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Comment by Retric | Hacker News Reader

You need good games before people can buy them. List 5 fun mobile games relative to say good game-boy games ex: Metroid II: Return of Samus, Wario Land: Super Mario Land 3, Dragon Warrior I & II, etc.

IMO, Angry Birds does not make the cut and I don't know of a better iOS game.

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You can't compare most mobile games to "action"-y portable games like that, because a phone largely doesn't control the same way. Strategy and turn-based games tend to work better.

As far as good mobile games that provide more than a bathroom break or subway ride's worth of gameplay, off the top of my head:

* Carcassonne

* XCOM: Enemy Unknown and it's expandalone, Enemy Within

* Hearthstone

* Tomb Raider GO and Hitman GO

* Pinball Arcade

It's telling that three of those five were developed for other platforms first, and ported to mobile after they became successful. In my experience, the majority of mobile games that are both decent and professional work like that: they're only ported once they've proven to be big sellers. Developing a good game specifically for mobile is a huge risk.

Tomb Raider Go is a mobile-first title. It's Tomb Raider meets Monument Valley.

I meant Carcassonne, XCOM, and Hearthstone. (One could make an argument for Pinball Arcade, since it uses classic tables, but I feel like the game experience is probably different enough to call it more than a straight port.)

I would say the only one that wasn't developed mobile-first was XCOM (and it shows -- tap targets are smaller, and there's lots of scrolling text and wasted screen space). Hearthstone was developed simultaneously for iPad and PC (they share an interface; the iPhone version is somewhat cramped); Carcassonne is a board game but the iOS version [0] is an excellent rendition of the game that makes great use of the touchscreen while adding a good one-player mode.

[0]: https://carcassonneapp.com

Ok, here's 5 non-freemium iOS games that I would put up with every game you listed (and this is speaking as someone who loves a lot of the old gameboy games):

Threes, Year Walk, Device 6, Monument Valley, You Must Build A Boat

I could name a handful more, and that's not counting games that are iOS ports of games on other platforms, or games which are freemium but in ways that aren't intrusive or obnoxious. And I'd put up any of these games against the best games on any other platform, bar none.

Give a few of them a shot, you may be pleasantly surprised!

Monument Valley takes 2-3 hours. Interesting sure, but many people would consider that a huge waste at say 20$. People used to complain when free demos where that short.

I definitely agree, but Monument Valley only costs $4. The DLC is another $2. I'm totally OK with the length considering how inexpensive it is.

Of those I've only played Threes. I do not question your self report, but it's likely that there's a big difference in how we enjoy games, because for me there's an immense chasm between the quality and the experience of any Metroid game and a game like Threes. From my perspective it would be like someone comparing a home cooked meal to a tic-tac.

That said, You Must Build a Boat looks pretty neat, I grabbed a copy and will check it out.

I don't know, right now there's not a single mobile game I'd rather play over Rocket League, Stardew Valley, or Civ V.

But there are TONS of great games on iOS!

Ticket to Ride, Carcassonne, NS Hex, Battle of the Bulge, Agricola, Does Not Commute, This War Of Mine, Spider 2, Tiny Wings, Prune, etc. etc. I've bought 100-200 games, many of them very good.

XCom and Pandemic are the ones that I've spent the most time on. The iPad is a fantastic form factor for board games, and XCom worked better IMHO on iPad than on console or PC.

There's http://www.metacritic.com/game/ios for recommendations. Works well. That said, discovery on the App Store is simply atrocious. Absolutely terrible and a complete embarrassment for Apple since the start. Even recommending games to me that I already own!

Puzzle Games:

Ticket to Ride, Carcassonne, NS Hex... are board games.

You can also play Chess on your phone, it's not what most people mean by fun video games.

At least Tiny Wings is a video game. But, compared to say a side scrolling BMX game on Gameboy it's clearly lacking.

You may not be aware, but you don't have the one true opinion on what constitutes a fun video game.

That's the thing, it's about voting with your dollars so majority opinion 'wins' and most people don't consider press A to be a fun game worth paying for.

These are Android, but some that I really enjoyed (I would put any of these on par with those game-boy games):

  * the Broken Sword series
  * The Shivah
  * Machinarium
  * Yesterday
  * Silent Age
  * CLARC
  * Osmos
  * Auralux
  * Kingdom Rush series
  * Cordy

The games are there, you just have to dig. Phones and tablets lend themselves really well to bullethell and other shmups(of which I love):

   * .Decluster
   * DoDonPachie, DeathSmiles, really anything by Cave
   * Shogun: Bullethell

They have also done remakes of popular shmups like R-Type and popular Neo Geo shooters. There is plenty of depth in and fast action in these games. Tapping rhythm games are awesome like:

   * Rhythm Control 2

There's also adventure games:

   * Sword and Sorcery

Not to mention the Secret of Monkey Island series and Grim Fandango have been remade for iOS. I also know a guy was super into Street Fighter tournaments and really like Street Fighter IV on his iPad. The platform has already been proven as a viable gaming platform. Very few people other than serious gamers want to pay more than a few bucks for "just an app".

Monument Valley is pretty good.

Monument Valley is indeed very good, but you can beat it in 2-3 hours so it's more akin to watching a movie than having a game you can play a few minutes per session several times a day.

Tiki towers was also good. I haven't played enough recently to have too many more, but I would recommend Cause of Death (not on app store anymore, can download from hipstore and copy episodes over on a jailbroken device), as a text based game that was really well thought out.

Of course, you could always get a Gameboy emulator (even not jailbroken, Google it) and play whatever you want from there.

I also recommend the port of Bike Or Die, which was all the rage in the Palm era when I was growing up. Ios version is OK, although I'm not sure if it's still on the app store. You can probably find an IPA though.

True. The puzzles were and still are fun, just wish there were more of them. Almost makes me want to program a clone, allow people to mod it, just to play some more of the same-style puzzles...

Totally agree, the depth of most mobile games is extremely lacking. That said, I would recommend "Kero Blaster" by Daisuke Amaya (Cave Story guy). It's a similar run 'n gun, but very fun if you're into that genre.

I really liked the Chaos Rings games, and the Final Fantasy remakes. Square Enix did a bang-up job. I'm on android now, but years ago I also loved the concept for Sword and Poker. Thats at least 5 games there. All (save for Sword and Poker) had a production value on par with most games for the Gameboy.

I'd actually love a definitive list like this. In my experience, there aren't many. Here are mine:

* Monument Valley

* Practically everything by Mika Mobile

* Toy-ish games like Windosill and Wonderputt

* Carcassonne — a classic

* Lots of shmups work wonderfully on iOS; Danmaku Unlimited 2 is a great indie one

* Recently discovered: Furdemption

There's The Lost Monos. May or may not be a masterpiece, but give it a try.

It's not too hard to find five fun mobile games. Here are a few: Super Hexagon, Downwell, Threes, Kero Blaster, Canabalt.

Hearthstone is excellent.

I like Hearthstone and Ascension. The latter is not a CCG - you buy expansions like, say, Carcasonne, and the deck is "combined".

Heartstone is one of those free-2-play games with pay-2-win model. I see that many fail to see this just because it was made by a respectable PC developer. Heartstone is no different from Clash of Clans. It may be slightly less evil, but still falls into the same category.

I had a lot of fun with Pandemic, but on the whole I agree.

80 days is one of the finest games I've ever played.

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