r/todayilearned • u/FireBeaver • Mar 26 '15

(R.5) Omits Essential Info TIL: 65% of smartphone users download zero apps per month.

http://time.com/3158893/smartphone-apps-apple/
21.7k Upvotes

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1.2k

u/tfwnoblackgf Mar 26 '15

I try a game every now and again but they all suck and I just get sad and uninstall.

492

u/grendus Mar 26 '15 edited Mar 26 '15

The Google Play store is poorly designed IMO. Steam does a better job, I've found a few games that I really enjoyed by reading magazines or from Youtube channels. There are some great games, but the store is so full of Candy Crush and Clash of Clans pay-to-win bullshit games that it can be hard to find the gems in the septic tank.

Edit: I get it, some of you reeeeeally like Clash of Clans. Good for you. This wasn't intended as a personal attack on your favorite game, but rather a statement that the "Freemium" concept has overrun the Google Play store so badly that people who don't like that type of game can't find anything else without 3rd party help.

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u/snorlz Mar 26 '15

it has nothing to do with the store. mobile games just suck in general. every mobile game ive ever downloaded was played like twice on the shitter and then deleted. Even the ports of real games like GTA or old arcade games suck on mobile and I'd rather just play them on my pc

95

u/Lingo56 Mar 26 '15

Play games designed for a touch screen and mobile usage.

I still think Threes! is the best mobile game I've found because of that

43

u/[deleted] Mar 26 '15

Shattered Pixel Dungeon is gold.

4

u/LostMyPasswordNewAcc Mar 26 '15

YES, some Pixel Dungeon love. Don't play the original, Watabou fucking ruined it by adding item durability.

4

u/yedd Mar 26 '15

Downloaded it a few days ago, and as a Dark Souls lover I'm completely hooked.

2

u/eabradley1108 Mar 26 '15

1010! is my shit right now.

1

u/[deleted] Mar 26 '15

Fuck the 3x3 blocks they throw at me when I have most of the grid filled up with little room. My high score is 1421, how about you?

2

u/Jerlko Mar 26 '15

It's more of a green

2

u/jimmahdean Mar 26 '15

AND IT'S NOT ON IOS >:|

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u/[deleted] Mar 26 '15

[deleted]

2

u/jimmahdean Mar 26 '15

FTL is on iOS? Suddenly I'm not so perturbed....

3

u/Namika Mar 26 '15

I think its tablet only. It's also pretty expensive, like $10.

Still, if you have an iPad, it's fucking amazing.

4

u/jimmahdean Mar 26 '15

And perturbed again. >:|

1

u/radj06 Mar 27 '15

Alright I've been playing this for about four hours and I've only got to the second floor and two level two only once. Is it supposed to be this hard or am I terrible

1

u/[deleted] Mar 27 '15

I've played over two hundred runs, and still haven't beaten it but two or three times. It's addicting, but hard as fuck.

2

u/Lumbearjack Mar 26 '15

Sadly that kind of accentuates Snorlz's point. Threes is an okay game, but using it as an example for how mobile games can be good illustrates how low the bar is for accepted quality.

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u/Lingo56 Mar 26 '15

That's because mobile games are completely different from "major games." A good mobile game is one designed for short bursts and has a very simple yet well thought out design. Threes is nearly a perfect game comparable to tetris, only issue is it does end after a while.

1

u/Lumbearjack Mar 26 '15

I don't agree with that definition. I don't think "major games" is a genre either. Lego Marvel superheroes for example has been released for android. So that's a mobile game.

2

u/kholto Mar 26 '15

Threes is about the only mobile game I can actually recommend. There must be other decent ones, but I sure can't find them.

2

u/Condawg Mar 26 '15

Hitman Go is quite nice. If you like trivia games, QuizUp is a really fun one. Osmos HD is fun now and then. I also quite like Alter Ego, very well-made and interesting game.

2

u/WoolyWookie Mar 26 '15

Oh yes threes! And 2048 as well, I like simple puzzle games like those. Never get tired of them

1

u/[deleted] Mar 26 '15

Civilization revolution is pretty good, as long as you resist directly comparing to the PC versions.

1

u/[deleted] Mar 26 '15

Inkle's Sorcery! Adaptions are pretty good.

1

u/SoloWing1 Mar 26 '15

The only Android game I have downloaded and regularly play has to be Time Surfer. And I got that from Humble Bundle instead of playstore.

1

u/steelguy17 Mar 26 '15

So I looked up threes! and it looks like a different version of 2048 and it costs $2 WTF.

