this post was submitted on 08 Aug 2024

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Anon checks out mobile gaming (sh.itjust.works)

submitted 4 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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[–] [email protected] 112 points 4 months ago

For once, anon is not fake. May still be gay

[–] [email protected] 97 points 4 months ago (3 children)

Mobile gaming is awful these days. The vast majority are just cash grabs.

That said I look forward to Balatro being released

[–] [email protected] 40 points 4 months ago (9 children)

"These days?" As if it was ever good?

[–] [email protected] 42 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

It was in the early days of the Apple App Store. Games were 59p to buy. No in-app purchases and were generally good indie titles. "Helsing's Fire" comes to mind. Miss that game!

[–] [email protected] 27 points 4 months ago

Before it went f2p, yeah. Angry bird, pvz port, world of goo, ridiculous fishing, all fun stuff

[–] [email protected] 13 points 4 months ago (1 children)

I played the original Plants vs Zombies back in the day and thought it was pretty good. I got a new tablet recently and decided to try out the latest version - and holy fuck it is significantly worse. Rather than trying to be a good game, every possible aspect has been monetized.

So yeah, I'd say the early 2010s was a time where you could at least find some good stuff that wasn't ruined by enshitification.

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[–] [email protected] 11 points 4 months ago

Well, it is kinda true. Many old games I had on my phone that were free and didn't have ads, in the last few years have received updates to do literally nothing, but include ads. So "these days" is the case for some.

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[–] HonoraryMancunian 11 points 4 months ago

The secret is to find one that works on aeroplane mode

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[–] pelya 81 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Come join is at [email protected]

We have more than 200 members, and more than one screen of posts!

[–] [email protected] 42 points 4 months ago (1 children)

There was a dude on reddit who started doing short reviews of mobile games he liked, then ended up creating an app that focused on curated community reviews. It's not perfect but at least it's got decent filters for genres, which alone makes it a hell of a lot better than wading into the play store

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=minireview.best.android.games.reviews&hl=en_US

[–] pelya 15 points 4 months ago

I've seen several curated recommendation websites born and die over the years. I'm surprised that MiniReview still works.

There's also slant.co and multiple blogs like AndroidPolice, although they all now feature sponsored content - ads for shitty Android games.

[–] [email protected] 69 points 4 months ago (12 children)

This really upsets me and periodically bums me out. I used to like trawling through the top lists to see the various games that were on mobile. This is back in like 2011-2013. Typically monetization was either a free/premium version split, or an energy system. Now it's beyond 99% garbage with 99% of the last 1% being ports. The 1 of 1? Slice and Dice, that game rocks.

[–] [email protected] 20 points 4 months ago (4 children)

and then you go through the top paid games just to find... the same top paid games from the last decade. Nothing of value is being created or getting recognition

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[–] [email protected] 13 points 4 months ago (6 children)

Same. I used to play a number of games, and even paid for a few, but the gems are just too hard to find these days.

So now I pretty much never play games on my phone, which does a few things:

phone battery lasts a lot longer
my time on my phone is more productive
I use a lot less data, so I pay less for my plan
I don't need flagship phones (not a photographer)

So now I mostly use my phone for:

phone things (calls and texts)
audiobooks
news
videos - I restrict myself to downloaded videos to help reduce wasted time

I have a Switch and Steam Deck, and quality game selection is much better there anyway.

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[–] [email protected] 54 points 4 months ago (2 children)

The only computer most huamns have ever used is a smart phone.

[–] [email protected] 17 points 4 months ago

this makes me sad

[–] Psythik 15 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (9 children)

If you're under 20 and/or not in the US or Europe, probably.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 4 months ago

I have some news about worldwide demographics

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[–] [email protected] 54 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (9 children)

Good mobile game = ports from PC games and emulators

miHoYo games could be so much more if they are PC/Console games instead of mobile.

The only truly mobile game that I can think of that I can say is good is Pokemon GO, and I don't even like it but is the only game that truly uses the uniqueness of the mobile platform as a game feature.

[–] Zoomboingding 16 points 4 months ago (6 children)

I'm in a closed beta for WalkScape, which is a single-player RPG that uses your pedometer for all game progress. Travel to another location? Chop down trees? Craft a bronze mining pick? Stomp grapes into wine? All of them progress only as you take steps throughout the day. A great little game to check in on now and then, and I feel utilizes the mobile platform well.

