sleepybisexualWhy do mobile games suck nowadays?
DruidEnshittification, the rise of micro transactions in mobile games over actual in-game mechanics that make the game interesting etc
Trust capitalism to ruin everything
BjörnHas it ever been better?
What happened was that they made a fuckton of money that way.
Ports of older PC games are also often quite good.
popcar2Has it ever been better?
Actually, yes, by a big margin. Back in ~2011 mobile games were actually trying to be great. Games like Edge Extended, World of Goo, Bounce Boing Voyage, Zenonia 2 & 3, etc.
I remember early Humble Bundles being full of exciting games for mobile, now you’ll be lucky to find just one of them that isn’t filled to the brim with MTX
Survival of the fittest. As is, the type of game that makes the more money.
DJDarrenI remember buying Bioshock on my iPhone way back in the mists of time, before decent controller support existed for iOS. The on screen controls weren’t great, so I didn’t spend much time playing it, always planning to come back at some point.
Then it got removed from the App Store so completely that it disappeared from my purchased list, and that was that.
i mean its not like you cant go onto the mobile store and buy games like stardew valley or terraria. its just that pay to play games have taken a back seat due to the profitability of free to play games.
Money
They always sucked.
kratoz29I don’t know man, I had my fair share of fun with a pair of Nyan Cat games, the original Plants Vs Zombies, Nimble Quest (I just got this again on Android and cracked the heck out of it with Lucky patcher, and still suck lol), Tiny Wings, Angry Birds and I could be missing some others.
Infinity blade
Oh yeah, I fired up my old iPhone 6s to play the Infinity Blade II, no regrets!
WahotsGalaxy On Fire 2 was great, but Elite Dangerous on PC later kicked the absolute crap out of it.
These were originally the exception, but all eventually followed the rule.
No they didn’t. I have a 1st gen iPad loaded with old versions of popular games (e.g. Jetpack Joyride, Angry Birds) and there are literally zero ads and in-app purchases.
I’m fairly sure those were paid tho
True, but I would rather buy a dozen quality $0.99 games with high replay value (still fun 13+ years later) than several dozen “””free””” ad-filled games that constantly bug you for a $3.99/week subscription to get more BullshitCoins
I mean the high quality paid games are still around, and I’m reasonably sure new ones are still being made. They’re not a lost art, just not as popular as free games
RivenThey’re making the same argument people make about music. There’s plenty of good music out there of all genres. Radio just doesn’t play it and you have to go out of your way to find what you like.
That’s just the wages of living in a huge postmodernist society that produces a vast amount of media. We no longer have centralized institutions (or rather they’re losing relative importance) so you have to go looking through the depths of either recommendation algorithms or topical forums
I find that to be a good thing. The less centralized institutions that can control what we do the better. I say that while social media is the biggest it’s ever been.
Weird take, imo. Mobile games are probably the best they’ve ever been. They were traditionally a place for rampant p2w garbage gacha machines, and while those are still there, the platform has actual decent games nowadays. Real PC games are being ported to mobile and the platform is being taken seriously. Even in the world of micro transactions and gacha games, there are far more that are actually decent as games then there ever has been.
I’ve been playing Monster Hunter Now and I’ve been really impressed with it. The entirety of the Riot games are good games with reasonable microtransactions. Vampire Survivors, my go-to “I am offline” game, is the exact same game on mobile as PC, save the fact that it’s free and you have a choice to watch ads for marginal farming speedups (which can be disabled if you buy literally any of their ~$1.50 DLC expansions, which are hilariously large considering their price). Fucking Warframe is coming to/already on (?) mobile.
I genuinely can’t say mobile games have ever been in a better place than today, despite the existence of the shovelware P2W games that continue to roll out.
I’ll side with OP from a slightly different perspective here, because you’re not wrong but neither is OP. First and foremost I think the word missing here is innovation – mobile games in their very initial start were exactly what you are describing, but mobile games that OP are talking about took some time to find freedom to innovate. The very first mobile games, almost all of them, were PC ports. Solitare, poker, mahjong, snake, tetris… These were all games that had existed for years and were just now put into a 160x128 res screen and played with a circular slider (first iPod), or whatever the specs of the Blackberry was back then. Few unique games were created for these devices.