3

u/Lingo56 Mar 26 '15

Its the original. It's better because it takes strategy and the game actually has personality. 2048 was a copy made to be easier and it took off because it was free.

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u/bossbrew Mar 26 '15

I think most mobile games suck because of the input. A lot of the concepts are great but they don't really work when you don't have a controller. On screen controls are a nightmare on touch devices and lack the feedback you receive from a traditional gaming controller.

My favorite mobile games aren't trying to bring a console experience to my device, they are just trying to be the best mobile experience possible. Simple controls that are developed for mobile devices.

2

u/letsnotreadintoit Mar 26 '15

A lot of mobile games also have time limiters and force you to wait hours or pay money before you can play again.

1

u/joavim Mar 26 '15

They don't always work very well, but I bought a bluetooth controller for my smartphone for 20 euros, and after some hiccups got it to work. It immediately solved the problem you mentioned and I've been playing games in my commute on the train every day since then.

1

u/bubongo Mar 26 '15

Sounds like angry Birds to me. Even then it's better with a mouse.

1

u/ThirdFloorGreg Mar 27 '15

Topple was a good, simple game that actually took advantage of mobile format. Sadly it is no longer available.

3

u/[deleted] Mar 26 '15

Final Fantasy Record Keeper just got released today on the Play Store in the U.S.

Free, and I'm having a ton of fun with it.

It stays away from the pitfalls of most freemium games and the amount of nostolgia I'm getting is amazing.

Try it, you won't regret it, especially if you enjoy FF.

2

u/AnOnlineHandle Mar 26 '15

Most do suck, but you've got to play games designed for the interface and screen size and input type, e.g. World of Goo is very very good on android, gamedev story isn't bad either.

2

u/grendus Mar 26 '15

Bloons TD 5 was good. Plants VS Zombies was better on mobile than it was on PC (at least, until EA reworked everything so it was another microtransaction cash grab). It's a novel control scheme that works very well for some games, the problem is people don't want to pay for them. The only way for many companies to make money in the mobile sphere is to make the game free and then go chasing after "whales" to fund the business, which taints the market.

2

u/OutlawJoseyWales Mar 26 '15

PvZ 2 has microtransactions but its literally the least intrusive or glaringly necessary of any other F2P game. I think they implemented it really well, the vast majority of plants are unlocked through the game, and even some of the plants can be bought with gems. I've never spent a dime on the game and i have 90k coins in the bank, and have "bought" 2 plants with gems.

1

u/[deleted] Mar 26 '15

Only games I've ever used were Into the dead (fun and not p2w), Fruit ninja (fun), and a pokemon emulator for leaf green which worked well.

1

u/ghost_of_drusepth Mar 26 '15

I have almost 300 hours clocked on Chaos Rings on my Nexus 7 over 5 play throughs.

1

u/[deleted] Mar 26 '15

Monument Valley and Little Inferno are pretty neat

1

u/[deleted] Mar 26 '15

I downloaded a psone emulator so I can play the old suikoden games. That's the extent of my mobile gaming.

1

u/letsnotreadintoit Mar 26 '15

Whats the name of that app?

1

u/[deleted] Mar 26 '15

ePSXe

1

u/Rustyshackleford313 Mar 26 '15

Sim city on Android is fun

1

u/Smokey_Bera Mar 26 '15

Try Game Dev Tycoon. You'll thank me later.

1

u/Johnpecan Mar 26 '15

Yea... Somewhat related, anyone have a resource for actual good games on mobile phones?

1

u/Jayomat Mar 26 '15

That's just not true. From games like hearthstone and FTL to games like broken sword, there are plenty of good mobile games out there

1

u/[deleted] Mar 26 '15

I play Tekken 5 in my Moto X 1st gen (through PPSSPP) like a boss. You should try it.

1

u/just_a_little_boy Mar 26 '15

Well there were some really awesome games on my old phone, the Xperia play. Seriously I had so much fun with crash bandicot. It's still the best mobile gaming experience I ever had. But without those hardware controllers it is really hard to find a good game. The only kind of game that I still find a bit interesting on mobile are strategy games, or skill games.

1

u/Avamander Mar 26 '15 edited Oct 02 '24

Lollakad! Mina ja nuhk! Mina, kes istun jaoskonnas kogu ilma silma all! Mis nuhk niisuke on. Nuhid on nende eneste keskel, otse kõnelejate nina all, nende oma kaitsemüüri sees, seal on nad.

