• Hey Guest. Check out your NeoGAF Wrapped 2025 results here!

How are phone/tablet games these days?

Right now I am playing Stellar Wanderer. It's sort of like a mobile port of Elite Dangerous. You choose a class like a fighter, trader, engineer or tank and the campaign is roughly ten hours. I like it. I'm playing a version without in app purchases so I don't know how the free to play version compares. It's made by Crescent Moon Games and the have some other titles I'll mention below.

Some of my favorite mobile games include:

Star Command

Neon Shadow

Raven Shadowlands

Sega Virtua Tennis

2-Bit Cowboy (and its sequel).

Manos: The Hand of Fate.

If anyone wants some decent Android games that aren't ridiculously infected with microtransactions then check out the Humble Store.

https://www.humblebundle.com/store/search/platform/android/sort/bestselling/page/0
 
More_Badass said:
I don't think you understood the point I was making. If you're going to compare mobile and PC, you have to compare all of PC. All the flash games, all the alphas and betas and demos and prototypes and shitty games on itch.io and everything else. PC gaming isn't just Steam. Include everything on PC, and you're going to have all the decent, great, masterpiece games outnumbers by dozens or hundreds of other stuff

There are 15,900 Steam games. There are over 40,000 Ludum Dare games. I'm only counting Ludum Dare entries because that's quantifiable, compared to who knows how many flash games there are.. Ludum Dare gets around another 2,000 games every few months. 13,000 of those games came from the last two years. That's just one game jam.
Click to expand...
Nah, stick with Steam, shitty first party distribution service, and Good Ole Games.
 
V_Arnold said:
Excuse me, but why would you include competition demo games in a comparison with an APP STORE ENTRY?
Click to expand...
Because Steam isn't the equivalent of the App Store. "PC" in general is. The App Store isn't just a storefront. It's literally all of the mobile ecosystem on iOS. Every app, every game. It's like if you had to go through Steam to put every game on PC: AAA, indie, flash, freeware, game jam, etc. Those AAA and quality indie games would be instantly flooded by the volume of the rest
 
More_Badass said:
... Pocket Kingdom,...
Click to expand...

I have tried googling this. I seems to remember it was an early Sega mobile game, with similar to Dragon Force for sega Saturn. But when I google it now, it seems to be a puzzler?

Can someone help me find the Sega game if it is out for ios? :)
 
Monument valley is a legit wonderfully game and I guess seven knights too, but to find the good mobile games it requires some wading through a lot of shit.
 
More_Badass said:
Because Steam isn't the equivalent of the App Store. "PC" in general is. The App Store isn't just a storefront. It's literally all of the mobile ecosystem on iOS. Every app, every game. It's like if you had to go through Steam to put every game on PC: AAA, indie, flash, freeware, game jam, etc. Those AAA and quality indie games would be instantly flooded by the volume of the rest
Click to expand...
The app store requires a fee & approval by Apple for an app to be on the store, which is obviously not the case for the vast majority of these PC games you're comparing.
 
More_Badass said:
I don't think you understood the point I was making. If you're going to compare mobile and PC, you have to compare all of PC. All the flash games, all the alphas and betas and demos and prototypes and shitty games on itch.io and everything else. PC gaming isn't just Steam. Include everything on PC, and you're going to have all the decent, great, masterpiece games outnumbers by dozens or hundreds of other stuff

There are 15,900 Steam games. There are over 40,000 Ludum Dare games. I'm only counting Ludum Dare entries because that's quantifiable, compared to who knows how many flash games there are.. Ludum Dare gets around another 2,000 games every few months. 13,000 of those games came from the last two years. That's just one game jam.
Click to expand...

I see. Sort of. I think reading and posting on GAF makes me fairly knowledgeable about gaming in general and I have no clue what Ludum Dare or itch.io are. Which again speaks to my point that navigating the deluge of shit mobile games isn't something your average person is up for, or as simple as you're making it sound. To someone as in tune to you are to the indie scene I'm sure it seems easy, but this post really drives home to me that I don't have the time or interest to dive this deep into obscure indie games. I'll trust word will spread about the cream of the crop, and the best of the best indie games I've been made aware of amount to a handful in the last decade.
 
Been playing a LOT of Enemy Within and Kingdoms on my ipad lately. Great time killers and on a newer ipad it feels like the best possible way to play XCOM. Shame 2 will never show up on it...

Someone earlier in the thread described it as being at about Vita levels and that seems to sum up gaming on even the best tablets atm pretty well.
 
FFVII and FFIX probably look really sweet on a Retina display.

Does anyone know if DQVIII on mobile is the PS2 or 3DS version?
 
I am impressed with the quality of visuals and production values recently (had been away for a while).
There's still touch controls limitations though, which means you're restricted to Puzzle,strategy and adventures/novels.

Lately I'm addicted to build a bridge because I am just a sucker for physics based puzzles / sandbox.
 
More_Badass said:
I just realized I don't even know what a gatcha game is. I always see them mentioned in GAF but I've never actually seen or played one. I'm assuming it's obnoxiously F2P or something?
Click to expand...

