What's with all of the bad games?

[R4Liam]

Why is the play store so infested with really bad games? They are all ruined by 'micro transactions' or whatever you call it. Can't we just have games without the exploits. Can anyone recommend decent games?

 

[Vipera]

The Play Store is like a public bathroom: you need way more control than anybody is willing to give you to, and the cost is the smell of piss and the swearing on the walls.

Try with any game that has a big company behind (I don't know, Square Enix?).

 

[FAST6191]

Try with any game that has a big company behind (I don't know, Square Enix?).

That may be the worst example you could have picked, look up final fantasy all the bravest.

Anyway I am not of the opinion that microtransactions are inherently game ruiners. As Vipera said though if you allow anybody (and it is a tiny one time payment to get on the android store) it is an open market with a low skill barrier to entry so you are bound to get some junk.

 

[Arras]

There's a port of The World Ends With You that's supposed to be decent, I think. And Super Hexagon is a great game too IMO. Also, try Cytus, it's free if you don't mind waiting 30 seconds before a level and it's awesome. If you want to get rid of the wait time it's like 2$ or something.

 

[R4Liam]

I mean don't get me wrong, there are plenty of good games I have played in the past and some worth buying, Bloons tower defence 5 is one that springs to mind but you can play all that on your PC, and I think Gameloft do some pretty decent games too. I've felt compelled to buy anything in-game. I much prefer to just buy the game outright if it is good enough and have everything I need. I just feel my Nexus 7 is just going to waste...

And the ports of other games are good in their own right but that's what makes them.. boring in a sense because I've been there and done that.

 

[Arras]

I mean don't get me wrong, there are plenty of good games I have played in the past and some worth buying, Bloons tower defence 5 is one that springs to mind but you can play all that on your PC, and I think Gameloft do some pretty decent games too. I've felt compelled to buy anything in-game. I much prefer to just buy the game outright if it is good enough and have everything I need. I just feel my Nexus 7 is just going to waste...

And the ports of other games are good in their own right but that's what makes them.. boring in a sense because I've been there and done that.

As I said before, Cytus. It's basically only properly playable on tablets, no PC port (for very good reason, lol) and it's a great game. I honestly don't really know any others though.

 

[R4Liam]

As I said before, Cytus. It's basically only properly playable on tablets, no PC port (for very good reason, lol) and it's a great game. I honestly don't really know any others though.

I'll take a look at Cytus.

 

[migles]

just to decide which emulator to get is a pain...

 

[Mario92]

Try with any game that has a big company behind (I don't know, Square Enix?).

I bought Crystal Defenders, worst port I could ask for mobile, missing modes, scaling with black borders around the game, laggy controls, etc. Few 2D games I have saw from them (chrono trigger and some final fantasy) are basically worst upscaling method used and then slammed pixel perfect HUD with Arial on top of it...and they cost more than any other game on the platform.
Now I was interested in TWEWY, before seeing it's 16€ WITH in-game purchares.

And the ratings... OOOOH the ratings: https://www.riemurasia.net/kuva/Google-playn-sovellukset/143741
Here let me translate few:
"4: Yeah, loads so freaking long so one star away"
"4: I don't know it's still downloading but seems good"
"3: It's ok one star away because lag and because I can't move freely"
"4: Maybe it's good I haven't tried it yet"

There are loads of good games, but just like with Vita I can play them with computer as well, many of those will simply be ignored as they cost 1€, free games get extra coverage because of these kind of morons reviewing them before they even start it and most games now are designed so they seem great for first tens of minutes so there's time for user to rate it 5 stars and then quit it when it gets dull and never fix rating.

I'm usually ready to pay for good games but as things are now it's simply impossible to know if I buy the game that is it really bad port from iOS, will it go to free as nobody else is buying it, how do I know if the games good?

Only good games I have played so far are the Room, Layton Brothers (really good paying model), Rayman Jungle Run, Bloons TD 5, Riptide GP2 (That's the settings meny I want to see on every 3D android game!), Deemo/Cytus.

 

[Drink the Bleach]

Don't blame mobile for a successful business model. Its not Apple's or Android's fault that making crappy cookie-cutter games with IAP is more profitable than making art. I'd personally say the blame is on Facebook.

 

[Vipera]

ASDFGH I SAID "I DON'T KNOW", PEOPLE!!!

<_<

How about CAVE, is that all right?