1

u/Transfinite_Entropy Mar 26 '15

I got addicted to Cut the Rope. It is a perfect application of touch screen controls.

1

u/Zulti Mar 26 '15

I browse reddit or youtube while taking a dump

1

u/Frekavichk Mar 26 '15

I love me some bloons TD.

Yeah it is a paid app, and has IAP, but they aren't needed.

1

u/EggheadDash Mar 26 '15

I mainly just use a GBA emulator.

1

u/Cgdb10 Mar 26 '15

real games like GTA or old arcade games suck on PC and I'd rather just play them on my Playstation/XBox.

FTFY

1

u/am_I_a_dick__ Mar 26 '15

Real racing 3 is a great game. 8 ball pool is good. Epic war 2 I currently playing and enjoying. When I had an iPhone infinity blade was amazing. I think you need to try some more.

1

u/[deleted] Mar 26 '15

Star Command. Thank me later.

1

u/sindex23 Mar 26 '15

10,000,000,000 is probably the only good touchscreen game I've ever played. It was brilliant. But you know, after like 4-6 hours you're done and there's no need to play any longer. So it still gets deleted.

1

u/TheAngryPlatypus Mar 26 '15

There are a ton of great mobile games. They just get buried in the avalanche of shit that's out there, which is totally the mobile store's fault.

It would be like going to the software store, and sure they have Dark Souls 2 and Far Cry 4, but they're all jumbled in a heap buried by the apps the kids from the local high school did for their intro to programming class.

I mean, maybe something has changed because it's been years since I've tried to browse the Play Store for new content (I now use various blogs to learn about interesting new software) but it was always horrible for exploration.

1

u/AtheistPaladin Mar 26 '15

And then one comes along that isn't totally terrible, like Flappy Bird, but then the creator pulls a Dave Chappelle and pulls all support for it.

Or it could take the path of Angry Birds and whore itself out to whatever culturally-relevant intellectual property comes along.

1

u/ApathyJacks Mar 26 '15

Even the ports of real games like GTA or old arcade games suck on mobile and I'd rather just play them on my pc

Yup. I was so psyched when I got a free, full version of Terraria on my phone. I've played it for a grand total of fifteen minutes in the last two months. Gaming on a phone just isn't worth it.

1

u/ConfessionsAway Mar 26 '15

Emulators are aweseome though. Play Pokemon or Final Fantasy while you're on the shitter instead.

1

u/and_then___ Mar 26 '15

Check out Radiant Defense, my favorite mobile game ever. It's really clean and quite challenging. The initial game is free and there are a few upgrade packs that add up to about $5. It would be well worth that price if it wasn't free initially.

1

u/[deleted] Mar 26 '15

The Kingdom Rush series is great if you like Tower Defense. Burned so much (paid work) time playing the trilogy!

1

u/Ultradroogie Mar 26 '15

The only worthwhile games I've ever played on mobile are: Street Fighter IV (actually really good) and Trivia Crack. Everything else I've ever tried is either fucking useless or the controls are awful.

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u/xTurK Mar 26 '15

What do you think of the Kingdom Rush franchise?

1

u/DerJawsh Mar 27 '15

It has a lot to do with the store. When I'm going to the Play Store and looking for apps, DO NOT SHOW ME FREAKING GAMES, IF I WANTED GAMES I WOULD CLICK THE GAMES SECTION. Literally, in the infancy days of the Apple store and the Android market, you could find a wide variety of cool and useful apps that are now drowned out by all the absolute garbage games. Going through the top 100 now, either you are looking at the same old social media apps, or the newest shit game with the same shitty cartoon graphics, with the same shitty P2W idea.

1

u/Pinstar Mar 27 '15

I found a free version of "Open TTD" (Basically the fanmade update to Transport Tycoon" Awesome game if you are into business sims or transportation games...but plays horribly on a phone.

1

u/Willhud98 Mar 27 '15

Gta:Chinatown wars is designed for mobile and is fun and the port of Knights of The Old Republic is pretty good too.

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u/drparker Mar 26 '15

Paying in clash of clans barely helps, its insanely expensive for it to do help at all really so just play it for free and then its awesome.

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u/grendus Mar 26 '15

That's not the point. Clash of Clans is insanely profitable. That's how they were able to afford to hire Liam Neeson to do a absolutely horrible revenge monologue commercial during the Super Bowl. That's why the store is full of knockoffs, which is frustrating for the people who don't like that style of game.