By late 2009 the iPod Touch 3g had released. It was this and the following few years where OP is talking about, where not only were old games like Spy Hunter being remade, and funnily enough, I’m pretty sure Rockstar also released a few GTA’s on this device. But there were also entirely new games like Doodle Jump, Canabalt, and to a lesser extent Pocket God. (Well, relatively new and unique, at least.) These of course paved the way for Temple Run and honestly I had so many amazing mobile games back then that remembering them all would be a trip down memory lane far too long for today.
Anyway, my point and I’m assuming OP’s point is that it’s harder to find truly unique and “new” experiences in the mobile game world. The idea of Talking Tom when he first came out was something truly unlike anything else available. Not that it was particularly good, or that being unique makes it good, but rather there were more games willing to take a risk on being different.
And yes, of course back then there were plenty of shovelware games trying to pine off another apps success. I think it’s simply a difference of mindset, for the good games that are available today generally seem to follow the same principles – a good game comes first, and if you accomplish that the expenses pay themselves. For your examples, the only games that didn’t already exist were semi-MH Now (Pokemon Go/Ingress, but I agree they are unique and fun) and the Riot mobile games. I agree that the other games you mentioned are good as well, I’d even include the fact that there are other full PC/console games like Monster Hunter Stories 1 and 2, Final Fantasy, and plenty of others.
But none of these were made specifically with the attributes of mobile gaming in mind. Where are the disjointed IRL vs. on screen games like Panoptic! There’s so much potential for mobile phone games of really wild and unique stuff, but it’s easier to make money by iterating and porting existing things to the platform.
I found a little list that was fun:
- Jetpack Joyride,
- Plants vs Zombies
- Real Steel World Robot Boxing,
- Real Steel HD,
- Pacific Rim,
- Ultimate Robot Fighting,
- Cut the Rope
- Fruit Ninja
- Flappy Bird,
- Where’s My Water?,
- Crossy Road,
- Asphalt 8,
- Call of Mini Zombies, Call of Mini Infinity,
- Clash of Clans Real Steel Champions,
- Transformers Battle Masters,
- Geometry Dash,
- Minecraft Pocket Edition,
- Hungry Shark Evolution,
- LEGO Hero Factory Invasion from Below, LEGO Hero Factory Brain Attack,
- Beach Buggy Racing.
- Hovercraft Takedown,
- Table Top Racing,
- Smash Hit,
- Riptide GP, Riptide GP Renegade,
- Mechanic Escape,
- Robo5,
- BombSquad.
- Draw a Stickman Epic Free,
- Zombie Tsunami,
- Badland,
- Hill Climb Racing 1,
- My Singing Monsters,
- Despicable Me Minion Rush,
- Bad Piggies HD,
- Star Warfare Alien Invasion. Star Warfare Payback,
- Pixel Gun 3D,
- Block City Wars,
- Pac-Man 256,
- The Impossible Game,
- Gravity Guy.
- Laser Air Hockey
- That one game where you’re a 2D spider-man swinging
manielSadly because it works, mobile gaming is bigger money-wise than PC and consoles combined, all because people are susceptible to short term dopamine hit your can buy any time, it’s a part of what we call enshittification, making the product less user friendly and make more money, shareholders are happy, your don’t have to
Capitalism ruins everything
It’s a two part story:
The mobile market mostly targets kids and boomers and their resistance to microtransactions has been basically non-existent, making the market quickly become predatory and full of spam
Modern app stores have become abysmal, making it impossible for smaller games to see the light of day. 99% of google play is a dumpster fire, and the 1% that is decent isn’t published by a multi-billion dollar company so you’re unlikely to ever see it. There are good games out there, but the way the algorithms and ads work makes them constantly pushed down in the list. This isn’t “a problem” to a company like Google because they’re making bank off of all these ad spaces.
Anyways, most good games are paid, but here’s a list of stuff I’ve enjoyed playing on mobile:
-
Fancy Pants Adventures
-
Bloons TD 6
-
Dicey Dungeons
-
Slay the Spire (but the mobile port is rough on small screens)
-
Knights of Pen and Paper +1
-
The Enchanted Cave 2
-
Let’s Create! Pottery
-
BAIKOH
-
Data Wing
Probably a lot more I forgot. Have at it.
Yea. It was always bad, just got worse. Nowadays j just emulate old games. My main phone game is road rash for gbc
Don’t forget Plants vs Zombies 2. Which despite some micro transactions, definitely held up in its early days. Rather, I’d say it got do either dirty from balancing issues rather than greed.
Add slice & dice. But on itch to get it both on pc and android. It is great.
🇰 🌀 🇱 🇦 🇳 🇦 🇰 🇮 🏆Nowadays
Lol they’ve always sucked.
Nostalgia ain’t what it meant to be
I’m not even 16, why do I feel ancient
Take this as a life lesson, and understand that while your view of things changes as you get older, most things generally stay the same.
You sure about that? Lot of stuff went to shit these past 5 years
You’re not wrong about that.
I’m not even 16, why do I feel ancient
I don’t know if this will help you, but I think that’s pretty normal. I felt similarly at your age in some ways and in other ways I felt like a baby, depending on how I looked at things. I still feel that way and I’m twice your age! It’s weird. Growing up is weird. I feel for you. 💖
Thank you :3
Of course! :)
loopsThe only good games on phone are now emulators and a few Foss games
Always has been.
bang
Nah, angry birds used to be good and supercell stuff was OK before it went down the shitter
I was ok with the Angry Birds franchise right up until the shitty kart racing game they pumped out. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a more wretched collection of bare-faced advertising and micro transactions as that fucking piece of shit.
The game was crammed full of new pop songs, and when one would play the game would display a link to buy it from iTunes. I couldn’t let my kid play it, it was just too egregious.
Haven’t touched any of those games since. Which is a shame, because I really enjoyed the original.
That kart game was genius programming, give you a few initial levels where it let you think that you’re driving the kart, that you’re winning because of your skills, then start the real routine of “autopilot simulator programmed to lose until you activate the paid power ups”
Edit: and I can’t believe that more than ten years passed from the release of that “game”, I remember I was playing it on my BlackBerry Z10, i can see why many itt are saying “always has been shitty” - just a year before they weren’t shitty. Gameloft released games like “9mm” and “batman the dark knight” that for just one dollar were console like experiences. And beach buggy racing, and riptide.
quenpwnGacha games
BlxterNot gonna lie I’m still hitting clash of clans… Paid for maybe 5 months of gold pass but no longer
Same problem that is crippling every human interaction on earth.
Money and greed.
It all goes to "we can do a good thing that will help people or that people will enjoy" or "we can make crap/do horrible things and get another 5 bucks off each of em", and the latter is always chosen.
You get what you pay for. If you download a free game, then of course it’s going to be full of pay-to-win microtransactions. Although there are issues with greed in some larger games run by big companies, the reality is that game devs deserve to earn a living too, and that means at some point a game needs to be paid for.
There are still plenty of good quality mobile games out there, they just don’t tend to be free to download. Back when I had more free time, I actually got good usage out of the Play Pass on Android, which was £5 a month and gave me access to a catalogue of excellent mobile games with no microtransactions at all, the vast majority of which were single-player, offline games. Literally the only reason I’m not still subscribed is I just don’t have time to play mobile games at the moment - the chances of me subscribing again over the summer when I’m not at uni is high.
You also don’t get what you pay for when it comes to mobile. Had some games get delisted so it’s not even downloadable anymore and even though I kept it on my phone I can’t run it because it fails the license check. Mobile game isn’t worth spending money on.
chameleonIf you're a gamedev trying to make a decent mobile game, you're competing on all the usual fronts like price and perceived quality, but competing for attention has gotten a whole lot harder when [arbitrary card game] has a hour of dailies, [arbitrary gacha game] always has a special campaign going and [arbitrary fake gambling game] is about to have its battle pass end and they're only halfway through. And that has gone up by so, so much over the past decade. It was never good but it's gotten absolutely egregious. At this point, even any generic snake clone will have a battle pass.
