Smartphone games all the same

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Does anyone else find the smartphone gaming scene really dull? It seems you've either got games where you swipe to match things (Candy Crush style), games where you incessantly tap on things (The Simpsons Tapped Out) or games where you're running away from something (Temple Run) and they all offer incredibly shallow and superficial gaming experiences. Perhaps I'm just expecting too much since I play the likes of League of Legends, Sim City, Heroes of Might and Magic etc. Maybe it's just the dumbing down and commoditisation of the gaming market that's happening?

Any thoughts?

#29.
 
F2P seems to have ruined them.

A few years back, you had normal purchase games that were great, like the original Kairosoft catalogue, Battleheart, Battle Loot Adventure, Kingdom Rush, Anomaly, generally RPGs or Tower Defense I find.
 
It is because of the control system. There is only so much you can do with a touchscreen as the sole input device.

I know you can plug in controllers these days but the game developers have to make the game for the lowest common denominator in terms of the control device.
 
smartphone games all pants

Fixed

It is not down to touch screen, as shown by full windows games like civilization v which is fully enabled for touch screen.

In app purchases, in app advertising, rushing junk out for maximum profit and the Facebook style "games" are all the rage and are frankly diabolical.

I don't think you can even blame cpu/gfx processing power with the new high end crop.
Screen size is a big limitation, but it's not like you get any better games on the ipad.

And decent indie games are all pc based, as tablet/phone market continues to grow, hopefully they'll start paying interest in the mobile market.

A start would be FTL on mobile device, zero reason why the full game could not be ported. One of many games that would work fine with touch, won't overload processing power and don't need huge screens. A lot of games would need to be tablet only, but even that would be a great start.

Even companies like ea, give us massively cut down versions of red alert, phones/tablets have more memory, more processing power etc, than when these decade old games were released.
 
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It is not down to touch screen, as shown by full windows games like civilization v which is fully enabled for touch screen.

It most certainly is ( or at least partly is). Yes some games work (strategy games like CIV) but some are just incredibly awkward with a touch screen.
 
It most certainly is ( or at least partly is). Yes some games work (strategy games like CIV) but some are just incredibly awkward with a touch screen.

Agreed, this however does not explain the lack of decent games on mobile devices. Hence it is not down to touch screen. There are many genres that work perfectly well. Yet we don't see these games.

So in no way is it down to touch screens, like you suggest. That is so far down the list.
If you were just talking about FPS or flight simulation, then you would have a point. But touch screen is not an issue for the majority of games.
 
Agreed, this however does not explain the lack of decent games on mobile devices. Hence it is not down to touch screen. There are many genres that work perfectly well. Yet we don't see these games.

So in no way is it down to touch screens, like you suggest. That is so far down the list.
If you were just talking about FPS or flight simulation, then you would have a point. But touch screen is not an issue for the majority of games.

If you read the OP's thread title - "Smartphone games all the same" - As in why are most games all similar genres ( as per his opening sentence).

Reason (or at least part reason) = touch screen

:)
 
Personally I'm fine with smartphone games being more simplistic, that's actually what I want from a mobile game, something I can just pick up and play for a little while when on the move, and they're much more suited to touch. If I want in depth I'll just use my PC.

What has ruined it all is F2P and in app purchases, and that's the reason I rarely play mobile games now.
 
Yeah going to playstore u see almost all the icons for the game the same cartoony style like just one person made em all lol when browsing the games lists. Also as said there only so many types of games on smartphones which is a shame, its really hard to find somit like u would from a pc or console on a smartphone. But touchscreen does limit things heck even playing a mario clone is troublesome cos of trying to do a run and jump which you cant cos too many keypresses at once or somit.
 
Have you tried the likes of vice city, San Andreas, Max Payne Raven shield 2, worms Armageddon etc on a tablet or 5"+ phone? These AAA equivalent games are pretty good really. They all have no or limited micro transactions. You list games that are free timewasters- mobile gaming can be more then that now.
 
A start would be FTL on mobile device, zero reason why the full game could not be ported. One of many games that would work fine with touch, won't overload processing power and don't need huge screens. A lot of games would need to be tablet only, but even that would be a great start.

FTL is already out for iPad and it's brilliant. :)

I think that there's plenty of great mobile games out there if you're willing to dig past the top 10 list.

There's quite a few decent PC ports, such as XCOM, KOTOR, Hearthstone and Frozen Synapse. Plus original games such a Device 6, Space Team, Threes, A Dark Room, Blackbar, The Room, etc.

I'm also enjoying a lot of the board games that have been ported to tablet.
 
My favourite phone games are Battle Heart and Kingdom Rush. Definitely worth a look if you like a little bit of strategy.
 
As some people have pointed out, there are some absolutely great mobile games. I guess the problem is finding these rare gems amongst a sea of complete rubbish.
 
Totally agree. The only game I still play on a regular basis is PES2012 released 2.5 years ago! Why Konami removed from the Play Store and haven't released an update I'll never know. I haven't bought a game for months as the general quality of new mobile games are lazy and uninspiring.
 
It's because of the market they're aimed at; casual users who just want a quick fix before they move on to the next thing that everyone is playing.

Have you tried the likes of vice city, San Andreas, Max Payne Raven shield 2, worms Armageddon etc on a tablet or 5"+ phone? These AAA equivalent games are pretty good really. They all have no or limited micro transactions. You list games that are free timewasters- mobile gaming can be more then that now.

And you've listed games that are mostly PC/console ports, rather than games that are built with the actual platform in mind from the beginning.
 
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