What I meant is that having to do with a bigger company is better than any shady one-man project with 0 advertising. And I mentioned Square Enix because yes, they are crap and blahblah, but at least they don't install malware or have shady banners, not because they are Square Enix but because it's a big company.

"durr then why didn't you pick another company?" it's 1am and I have to leave to work in 3 hours. Leave me alone.

 

[cracker]

Maybe if you gave us an idea of what games you like then people could suggest more games you might like. Many games are casual and/or freemium and many consider them shovelware but some might overlook that on games that are really great in spite of that.

Hack, slash, loot is free today on Amazon App Store today.

 

[PityOnU]

Here's a bunch for you to check out. Please note that these are available DRM-free on the Humble Store, and your purchase will support charity.

• Aralon: Sword and Shadow
• Badland Premium
• Bag It!
• Beat Hazard Ultra
• Breach & Clear
• Bridge Constructor
• Color Sheep
• Crayon Physics Deluxe
• Draw a Stickman: EPIC
• Dungeon Defenders
• Dynamite Jack
• Enviro-Bear 2010
• Fieldrunners
• Fieldrunners 2
• Fractal
• Frozen Synapse
• Galcon Fusion
• Galcon Legends
• Gunslugs
• Ittle Dew
• Kingdom Rush
• Knights of Pen & Paper +1 Edition
• NightSky
• OLO
• Pulse: Volume One
• Ravensword: Shadowlands
• Riptide GP2
• Savant - Ascent
• Skulls of the Shogun
• Splice
• Strata
• Super Hexagon
• Superbrothers: Sword & Sorcery EP
• Syder Arcade
• Symphony
• The Room Two
• Type:Rider
• Vector
• Zombie Gunship

All great games. That should give you something to do on your Nexus.

 

[p3rand0r]

i usually try to find what game has the best review,or it is in the top 500 , also i try to buy games without microtransactions and i had luck ....mostly , also i always try the game for 20-25 minutes before a purchase and if its kinda nice take it
and google play its a free market place without entering constriction, thats why bad games make it, because they try to become rich and famous with a 30min coding game (like some......flappy bird )

 

[Satangel]

Here's a bunch for you to check out. Please note that these are available DRM-free on the Humble Store, and your purchase will support charity.

• Aralon: Sword and Shadow
• Badland Premium
• Bag It!
• Beat Hazard Ultra
• Breach & Clear
• Bridge Constructor
• Color Sheep
• Crayon Physics Deluxe
• Draw a Stickman: EPIC
• Dungeon Defenders
• Dynamite Jack
• Enviro-Bear 2010
• Fieldrunners
• Fieldrunners 2
• Fractal
• Frozen Synapse
• Galcon Fusion
• Galcon Legends
• Gunslugs
• Ittle Dew
• Kingdom Rush
• Knights of Pen & Paper +1 Edition
• NightSky
• OLO
• Pulse: Volume One
• Ravensword: Shadowlands
• Riptide GP2
• Savant - Ascent
• Skulls of the Shogun
• Splice
• Strata
• Super Hexagon
• Superbrothers: Sword & Sorcery EP
• Syder Arcade
• Symphony
• The Room Two
• Type:Rider
• Vector
• Zombie Gunship

All great games. That should give you something to do on your Nexus.

I booted up Dynamite Jack randomly, was very pleased by it and actually completed it even. Very fun little steath game, would recommend!

 

[Delta517]

I totally agree with you. The Google Play is filled with a lot of bad IAP games and Flappy Bird clones. And the top lists are filled with those type of games where you build your own village/city/whatever and you have to spend real money on diamonds and stuff to keep on playing, Im sick of it...

Thanks for the list of games PityOnU! Will try some of them out!

 

[Mario92]

Here's a bunch for you to check out. Please note that these are available DRM-free on the Humble Store, and your purchase will support charity.

All great games. That should give you something to do on your Nexus.

Thing is almost all of those are also available to PC as well and many of them are just plain boring, like Draw a Stickman and Crayon Physics.
So it's pretty much same situation like with Vita for me, why would I want to play it with my phone when I can play it better with my other devices. Most of those games don't have any way to use save files between the versions so I usually just end up ignoring android version even when playing on the go does sometimes sound good idea.

Something like the Room kept me interested because it used mobile phones capabilities and Layton Brothers was good game which simply wasn't available to other platforms and didn't need accurate controls as it was mainly dialogue.

