The Gamer's Quarter

[Cycle]

So I just got a new mobile for (early) christmas, and I want to know what are the best games for a mobile system! I wanted to get DooMRPG, which is unfortunately not compatabile with my phone anything else?
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[Fred]

Galaga. Always Galaga. Technology has made it possible to be connected at all times to Galaga, and it is imperative that you avail yourself of this important advance in human civilization.

[Nana Komatsu]

Mobile games are a wasteland because the platform is so hard and inconsistent to program for. Gameloft is doing some good things, but really there isn't much out there.

[dessgeega]

i think one of the biggest problems with cell phone game development is that too many games are being designed as if they're for platforms with, you know, a working d-pad and buttons you can actually press. or more accurately, ported from those platforms with minimal effort. i think the only worthwhile games on cellphones are probably one-switch games like the nom games and that tower game wes likes.
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[Nana Komatsu]

There's probably a joke to be made about the N-Gage but it isn't coming to me.

[simplicio]

Tower Bloxx and Lumines Mobile are the only ones I've got.

But sticking to titles by Digital Chocolate (search "dchoc" on your download service) seems to be the wisest decision (they just picked up about half of IGN's year end awards), as they're really the only ones considering the nature of cell phone gaming. Gameloft makes nice, polished things, but they're better technically than creatively. Dchoc creates these simple, addictive things that make you happy while you're playing, while keeping the controls totally manageable.

EDIT: Victim of my own post, I now own Dchoc's Rollercoaster Rush. Having passed Australia, I've moved on to France, where my first course is "Sacre Curve." My tiny coasterites loop de loop and sail through the air with glee! Until I overturn them and they parachute away on tiny white umbrellas. -1 passenger for me, oh no! It's all very charming, and $6 totally well spent.

I'm really trembling with anticipation for Tornado Mania, but Cingular doesn't seem to have it yet.

[Cycle]

Rollercoaster Rush and Tower Bloxx look rad, but they don't seem to be carried by my service which reall sucks. Rush sounds like the perfect game I've been looking for!

I downloaded some of their other games though like Tornado Mafia which is fantastic. There really is some diamonds in the rough with mobile gaming. Way too much rough, though.

I also downloaded the Alien Hominoid game which looks great but the gameplay is rather bland and consists of sub-par arcade game clones. Could have been way better. I also got Nebulus which is the Tower Toppler/Castalian clone. I couldn't stop playing this game when I was younger even though it was terrible. They have an option to play a modern version which is more fair and fun, but it's still insanely unforgiving. I kinda like that about it, but I also think it could have been so much better too. Maybe have some more "easy" levels.

I downloaded more games but i'm tired so more later gnight.
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[simplicio]

Yeah, I actually yarred Tornado Mania a couple days ago cause they haven't released it in the states. If they ever do I'll go pay for a copy too, cause I totally support what they're doing.

I finished Rollercoaster Rush yesterday; it was awfully short and relied too much on trial and error memorization, but it still managed to be quite thrilling, especially for a tiny mobile game.

[Mr Mustache]

I have Tetris, which is great, and Doom rpg, which is good, and initially impressive, but ultimately fairly boring.
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Straight up

[simplicio]

Yeah, Doom RPG seems best as a subway game, where you're bored anyway and don't have anything to do for 15 minutes. You make some small progression and feel at least that your time isn't entirely wasted.

Herein I realize that I only play mobile games on the subway, and only then when I'm lacking a book. Do any of you without mass transit commutes play these? Where and when?

[Cycle]

This is basically my previous post but re-written and stuff.

Anyway yeah, I got Tornado Mania which is really fantastic. I could see room for a little more depth, but as it is it's still wonderful. I give it my thumbs up! Reminds me a little of Katamari Damacy. Somehow.

I also downloaded the Alien Hominoid game which looks great but the gameplay is rather bland and consists of sub-par arcade game clones. Could have been way better if they actually tried to make the minigames less horribly generic and dull.

I also got Nebulus which is the Tower Toppler/Castalian clone. I couldn't stop playing this game when I was younger even though it was terrible. They have an option to play a modern version which is more fair and enjoyable, but it's still insanely unforgiving. I kinda like that about it, but I also think it could have been so much better too. Maybe have some more "easy" levels, or just an easy mode. This kind of platform game goes well on a mobile since it's more about standing in one place and timing jumps right, rather than running and jumping. Anyway, I just love the concept of this game. It's like a maze wrapped around a cylinder. Some of the level design is great, but the actual enemy placement and controls don't go well together so it ends up pretty frustrating.

