Mobile Gaming: Handheld FailureJune 15th, 2008 by Mercedes
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We’ve come a long way since Snake—or have we?
Almost everyone has a cell phone, and those who do usually grow bored of their stock features. I mean, really, how many times can you play that Bejeweled demo while sitting in your dentist’s waiting room before you start yanking out your own teeth?
Companies have been taking advantage of people’s easy amusement for years by providing us with small puzzle games often mimicking Tetris or Solitaire. Recently, though, producers have become aware of the gaming industry, viewing mobile gaming as something marketable and potentially profitable rather than standard. Instead of simply including a mini-Tetris with purchase, our phones now have links to the purchase of a slightly more colorful mini-Tetris for only $6.99!
It doesn’t stop there. Titles like Desperate Housewives and Grey’s Anatomy are listed at Gameloft, a popular mobile gaming publisher, for as low as $4.00 (until your cell provider jacks up the price after data transfers). I know that I want to spend half the money I could on a DS game for a soap opera with dinosaur graphics and an hour of monotonous gameplay disjointed by fumbling with my tiny cell phone buttons. What a waste of battery-life.
Not all of these mini-games are geared toward gamers themselves, admittedly, but more and more mobile ports of popular console and PC games are popping up. Assassin’s Creed and Rainbow Six: Vegas are among them. Games like these, originally intended to be played with a remote degree of stealth and strategy, turn into mindless side-scrolling platform games.
And now with 3G wireless mobile technology, more companies are trying to hop on the bandwagon of turning our phones into mini-PCs by offering us games for them. Vollee is flaunting their release of Second Life Mobile. All I can say about that is to try beginning with porting games that are actually GOOD. Apple, alternatively, is attempting to fashion a mobile-Wii out of its new generation iPhone by adding the option to download games with motion-sensitive controls. I wonder how much that’ll cost.
I know, I know: they’re cell phones. They’re not Xboxes or PS3’s or even DS’s. But would I want to pay money to frustrate myself by buttonmashing or tilting my phone into oblivion, only to be rewarded with a midi and an advertisement for more mobile disasters? Honestly, I’d rather just call my mother.
June 15th, 2008 at 9:35 am
I actually really enjoyed Bejeweled on my phone, lol. =/
But yes, by and large, I don’t believe producers of games for mobile phones are overly successful at it. At least not yet. Cell phones are a challenging media to work with in terms of game development. Particularly when the average user is already paying for added features for their service (unlimited text messaging, email access, etc), chances are slim that people will want to pay even more to use a data connection to play sub-par games.
Personally, I’ve seen titles like Assassin’s Creed while scrolling through the Get It Now features on my service, and have not been even the slightest bit tempted to take a look. My personal reasons being: I can play titles like that on PC/Console and have a more rewarding experience, and cost. Yes, mobile phone games are much cheaper up-front than their PC/Console counterparts, but you’re not getting near the experience you would by paying more for the traditional game(s). Generally, it seems to me like you get what you pay for. I’ll opt for the $49.99 PC/Console version over the $6.99 mobile phone version any day of the week.
That doesn’t even address the fact that, for most people looking for a fulfilling mobile gaming experience, they already have PSPs and/or DSs to meet that need, and mobile phones can’t match that experience (yet).
June 15th, 2008 at 1:52 pm
You know, I feel like I’ve gone a few steps backward since I got a pen the other day that’s a horrible port of Millipede, the sequel to Centipede, and I enjoy it a little too much. XD
With that said, I completely agree with you. I don’t find many of the cell titles that are available worthy of the price that is being asked.
It’s such a travesty that sequels or spinoffs of games that deserve much more are being developed only for cell phones such as the FF7 game or the new Parasite Eve. I simply don’t understand what possesses game creators to want to create games for cell phones when its fans clearly want much more than that.
Great first article! :3
June 16th, 2008 at 4:52 am
The only time I want to play games on my mobile/cell is if I’m forced into waiting somwehere with nothing to do (say the dentist’s waiting room, or at a bus station in the middle of nowhere and no bus due any time soon).
My latest phone will let me play its games for maybe a minute, and then it comes up with a stupid ‘If you want to play this game further, you will need to download it from XXX games’ message. Get real, phone company. I have no intention of paying out good money for naff games like this! Give me my free Tetris clone back, now!
June 16th, 2008 at 7:15 am
It’s this so called “casual gamer” market!!!! People who just want a game to waste a few minutes on every once and a while. Unfortunately, the market draws in ridiculous amounts of money, and all the game developers want to get their hand in the honey pot.
I don’t think it has anything to do with the game developers actually wanting to shittasticfy their games into tiny little rosemarys-baby versions of their true glory. Its just about money money money money. And for all the sensible folk out there that agree with Lassirra and would rather buy the beautiful, well-crafted version of the game for a console, their are a billion brainless consumers who would die to snatch up MetalGear Mobile or Assassins Creed to play in the bathroom at work when things are slow or in their cars during rush hour(or anti-rush hour depending on whether you’re moving or not).
Personally i have no games on my phone, i use it for talking.
Why don’t they just make the DS and PSPs with a built in cell phone? *sigh*
June 16th, 2008 at 8:28 am
Seriously! I would love to be able to plug a headset into my DS to call someone with while playing Pokemon. Perfection.
June 16th, 2008 at 8:09 pm
I disagree with Lassirra’s last point that Mobile phones can’t match that experience. I think that they can and have, although their presence ATM is less significant. Games like Brothers To Arms was ported from the mobile phones to the DS and it is one of the most technically impressive games on the system. Konami have a great slew of mobile games out or on the horizon:
http://www.konamimobile.com/gamehome.aspx?page=games
Including Metal Gear, Castlevania and Contra. Then there is the recent news about the iPhone and its selection of games. I think that while mobile phones aren’t popular for games now, they are most certainly on their way.