iOS game recommendations

[+jgkspsx]

I couldn’t find a thread for iOS games so I figured I’d start one. I rarely play games on my phone myself, but I spent some time today checking out pinball games and have some recommendations (including two non pinball games) and two anti-recommendation.

 

I don’t recommend The Pinball Wizard, a game I should love. It’s a fusion of dungeon crawler and pinball, and it’s so close to being good. The art style is cute, the enemies are interesting, and the tradeoffs in approaching levels are somewhat thoughtful.
 

 

Because the titular wizard is running after being hit by the flippers, the game feel is just off. The game seems to recognize this by giving you all kinds of bullet time options to mitigate the fact that it does not work as pinball, but you have to grind for an hour plus to get far enough to do so, and it doesn’t make it more of a pinball game, it makes it more of an Angry Birds game. Some may enjoy it, as there is a lot that’s good here, and it’s free with Arcade subscription, but it’s not for me.

 

Inks is also not a winner for me. It’s “pinball inspired”:

 

and while it looks nice it is just too vacuous and empty for me to stick with.

 

Okay, on to the positives, starting with pinball. I wasn’t sure what to make of Pinball Deluxe Reloaded when I first looked at it, but it is a very solid 2D pinball game in the tradition of Epic Pinball. It plays VERY well and some of the tables are fantastic. It also has a brilliant pinball-Breakout fusion game and a decent Bagatelle table.

 

It is also on Android and Steam. If you miss 2D pinball, give it a try on whatever platform you can.

 

On the other end of the pinball spectrum is an endless (?) climber game that plays… middling. The physics, particularly for the flippers, are terrible. But you can get the hang of how they behave even if it’s wrong, and the audiovisual experience is amazing.

 

 

The visuals are Tron neon ripoffs done very well, and the synthwave soundtrack is good enough I’d buy it on physical media. There are even real songs with vocals!

 

The next game, Konami Pixel Puzzle Collection, is a traditional Picross/nonogram puzzle game featuring Konami artwork and more importantly music.

 

 

@Tanooki turned me this summer/fall and it ate a LOT of hours in 2021. There are a ton of puzzles, it’s free, and the only ads are for Konami’s other mobile games. If you like Picross and Konami you should download this ASAP.

 

Finally, and best of all, a really tremendous driving game that is driven by a hilarious and rather sordid-appearing story, Does Not Commute. You learn the story line by line and character by character as you pilot car after car through the same few seconds of commute time, route after route piling up until you have a real mess on your hands.

 

The trailer explains it very well:

 

 

But story aside the mayhem you generate through your own choices is really remarkable, and the physics are really solid and funny. Each level is essentially a puzzle to be solved, with a dozen plus big hunks of metal on rubber.

 

The music and graphics are sublime and there is really nothing to complain about except the fact that I would rather play it on a system with a real controller. (I really hate screen controls in general, which is why I don’t play more mobile games and prefer games with touch inputs or only two inputs when I do.)

 

In looking for reviews of the game, I found this hilariously naive review: https://www.commonsensemedia.org/app-reviews/does-not-commute which states the game is kid-friendly. It’s kid-friendly to the extent that the constant innuendoes and subtle plot points are likely to go over kids’ heads, but canny kids will immediately realize there’s something off. I wouldn’t let young kids play it unless I was ready to explain to them what furries are and why some people drive naked.

 

Anything that you play on your iPhone (or other mobile devices as long as it’s available on iPhone) that others might enjoy?

[Tanooki]

@jgkspsx If that first one isn't your thing but should be, look to Cygames gatcha but not(it's overly fair on freebies, pay is truly optional) WORLD FLIPPER.  It's basically that game, Devilish(from Genesis/Gamegear/NDS), Firestriker from SNES.

 

You directly keep your party moving/attacking using pinball flippers, but you have many characters, RPG upgrades to their stats, skills, and new abilities.  I had to put it down only because it just ate up my time with Dragalia Lost and Konami Pixel Puzzle you brought up with other randomness I'd pick away at.  The story isn't done by far, still being updated/translated and injected into the current story seemingly by the month or two tops, but it has a lot of multiplayer raid style campaigns and other gems to work down through so you can waste hours and not get stale.

[Steven Pendleton]

You know where the best versions of Sonic 1 and 2 are? Phones. You know where else those versions are? Nowhere. I don't know anything about phone games other than that I can't play them, so this is all the advice I can give you.

[+jgkspsx]

On 1/5/2022 at 8:21 AM, Steven Pendleton said:

You know where the best versions of Sonic 1 and 2 are? Phones. You know where else those versions are? Nowhere. I don't know anything about phone games other than that I can't play them, so this is all the advice I can give you.

I know, it kills me. Sega are so bizarre. The Sega CD rebuild is not available on any other current systems, is it?

[Steven Pendleton]

5 minutes ago, jgkspsx said:

I know, it kills me. Sega are so bizarre. The Sega CD rebuild is not available on any other current systems, is it?

Sonic CD is on PC, where it will live for eternity (or changes in PC architecture renders it unplayable without using an emulator).

[Tanooki]

The old Windows drop of Sonic CD still works, just not default.  A few years ago in the Win8 or 10 era someone created brand new installers for Sonic CD, Sonic & Knuckles pack, Smash pack 1 and 2 along with Panzer Dragoon I think, Sonic R had one, maybe a few others.  When I was bothering with that stuff I had used the tools and they did in fact install and work with the rebuilt executable files just right.

 

The Sonic games on phone(ios/android) they don't work?  I thought they got re-issued fairly recently on the Ages thing with the lame ads unless you pay like $3-5 to remove those.