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[–] SatansMaggotyCumFart 40 points 4 months ago (2 children)

Don’t Starve. Shattered Pixel Dungeon.

Bam, there goes the next year of your life.

[–] Xanthrax 18 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (1 children)

OSRS, chess.com, lichess

[–] [email protected] 13 points 4 months ago (5 children)

First two are proprietary. 2009scape mobile ftw

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[–] polyduekes 13 points 4 months ago (6 children)

HELL YEAH SHATTERED PIXEL DUNGEON MENTIONED

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[–] [email protected] 36 points 4 months ago (1 children)

I was early into mobile gaming, and it used to be AWESOME! It was a platform oozing with potential. Every game that came out on mobile was excellently crafted...until Candy Crush came out. It literally ruined the whole genre.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 4 months ago (8 children)

I wouldn't exactly call Doodle Jump the pinnacle of gaming.

[–] acceptable_humor 13 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (2 children)

If you play games like monument valley 1 & 2, dadish, 20 minutes till dawn and games similar to that you'll see how polished mobile games can be.

Edit: Game name correction

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[–] [email protected] 32 points 4 months ago (3 children)

The best game I've played on Android is the Kotor port.

The second best game I've played is the Into the Breach port.

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[–] glitchdx 29 points 4 months ago (6 children)

Every good game on mobile is a port of something made for another platform.

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[–] [email protected] 27 points 4 months ago (3 children)

Terraria, but it's a lot better on PC. You can transfer your character files and maps with a little effort though.

DevilutionX is pretty good if you liked Diablo 1.

And then there are the insane lists of ROMs/emulators.

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[–] Raab 25 points 4 months ago (2 children)

Old-school RuneScape being on mobile makes it the best mobile game of all time

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[–] [email protected] 24 points 4 months ago (2 children)

Slay the Spire.

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[–] [email protected] 24 points 4 months ago

At least there is Stardew Valley.

[–] [email protected] 22 points 4 months ago (7 children)

Shattered Pixel Dungeon is fun

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[–] [email protected] 18 points 4 months ago (2 children)

There's an insane number of PC ports. You can play Myst or GTA SA.

On the multiplayer side, genshin is very much your traditional MMO, if you like that. You can also play Eve or Hades star.

In terms of a competitive scene for years we had vainglory (forever in our hearts), and now we have LoL wild rift.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 4 months ago

Yea but touch screen controls are the worst. I hate using those virtual joysticks

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[–] [email protected] 18 points 4 months ago (2 children)

The mobile games industry was killed by ports and low-effort cash grabs. Seems like nobody makes good games that are specifically designed for mobile anymore, and almost all ports suffer from poor controls and/or just not being as good as the original versions.

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[–] Ragdoll_X 15 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (4 children)

A year ago or so I would have said Clash Royale. But now... nah.

You'll find plenty of videos that explain this better than I can, but at this point the devs clearly hate the community, the game is more pay to win than ever, evolutions are completely broken and the devs barely care to balance the game anymore.

It's pretty obvious that right now they just want to squeeze as much money as possible from the game before it completely dies out.

[–] [email protected] 25 points 4 months ago

And that describes mobile gaming in a nutshell.

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[–] [email protected] 14 points 4 months ago (6 children)

PPSSPP but its too hard to use the touchscreen controls for most titles.

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[–] EvolvedTurtle 14 points 4 months ago (1 children)

I've been wanting to make a mobile game out of spite because if this

Game development is super hard tho and I've only done like 3 game jams

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[–] [email protected] 13 points 4 months ago (4 children)

Gotta plug one of my favorite mobile game studios: Afterburn. They only have 3 puzzle games. All are relatively short and 100%-able. Every single one is fun and full of heart. Golf Peaks, Inbento (bought by Crunchyroll), and Railbound.

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[–] rustyfish 13 points 4 months ago (2 children)

Are we going to act like Plants vs Zombies doesn’t exist?

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[–] [email protected] 12 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (4 children)

I got mini metro on my PC. Felt like that would have been a great game to have on a phone

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[–] [email protected] 12 points 4 months ago

i remember polytopia used to be good

[–] [email protected] 12 points 4 months ago (6 children)

you get the problem PC has (zillions of devices of different hardware/os configs) but at an even lower performance minimum. heavily limits what developers actually can do with it.

also doesnt help that more than half your userbase doesnt want to actually pay for the game.