Best part? I know many of those games are fantastic but I haven't seen them in Google Plays top lists or recommendations except something like the Room! Right now most populars are "candy crush ripoff", "Clash of clans ripoff", "Angry Birds", "Minecraft ripoff", "guess company logo", "Angry Birds", "the simpsons cow clicker", "Bear Simulator", "Angry Birds" and of course "Angry Birds".
My recommendations are filled with same stuff as Google for some reason puts "popular in your area" in same bloody gatecory and my area seems to be filled with 10yo kids and of course even trying some free to play title gives you more dumb recommendations.

That's what was point of the topic! Is there even possibility to make good game that would sell well on this platform? You almost have to make shitty game with freemium model or release the game on other platforms as well so it would gain popularity.

 

[WiiCube_2013]

Don't blame mobile for a successful business model. Its not Apple's or Android's fault that making crappy cookie-cutter games with IAP is more profitable than making art. I'd personally say the blame is on Facebook.

Companies release "games" which you either wait ages to play the damn thing or pay with real money to be able to advance, then because this was a success they kept it and moronic people fall for it.

The worst is still that there's so many people with iPhones and the only thing they use it for is.. check their Facebook/Twitter, take selfies, answer some calls and text messages. Like couldn't they do that with a cheap phone? The design of iPhone is also bland as hell then again, most of the phones are.

Edit: Screw gaming on the phone I'd rather use my PSP or DSi/2DS.

 

[BlackWizzard17]

Companies release "games" which you either wait ages to play the damn thing or pay with real money to be able to advance, then because this was a success they kept it and moronic people fall for it.

The worst is still that there's so many people with iPhones and the only thing they use it for is.. check their Facebook/Twitter, take selfies, answer some calls and text messages. Like couldn't they do that with a cheap phone? The design of iPhone is also bland as hell then again, most of the phones are.

Edit: Screw gaming on the phone I'd rather use my PSP or DSi/2DS.

The level of agreement is over 8000!!!!!
But I do like playing emulators on my phone or tablet as I get to do things like this. It's a cartoon sharder for ppsspp, won't quite beat my psp but it sure is damn cool.

P.s: screw (phone) mobile gaming

 

[PityOnU]

Thing is almost all of those are also available to PC as well and many of them are just plain boring, like Draw a Stickman and Crayon Physics.
So it's pretty much same situation like with Vita for me, why would I want to play it with my phone when I can play it better with my other devices. Most of those games don't have any way to use save files between the versions so I usually just end up ignoring android version even when playing on the go does sometimes sound good idea.

Something like the Room kept me interested because it used mobile phones capabilities and Layton Brothers was good game which simply wasn't available to other platforms and didn't need accurate controls as it was mainly dialogue.

Best part? I know many of those games are fantastic but I haven't seen them in Google Plays top lists or recommendations except something like the Room! Right now most populars are "candy crush ripoff", "Clash of clans ripoff", "Angry Birds", "Minecraft ripoff", "guess company logo", "Angry Birds", "the simpsons cow clicker", "Bear Simulator", "Angry Birds" and of course "Angry Birds".
My recommendations are filled with same stuff as Google for some reason puts "popular in your area" in same bloody gatecory and my area seems to be filled with 10yo kids and of course even trying some free to play title gives you more dumb recommendations.

That's what was point of the topic! Is there even possibility to make good game that would sell well on this platform? You almost have to make shitty game with freemium model or release the game on other platforms as well so it would gain popularity.

To be fair, the majority of games nowadays are released on multiple platforms.

I do agree with you, though, in that games that are made the have an *optimal* (i.e. definitive) experience on tablets or phones are few and far between, and do not gain much popularity for whatever reason. To cherry-pick from the list I gave, I think these games are best experienced on, or exclusive to, mobile:

• Badland Premium
• Beat Hazard Ultra
• Color Sheep
• Fractal
• NightSky
• OLO
• Pulse: Volume One
• Riptide GP2
• Skulls of the Shogun
• Splice
• Strata
• Super Hexagon
• Superbrothers: Sword & Sorcery EP
• The Room Two
• Type:Rider
• Vector

Most of the above are great for mobile because they have simple, non-frustrating control schemes that work well for the limited controls available on these devices and offer short, "pick up and play" sessions that can be completed while pooping.

But yeah, regarding your comment about "popular titles" on Google Play, popular opinion is the reason we can't have nice things.