this post was submitted on 13 Jul 2023
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Saw a game on Google Play that had great reviews (4.6k AVG with 77k reviews) so downloaded it thinking I finally might have found a good mobile game only to find it was trash like almost every mobile game I've ever tried.

Is it me, am I the problem, or are virtually all mobile games terrible?


Edit

Thanks for everyone's feedback and suggestions, I've been trying out some of your recommendations as well as trying out Steam Link to play my steam PC games

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[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

Almost all mobile games and apps are bad. Google Play accepts pretty much anything and is filled with trash

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Commenting in here so I can try out some of the games listed because I have found very, very few games that weren't totally trash - either shit quality or an endless begging for money.

The very few that I do enjoy are Word Feud, The Kingdom Rush series, Flow Free, Block Puzzle and only a few other ones.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (3 children)

Wordfeud is awesome! I had to uninstall it for a while because of the addiction, but I'll be back...

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[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

i think its a low barrier to entry which means the app stores are flooded with crap. i'd probably suggest avoiding mobile exclusive games by default

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

Some of the only mobile games I play regularly are Unciv, Mindustry and funnily enough Wild Rift.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I play Genshin Impact. It's an extremely good game. The downside is the predatory gacha, but the characters are far from essential and there's no competition.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

I second Genshin Impact, it's a great game I've been playing for I think 3 years now. Graphics are beautiful if your phone can handle it. I've been buying the monthly card (8AUD) for a year now and I never buy crystals; I find that's an affordable way to support the developers and satisfy my need for new characters.

Unlike other free games there's no annoying popups or exclamations marks to push spending on you too so that's great.

I grew up in Asia so I'm used to gacha games, but I understand western gamers might have a problem with it. If you have a gambling addiction or FOMO then this is maybe not a good rec.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

It's tough to find one that hooks you in but not all mobile games are bad..right I'm playing harry Potter magic awakened and it has me hooked

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

There’s a free game on iOS called Builderment. It’s basically Factorio without the hostile mobs. An automation game with unlimited resources so you can solely focus on optimization. I have over 500 hours in my current world.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

It has a ton of IAP. Are those required to play the game, or can you actually play it without needing to get any of them?

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[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Get yourself GeForce now and a Bluetooth controller, you'll never go back to Android games.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Not exactly the same as what you suggested but I just tried using Steam Link with a Bluetooth controller and it worked surprisingly well. I'm wondering if I could get this working when outside my house using a private VPN server, sort of like my own home version of GeForce now

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[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

Gamepass ultimate has the same thing, you can play games on their cloud servers, some are natively controlled, but for the good ones you need a controller.

My wife wanted to spend more time together, got the 8BitDo controller that holds my phone and I play games while she watches her stories. Works well.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

Microsoft Solitaire isn't awful.

The other games it advertises though...

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago
  • Stranger things 1984
  • Hitman Go
  • Lara Croft Go
[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

Lots of great games, but as already mentioned the FTP are a mess. I subscribe to the Google Play Pass, which give me a pretty good selection of games with no ads or in-app purchases. Helps protect me from the crap out there so its worth it IMO.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago
[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

I have rarely encountered a game made specifically for the mobile market to be good. There are some ports of, what I call, real games that work well on a phone. There are some open source versions of things that exist on PC that give the same experience on a phone (like OpenTTD being a nice "rip off" of roller coaster tycoon).

There are only two made for mobile games I can even really give praise to: Galaxy on Fire 2. It's as good as those kinds of quick play arcadey space games can be without going full on Elite or Star Citizen. Perfect for a phone. The other was Synapse and I don't even think you can find it anymore. It was, at the time, the only turn-based tactical game like Firaxis' X-Com games. But since both of the newer XCOM games are officially on the phone, it's not a genre devoid of good stuff.

Half the time I hear about a mobile game getting popular or is touted in these kinds of questions threads, it's something like Clash of Clans. Just crap that lets you play for like 15 minutes every 24 hours unless you start shelling out money. 😮‍💨

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[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

My controversial opinion is that candy crush is actually brilliant, yeah they want you to buy gold but it's more fun not to. The same goes for a lot of advert funded / in app purchase games - they're fantastic mobile games if you ignore the money option.

Morrowind ports and similar aren't great mobile games, they're great games but candy crush I can pull out my pocket when I'm waiting for a bus and get totally drawn into a few rounds. Airport control is another example, draw lines to direct landing planes and avoid a crash - super simple and repetitive but its complexity grows, cut the rope likewise is a true game in my definition because you learn skills and develop your personal ability beyond just learning game mechanics. They're engaging and enjoyable with a complexity ramp and nice easy to understand ui and graphics - they're everything a mobile game should be.

There are some great horror and story games too, especially the Indy ones

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Xcom is an example of a really well done PC to mobile port!

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[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

You can have my Word Cookies when you pry it from my cold, dead hands.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (3 children)

I would say that most are subpar. If you are looking for a recommendation then I've been playing Orna (search on the play store) forever now and it's a great time. As hardcore or casual as you like with an overall great community and a developer that is active and engages with us.

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[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

Phobies is really good

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