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[hops]

I don't see pocket games discussed much on Bay12, probably mostly because most of us spent most of our time on the computer anyways, but because we all have to go to school/work at some point and everyone needs a phone to tide over their boredom, here's a general thread for the discussion of portable games, whether iOS, Android, or for handheld gaming consoles.

[Empty]

Kairosoft is king.

[itisnotlogical]

Every now and then I'll download a poorly-translated MMO for Android. Those are good fun for a few sessions until they start really pushing the microtransactions.

Has anybody played any of the Android WH40k games?

[hops]

I really don't understand the kind of people who pay for microtransaction games.

Why do they have to feed the cancer? Can't they just, I dunno, get actual games?

[BigD145]

"Actual games" have to be made before they can be sold. (handheld consoles being an exception) The mobile market is mostly garbage. Finding anything beyond the heavily marketed microBS is difficult and not very fruitful. Phones can emulate PS1 games now, but beyond the squenix ports there is almost nothing with substance.

[Frumple]

The kemco rpgs tend to be... fairly competent? Far from amazing, but the mechanics usually aren't particularly odious (especially the humble bundle versions) and the writing is occasionally quite amusing. If you've already played every rpg your machine can emulate that you care to, they're engaging enough.

[hops]

"Actual games" have to be made before they can be sold. (handheld consoles being an exception) The mobile market is mostly garbage. Finding anything beyond the heavily marketed microBS is difficult and not very fruitful. Phones can emulate PS1 games now, but beyond the squenix ports there is almost nothing with substance.

A lot of the featured non-microstransactional stuffs on the App Store are pretty professional and not shitty asian knockoffs. I just don't understand why people don't play those.

[Frumple]

Difficulty finding them, disinterest in the genre, other stuff. Cost to some degree, probably.

[hops]

Yeah but I'm talking about the people who pay money for the microtransactions in the first place.

[BigD145]

The attention span of many phone users is quite short. They see $1 and don't count the 50 times they pay it. The bigger "best value" ones are for the hedge fund managers.

[itisnotlogical]

Cus obviously phone gamers are mindless sheeple feeding the corporate overlord and don't just have different tastes or anything.

[hops]

Well it would be nice if they fed the corporate overlords a bit less.

[aristabulus]

I really don't understand the kind of people who pay for microtransaction games.

Why do they have to feed the cancer? Can't they just, I dunno, get actual games?

It goes back to that old saying: a sucker is born every minute.

-----

My personal experience with smartphone games has been pretty limited, but I have found one that scratches an itch well for me.

So, mini-review!

Alphabear, by Spry Fox, is a word puzzle game. (Wikipedia, dev page, Google Play, iOS)

At its core, Alphabear is a game about making words out of letter-soup.  You have insufferably cutesy bears that give you bonuses to score, and affect the letters on the board.  There are common, rare, and legendary bears, with stats and cooldowns to match.  Do decently, get a level-up for a bear.  Do well, have a chance at a higher tier of bear.

If you have Scrabble-chops, you'll do alright here.  Alphabear lets me exercise my vocabulary without the zero-sum-game problems at the level in which I play @ Scrabble.  It also gives me a time filler when I'm out and about; I often play while I'm waiting for / on the bus, or when I have 10 or 15 minutes to kill without anything more meaningful I could do.

There are definitely *_Mobile_Games_Industry_Forces_* in effect with Alphabear, but I've ignored them mostly because of why I play.  There's an energy timer (40/hr, iirc); once full (120), it'll let you play one timed (50) and one untimed board (70).  The game will dole out 100 coins every 24 hours, but stops accruing after 24 hours; the easy-mode / can-get-a-legendary board is 400 coins to start.  A one-time fee of 5 bucks removes the energy entirely (and gives you a +50% bump to freebie coins), allowing you to play as many consecutive games as you want. (I paid the 5 bucks)  Some of the later levels are designed to be functionally impossible without a large investment of time or money.  So far, they've released 11 chapters; the first few went by quickly, the middle took a week or two each...  I've been stuck on Ch. 9 for about 4 months of active play / 7 calendar months.

There are definitely elements at the strategic level that I'd rather not fuss with, but ultimately those don't matter because I play Alphabear for the ground-level experience.

Ermahgerd, werds! 

[hops]

I found Alphabear via r/gaymer and delight in spelling homoerotic words.

[Emma]

I got Swordigo today and played for an hour or two. It seems to be a fairly good game so far. Also, Knight Story is a matching-like game I've had for a few months now, I'm still playing it occasionally, it has no ads and the micro-transactions are pretty minimal. So I'd say it's pretty good.