12 replies to this topic

[Vicious Parker]

Getting a Nexus 6 has made me want to look more seriously at Android as a gaming platform. I've voiced much criticism about it in the past, and I think my criticisms are still valid (yucky touch screen controls, in app purchases, low production values, etc.). However, this year saw a lot of really awesome ports, and a lot of really awesome original games are coming out, too. So here's a topic about mobile games that you want to share with the Monkey Pros.

Since mobile games do have several potentially polarizing issues, I think it's best to include details about the game. Is it paid or free? Are there in app purchases? Are those in app purchases pay-to-win? What kind of game is it? etc, etc.

Recently I've been playing The Banner Saga. This game is beautiful. I'm not very far in at the moment, though. The game is paid, and there are no in app purchases (hooray! you get the whole damn thing because you paid for it!). It is a turn based tactical RPG that was originally released on PC and PS4, but it is also available on Vita, IOS.

[Monkeydog]

The only mobile game worth playing is Threes and everyone should play it.

[3DS]

I play multiple games on my phone. Coin dozer and Solitaire to kill some time (both free), Rage of Bahamut (in game purchases) and Brave Frontier (also in game purchases). For both of the two last games, the purchases you make in game is to get better cards (Rage of Bahamut) or better units (Brave Frontier). The cards you get in Rage of Bahamut are kind of like units just in Brave Frontier and you build a team to battle against other players. There is questing involved and almost weekly events in which you can participate.

 

Rage of Bahamut is a Mobage game and you buy stuff with Mobacoins. (I never bought any mobacoins and never plan too). There might be a story during the quests of this game but if there is I', not following it. I never try to achieve a high score or anything in the events, I'm just playing for fun.

 

Brave Frontier has a pretty big story which will be told while you are questing. There are daily events (these events are there so you can capture evolve units to make your own units evolve and reach a higher stage) and there is one monthly event. This event is called Frontier Hunter. There are 4 difficulties in this event: Entrance, Middle, End and Terminus. All difficulties have 5 to 8 stages which you have to beat with your units. Once you reach a certain amount of points you'll get rewards which will help to improve your units. This is a really nice game, it has an rpg based battle system. You have a team of six units total (including a friend) and press on the unit you want to attack. All of your units must have attacked before the enemy can attack. I've been playing this game for almost a year and it's really amazing. New units are brought out almost every month and the other events that appear once in a while are very challenging.

 

Like I said, in BF you make in game purchases. You can only buy so called gems and these have some purposes. For example: you have a certain amount of energy and to do a quest you need a certain amount of energy to go do it. Once your energy is depleted you'll have to wait for three minutes to recover one energy (I'm lvl 156 and 117 energy, do the math). You could use a gem to recover that energy. All arena events (where you battle other players squads) use orbs (which you'll have three of, ALWAYS) and you could fill those up using a gem. If you're defeated in a quest (all you're units are dead) you can fully revive them with a gem and continue the quest. Gems are also used to summon new units at a cost of five gems for one summon. It doesn't necessarily mean you'll be better with the units you summon but you can make a nice squad with those units to get through quest easier.

[Stars]

Two games that I've put a fair amount of time into and enjoyed are Cut the Rope and Polara.

 

Cut the Rope used to be cheap and is now apparently free. It's a physics puzzler that starts out fairly straightforward, then gradually adds in new things that make it more complex. I found the difficulty curve to be very good. Figuring out a tricky puzzle can be very rewarding, and if there's one that has you stumped, you have the option to skip it and save it for later. The controls are intuitive (for reals, not just because that's the word people use when they describe controls). You cut ropes by swiping across them, you pop bubbles by tapping, and so forth. I can't think of anything that needs to be "fixed" in this game.

 

Polara I think is free, but I don't remember for certain. It's a runner with very simple controls: tap one side of the screen to jump, tap the other side to change colors. Your character has a suit that switches between red and blue in order to pass through obstacles of the same color. It's a simple idea, but they do a good amount of stuff with it. It becomes very difficult very quickly, but you respawn almost immediately and are never forced to start a level from scratch for dying too much. The only penalty is a poor rating at the end of a level. I personally found the game to be enjoyable enough to replay levels to get better ranks, plus after completing a level once, you can replay it with tricky collectibles added in.

[Vicious Parker]

Deus Ex: The Fall is an interesting attempt to bring the series to mobile. It's a paid game with in app purchases, but if you pay for any o the ones currently available, you're an idiot.

I think this could be a great game if it focused more on exploration and stealth. It definitely allows for those things somewhat, but the environments are pretty small, and you can't jump. Combat suffers from the same issue that all touch screen first person combat suffers from, in that it is terrible.

The graphics are pretty good, other than somehow they have made the characters have more of an uncanny valley effect than they did in Human Revolution.

[lazlo falconi]

The only mobile games I've put any serious time into were the Android port of Sonic CD, a Chu Chu Rocket clone, and a sweet platformer that I got from Amazon for free.

[Tau]

Emulators, seriously Android has got them all. If you had iOS I could recommend quite a few but I've never had an Android phone, always been jealous of them emulators though.

[Vicious Parker]

So X-Com for Android is just about as good as the console version. It's only missing a bit of content (a handful of maps, and the "Progeny" missions that were kinda so-so anyway). I pretty much clock in late to every lunch break because I'm playing it.

[Donkeymog]

Is it possible to mod android xcom?

[matrim]

Is it possible to mod android xcom?

Never actually thought about that.
I didn't find the need to mod it, it's such a great game on it's own.

[Donkeymog]

Never actually thought about that.
I didn't find the need to mod it, it's such a great game on it's own.

Have you tried Long War? It's amazing.

[matrim]

Hmmm bean.

Gonna have to reinstall on PC and try that.

[Vicious Parker]

Is it possible to mod android xcom?

I don't know if anybody has tried. I suppose I could see what happens later. It was possible to mod the android version of KOTOR(different developers and what it, but at least it's a precedent).

Sadly 2K's support for the game has been pretty abysmal, so I do t know how many people are actually playing...