Outline, Clash of Clans
Note: Nothing in this blog post was sponsored. These are my personal experiences in recent times; there are a lot more games, bigger ones too but I wanted to write about these.
This became way longer than I wanted it too. I might lost conciseness along the way.
Mobile Gaming is something I had a more 'scoffy' attitude against, something I didn't take quite seriously.
Growing up with PC gaming, Mobile Games always had a bad connotation for me. Thinking of the bigger ones, like Clash of Clans which I played in school, I think about grinding against mechanics that are stacked against me, to slowly railroad me into buying an in-game currency.
I took Clash of Clans as an example, because I have played it again some in 2024 before stopping again. I had lost my old account/progression, and started anew. It was interesting to see, in roughly a month I was where I was years ago after "years" of playing (not sure how much actively I played in school, but I had the app installed for long).
It seems like nowadays the game focuses not only on the user buying gems for progressing in the game, you can also buy cosmetic upgrades. Also, there is much more progression, and it takes longer to get it. The builder base and clan mountain thing take AGES to complete. I think those were actually refreshing to play, as it was something a bit different to the usual game play formula.
I think you can definitely get enjoyment out of these games, and I do not mean to criticize anyone who is enjoyed them; I had enjoyed them too.
But if I were to summarize it quickly, I would say these games are intentionally frustrating to get you to buy something.
I also understand that development costs money and that (almost) no one will develop games high-fidelity for free.
Sonic 1
If I were to create a game, I would also like to be adequately compensated for my work, and of course, profits are nice too.
On the point of frustration, adequate compensation and buying. I encourage buying games you like! Or buying the adfree version, that is what I did.
I had downtime and scrolling endlessly on social media isn't really satisfying. I checked out the App Store, and saw that I could get Sonic 1 on my iPad.
It was free, and when you know its "free" on the app store, its "freemium" 99% of times (in-app purchases + ads). (Which again, is fine, I dont like ads and in-game purchases, and things like dynamic pricing, dark patterns and others mechanics to nudge you into buying are dubious! But I want to emphasize again that it would be wishful thinking that you get things for free (there is an exception, which I will come to later))
As I was saying, Sonic 1 on mobile. I never completed/played the early Sonics much, I got discouraged as I was pretty bad at them.
Well, this version played really nice! Being spoiled by uBlock on PC, the ads were too much for me though. Everytime I died (only 1 Live in the free version!) or between different acts/levels.
This annoyed me rather quickly, as I died often in the beginning. The adfree versions price was 2€, which I think is fair. Given, the original sonic is almost 35 years old, but porting it to modern plattforms, etc. etc. Refer to my previous argument, nothing in the world is free (besides some exceptions).
I bought it, and it made my experience much more enjoyable, not being hassled by ads the entire time. I think Sonic is the type of game you have to like, you definitely have to learn how to play the old ones too, I think they are quite hard.
Sonic Dream Team
Sonic Dream Team was the first mobile game I played in a long while, short after I bought my iPad because Apple Arcade was included for three months.
Before I say anything about the game, you have to know its biggest downside: It's only available through Apple Arcade, which is an subscription.
If you do not have an iPad or any other apple device, you cannot play it. So maybe skip this portion, I dont want to hype a game up that many people cannot feasibly play :(
But yeah, Sonic Dream Team. They managed to make one of the most enjoyable Sonic experiences in recent years, and locked it behind a subscription.
I played this game (I think) in early 2024, and I was so pleasantly surprised. I came with the bias/mindset that mobile games suck, but I genuinly enjoyed this one.
You have a nice story, the artwork is charming, gameplay is good, what more can you want! You even have Cream as playable character!
I could go on a tangent, but this is supposed to be about mobile games in general and my recommendations. I'll keep it for another time.
Fruit Ninja
This one is a classic! Sadly, I must tell a heartbreaking tale...
I bought Fruit Ninja Classic for 0.99€ a few years ago. I think there are a new one, but I liked the simple charm of the classic game. You had missions to unlock the blades, like hitting a combo with five pineapples. It was fun and somewhat challenging to unlock the blades.
I'd call Fruit Ninja the perfect mobile game. It is easy to understand, difficult to master and you have arcadey gameplay, meaning a round only takes about a minute before you can start again
The combinations of Blades and Dojos allowed for some interesting gameplay changes aswell, and you could find what was most fun for you.
Now the sad part: I remember it clear as day, one day, Fruit Ninja updated. It added the starfruits to unlock blades/dojos, etc. and a level mechanic. You couldnt unlock things with challenges anymore.
You could buy powerups, buy more with real money, etc.. They made the gameplay more complicated and added incentives to purchase more.
The game is now free on the Play Store, but for what price? The game I liked is gone.
And, to top it off, I downloaded it again, it was what actually inspired me to this post: You have to buy a subscription. You can play for 20 minutes and then you get locked out.
I saw there is a Fruit Ninja Classic+ in the Play Store for 2,99€, but I do not want to trust this company again. Shame, Jetpack Joyride was great back then too.
Game Dev Story (Kairosoft)
I had this on my phone back then too, cost me 99 cents, and I had quite some time with it. Its a tycoon game where you have to develop games to make money. You can choose a Genre and Story (I think, I played this years ago), then some parameters like Polish or Niche Appeal. During development you have to use your in house developers or external ones, switching between them makes sure that their motivation doesnt go down.
It was a pretty fun experience, you could upgrade offices are few times. Nothing too deep but it always excited me seeing I got a good combinations and that I won the game awards.
Donut Games
I remember these games very fondly. Also havent played them in a while but I'd recommend them. Rat on the Run, Spikey and Gold Miner where the ones I played. They were simple and fun, and I thought their monetization was fair. You could play the first ten levels for free and then, to play all you'd buy the game. The free download was like a demo, and I think the prices werent high either.
Need to give those a go again someday!
Open Source Games, namely Shattered Pixel Dungeon
On Android, you can sideload apps, meaning you dont have to go to the Google Play Store if you dont want to. When I said nothing in the world is free, Open Source were the exceptions I meant.
I'm currently writing this Article in the OSS version of VS Code, I'm using an open source Operating System, etc. !
The F-Droid store on Android hosts Open Source Android Apps, and of course, Games!
I think I had a Sudoku app from there. You can look through what interests you, everything is free of charge!
But one game I was particularly fond of was Shattered Pixel Dungeon. It is based on Pixel Dungeon, which I have also played before, but was expanded upon drastically.
It is an roguelike RPG for your phone, and it plays just so well. To not breach the scope of this article, I'll just encourage you to try yourself. It's really satisfying to slowly get better at the game and managing to beat the bosses. Also, finding secrets and cool items c:
To prevent cheating the save states are kind of obfuscated, I think, or cannot be easily transfered, at least I didnt see a way to back them up before I sent my phone in for repairs. I sadly lost my safes and progression, achievments, ... which was a bit bitter, but I definitely want to pick this up in the future again! (Its not the games or developers fault!) I think the developer also made it avalaible on Steam, if you like it you can support them!
I think the Steam version also supports Cloud Save, which is nice if you want to play across multiple devices.
My Appeal
Buy games. Freemium is only going to go so far. Find something you like, and invest a few euros into a genuinly good experience.