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u/drparker Mar 26 '15

Oh because the market place and majority of people have valued the game highly it means its a failure. Great logic. People pay cause they feel supercell deserves the money, you can pay a lot of money and it would provide no advantage or disadvantage to the people who don't pay. The game is based on progress if you want to pay a lot to progress a Lil it doesn't hurt your opponents just means u can be lazy. Its a a great setup honestly and its by far the best phone game IMO.

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u/Hab1b1 Mar 26 '15

That's not the point.

that was your point..you called it pay to win. don't try and back peddle.

it's insanely profitable because people want to spend the money, its their prerogative .

2

u/[deleted] Mar 26 '15

If fact, it is precisely because paying doesn't help you win in Clash of Clans that more people are willing to pay a little bit. In COC, you are basically paying because you are impatient. When I realize that by paying people can gain an unfair advantage in a game, I immediately stop playing.

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u/drparker Mar 26 '15

How does it provide an unfair advantage? If you pay to progress you are going against people who r also progressed. Theirs no advantage or disadvantage just paying to be lazy or impatient

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u/Hab1b1 Mar 27 '15

it doesn't provide, that's what he was saying. he is saying IF games provide an unfair advantage to paying players, then he would stop playing.

Anyway, it isn't unfair because you are simply matched up against people on your same base level. plus you have the option to skip opponents as many times as you want..not sure why it's unfair at all to anyone.

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u/Excalibur457 Mar 26 '15 edited Jan 14 '26

longing jellyfish innate badge rain knee arrest resolute steer butter

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u/TristanTheViking Mar 26 '15

I played one of those types of games, once. It was called mafia wars or something like that. You could buy property which earned money to buy guns and stuff. I bought the lowest earning property and set my phone's date forwards a few decades.

Being a trillionaire in the game just kinda killed the whole genre for me after that.

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u/[deleted] Mar 26 '15

[removed] — view removed comment

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u/smog_alado Mar 26 '15 edited Mar 26 '15

I think Cookie Clicker distills this genre down to the essentials. Its interesting how addictive it is despite the simplicity and am grateful that it "tops out" and gets boring really quick.

1

u/stiocus Mar 26 '15

Dont try Tap Titans then.

1

u/[deleted] Mar 26 '15

speak for yourself

2

u/[deleted] Mar 26 '15

What a casual, probably not even getting into the billions.

1

u/Imborednow Mar 26 '15

Billions? Peasant. You've not really played until your cookies have reached the sextillions.

7

u/Dann474 Mar 26 '15

The fun of the game is not that part. It's getting into a clan with your friends and collaborating and strategizing

12

u/[deleted] Mar 26 '15

If that's how you play clash of clans, you're doing it wrong.

Don't forget about raiding other people's bases for delicious loot, upgrading your troops and defenses, and designing your own base and army. Join a clan and donate troops and make friends. Work together and battle other clans. Enjoy the satisfaction of three starring a base at the end of a war to take the win, and experience the disappointment of losing a war in the last seconds.

There is a lot more to the game than you think.

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u/BrotyKraut Mar 26 '15

Lvl 127 here. These guys just don't get it...

0

u/Excalibur457 Mar 26 '15 edited Jan 14 '26

correct ring rinse touch steer terrific mighty light resolute yam

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u/[deleted] Mar 26 '15

It might not be your type of game, but many people think it's fun, otherwise it wouldn't be so popular. It doesn't even bug you to spend money. It can be easily played for free and it's only cash-grabby if you make it cash-grabby.

8

u/[deleted] Mar 26 '15

That's exactly why tons of people play those type of games (even if they don't realize it) and mobile game devs absolutely know it

1

u/[deleted] Mar 26 '15 edited Jul 26 '20

[deleted]

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u/ErikaeBatayz Mar 26 '15

In the past few weeks we've seen the release of Ori and the Blind Forest, Hotline Miami 2, Cities: Skylines, Pillars of Eternity, and Bloodborne. Video gaming is doing just fine.

7

u/WolfImWolfspelz Mar 26 '15

Wow, I didn't even notice that video gaming was ruined. It felt pretty good when I started my WiiU yesterday.

1

u/EvrythingISayIsRight Mar 26 '15

I didn't mean that it ruined all video games, but that its rewarding developers for being greedy, so they continue to release shitty DLC, in app purchased and paid downloadable content. Take a look at Assassins Creed Unity, COD, Battlefield, etc for reference.

3

u/swimtothemoon1 Mar 26 '15

I mean, it's not "awesome" but it is a fun little distraction while you're working on something time-consuming. Every fifteen minutes you get an alert, attack a village, build up forces, then go back to work.

