphics.

I definitely prefer paying $0-$15 for games instead of $30-$50.

 

[Rootbeer]

i hate games that rely entirely on touch and/or motion controls, so until that changes smartphone games will always be shit tier for my needs.

if apple releases a gamepad or gamepad-"chasis" for the iphone/ipad and developers use it then count me in. apple could dominate the gaming sector if they put their mind to it. They wouldn't even have to do anything except release the hardware, sit back and roll in all that bank.

 

[RM8]

I definitely prefer paying $0-$15 for games instead of $30-$50.

Basically what I said.

 

[shinobi602]

Are you people gamers or are you button fans? You don't need buttons to make great games.

No, but having buttons and other inputs allows for much greater variety in gameplay mechanics, thus vastly improving the gaming experience over a simple touchscreen when done right.

The difference between a game like the Walking Dead is no different on the console than an iPad because the way the game is built it doesn't require much in the way of functionality and dexterity, but games like Darksiders or Devil May Cry or Demon's Souls can never be done the same simply by touching a screen.

 

[Mauricio_Magus]

I will say while I have no doubts phones can produce good games, the vast majority of the time I pull out my phone to play a game, I play a word-maker or maybe a runner.

Though I am starting to get super annoyed with runners now.

And it's not like I play different ones. I briefly experimented with Wordament instead of Scramble CE, but the minute+ wait times between rounds basically killed that thing for me.

that's the problem, high budget games can't exist with the current Market, whenever they can release full games then I'll be warmer with smarthphone gaming.

Hell, I LOVE JRPGS the most, and turn based ones would work perfectly in them because you don't need any complex moves... and there's just a few "meh" ones by square

I definitely prefer paying $0-$15 for games instead of $30-$50.

you're getting smaller experiences that don't compare to the good handheld games, of course they are cheaper

 

[cm osi]

I definitely prefer paying $0-$15 for games instead of $30-$50.

so it's not about the game itself but the price/time wasted ratio?

 

[baxter2231]

Smartphones cant compete with buttons and analog sticks.

 

[BigDug13]

Bottom line, a huge segment of handheld gamers are kids, and now that mom can just hand her old smart phone to the kid as soon as she upgrades, it means she no longer needs to buy hardware for the kid to play games.

 

[Izick]

And also as cool as Ridiculous Fishing looks, it seems to have about the same depth as a flash game. Not to say there's anything wrong with that inherently, but when you compare it to full-fledged games on the 3DS or Vita, well it can't compete.

Not to mention no physical buttons will always be a major handicap.

 

[chickdigger802]

I can think of plenty. Especially Nintendo does pretty good job with dividing the game into small segments. On eShop and PSN there's plenty of bitsized games. Many are the same that you can find on iOS/Android.

only one I can think of is mario 3d land.... and even that I'd still love headphones in to listen to the rad music.

The playstation home arcade has some pretty cool mini arcade style games ( though not many in terms of quantity)

You mean ps mini? I checked a few out, they seem pretty shitty though. I'd rather play ios stuff at that point.

 

[Colonel Mustard]

Are you people gamers or are you button fans? You don't need buttons to make great games.

Most people are pointing out that there are good games on phones, but many genres don't translate well and until phones can compete input-wise there's still a market for dedicated portables.

The market is pretty much returning to form. (See every handheld gen before the DS) Just because one company can't complete on any serious level doesn't mean the base is gone.

 

[pizzapizza64]

I love the 3DS and the Vita, but I think some of you are dismissing mobile gaming without having given it a fair chance. If you haven't been following iOS gaming since 2012 on you've really missed some brilliant stuff.

 

[Router]

Aside from the buttons, do people even see the differences of the quality of the games on dedicated consoles and the one of the smartphones?

Yes.

 

[Steve McQueen]

My friends often said 'Why don't you own a smartphone....you're into games right? Why not get one?' Well....I got a smartphone for my work and I hate playing games on the damn thing. Main reason: I miss the controls of the dedicated handhelds.