Spoodie mentioned something about a mobile gaming thread a while ago, I thought I'd see what I can do.
So, mobile gaming, quite possibly the new alternative to carrying a gameboy in your lunchbox or a game gear in your pants. I think it's been pretty interesting for mobile gaming in 2010. I can only really speak for the iPhone side but I've also heard good things from the android and probably later this year the windows phone 7 crowd. Angry Birds aside, can we see higher quality time-sinks for our pockets? It feels like a few developers are taking mobile gaming slightly more seriously these days. I'm gonna highlight a few good-uns.
Chaos Rings
[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bUqYAdTOPOU[/media]
On the surface a typical squeenix JRPG, the story takes an interesting turn playing through the four different pairs. The combat is tight and it's all wrapped up in a very neat package.
Infinity Blade
[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JDvPIhCd8N4[/media]
Unreal Engine 3 beauty. This really does look stonking on my iphone. It's a decent sword fighty game too.
Zen Bound 2
[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wIzK6lgTaSI[/media]
Less of a game, more of a relaxing experience. The soundtrack itself is fantastic and it's great to just sit down and twist rope around wood for a while.
Galaxy On Fire 2
[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KAjV2xNHThg[/media]
I enjoyed this game. Something akin to a pocket EVE (i imagine...) without the online bit or the player driven economy. Actually, it's probably nothing like EVE. T'is a good space shooty game though.
There are plenty of good ports too. Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2, GTA Chinatown Wars, Prince of Persia Warrior Within, Rayman 2, Final Fantasy I and II, Street Fighter IV, Driver, Plants Vs Zombies, the list goes on.
Honourable mention goes to iDOS. (DOSpad if you're a jailbreaker). A silky delicious DOSBox emulator that, before being kicked off the app store, allowed people to install all kinds of DOS compatible games. (i managed to get Windows 95 working on it!) Nothing quite like playing Day Of The Tentacle on the train.
2011 looks like it might be off to a decent start, maybe. Dead Space on iphone and ipad, bridging the story gap between Dead Space 1 and Dead Space 2 has been getting favourable reviews and is released tomorrow. It seems to me a good enough launchpad for indie devs and a decent place to get some good mileage out of expensive gadgety tat.
I've missed out a fair few good games (some more here http://features.metacritic.com/features ... s-of-2010/ ), and the other smartphone markets since i don't know much about them. What do you all think? Any smartphone games stick out to you?
Mobile Games
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Mobile Games
Last edited by Legoshoes on January 25th, 2011, 18:07, edited 1 time in total.
About 15 seconds into that Zenbound video, does that tag have a Madcat on it from Mechwarrior?
I've got the Win 7 phone, and while there's not a whole lot out at the moment the demos I've played from the x-box live market are quite nice.
Fruit Ninja is out on other platforms too I believe, and is beautifully simple - swipe fruit in half with your finger-sword as it is thrown in the air. Three modes, with bombs, dropped fruit, or a time limit providing the challenge. I bought it for £2.50, and it's great fun but you can probably get everything you want from the demo unless it really hooks you.
ilomilo is a cute little puzzle game about getting two blobby characters together across a 3D maze. It had me interested enough to play through the demo, and I might pay for it one day once I get bored of Fruit Ninja.
Revolution is a simple puzzler about dropping cogs onto a board in order to connect other cogs and make them all spin. Not too difficult in the demo levels, made a little more challenging with achievements for doing it in short time or minimum moves.
I have the Pocket God demo, but I've not played it yet.
Shoes is quite right about the gameboy thing though. I loved my DS Lite for its portability and ability to let me play games while waiting for Mrs Pants to try on clothes (and for the envious looks of the bored 8-year-old boys in a similar situation). The phone is more portable, has a bigger screen, is more responsive (I can use my finger rather than a stylus), and I never forget it. If only they could release an Advance Wars or Professor Leyton for it.
I've got the Win 7 phone, and while there's not a whole lot out at the moment the demos I've played from the x-box live market are quite nice.
Fruit Ninja is out on other platforms too I believe, and is beautifully simple - swipe fruit in half with your finger-sword as it is thrown in the air. Three modes, with bombs, dropped fruit, or a time limit providing the challenge. I bought it for £2.50, and it's great fun but you can probably get everything you want from the demo unless it really hooks you.
ilomilo is a cute little puzzle game about getting two blobby characters together across a 3D maze. It had me interested enough to play through the demo, and I might pay for it one day once I get bored of Fruit Ninja.
Revolution is a simple puzzler about dropping cogs onto a board in order to connect other cogs and make them all spin. Not too difficult in the demo levels, made a little more challenging with achievements for doing it in short time or minimum moves.
I have the Pocket God demo, but I've not played it yet.
Shoes is quite right about the gameboy thing though. I loved my DS Lite for its portability and ability to let me play games while waiting for Mrs Pants to try on clothes (and for the envious looks of the bored 8-year-old boys in a similar situation). The phone is more portable, has a bigger screen, is more responsive (I can use my finger rather than a stylus), and I never forget it. If only they could release an Advance Wars or Professor Leyton for it.