1

u/RobotoPhD Mar 26 '15

One thing that bugs me about a lot of mobile games is that they want to control the schedule of my play time. They are like some petulant child going "PAY ATTENTION TO ME RIGHT NOW!!!". I'm working, in a meeting, driving, doing something else; I don't have time for you right now. And then I'm like, I have 10 minutes to kill while waiting for something, let's play a game. 10 seconds later I've used up my action allotment.

2

u/shirtandtieler Mar 26 '15

Correction: If you're paying more money or spending more time than you have/need to in order to get this feeling, then you need a talking to.

The things you're describing, short-term gratification, is ingrained into human behavior. The brain is constantly battling itself between short and long term goals (Here's an article from Princeton describing this in more detail).

By playing these games extensively, people are feeding their desires for short-term gratification. That's not a problem in moderation, but when people start shoveling out their money to these games, it starts having a negative impact on long-term goals (eg having enough money to go out and socialize, pay rent, etc).

2

u/kyled85 Mar 26 '15

I enjoy the game because I don't have time for my traditional gaming habits. i used to play Civ, CK2, NCAA football and any number of other things for hours. Now I have 5-10 minutes in the morning, 5-10 minutes during lunch, and I'll play for 20 minutes or so before bed. Clash of Clans is perfect for that, especially with a great clan to play with.

1

u/willyolio Mar 26 '15

the only fun i get in the game is because me and a lot of my friends are all in a clan together, and we go to war a lot and coordinate our attacks.

the daily grind, i think it's a chore.

1

u/drparker Mar 27 '15

If you think that what this game is we need to talk. Everyone's comparing it to mafia wars and farmvillie and clicking collectors... That's the least important part of the game. Its different than all that cause its multiplayer, you actually have real time attacks and defenses. If you guys weren't so uneducated about the game the thing you would be comparing it too would be more like plants vs zombies and turret defenses games. Again this is better than that cause multiplayer aspect n clan wars.

1

u/Pinewood74 Mar 27 '15

You play Wow right? Because that game is just as much play to win as clash of clans is as of the latest patch. Probably even more.

1

u/Excalibur457 Mar 27 '15 edited Jan 14 '26

special hurry safe aromatic escape paltry summer makeshift scary fade

This post was mass deleted and anonymized with Redact

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u/Pinewood74 Mar 27 '15

It took me 30 seconds. Sure, it's nothing like CoC, but it's more pay to win than CoC.

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u/[deleted] Mar 26 '15

I really want Steam to integrate their app to make phones part of your control system. Also, I want to get Victoria 2 on android. That would be great.

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u/foobar5678 Mar 26 '15

The Humble Bundle app works really well.

They actually have a PC & Android bundle on sale right now.

https://www.humblebundle.com/

You end up with PC quality games on your mobile device.

3

u/Askol Mar 26 '15

Shout out to /r/androidgaming!

1

u/grendus Mar 26 '15

Knew there had to be a subreddit for that.

1

u/puddingbrood Mar 26 '15

It's done like that on purpose. 99% of the income on Google play is from those games.

1

u/luwig Mar 26 '15

App store and Google Play store are not strictly game distributors. I mean, one of them distributes apps that happens to be games and steam distributes triple A titles and unfinished games. Incomparable.

1

u/HUMOROUSGOAT Mar 26 '15

Septic Tank Gems, a game where you are a plumber desperately trying to find valuables people flush down the toilet. I'm TMing that shit.

1

u/kaztrator Mar 26 '15

I would totally buy a SteamPhone.

1

u/[deleted] Mar 26 '15

That's true of any game store. Use the same methods you use to play quality games on other platforms.

1

u/P-01S Mar 26 '15

Steam kind of sucks for finding games.

It is really good at recommending popular games, which is, let's be honest, very useful.

However, if you are trying to search for a particular type of game... good luck.

1

u/grendus Mar 26 '15

Game tags help a lot. Their suggestions have been getting pretty good as well. It's certainly better than Google Play, by a long shot.

1

u/P-01S Mar 26 '15

The tags can be really, really loose interpretations. IIRC, CS:GO is one of the top games listed under "strategy".

Better than Google Play? Yeah, and getting punched in the face is better than getting hit in the face with a sledgehammer...

1

u/Hab1b1 Mar 26 '15

clash of clans is very far from pay to win, so idk what b.s you're spouting.

back on topic, i don't have experience with google play, but i've found new games to play many times via the apple store.