A gatcha game is basically an RPG where characters are obtained via gambling. By playing through the story, you receive a limited amount of premium currency (usually stones/gems). Gems are then exchanged for a random character, with usually a 1-5% chance of obtaining the rarest characters.
 
I haven't bought any in ages. I was for a time buying heaps of digital board games and card games for iPad. At some point though they seemed to stop appearing though.

Only thing I've tried lately are the Nintendo games, which did not keep my interest at all.
 
ClayKavalier said:
I see. Sort of. I think reading and posting on GAF makes me fairly knowledgeable about gaming in general and I have no clue what Ludum Dare or itch.io are. Which again speaks to my point that navigating the deluge of shit mobile games isn't something your average person is up for, or as simple as you're making it sound. To someone as in tune to you are to the indie scene I'm sure it seems easy, but this post really drives home to me that I don't have the time or interest to dive this deep into obscure indie games. I'll trust word will spread about the cream of the crop, and the best of the best indie games I've been made aware of amount to a handful in the last decade.
Click to expand...

"Navigating the deluge of shit mobile games" isn't something that the "average person" has to do or would even put themselves in the position to do.

For both the App Store and Google Play, the average person is shown a curated storefront which skews much higher in quality than the median of the content otherwise available. Most games are downloaded or bought on the basis of this curated presentation.

It is no worse for the average person to find a good game while avoiding bad games as it is for the average person who walks into a GameStop to buy a console game.
 
Anyone on GAF who thinks there's no quality mobile games has had their head in the sand for years and is refusing to pull it out.

There are a ton of amazing mobile games. Just pull your head out of the sand and take a look. Unless of course you'd rather just trash talk something without trying to understand it first.
 
Mario said:
"Navigating the deluge of shit mobile games" isn't something that the "average person" has to do or would even put themselves in the position to do.

For both the App Store and Google Play, the average person is shown a curated storefront which skews much higher in quality than the median of the content otherwise available. Most games are downloaded or bought on the basis of this curated presentation.

It is no worse for the average person to find a good game while avoiding bad games as it is for the average person who walks into a GameStop to buy a console game.
Click to expand...

As I pointed out before with the comparison between the top 10 best selling/ highest grossing games on mobile and PC/ console, for my tastes I'd be a lot more satisfied picking up a random prominently placed game in a GameStop than I would picking a random app on the front page of the App Store.

Looking at the App Store right now, it looks like one of the most noticeable games is SIEGE: Titan Wars, which looks to be some kind of combination of Clash Royals and tower defense and offers a $50 "Vault of Gems" IAP. Other front page games include Hoggy 2, Traffic Panic Boom Town, and a Futurama-branded idle game. I'm not a big fan of blockbuster games like Call of Duty, Battlefront, or whatever else is advertised heavily at GameStop, but I'd far rather spend a couple hours with those then something like these iOS games, and the last time I was at a GameStop there were displays for things like Zelda and Horizon. Typically you have to dig through bargain bins to find truly shitty games.

I'm not seeing games along those lines on the front page of the App Store right now. Like, Framed 2 and Monument Valley 2 are basically the equivalents of games like those and just came out very recently and I don't see them on the front page at all.

Fit the Fat 2 is though. Am I safe assuming it's easier to find because it's the better game?
 
I remember playing The Quest quite a lot. Kind of like an old school dungeon crawler in the vein of Dungeon Master and Eye of The Beholder. Then i played Legend of Grimrock quite a bit. Is there anything else (perhaps newer) that's kind of the same? These games work so well on touch devices.
 
pettson3816 said:
I remember playing The Quest quite a lot. Kind of like an old school dungeon crawler in the vein of Dungeon Master and Eye of The Beholder. Then i played Legend of Grimrock quite a bit. Is there anything else (perhaps newer) that's kind of the same? These games work so well on touch devices.
Click to expand...

7 mages is similar and pretty good.
 
iPad

Best way to play Hearthstone
Vainglory is a solid MOBA
Great versions of many CRPG's (BG2, IWD etc...)
Some good PC ports (FTL, Door Kickers, Don't Starve etc...)

It's a shame Mifi controllers / support never really took off, as I feel they could do far more with the current pro power levels.
 
The mobile market has matured quite a bit in terms of quality. It is particularly evident in the Paid space. In the Free space there is a lot more to wade through, largely fast follows to other popular games.

I think if one approaches the space with an open mind they can surely find something that they enjoy. It likely won't take the place of the bigger experiences that we get on our PCs and Consoles but are good snacks inbetween courses.


A couple of favorites from me:

Device 6 (iOS)
Crashlands (iOS/GP)
Lineage 2 (iOS/GP)
A Noble Circle (iOS)
Downwell (iOS/GP)
Fairway Solitaire (iOS/GP)
Implosion (iOS/GP)
Genies & Gems (iOS/GP)
Chameleon Run (iOS/GP)
Super Hexagon (iOS/GP)
 
ClayKavalier said:
Looking at the App Store right now, it looks like one of the most noticeable games is SIEGE: Titan Wars, which looks to be some kind of combination of Clash Royals and tower defense and offers a $50 "Vault of Gems" IAP. Other front page games include Hoggy 2, Traffic Panic Boom Town, and a Futurama-branded idle game. I'm not a big fan of blockbuster games like Call of Duty, Battlefront, or whatever else is advertised heavily at GameStop, but I'd far rather spend a couple hours with those then something like these iOS games, and the last time I was at a GameStop there were displays for things like Zelda and Horizon. Typically you have to dig through bargain bins to find truly shitty games.
Click to expand...

