Mobile games, I've played a bit
But actually, too much to mention
I played what I thought looked cool
And dropped most games - little retention
Sorry, I had a weird urge to parody just a little bit of Sinatra. I'm over it now.
A running theme on this blog right now seems to be "Things that have happened since last regularly wrote on this thing." I will now continue this theme.
I have had a few of smartphones, and - as a gamer - I have played games on them. Sims, role-playing games, strategy, clickers - I'm all over the place. Do you know that many of the classic Final Fantasy games are now available on mobile devices? I know, because I have most of them.
A few notables:
Monument Valley is a perspective puzzle game with simple yet haunting artwork and story. There's even a set of expansion levels you can play - good for a few hours. Not free, but really impressive.
The Simpson's: Tapped Out let's you (re)build Springfield and make your favorite characters do chuckleworthy little tasks. Micro-transactions allow you to get special characters (who all have their own list of tasks) and buildings. I feel like I'd enjoy this game much more if I were more of a fan of the show - but I also come back to it often.
If you prefer Marvel superheroes to Simpsons, Marvel Avengers' Academy is...a remarkably similar game where you collect heroes and villains, and build buildings they can interact with. Most of the heroes are portrayed as if they are in their late-teens/early twenties - think cartoonish CW Marvel. It's still compelling enough to get me to spend far too much in micro-transactions, trying to keep up with special in-game events.
Alphabear is a word puzzle game in which you can unlock cute teddy bears for being clever with spelling out words on a grid. After each game, it uses one or two words you spelled in a sentence, and the game makes it easy to share that screen - so you can compete for weirdest bearly English phrases on the social network of your choice.
And I mentioned Final Fantasy above, but...Square Enix has also ported all of the classic Dragon Warrior games under their original Dragon Quest titles! It's admittedly tougher to play them on a
phone, but a big enough tablet is great, and hopefully I can get them to work on Android TV, too. Graphics are upgraded slightly, but not too much - they still take me back to my first grindy, turn-based roleplaying obsession. Both the DQ and FF titles all cost way more than your typical $.99 cent game, though.
Here's the thing, though - with my focus back on WoW's new expansion, I don't spend a lot of time on any of these or the dozen other games I've tried. The ones that I do spend some time with are all games that I can play for 15 minutes and then drop for the rest of the day. Mobile games are like snacks of gaming - if I'm really hungry, I'm looking for something else.
Theoretical readers, talk to me about your favorites. I feel lucky I've found games like Monument Valley - I hope more of those surprises are around the app store.
But actually, too much to mention
I played what I thought looked cool
And dropped most games - little retention
Sorry, I had a weird urge to parody just a little bit of Sinatra. I'm over it now.
A running theme on this blog right now seems to be "Things that have happened since last regularly wrote on this thing." I will now continue this theme.
I have had a few of smartphones, and - as a gamer - I have played games on them. Sims, role-playing games, strategy, clickers - I'm all over the place. Do you know that many of the classic Final Fantasy games are now available on mobile devices? I know, because I have most of them.
A few notables:
Monument Valley is a perspective puzzle game with simple yet haunting artwork and story. There's even a set of expansion levels you can play - good for a few hours. Not free, but really impressive.
The Simpson's: Tapped Out let's you (re)build Springfield and make your favorite characters do chuckleworthy little tasks. Micro-transactions allow you to get special characters (who all have their own list of tasks) and buildings. I feel like I'd enjoy this game much more if I were more of a fan of the show - but I also come back to it often.
If you prefer Marvel superheroes to Simpsons, Marvel Avengers' Academy is...a remarkably similar game where you collect heroes and villains, and build buildings they can interact with. Most of the heroes are portrayed as if they are in their late-teens/early twenties - think cartoonish CW Marvel. It's still compelling enough to get me to spend far too much in micro-transactions, trying to keep up with special in-game events.
Alphabear is a word puzzle game in which you can unlock cute teddy bears for being clever with spelling out words on a grid. After each game, it uses one or two words you spelled in a sentence, and the game makes it easy to share that screen - so you can compete for weirdest bearly English phrases on the social network of your choice.
 |
| Slimes - you spend around 2 hours fighting them before starting the real game. (Photo credit: Wikipedia) |
And I mentioned Final Fantasy above, but...Square Enix has also ported all of the classic Dragon Warrior games under their original Dragon Quest titles! It's admittedly tougher to play them on a
phone, but a big enough tablet is great, and hopefully I can get them to work on Android TV, too. Graphics are upgraded slightly, but not too much - they still take me back to my first grindy, turn-based roleplaying obsession. Both the DQ and FF titles all cost way more than your typical $.99 cent game, though.
Here's the thing, though - with my focus back on WoW's new expansion, I don't spend a lot of time on any of these or the dozen other games I've tried. The ones that I do spend some time with are all games that I can play for 15 minutes and then drop for the rest of the day. Mobile games are like snacks of gaming - if I'm really hungry, I'm looking for something else.
Theoretical readers, talk to me about your favorites. I feel lucky I've found games like Monument Valley - I hope more of those surprises are around the app store.
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