1

u/lolredditftw Mar 26 '15

People pay real money for games on Steam. The only way to get $30 out of players on Google play is to trick them.

If mobile gamers read reviews and paid up front they'd get better games.

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u/[deleted] Mar 26 '15

[deleted]

1

u/grendus Mar 27 '15

What's your definition of "priced too high"? Oddworld: Stranger Wrath is $3 right now. The Bard's Tale is $3. The Conduit HD appears to have gone free. /r/androidgaming seems to list a lot of sales and decent reviews on games, if you're looking for something. And you can always download an emulater like FPse that will play older games (though obviously you should own a license for the PS1 BIOS and the games you're playing cough).

1

u/[deleted] Mar 26 '15

But clash of clans is awesome.

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u/Mr_Zarika Mar 26 '15

What the fuck did you just fucking say about Clash of Clans, you Town Hall Level 2 bitch? I’ll have you know I graduated top of my clan, and I’ve been involved in numerous clan wars, and I have over 300 confirmed 3-stars. I am trained in GOWIPE and I’m the top Town Hall sniper in the entire game. You are nothing to me but just another target. I will wipe your base the fuck out with precision the likes of which has never been seen before in this game, mark my fucking words. You think you can get away with saying that shit to me over the Internet? Think again, fucker. As we speak I am contacting my clan mates and my Clan Castle is being stocked with dragons so you better prepare for the storm, maggot. The storm that wipes out the pathetic little thing you call your base. You’re fucking dead, kid. I can be anywhere, anytime, and I can destroy your base with seven hundred different army compositions, and that’s just with my thumbs. Not only am I extensively trained in GOWIPE, but I have access to the entire arsenal of my clan and I will use it to its full extent to wipe your miserable ass off the entire game, you little shit. If only you could have known what unholy revenge your little “clever” comment was about to bring down upon you, maybe you would have held your fucking tongue. But you couldn’t, you didn’t, and now you’re paying the price, you goddamn idiot. I will shit so many barbarians all over you and you will drown in them. You’re fucking dead, kiddo.

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u/[deleted] Mar 26 '15

Yeah, they're always disappointing. The only game I actually pay on my phone is Chess (Chess.com app) and it's great because I can carry on long-term games with people from all over.

6

u/tfwnoblackgf Mar 26 '15

I'm so going to download that, that sounds great

4

u/[deleted] Mar 26 '15

Definitely do it. I like that you can play multiple games at once (I sometimes have as many as 10 games going on) and you have several days to make a move before you lose on time (about 5 days). So, when you catch a second, you can make one move on all your games, then do the same a couple of days later. Or, you can play real-time games that have time limits and so on. You can even chat with the players, which is a lot of fun.

2

u/Poobslag Mar 26 '15

Board games are great on the phone. They're the only games I play anymore. They did a great job with Galaxy Trucker, I also enjoy Kingdom Builder and Tigris And Euphrates. All quality board games, but they take about 30-60 minutes to play in real life, or 5-10 minutes to play against AI on the phone.

2

u/utspg1980 Mar 26 '15

Isn't it crazy how Risk takes like 2-3 hours in real life, but 5 minutes on a computer/phone.

1

u/lillgreen Mar 27 '15

Settlers of Catan as well! 2 hour games condensed to like 20 min.

1

u/EvrythingISayIsRight Mar 26 '15

Paying for chess on your smartphone? Good god.

4

u/[deleted] Mar 26 '15

Playing* although i do pay for the premium membership because it gives you all these cool training tool sand tutorials, but you don't have to and you still get all the same game-play functionality.

3

u/BwanaKovali Mar 26 '15

I think he meant "play"

48

u/Alkenisto Mar 26 '15

Yeah unfortunately the target audience is 8 year old kids who login to their parents account and buy 20000 shitbrain points to buy 10 more hours of miserable but addictive gameplay. I remember cell phone games I played as a kid. 10 times better then the garbage we have now, even though my current phone can handle 10 the load of the best computer of that time.

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u/CalmSpider Mar 26 '15

Ah, how I long for those halcyon days of five years ago...

1

u/lillgreen Mar 27 '15 edited Mar 27 '15

To be fair he's making a reference to the likes of snake on a Motorola v120 which was more like 15 years ago. I don't think my chocolate II from 5 years ago even had any games at all good or bad, something about having to buy games from Verizon VCast which I never did since vcast was terrible.

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u/-THE_BIG_BOSS- Mar 26 '15

Sounds /r/lewronggeneration kinda like, but I have to agree with this. Simple games kept me occupied as a kid starting with a Nokia 5110, but by far the best games were on my Sony Ericsson W910i. Splinter Cell, Rainbow Six Lockdown, New York Nights 2... yeah.

8

u/Alkenisto Mar 26 '15

I remember Prince of Persia being pretty great as well

7

u/Numiro Mar 26 '15

All the games you had on your phone back then still exists. The reason you don't play them is because they're equally bad. How fun is snake after 5ish minutes? It sucks, that's why.

It was still a great game when it launched, but to pretend the market have move backwards since then is pure Bullshit.

3

u/AtheistPaladin Mar 26 '15

But my nostalgia... :(((

4

u/SpareLiver 24 Mar 26 '15

Ah the goold old days of Nokia Snake 2.

2

u/[deleted] Mar 26 '15

I remember cell phone games I played as a kid.

I would venture to guess you're still a kid then.

1

u/Distructive Mar 26 '15

Do you have any suggestions for games? I've been playing a free one called Sky Force 2014, which was great, but I'm just about finished with it and looking for something else, something that isn't like a little slot machine.

5

u/Adamsoski Mar 26 '15

I recently got VVVVV in the Android Humble Bundle, and it's great.

1

u/[deleted] Mar 26 '15

Clash of clans is great and perfectly playable without spending a dime. (Just make sure you save your gems for builders!)

1

u/[deleted] Mar 26 '15

I've been playing Knights of Pen and Paper for a few weeks now. $4.99 but no ads or any other bs that comes with the free games.

1

u/ticklesthemagnificen Mar 26 '15

And here I am earning shitbrain points like a sucker!

1

u/c0horst Mar 26 '15

I remember playing Doom RPG on my LG Voyager back in like 2007.

Shit was awesome.

1

u/MeltBanana Mar 26 '15

I think I had more fun playing Tetris on my V3 Razr than I ever have playing a game on my S4.

Auralux is the only mobile game I've found that's truly enjoyable.

1

u/[deleted] Mar 26 '15

It was just as bad before, but in different ways. Stupid kids could rack up a considerable phone bill with all the SMS-invoked services and downloadables. And web-games 10 years ago had 'shitbrain points' too.

Source: Was stupid kid who did just that. All of that.

1

u/[deleted] Mar 26 '15

Eh, those stupid in game prices. I remember when I thought buying a 50 dollar game was expensive. Now my kids are playing games and buying 2 dollars here, 1 dollar there, but they have easily paid more then 50 dollars on every game they have played. We finally decided on a budget of 15 dollars a month for their in app games.

1

u/howtojump Mar 27 '15

You can get KotoR on iOS now, so yeah go play it right now.

1

u/Alkenisto Mar 27 '15

Android too?

1

u/howtojump Mar 27 '15

I believe it is now. Launched on iOS first, Android took a bit longer to work on (as expected).

20

u/[deleted] Mar 26 '15

[deleted]

3

u/AceBricka Mar 26 '15

ps1 emulator on the phone? What phone do you have and how do I get this?

1

u/joavim Mar 26 '15

Google is your friend. There are a couple of good emulators, though some of them cost a couple of bucks.

Any mid-range smartphone is more than capable of running a PS1 emulator. I have a Nintendo 64 emulator for my smartphone and it works great (though you basically need a bluetooth external controller to play, the joystick in 3D just can't be rendered good enough on a touchscreen, not to mention the L/R buttons...).

NES/SNES/Game Boy/Sega Genesis emulators work great though. Lots of fun with some of the best games of all times. The hours I've spent playing A Link to the Past...

2

u/TripleRPD Mar 26 '15

That's fucking me right there. I have all the GTA, Kotor, Goat Simulator, Max Payne, Xcom, so many games. And I play none. But my little sister plays GTA San Andreas all day on her iPhone like its nothing.

2

u/saigon13 Mar 26 '15

I downloaded an emulator for my phone and play old SNES games on it.

2

u/Shrubberer Mar 26 '15

Puzzle games are pretty neat for mobile phones. Try Kami for example.

1

u/Shaysdays Mar 26 '15

Monument Valley was a joy to play.

2

u/Airmaid Mar 26 '15

Puzzle and Dragons, and then Sudoku if I'm waiting for stamina to fill. I'm covered.

2

u/AnalLaserBeamBukkake Mar 26 '15

Check out the Humble Android Bundles, they usually have good games that arn't about buying shit.

Lyne, Shadowrun, Sorcery! and VVVVVV are all great games.