The App Store has games that don't interest you or you don't personally consider high quality? I'm sure Gamestop is the same. We could go to a store and cherry pick as well if you want.

There are plenty of high quality games on the App Storefront page(s).


I'm not seeing games along those lines on the front page of the App Store right now. Like, Framed 2 and Monument Valley 2 are basically the equivalents of games like those and just came out very recently and I don't see them on the front page at all.
Click to expand...

Framed 2 and Monument Valley 2 are the first two games promoted in the Our Favorites From Last Month section on the Games page. Monument Valley 2 is also promoted again further down the page in Previous Editors Choice. Both games also have top banner billing on both the Games/Puzzle and Games/Adventure pages. So, yes, they are being actively promoted.

Even if they weren't, I wouldn't see that as problematic. Apple regularly will cycle games in and out of being promoted in order to surface new games.


Fit the Fat 2 is though. Am I safe assuming it's easier to find because it's the better game?
Click to expand...

I can't see that on my App Store front page. That game is rated 4.5 stars after 8,800+ customer reviews though, so it seems to be a high quality game worthy of being promoted.
 
Conkerkid11 said:
Clash Royale is probably my favorite recent mobile game. Looking forward to whatever genre Supercell ends up redefining next. Just unfortunate that South Park Phone Destroyer ended up being a really bad clone.
Click to expand...

Their new game is brawlstars and it's out in soft release in Canada and can be downloaded by changing your iTunes Store. It redefines mobas and it's great.
 
Maybe it's just the type of games I prefer (primarily RPGs, both WRPGs and JRPGs), but I feel like I recently made a dedicated effort to find good mobile games but still came up almost empty. When there is something high quality it's almost invariably a port from a different platform (often with compromised controls).

One mobile-first game I've found which doesn't suck is VOEZ. (But that's not an RPG obviously) Sorcery! also isn't bad, but that's a choose-your-adventure book. FFBE is one of the few Gatcha games that's bearable so far, it has actual gameplay variety, and the art style is rather nice.
 
Well modern phones are pretty powerfull so you have some nice looking games.

For me though most of the games that are worth it are multiplatform games and ports (so games that are also on PC or consoles).

A big part of the mobile market is still focused on the F2P front. There are plenty of F2P games that you can enjoy without spending a cent but overall it's just hard not the see the microtransactions business model having an effect on the game design. Microtransactions almost allways ensure there is a grindy nature to these games.
Also, even when you are willing to pay it's becoming more and more popular to not even know what you are paying for and just get a selection of random "rare" items/characters
 
Durante said:
Maybe it's just the type of games I prefer (primarily RPGs, both WRPGs and JRPGs), but I feel like I recently made a dedicated effort to find good mobile games but still came up almost empty. When there is something high quality it's almost invariably a port from a different platform (often with compromised controls).

One mobile-first game I've found which doesn't suck is VOEZ. (But that's not an RPG obviously) Sorcery! also isn't bad, but that's a choose-your-adventure book. FFBE is one of the few Gatcha games that's bearable so far, it has actual gameplay variety, and the art style is rather nice.
Click to expand...

Take a look at Ember.
 
I played Mobius Final Fantasy for a while, it was alright and definitely more complex than I expected.

Edit: PAC-MAN Championship Edition is fantastic, but I think you can play that on consoles, too.
 
Okay here's the thing with mobile compared to consoles -- the kind of genres that work the best on mobile actually line up the most with the genres that work best on PC: Adventure games, RPGs, and strategy games. The problem between mobile and the console audience might be that the one genre that's the most popular on consoles doesn't work well on mobile at all -- 3D action games.

Still, I've almost always been terrible at making time for handheld games as far back as the GBA, especially RPGs. Mobile has proven to be no exception. I have Grimrock on my phone and it's probably great but I haven't touched it. Same goes for Warbits, Monument Valley, Dragon Quest V, and UniWar.

Oh! There's actually a competent iOS port of Elite 1! It's called "Unknown -- 3D Space Trader." https://itunes.apple.com/app/unknown-3d-space-trader/id501361195?mt=8
 
I probably play hearthstone more on my iPhone/iPad than I do all my consoles combined. It's great for me.
 
Gacha games are where it's at. I have xone, PS4, WiiU and a PC with 1070. I spend like 5 hrs playing mobile daily, I haven't touched my consoles in months.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

Why are developers so lazy with dungeon design in RPGs these days?
Opinion  2
56
831
Hudo replied
AAAA games just come and go these days
2
53
858
NeverYouMind replied
  • Poll
How many games do you complete?
46
177
Fermbiz replied
Haven’t played online in years. What would you recommend these days…
17
228
meliodas replied
How To Play StarCraft Tabletop Miniatures Game
Business Trailer 
0
96
IbizaPocholo replied
Top Bottom