Mobile Gaming Discussion !

[impuuuu]

I've got folders and folders of games on my iPhone and mobile is my most used platform atm since I can play a variety of things on the go. Life has been good since I got the 128 GB phone and have yet to run out of space!

 

I just wish that mobile games didn't have the trend that they've had, with the "top" free games absolutely flooded with the same type of build shit, waiting, and pay for premium currency thing going on. Too bad it's so profitable to sell indulgence rather than providing actual content for extra fees Hunting through the app store for good games can be a little hard because of all the spam of things that aren't what you'd really consider a gaming experience. I just think that iOS games and mobile games in general could be sooo much better, and there are some goodies, they're just hard to find.

 

I'm curious-- what you do you think of mobile gaming? Got any recommendations? Looking for a certain type of game? Discuss!

[impuuuu]

I thought I'd share a few of the games I've enjoyed recently or are favorites. If you're looking for a particular type of game, I could probably recommend something too! I like games that engage you in achieving something, so keep that in mind with my reviews. If you need to burn some time, all of these are pretty good, and my reviews can seem a bit critical haha. I also enjoy less arcade-style games that are more turn-based and have some kind of progress going on. (Will probably update once in a while with reviews.)

Pokemon-like Games

Pocket Mortys (Free) - From Rick & Morty! It's really cute and has some nice writing from the show's creators. Basically you can collect different kinds of Mortys, combine them to evolve them, and battle other NPC Mortys. Most of the gameplay is going through randomized dungeons, fighting in very simplified Pokemon-style. It's initially pretty fun, but gets repetitive after a while. In fact, it gets really tedious since the plot is pretty much just to beat even more of the randomized dungeons. There's not much nuance to the battle strategy or training Mortys, just hoping you get lucky to find some good ones. The art is interesting though, and the writing can be entertaining until you've seen all the NPC text. If anyone is just getting the game I have some good tips for starting off! Hopefully they add a lot more features, because it's quickly stale. But I definitely recommend this game! It'll burn at least a couple hours with the humor and discovering new things, and if you like catching them all and doing some mindless grinding after a while, you can enjoy this game for a long time.

Neomon ($0.99) - The company that made this app, NTT Resonant, has a couple other Pokemon-style games that are pretty fun. They have some unique mechanics that are really well-optimized for mobile users, and a strong campaign mode to go through. This game in particular is absorbing long-term, with plenty of things to do like progress through the campaign or expend energy to go on side missions. Other than these side missions, you aren't limited with how much you can play. There's a good amount of strategy involved with the game, especially with its super unique battle mechanics. The battles actually become challenging and require you to re-order your team and think of interesting strategies. Cons of this game are that 99% of the monsters you encounter in the wild are seriously not worth catching, and the only monsters that are worth slots on your team are going to come from premium Golden Eggs. The good thing about this game though is that it provides plenty of opportunities to open many Golden Eggs from consistent checkpoints in the campaign. In the much later levels though, you'll be frustrated that your monsters can only be so good with the Golden Egg opportunities that you've had. It takes a while to get to that point though. Also my pet peeve, it has the Japanese app-style mechanics of "event" where you try to beat really hard dungeons and stuff to get materials to upgrade your monsters to be much better. To get to the highest-level play, you'll probably have to spend a ton of time on it or pay, but that's completely unnecessary to enjoy the game especially since there isn't even competitive PVP. Overall, really great take on the Pokemon style and time waster. Only wish is that it didn't have the whole premium thing going on. (Try Hunter Island and Dragon Island as well.)

Puzzle

Magic the Gathering: Puzzle Quest (Free) - I usually don't like match-three games but this one has genuine strategy to it! Despite matching-three being the main gameplay, it manages to incorporate deck-building, using hero abilities, and strategy to be pretty fun. The campaign mode just has you fighting more and more difficult NPC's, but it's more interesting with certain "goals" to replay the matches to get some premium currency. I've only played a little bit of Magic, but I'm super impressed with how they brought in the mechanics of Magic to this game. They have a rough PvP system that really just has you playing against the AI with random people's decks, but they'll be doing updates soon!