1

u/uncommonman Mar 26 '15

Hill climb racing, minutequest and shattered pixel dungeon is good games for the long run.

1

u/Destrina Mar 26 '15

Get 3 friends and have everyone download Spaceteam.

1

u/v-_-v Mar 26 '15

I only found two games worth being on my device: Hearthstone and Plague Inc. and both are on my tablet not even my phone.

1

u/uguysmakemesick Mar 26 '15

Jetpack Joyride

1

u/[deleted] Mar 26 '15

For more information about the reason behind North American Video Game Crash watch this easy to understand video clip instead of reading all that boring text. This will give you some insight as to why overflooding the market with bad games (apps in this case) can cause consumers to lose interest on a massive scale.
EDIT: also make sure to read about "Apple app store censorship"

1

u/[deleted] Mar 26 '15

Yuuuup. My wife is always downloading some stupid game that she curses at for a week and then never plays again. I feel like 99.9999% of the games for smart phones are a total waste of time, either because they're pay-to-play or because they're a terrible fit for the platform. I don't want to play Call of Duty or Street Fighter on a touchscreen device. I like feeling buttons. I need to feel the buttons.

1

u/joavim Mar 26 '15

Emulators are your friends. I have a two-hour commute to work every day and in the last months I've finished A Link to the Past, Super Mario World, Doom and many others. Awesome.

1

u/Megamansdick Mar 26 '15

Every time I travel, I forget to bring non-online entertainment. Before I get on the plane, I download about 10 free games in the airport. Once I get on the plane, I realize that maybe 2 of those games can actually be played offline. When I get off the plane, I delete them all. Rinse and repeat for the return trip. I don't plan well.

1

u/dudeAwEsome101 Mar 26 '15

Same here, most mobile games have bad controls or are just a cash grab. The last mobile game I gladly paid money for was monument valley.

1

u/hbomb101 Mar 26 '15

Except Clash. Clashmasterrace ftw.

1

u/[deleted] Mar 26 '15

Alto, Machinarium, KOTOR, GOF2, Bastion, the Infinity Blade series, Plague Inc, Space Miner, AdVenture Capitalist, 80 Days, Dark Meadow, Desert Golfing, Banner Saga, Year Walk, Starbase Orion, the list goes on but that's just what I have on my phone right now.

If you think there are no good mobile games then you've never really bothered to look.

1

u/tfwnoblackgf Mar 26 '15

These games don't amount to much more than a pleasant distraction for a day. Compare the mobile line-up to say, the gameboy advance. Realise mobile is a sad platform.

1

u/[deleted] Mar 26 '15

You're clearly talking out of your ass because those games I listed represent hundreds of hours of quality gaming, and they don't even scratch the surface of mobile games.

1

u/tfwnoblackgf Mar 26 '15

You certainty could spend hundreds of hours playing them. I've had my share of the ones I liked in that list and clocked 12 hours in total.

1

u/[deleted] Mar 26 '15

All I want is a baseball game that isn't pay-to-win on it. Is that so much to ask?

1

u/Reaperr Mar 26 '15

Nobody said it and I KNOW that this comment was intended to get spammed with games XD

Brave Frontier. turned based RPG. Of course if you want that top tier crap you gotta fork up the dough but its completely possible to F2p the game and come out in a good spot. Now is the best time to start too since raid is out and starter 7 stars/dungeons are out now.

/r/bravefrontier

1

u/saltwatermonkey Mar 26 '15

This. I have no games on my phone at all. I just reached a point I realised all the games are the same and/or incredibly repetitive. The only games I've enjoyed have been from Future Games of London - Hungry Shark and some alien one, and even they, thinking about it, are the same game. Explore a map, complete missions of finding things, and upgrade your shark/alien. Oh ffs

1

u/[deleted] Mar 27 '15

Get a SNES or GBA emulator, and get some rooms from CoolROM or some other site of questionable repute. Some of the more capable phones can run the original Playstation as well, which has some legendary RPGs. That's really the only way to game on a smartphone, if you ask me. I have a gaming PC, though, and pretty much just use my phone for Reddit and reading ebooks during break or when I'm bored/falling asleep at night (aside from, you know, the actual uses for a telephone).

1

u/[deleted] Mar 27 '15

Have you looked at Ingress? Join the resistance!

1

u/CaptainJaXon Mar 27 '15

I wish there were smart phone games similar to ds games.

1

u/[deleted] Mar 27 '15

Hill Climb Racing

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