Every person that ends up committed to a couple of those long-term-commitment games ends up having much less time for other games. And they make a lot of money, which means they also end up having a hell of a marketing budget.
What do you mean, "nowadays"? Mobile games always sucked.
I beg to differ. Angry Bird, cut the rope, where’s my water, Space RPG, FRUIT Ninja, and a whole lot more, are classic mobile games in the beginning. They’re sometimes simple, yes, but at least there’s efforts in it to try to be original.
Nowadays, it’s all Freemium p2w cash grab.
That you didn’t like them doesn’t mean they sucked, look along this thread and you’ll find ppl sharing titles worthwhile back then (me included), ofc, this is not GOTY material, but a game must not be a masterpiece in order to be enjoyable, which ultimately is what all games are for, to be an enjoyable hobby.
Lexi SneptaurThe only good new mobile games are on Apple Arcade, which is behind a paywall. It sucks but what can ya do.
SteveNow that you mentioned this, I do recall in the early days of mobile games, back when the App Shops were first introduced, there were games that you would pay somewhere between $1 and $5, and you get the whole thing. No in-app purchases, no ads, and no lotteries for special characters or gear. I remember Square Enix had some really good JRPG games that were made specifically for the iPhone and iPad. Chaos Rings and DrakeRider were two games I recall playing, but they were much more expensive compared to the usual games I found. But, when you paid for it, you got the whole game and all.
I think mobile app developers have realized that they could get more engagement and cash from their users if they made games that had a gambling aspect to it. Kinda like the casinos in Vegas, the house always wins, but you keep putting in money on the hopes you get a jackpot.
That being said, there is one freemium game that I do find quite fun, and that is Romancing SaGa Re;univerSe. The thing that makes this freemium game a bit different is that Square Enix is quite generous in their in-game currency. You can actually do quite well without making any in-app purchases.
I’m in the game industry. This is entirely person observation I have not studied this topic so can’t source anything
The people I saw going to early mobile market were a lot of handheld console and flash game devs and companies. They were adapting the closest existing game designs and brought with them a “small game small cost” philosophy. It also wasn’t really known yet how impulsive people are on phones. So it was an unproven market with smaller teams and people making yester era design choices. There also used to be a few bigger games with bigger price tags but people didn’t buy into those because anyone willing to spend that on a game at the time would have had a console or PC and could buy a better experience there for the same price.
The only mobile game experience I have was back in like 2012, smart phones were really taking off, and the market for mobile games was proven. The company I worked for we built a release ready game but it never got released. We couldn’t sell it to investors because the monetization was never aggressive enough for them (the investor money at that point was less about making the game and more to fund marketing and stabilizing the studio as a long term business). I quit when my job stopped being dev work and started being round tables about how to psychologically trick players into paying more. Anyway with so much focus on heavy monetization it stopped being economically worth it for a lot of startups to actually make good games when thinly veiled skinner boxes pleased the investors all the same
I’m feeling the same way about Minion Masters. I just play it on my Steam Deck, but it got an Android release recently. They gave away a few of their “DLC” packs (which is how I found it about it), so maybe my experience is a bit atypical, but I’ve just been playing for a week or so and I already have more than half the available cards and enough currency that I can craft any cards I really want to finish a deck.
I haven’t paid a cent. It’s so generous with its freemium model that I’m probably going to buy an in-game currency pack if I’m still playing once my Google Rewards wallet ticks high enough to buy one.
Best mobile games are Nintendo DS games that are completely touch based, which end up feeling like native experiences such as Kirby Mass Attack.
TamlynThe short answer is, because they make money.
eezeebeeEveryone embraced smartphones and created a bigger market for games than there ever was before. Naturally when the mainstream latches onto something it becomes diluted and all about making a quick buck. Imo
Fdroid app store has a lot of frankly amaz8ng indie games.
Pirate freecell is fantastic.
KissakiPirate freecell is fantastic.
There doesn’t seem to be a Pirate freecell. Do you mean Pirate Solitaire?
Custom variant of the Free-Cell solitaire with pirate themed cards in pixel art.