Ascension: Chronicle of the Godslayer (Free?) - I had no idea what a deckbuilding game was before I found this, but holy cow is it fun strategy. It's based on an actual card game but I hadn't known that when I tried it a couple years ago. Basically you play matches starting out with a basic deck, which you add to and try to create synergy in your deck throughout the match. The game is all self-contained within matches, think like poker, so it's easy to just start up a quick game once in a while. There's PvP as well, which is really fun, though not sure how active it is since I've stopped playing. I'm guessing the people there are all really good haha. Premium content it buying expansions so that there are more cards to play with, which may be necessary once the basic cards get boring to play with. This is the type of premium content I enjoy, because it gives you something permanent, impacts your ability to be better than other players none whatsoever, and generally feels wholesome to purchase. This being a free game, I didn't mind paying for a couple cheap expansions to enjoy it more and support the dev. Definitely try this game if you like strategy in quick matches! And if you've never tried a deck-building game before, I would recommend checking it out!

RPG

The Quest Gold ($7.99) - I LOVE this game. I didn't even realize this kind of full-game experience existed on iOS! It's basically a turn-based Skyrim, to put it roughly. Insanely open-world, lots of options, quests, builds, exploring to do. Like many games $5+, it's legit full-length game with no other premium content. Only problem I had with it was that my screen is small and my eyes are bad, but it is pretty easy to use on mobile as a port from I think an old PC game. Seriously, if you're looking for an RPG, this is it. You can pick a class, level up, go on quests, explore the world, find items, fall into traps, etc. etc. I haven't really purchased similarly prices games, so I can't really compare it to others, but I'd love to hear recommendations for similar games.

Attack the Light (Free?) - Super well-polished Steven Universe game. You have your party members and progress through the campaign's dungeons, with lots of unique monsters, new skills that you learn, and gorgeous art/animation.

Miscellaneous Fun Games

Welcome to the Dungeon (Free) - Hard to describe, but you are a dungeon master that collects monsters to put in dungeons to stop heroes from beating the dungeon. You try to collect stronger monsters so that when you click Play the heroes don't get through. Fun, casual game!

Tiny Dice Dungeon (Free) - Collect monsters that have different abilities and damage based on the dice they have! Go through the campaign to find and collect monsters. Unique mechanics with rolling dice, yet not super RNG, and lots of fun. Can be very premium-heavy for good monsters and frustrating in an attempt to get you to buy stuff, but enjoyable for a while! The PvP is also pretty cool. Cute graphics too, and the dice mechanic really is interesting, especially if you like messing with statistics and going online to find the optimal dice combos for maximum damages.

"Choice of" Games (Free/Paid) - I love these Choose-Your-Own Adventure games. I went on a binge a while ago to play a ton of them. I recommend Creatures Such as We, which kind of explores a deep theme but thinking back on it was a little odd and pretentious? Still, very interesting game + some romance for both genders. Choice of Romance has part one which is free and interesting enough, and I think the second part is paid. Despite its name, it's more about politics into the second part. Choice of the Dragon is amusing. You're a dragon that like plunders villages or finds a mate or battles wizards haha. Choice of Robots has you raising an AI robot with a really long story and fun things to read on intelligent robots and things. You can also have a romance with the robot? But you can also not haha. I have a bunch of others from Choice of Games downloaded but most of them are premium to get past the first part. Overall, the games have interesting writing that explores a bunch of different topics, though not always exactly what you'd expect. They all get a little deep on some theme or another.

Vain Glory (Free) - Legit League of Legends/Lords Management on iOS. It's 3v3, with normal games, ranked with MMR, skins, guilds, parties, a chat function. Insanely polished, and I think it's been growing. Probably better to play on iPad, but I still play on my little screen sometimes. Graphics are amazing, but will probably eat up a ton of memory/battery.

[clyde]

Thanks for this list. I'm surprised I haven't heard of the Magic Puzzle Quest. Also I'm interested in the Choice Of games, but it would be a lot easier to pick one if they had a free chapter to see if I respond well to the writing style.

[osmosisch]

If you like Ascension, I strongly recommend Star Realms. I find it to be a much better game due to its increased interactivity.

[dium]

I pretty much only try phone games if they're mentioned on the idle thumbs podcast so this is a useful resource.

 

Recently I've enjoyed Downwell and Laura Croft Go, both mega bestsellers everyone knows about.

[impuuuu]

I tried Star Realm! On iPhone the cards are so hard to read. And the double-touch to zoom in is tedious. The mechanics seem pretty interesting though, and I like the campaign mode!

[juv3nal]

on iOS, Crashland(s?) is a good Don't Starve-like game. There's a steam version with cloud synching between platforms from what I understand though I only have it for my phone.