[+jgkspsx]

14 hours ago, Tanooki said:

The Sonic games on phone(ios/android) they don't work?  I thought they got re-issued fairly recently on the Ages thing with the lame ads unless you pay like $3-5 to remove those.

I think Steven means the Christian Whitehead rebuilds of Sonic 1, CD, and 2. For whatever reason Sega seems to have abandoned them after porting Sonic CD widely back in 2012 or so. I think they’re all available on mobile still, but touch controls of traditional games don’t work for me on mobile and I haven’t found a control pad that doesn’t have intolerable lag on iOS.

[Tanooki]

18 hours ago, jgkspsx said:

I think Steven means the Christian Whitehead rebuilds of Sonic 1, CD, and 2. For whatever reason Sega seems to have abandoned them after porting Sonic CD widely back in 2012 or so. I think they’re all available on mobile still, but touch controls of traditional games don’t work for me on mobile and I haven’t found a control pad that doesn’t have intolerable lag on iOS.

Eh it's Sega they do weird stuff.  And I think all bluetooth controllers when it comes to mobile devices seem to have some issue with lag so that's a lost cause.  I detest the lag my bluetooth on the phone gives to audio in my car, it's worse than a really really badly dubbed old kung fu movie (about 3sec.)  Makes it impossible to enjoy streaming movies/video or games over the speakers.

[Flojomojo]

Thanks for the reminder about Pinout, I love the endless nature of that game. Your other recommendations are on point as well. Apple Arcade is such a great deal and full of fun, artsy, well designed games. 

 

I want to get into Genshin Impact more but I’m rather lacking in attention span for long sessions — and when I do sit down for a long iPad game, I’m trying to finish my Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic 2: the Sith Lords playthrough. Thrusts my favorite place to play that old game; I never finished it on Xbox or PC, even after all this time. 

[digdugnate]

Final Fantasy Record Keeper is still a really good game, I think.  

[Tanooki]

How really is Genshin Impact?

I know I'm late to the game on this one even asking, but I've seen competing stories on how it's a bad end gatcha whore where you get piddly rewards, and others say they're really optional as the game is 100% enjoyable and can be completed with what it throws you free anyway.  Also I'm curious how good and stable you have to be with touch controls because if you have to simulate having like dual sticks I'd be rightly screwed, I've never been able to get comfy I float then the 'dpad'(hah) loses me.

 

I hate to say it but I'm getting a little tired of Dragalia Lost, the story is keeping me, but the shit they've pulled in the last year or so now it's grating on me more.  They clearly are pandering to hardcore players who get into hours a day play(3-4+), fucking metrics of all things to eek out each added point of damage, and probably whaling too so people can pay a lot to save time buying up shit ton of passive items to allow more plays they can auto to painfully slowly grind out the insane amount of crap you need to get Agito, and now even more so High Primordial Dragon pieces of stuff for those weapons. The game used to have an easy to hard smooth blend of the spectrum, now there's a bullshit hard WALL and even me (and I've seen lots of bitchin) a zero day/day one player still can't crack the high end stuff (agito/high dragon master, sub-demon battles, legend level difficulty, etc.)  You need like perfect touch control mastery along with hours a day play to get the bits of this and that to have the #1 weapon in the game to have a chance.  It's utterly demoralizing.

[Ninjabba]

Could you try Fantasian for me? I'm really bummed out that its exclusive to Apple so I will not be able to play it, but it looks fantastic with the diorama designs.

[Tanooki]

I would but it's apple arcade only, I don't(won't) subscribe to that when there are so many other options already I can just buy or use for free.  I wish they didn't make that mistake, nice pedigree.  Same could be said of this Castlevania game I know on there I'd love a crack at... foolish.

[Razzie.P]

On 1/11/2022 at 4:19 PM, Tanooki said:

Same could be said of this Castlevania game I know on there I'd love a crack at... foolish.

You're not missing much.   I enjoyed the giddy "I can't wait to play that game one day" feeling much more than the game itself.

[+jgkspsx]

I spent some hours with it today. I would probably play it on Switch but all of the upgrading and blah blah blah is really not my thing. And touchscreen action game controls are just miserable, even though these are functional.

[Tanooki]

I figured now I don't have a 5 year old phone I'd try it out for amusement sake, not a daily driver (yet) but I'm quite shocked how much you get at no cost out of Genshin Impact on iOS (also on some consoles, android too, pc.)  I see where the idea of it being Breath of the Wild like fits, really a bit more like Immortals Fenyx Rising given the unlocking of lands, various deities, how the tasks/sub-tasks pop up too.

[electricmastro]

Extending this to Apple Arcade:

 

[Tanooki]

I'm going to throw a big nod to Diablo Immortal

 

Knowing the owners of that I figured it would be a whale orgy as far as asinine charges and pestering would go, oddly, it doesn't, and so far, hasn't.  I'm around I think a lv40 character and I've move through a few of the overall areas so far, just ended up in a pirate area after a desert last I touched it.

 

Yes you can buy stuff, but so far it seems to be utterly and completely optional.  I think it's there more for the odd customizers and the impatient to coin themselves into stupidity, fair enough.  I'm using an elementalist so far and having a solid good time with the game.  The jewels you find and by leveling (at certain) really do add a bit more kick, and there's a decent skill tree to select and swap out from as you grow.  Visually I'd nearly on par with like Diablo III maybe the same, or maybe like that D2 remaster I have yet to bother with still.  It works, looks really nice, sounds great, and shockingly despite being touch it's not getting you killed, it's not garbage which is a bit shocking to me.

 

It's not just ios though, android has it, and there's a developing PC beta (haven't touched it in weeks, annoying bug last I did.) and it works (pc bug aside) as it should very well on whatever you wish to use.

[electricmastro]

One of the best adventure games on iOS: