Mobile gaming

[chopemon]

How vile.

[wakka]

Friendly fraud.

That sounds so much nicer than the regular fraud.

[Dogg Thang]

How vile.

Completely agree. Some people sink very low and don't seem remotely aware they're doing it. Heard of one conference (not directly software-related) where they said the aim of their marketing was that kids who didn't have their products would get bullied in the playground.

[Duncan James Waugh]

Forgot to mention there's also a big issue with games in the mobile stores that are literally the example source code given out by companies with a few sprites replaced - which is absolutely awesome - make a game in an hour and clog the store with it!

In addition these guys who make 20 different versions of the same game are constantly re-publishing updates to them which actually do nothing. This bumps the game back to the top of the new releases list in a number of app stores and pushes a genuine game off the new releases list much faster and once you are off there sales => zero.

[Asura]

It all makes me wonder if "free" submission to App Stores is a bad idea (it's not actually free on iOS, but it's really cheap, like practically nothing in the grand scheme of things).

Cost of submission does put off genuine indies, and that's a pain, but a price of a couple of grand acts as a filter; you'd only upload an app and pay that cost if you were either reasonably sure your app would make it back, or you genuinely weren't in it for the money.

It would stop some of the egregious examples we see - people taking templates, swapping out sprites and releasing them as games.

[QualityChimp]

You like Pac-Man? Of course you do!
You like Sonic? Who doesn't?!

Well now Pac-Man and Sonic are TEAMING UP!

https://www.heypoorplayer.com/2018/02/21/sonic-pac-man-team-up-for-the-next-month/

"Sonic the Hedgehog and Pac-Man will crossover into each other’s mobile games for the next month. Which means Sonic will be present in Bandai Namco’s Pac-Man iOS/Android game. Moreover, Pac-Man and spouse Ms Pac-Man will be playable characters in Sonic Dash. This is a limited-time offer until March 20th.

The crossover commemorates Sonic Dash‘s fifth anniversary. The Pac-Man couple join Sonic Dash as alternating special character events for one week. If players gobble through enough of the special fruit, bells and keys with them, the characters are available to keep.

In Pac-Man, Sonic will participate in a maze styled like Green Hill Zone. Players collect rings instead of the usual dots and take down Moto Bugs (as opposed to ghosts). Anyone who plays the level between now and March 20th will get to keep the special Sonic maze.


Sega/Bandai Namco have addressed the bizarre crossover as a case of mutual aid. Dr. Eggman is unsurprisingly the big evil, as he kidnaps Sonic’s friends, leaving them in the world of Pac-Man. Pac-Man and Ms. Pac-Man help out in Sonic’s game as a result. It’s all very thin in a canonical sense. It is however free additional content for those who decide to play it. It is also available now."

[Brad]

Surely both these games were already crap on a phone? Mixing them up won't help lol.

[dataDave]

Horizon Chase is the best mobile game I've ever played. It's just like Top Gear on the SNES, probably a lot better in fact, and even has the same guy on the soundtrack.

Tons of courses and unlockables, great 80s-style handling that works well with touch control, amazing soundtrack, beautiful 1080/60 graphics, no IAP (other than the full game unlock coming from the demo) and only costs a couple of quid. Well worth it.



Can we start a thread for legitimately good mobile games? There have to be more examples like this one out there, right?

[Baseley09]

Deffo bags of quality out there, Space Invaders Infinity Gene is one if the best games ive played on any platform, mobile version smokes it compared to the PS3 version they brought on.

Was bang into Crazy Taxi City Rush for a bit but granted that does have IAP.

[replicashooter]

I'm fiending so badly for some F Zero action that I'd happily buy my first mobile game if N were to reboot it ala Mario Run where the car automatically belts along the track and you steer left and right via tapping the screen like some kind of high speed rhythm action game.