Once upon a time mobile gaming felt super compelling, like really immediate and important.
To the point where I could honestly say that many of my favourite games were being released on mobile platforms. The belief, at one point, was that mobile games would become more sophisticated, but I’m not necessarily sure that’s happened. In fact, it seems like we’ve stagnated a little.
Or am I just missing something?
I guess my question is: am I missing something? What are you playing on mobile devices at the moment?
I’ll admit, I’ve been a little bit out of the loop. I tend to play a lot of the big Australian mobile releases but the last mobile game I played that felt important, unique and interesting was probably Desert Golfing. That was a while ago now.
What are you all playing? Any recommendations?
Comments
77 responses to “Tell Us Dammit: What Mobile Games Are You Playing?”
On Mobile?,
Nothing…
Mobile games were a mistake. They are nothing but trash.
There are plenty of good mobile games out there. Plants vs Zombies 2 is free to play, gets new worlds added for free every few months and most definitely isn’t p2w. You can buy extra plants but they’re not necessary. Have been playing it for 2 years now, kinda feel bad I’ve not given them a cent.
The Kingdom Rush series of games are extremely polished and works great for a 5-10 minute game on the mobile.
Then theres Knights of the Old Republic. Perfect port of the Xbox game with controls that work perfectly for a touch screen device.
Yes, there is a LOT of trash out there, but there are certainly a few gems easily worth the $2 asking price.
Haha I’m in the same boat. PvZ 2 for years and years. Done most levels, although I think I’m probably 1-2 worlds behind now (uninstalled about 2 months ago). Had hundreds of plant pots, and like 250k coins :P. I don’t play anymore but it was a nice distraction whenever I had 5-10mins on the train or whatever.
Should of put that in quotation marks. People might not of gotten the reference haha
Yeah, all my mobile gaming has shifted back to my 3DS now, after it spending some time unloved on the shelf.
Crashlands!
I play timewastery ones and tower defense games. Adventure Capitalist, World Chef, Cooking Fever, Toy Defense 2, OMG: TD!, Township, Kingdom Rush (and all its iterations), Tower Madness 2, Middle Manager of Justice (which is actually a very Double Fine game).
I deleted Adventure Capitalist. My life is much better now.
Nothing.
I’ve yet to find anything that’s really stuck with me – the closest I’ve gotten is playing touch-only NDS roms via DraStic on Android. Games like Ace Attorney, Phantom Hourglass, Layton, and Ghost Trick translate incredibly well onto mobile.
Hearthstone. All I ever need. But no I think you;re right Mark, mobile games have stagnated a little. I play nothing else.
I remember a time when I could browse the app store and be excited about new releases. Now it seems like a couple of forumlas have been hits and everyone is rinse and repeating with their theme/light spin on it.
Freemium is a double edged sword as well. Kinda cool there’s a ton of games to check out, but when you finally get one you like its massively gimped because of a pay wall… so its lose/lose in the end.
The best game I’ve played in the last 12 months was “Pumped BMX 2”. It had a very tony hawk feel for a 2d game, started out easy and was very challenging at the end. Otherwise I still hover between clash of clans, stick cricket, world series poker & soccer stars, but nothing super exciting.
This is how I feel about browsing Steam now.
I’ve all but given up on Marvel Puzzle Quest. I’m now onto Marvel Future Fight, the game you barely have to play…
I still play Marvel Puzzle Quest a couple times a day. It may be good or maybe I just think it is because I am a complete sucker for Marvel comics.
I’m still doing the Deadpool dailies cos its become quite a routine. But I hardly touch the PVEs and PVPs anymore…
Yo Mamma. Sequel to Yo Daddy but not as good. 6/17 stars.
Simpsons Tapped Out still gets the occasional look-in on the phone, because I’m in too deep.
Other than that, I’ve evolved my normal 11am bathroom break from Angry Birds to Two Dots.
Trivia Crack – gotta get all those damn cards
Snake.
Snaaaaaaake!!
Snaaaaaaaaaaaakeeee!!!!
Right now, it’s Plants vs Zombies 2 and The Room Three. I only ever play games on the train though.
I finished PvZ2 last week, cant wait for the last half of ‘Modern, I’m guessing that’ll be the last?
Yeah it all liklihood it’ll be the last of the content once part 2 hits, though there is that rift thing to the right on the time period select screen that could turn into something.
I’ve just got a new phone so I’ve been looking for something new to play. I was hoping xcom would go on sale for the launch of the second one but nothing yet.
I always give em a go, but never get far.
Usually have a bag, so I just throw my Vita or 3DS in.
At the moment I’ve been playing Legend of Heroes Trails of Cold Steel.
You are a gentleman and a scholar.
Thank you, ser
Nothing, my lowly iPhone 4 can’t run the “good” ones.
Deleted – sorry bud, dunno why it replied here…
Only thing I’m playing on my phone is Hitman: Sniper
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.squareenixmontreal.hitmansniperandroid
The last mobile game I properly fell for was Lara Croft GO (which is rad as hell) but I played it on a tablet so that doesn’t really count. I bought Downwell on mobile to support the dev for making such an awesome thing even though I primarily play it on PC for the superior controls. Now that I think about it the only thing I’m playing regularly on mobile is the daily Bonza puzzle.
I really enjoyed Lara Croft Go as well, and picked up Hitman Go, which I think is good but not as good.
Ya I played Hitman GO first and enjoyed it, I thought I’d be burnt out on that style jumping straight into Lara Croft but it was really better in every respect. I thought the difficulty curve was gentler too.
I’m playing Star Wars Heroes – curse you @ Mike Fahey
Have ignored the temptation to buy currency so far 😀
Also play 3’s fairly frequently when i don’t want to interact with people in a lift or something.
I’m not sure if it was a good thing or a bad thing when I found out my device wasn’t compatible
If you want to join a guild for when they’re implemented into Galaxy of Heroes take a look at our Aussie guild here https://forums.galaxy-of-heroes.starwars.ea.com/discussion/6579/anzgc-the-guild-from-down-under 😉
I think I’ll take you up on your offer – cheers!
The only mobile games I ever find myself coming back to (Android master race here) are emulators:
– Megadrive (Genesis)
– Snes
– GBA
– PSX
And with chromecast, I can simply cast these to the tv on home if I’m bored.
I found the odd gem in there from time to time (ymbab, fotonica, star command, sopwith barons, star traders rpg) but find pretty much every other game in the market these days (that isnt a pc port or ‘enhanced edition’, ie baldurs gate, kotor, icewind dale) has paywalls/timers that once I hit, the game gets uninstalled or avoided in the future…
Did you get a controller working?
I had the psp emulator going but found touch controls painful
Yeah I did, I use ePSXe with my PS3 controller and it works a treat.
I also use a mounting bracket that came with a mini usb -> ps3 usb cable – Cost about 10$ or so from ebay.
Agreed. Touch controls are painful for platformers and psx games, but I found for RPG/Turnbased games touch controls fine. I mean I’m generally not playing for longer than 30-60mins… If I’m playing longer than that, I use my consoles or PC.
Hearthstone and boom beach.
I download a lot of free ones from the Kotaku app deals updates. Some stick, a lot don’t. Piloteer is great fun. Also got hooked on Her Story, Monument Valley, and The Room.
I used to play them a lot more. Jetpack Joyride, Ski Safari, Threes!, Bike Baron, Plants vs. Zombies. Mobile gaming hasn’t hooked me in a while, probably because I’m so perturbed by in-app purchases. Investing so much time and extra money into a mobile game feels strange to me, even though I gladly do it on console. The App Store is so swamped with new games that investing in one feels like a waste.
Umm… nothing. Last mobile game I played was Lara Croft Go, which was pretty cool, but kinda drifted off it. Closest thing to a game atm is a Memrise course to learn the Tenno script from Warframe. 😛
I’m currently addicted to Puxers
The only game I play on my phone/tablet is Hearthstone, which I probably wouldn’t classify as a “mobile” game.
Star Wars – Galaxy of Heroes & Two-dots
Nothing. Mobile gaming is the scum of the industry, filled to brim with all that real time timer, micro transaction, “come back every day” bullcrap thst insults my spare time.
The last mobile game I got into (and I REALLY loved it) was Monument Valley.
I bought Lara Croft Go but it hasn’t grabbed me. Other than that, nada.
I’ve gone back to the 3DS, I think the mobile freemium model and shallow gameplay just ended up pushing me back to the handheld.
I just have lost total interest in mobile gaming. I felt like it was forcing/telling me when to play, rather than me playing when I wanted to.
Although the entire family played Neko Katsume for a few months, we just liked comparing new cats to each other, there was no need to buy anything and the game was totally undemanding of time, and was cute.
Actual games though, I think the last one I played was Framed.
Neko Atusme and Super Hexagon
Finally got that last cat!
Woo!!
I’m 2 Mementos short of 100%
I’m a fan of some good endless runners so I tend to drift back to One Epic Knight and the Ski Safari series (for any fans who drifted away for a while after the originals, there’s a SS2 now with 3D graphics and better world diversity), but Squenix has some solid offerings – Relic Runner is a mostly solid take on outdoing Temple Run at its own game (but can get a bit mean once collecting the right item to finish a level comes down to how many revives you can afford), and of course the Hitman and Lara Croft GO games are fantastic puzzles (and I really hope they eventually do a Deus Ex GO since it has so much potential… or even a Just Cause GO where you have to make things explode the right way :p)
My current distraction is Pocket Mine 2 – which makes for a sort of endless runner variant on Spelunky with a pickaxe that can only hit a limited number of times – at least until I find another good tower defense that isn’t just a Kingdom Rush or Field Runners clone (and nowadays they tend to come less from Play Store browsing than Humble Mobile bundles)
Kung Fury, they’ve just added story mode.
There is a Kung Fury game!?!?!
yep pretty basic style beat em up, enemies come from left and right and you just have to press the corresponding side (left or right) its like One Finger Death Punch if you ever played that? another good game on mobile.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M0M5DYSRwvA
Hearthstone
Hearthstone
and more
Hearthstone
Gems of War has become an obsession of mine recently. It’s the reason I cintinue to look so bleary in the mornings
Hearthstone and WSOP
Trials Frontier
Vainglory
X-Com – Enemy Within
Door Kickers
The Room 3
Final Fantasy V
Real Racing 3
Hearthstone
Those top three in particular… the perfect mobile game for fans of the Trials series… a stripped down and brilliant mobile-MOBA and the third best strategy game of the last ten years.
I can’t even remember what else as I have LOTS of games installed on my iPad Air and we’re seeing more and more full conversions of PC games (and I’d kill for the two best strategy games of the last ten years, Crusader Kings 2 and Europa Universalis 4, to finally make their way across). Great for when the kids are playing in the toy room or if I’ve gone to bed early.
People who turn their noses up at mobile gaming are limiting their fun in life. In my downstairs cave I’ve got my TV for the Xbox One and PS3, my PC (with shiny new GTX970) and I’ll have both my mobile (Galaxy Note II) and my iPad Air… no matter what I feel like, I can play it…
…except for all those delicious PS4 exclusives 🙁
Hearthstone and pocket mortys, but I recently finished that and have been deciding what to play..
The Legend of Zelda (the original one) on my 3DS. I find most mobile phone games pointless.
Dead Space mobile was excellent
Nothing very new, but these games stay installed for any downtime I may have:
Worms 2
Death Rally
Mamono Sweeper
Punch Quest
Bean’s Quest
And, of course, ScummVM.
Snake II
GTA 3, VC, SA & CTW
Star Wars Heroes and Craft the World.
I prefer Craft the world on PC, but when I’m bored Ill take what I can get 🙂
I’d sooner cut off my own hands before I play a modern mobile game.
Oh my god I just realised that thing in my pocket isn’t just for playing Subterfuge, you can like, make calls on it. To tell people about Subterfuge, presumably.
I think the issue is that if people are anything like myself, they have become cynical of most mobile games due to the blatant micro-transaction cash grabs that the majority are. If I wanted to end up spending $45 on a game, I’d go shop on steam…
Can’t stop playing Clash Royale! Still in Soft Launch I think but man it’s good. Also found a cool Top Gear drifting game, difficult though (which I like being a bit old school) but when you get it, you ‘get it’.
And yeah, Battlehand and SW: Heroes. (I don’t know why though but I can’t stop)
I’m a big fan of little arcade games that don’t require too much time, storage space or attention paying.
I occasionally play soduku, but apart from that, I have zero interest in mobile gaming.
Almost no interest in mobile gaming, but I have always got a point & click game on there to slowly make my way through.
I love the Broken Sword titles and have moved on to the Blackwell series. At least games like that have a story to invest in and require some projected thought as opposed to so many of the other mobile games out there that look good but require no brain use.
I feel like Jetpack Joyride, Plants Vs Zombies etc. are just the biggest waste of time. It’s like dead time that you’ll never get back.
How about Geometry Dash?
For some reason, it’s now slipped from my phone to now, my PC (Steam).
Real Racing 3
Trails Frontier
Tetris
Flapy bird ruined the appstore
I found this great little time killer game called “HEIST”. It’s like a Retro Nintendo LCD Handheld. Great fun.
I playing this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hdxDY-CulLU. Great time killer and eye killer :))