Another game I tried downloading was Duke Nukem: Bikini Project which is the worst game ever. Very dissapointing!

DooMRPG sadly doesn't work on my mobile.

I also got Bikini Beach Part by Digital Chocolate which is addictive but not terrible wonderful. The load times are also terrible.

MiniGolfMagic is lots of fun, but I kinda wish there was a standard mode without all the gimmicks, but I'm still having a good time with it.

I also downloaded ArcadePark2 while looking for a decent PacMan clone. Instead, I got an awful Boulderdash clone, a good Galaxian clone and most excitingly, a decent Lode Runner clone.

I also got Impossible Mission which has been adapted to mobile pretty damn well. They gave you a gun but very limited ammo which adds some survival horror edge to it since you never know if you want to waste a bullet on this robot or another one. I try to avoid using the gun in general. But yeah, this one is fun too, but the keypad on my phone can sometimes make it a little arkward.

I think that's it... what does "yarred" mean? Can I get Rollercoaster Rush and Tower Bloxx on my phone using this "yarring?" Because I unfortunately can't pay for them.

I play these games quite frequently as I take my phone every with me, not my DS. So if I'm just waiting for my friend to get ready to go out, I'll break this out. If I'm waiting for food, I'll break it out, etc. Life is full of waiting, and I want some fun games to fill the gaps.

P.S In Australia we have something called turbochage, so I play $30 and get $120 worth of credit, which is why I get so many of these games.
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[simplicio]

Yarring means I found someone that posted the .jar file on sendspace or something. Cause DChoc couldn't get their shit together to publish in the US, I guess? If you look around some emu torrent sites you might have luck.

The real thing about Tornado Mania and its more basic cousin Tower Bloxx is that they balance the simple, one-button timing based action sequences with a bigger picture strategy component. So it's not one sided as a game like Skipping Stone (which is pretty adorable, but ultimately the same thing over and over), but it's got enough action to be thrilling. So you have an action sequence, followed by a planning sequence, during which you mentally define a goal for yourself to meet in the next action sequence. And very importantly, that action sequence takes into account the varying input options (most of them totally inadequate for normal gaming) across the hundreds of handsets available.

For those of you that have no idea what I'm talking about with this, imagine Sim City requiring a rhythm game with each new building that would determine its population/output/whatever.

[Cycle]

how did you get the file on your phone?
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[GSL]

So I'm probably strange for saying this, but I'm quite a fan of the Gradius port I've got on my Sprint phone. It's slow and tiny and relies on the numberpad as joystick which is initially bothersome, but for some reason I just can't dislike the game. It feels like a solid port in spite of its limitations, if that makes any sense? Or maybe I just like the idea of the Game Lobby and competing against other people for High Score. It's not as responsive or fast as any console version of the game, but I don't think that's the point. Actually, I think that's the reason a lot of mobile games get panned like they do, because users are expecting a console game on an underpowered device and so fault said game for not playing like its console analog, rather than on its own terms. But that's just me, and I digress. Of course, I'm not going to play mobile Gradius when I have access to my PC Engine, but it's great on buses, inbetween classes, during slow moments at work, and other small breaks.

While not as entertaining, I also like Ys: Book 1. I know a lot of people dislike it, but again I have the feeling that's because it's not console Ys rather than the game itself being explicitly bad.

But beware Capcom ports--I've tried both Ghosts N Goblins and 1942 and find them to be severely lacking even as mobile titles. It could just be my phone (in which case why is Sprint selling the games for use on it?), but they're extremely slow, clunky, and the games seem to have problems with registering input when two buttons are pressed at once, something Gradius and Ys have no trouble with. And when as massive a program as Ys has fairly smooth scrolling and fluid animation (for, you know, a tiny mobile phone) but GnG chugs along at half the framerate while using a quarter of the memory, I figure that's an issue of lousy programming and not the platform. Again, this could be due to my phone--I've got just the basic cameraphone one gets free with a two-year subscription, so faster phones with more memory might have better results, but I doubt it.

[Fred]

Dudes, seriously, Galaga.

(Mind the drunken four-in-the-morning photography, now.)



It plays remarkably well for a tiny, palm-of-your-hand vert shooter. Plus if you're like me and you use your phone at work, you start each day with a finite number of coloumbs in your cell phone's battery, and you probably shouldn't be wasting them on playing long role-playing or adventure games because mAh is money. And anyway, it's not too tough to sneak a DS into, I don't know, the spare pocket of a messenger bag, say.

[simplicio]