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Joose
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Re: Mobile Games
I heard a quote the other day, cant be bothered to google for the source:Legoshoes wrote:So, mobile gaming, quite possibly the new alternative to carrying a gameboy in your lunchbox or a game gear in your pants.
"There is a limit to the amount of electronic gadget people want to carry in their pocket, and that limit is one"
With the sheer number of games available now, from quick timewasters like Angry Birds to proper full games like the Broken Sword games, to fancy looking things like Infinity Blade, I think the days of the dedicated hand held games device are numbered. Possibly over already.
When I'm less "about to pass out with tired" I shall add some of my own recommendations.
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deject
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Win Phone 7 is definitely the one to get if you have an XBL Gold account.Dog Pants wrote:About 15 seconds into that Zenbound video, does that tag have a Madcat on it from Mechwarrior?
I've got the Win 7 phone, and while there's not a whole lot out at the moment the demos I've played from the x-box live market are quite nice.
Fruit Ninja is out on other platforms too I believe, and is beautifully simple - swipe fruit in half with your finger-sword as it is thrown in the air. Three modes, with bombs, dropped fruit, or a time limit providing the challenge. I bought it for £2.50, and it's great fun but you can probably get everything you want from the demo unless it really hooks you.
ilomilo is a cute little puzzle game about getting two blobby characters together across a 3D maze. It had me interested enough to play through the demo, and I might pay for it one day once I get bored of Fruit Ninja.
Revolution is a simple puzzler about dropping cogs onto a board in order to connect other cogs and make them all spin. Not too difficult in the demo levels, made a little more challenging with achievements for doing it in short time or minimum moves.
I have the Pocket God demo, but I've not played it yet.
Shoes is quite right about the gameboy thing though. I loved my DS Lite for its portability and ability to let me play games while waiting for Mrs Pants to try on clothes (and for the envious looks of the bored 8-year-old boys in a similar situation). The phone is more portable, has a bigger screen, is more responsive (I can use my finger rather than a stylus), and I never forget it. If only they could release an Advance Wars or Professor Leyton for it.
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Joose
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I dunno if it is that clear cut. Having spent the weekend messing about with my mums new win7 phone, it looks like the quality of games available for win7 mobile is no where near that of the iPhone, or even the android. For sheer numbers of games, there is no contest.deject wrote:Win Phone 7 is definitely the one to get if you have an XBL Gold account.
I could see it being the way to go if you have a massive boner for acheivements and stuff, but is there any advantage other than that?
Apple has the clumsy, clunky Game Centre now for achievement whores. Although it’s probably some sort of vested interest if you want to continue however many achievements you have from xbox live on to your phone.
Having had a chance to play the iphone Dead Space a bit I can say it’s really quite good. The controls don’t feel too clunky, the combat is satisfying if a bit panicky at times and it looks the tits. I hear the ipad version is a bit better just because of the larger screen.
Having had a chance to play the iphone Dead Space a bit I can say it’s really quite good. The controls don’t feel too clunky, the combat is satisfying if a bit panicky at times and it looks the tits. I hear the ipad version is a bit better just because of the larger screen.
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Imperatore
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mrbobbins
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Ahh nice once Legoshoes, I think it was Spoodie who mentioned it a while ago.
I'll write about some iphone games I've been playing a lot recently (although I play them on my ipod touch)
Trainyard - £1.79
[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xWtIb7NEYgM[/media]
Puzzle solving game, with trains. Very simple concept and really easy to get going in. Get red trains to red stations, blue to blue etc, coloured trains that cross over mix colours, you can merge or split trains and a few other things that get added as you go along.
What's great about the puzzles is the multiple ways to solve them. On the official website there are user solutions for different categories from 'Most economic' (ie. least track used) to 'Longest running'.
It really is very satisfying when you solve a puzzle and the solution is elegant or overly complicated! (or both)
Worth a go even if you're not a fan of puzzle games.
Geo Defence - £1.19
[img size=200]http://criticalthoughtgames.com/sites/d ... gd/GD6.jpg[/img] [img size=200]http://criticalthoughtgames.com/sites/d ... gd/GD2.jpg[/img]
My favourite tower defence game. This is one I just keep coming back to, it's been around a while but I havn't found a more satisfying tower defence game to play, it might even be my favourite iphone game.
You have a small number of tower types to use and on each level you have a different selection of them. Like most games of this sort you can level up the towers so it isn't that different in concept but I think the balance has been worked out very well (Like some levels that I'm convinced are impossible, but with a small change in tower set-up suddenly seems easy). I like the addition of little extra elements like a Vortex Tower that you can connect to several towers to collect energy (and boost the towers shots) then blow up with a big blast radius if you need to quickly dispatch enemies that are getting close to your base
There's also a version called Geo Defense swarm which instead of being a fixed path defence game is open area and you place the towers to block off and create a path, also great fun but I slightly prefer the original because I find Swarm harder
These are the kind of games that are perfect to play for short periods (rather than say a point and click adventure, or something like GTA)
I think that both of these games have free 'lite' versions so I would suggest giving them both a go to see if you like them.
I'll write about some iphone games I've been playing a lot recently (although I play them on my ipod touch)
Trainyard - £1.79
[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xWtIb7NEYgM[/media]
Puzzle solving game, with trains. Very simple concept and really easy to get going in. Get red trains to red stations, blue to blue etc, coloured trains that cross over mix colours, you can merge or split trains and a few other things that get added as you go along.
What's great about the puzzles is the multiple ways to solve them. On the official website there are user solutions for different categories from 'Most economic' (ie. least track used) to 'Longest running'.
It really is very satisfying when you solve a puzzle and the solution is elegant or overly complicated! (or both)
Worth a go even if you're not a fan of puzzle games.
Geo Defence - £1.19
[img size=200]http://criticalthoughtgames.com/sites/d ... gd/GD6.jpg[/img] [img size=200]http://criticalthoughtgames.com/sites/d ... gd/GD2.jpg[/img]
My favourite tower defence game. This is one I just keep coming back to, it's been around a while but I havn't found a more satisfying tower defence game to play, it might even be my favourite iphone game.
You have a small number of tower types to use and on each level you have a different selection of them. Like most games of this sort you can level up the towers so it isn't that different in concept but I think the balance has been worked out very well (Like some levels that I'm convinced are impossible, but with a small change in tower set-up suddenly seems easy). I like the addition of little extra elements like a Vortex Tower that you can connect to several towers to collect energy (and boost the towers shots) then blow up with a big blast radius if you need to quickly dispatch enemies that are getting close to your base
There's also a version called Geo Defense swarm which instead of being a fixed path defence game is open area and you place the towers to block off and create a path, also great fun but I slightly prefer the original because I find Swarm harder
These are the kind of games that are perfect to play for short periods (rather than say a point and click adventure, or something like GTA)
I think that both of these games have free 'lite' versions so I would suggest giving them both a go to see if you like them.
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deject
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Windows Phone 7 is still brand fucking new, and it's only a matter of time before more XBLA games start popping up on WP7 first. The WP7 app landscape is barren in general compared to iOS, but I'm not talking about just right now. By the time your 2 year contract runs out I guarantee you it will be a lot different.Joose wrote:
I dunno if it is that clear cut. Having spent the weekend messing about with my mums new win7 phone, it looks like the quality of games available for win7 mobile is no where near that of the iPhone, or even the android. For sheer numbers of games, there is no contest.
I could see it being the way to go if you have a massive boner for acheivements and stuff, but is there any advantage other than that?
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Joose
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Probably true, but if you are buying a phone now and looking to play games on it now, rather than "probably, at some point in the next couple of years, unless something unforseen happens that means no one develops any"...deject wrote:Windows Phone 7 is still brand fucking new, and it's only a matter of time before more XBLA games start popping up on WP7 first. The WP7 app landscape is barren in general compared to iOS, but I'm not talking about just right now. By the time your 2 year contract runs out I guarantee you it will be a lot different.
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deject
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1) Microsoft is dumping like a billion dollars into WP7Joose wrote:
Probably true, but if you are buying a phone now and looking to play games on it now, rather than "probably, at some point in the next couple of years, unless something unforseen happens that means no one develops any"...
2) XNA is supported on WP7
It's not really a question of if, it's a question of when. Microsoft's biggest problem is moving to slow. Updates are taking too long to roll out. Unless WP7 just goes away, it will be the best phone for people already in the Xbox ecosystem.
Microsoft are well known for occasionally missing the mark. See the Kin phone, windows ME, etc. Only time will tell how WP7 will fare. I don't see it failing, but it'll be interesting to see how it's marketed.
Two more games i'd like to add.
Perfect Cell
[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wtsj1QGpb1s[/media]
Very good stealthy puzzle action game. relatively short to complete, the fun comes from trying to complete the game without killing anyone.
Aralon: Sword and Shadow
[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p5mvEp_eZps[/media]
Probably the closest iphone gamers will come to an Elder Scrolls game for a long time. It's not too pretty but incredibly deep.
Two more games i'd like to add.
Perfect Cell
[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wtsj1QGpb1s[/media]
Very good stealthy puzzle action game. relatively short to complete, the fun comes from trying to complete the game without killing anyone.
Aralon: Sword and Shadow
[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p5mvEp_eZps[/media]
Probably the closest iphone gamers will come to an Elder Scrolls game for a long time. It's not too pretty but incredibly deep.
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Imperatore
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I don't know what to compare this too but I've spent more time on this game than all my others combined easily.
[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DsMMnnOp7RU[/media]
[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DsMMnnOp7RU[/media]
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FatherJack
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That does look rather fun. Kind of like The Movies, but with games. Shame none of these work on my retarded "smart" phone.Imperatore wrote:I don't know what to compare this too but I've spent more time on this game than all my others combined easily.
[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DsMMnnOp7RU[/media]
Anyone interested in a good dungeon crawling roguelike, Sword of Fargoal is on sale at the moment for 59p. it's gonna be updated to universal soon, so grab it now if ever.
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/sword-of ... 42870?mt=8
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/sword-of ... 42870?mt=8
