I'm kind of amazed no one has tried making a games database site for either google play or apple in the same spirit as https://steamdb.info
Ask HN: How do you find high quality mobile games?
51–60 of 117 posts
Re: Ask HN: How do you find high quality mobile games?
#52Mindustry is an excellent tower defense, Factorio-like game. It's a little tricky to play without a mouse but is very polished. Then there's Shattered Pixel Dungeon, a fun turn-based roguelike RPG. Both are FOSS.
Re: Ask HN: How do you find high quality mobile games?
#53It does not seems to appear in comments yet and maybe it is a bit out of context but android devices nowdays streams almost perfectly services like geforce (video hardware acceleration is a basic feature on phones) now and it is relativiely easy to setup a proper moonlight / sunshine as android client / remote home gaming pc to get "on premise cloud gaming" .
As some other comments says pc games have way better quality and infinitely less ad / bloat / pay to win shit that is the norm on android (and maybe a large part of ios games). There is also a huge game choice for these platforms that supports very well gamepad controls.
These systems are not perfect as they require a "descent internet connection " and a physical gamepad (imo) to have a decent mobile gaming experience. So it.may not fit the case "I want to play games lost in alaska".
Note however that the required connection has argably quite low expectations like ~3 mbps bandwidth and average and less than 150 ms latency to run smoothly with basic resolution (480p). This can be enough on a phone device standard size.
All of this let you play any pc game / retro gaming with possibly high end game renderings for decent hardware / saas prices. (You run games with with small resolution because it targets a phone screen so hardware can compute extra visual effect for a cool rendering on phone)
Re: Ask HN: How do you find high quality mobile games?
#54MiniReview is a pretty good source of info. The YouTube channel post reviews of a handful of new games pretty frequently, and occasionally publishes "best of" sort of videos with some of his favorites.
And then the app is basically the same content, just easier to sort and whatnot.
https://www.youtube.com/@NimbleThor & https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=minireview.bes...
Beyond that, as a general rule of thumb, games that are ports from other platforms have a much better chance of being high quality. Dead Cells, Horizon Chase, Streets of Rage 4, and Chrono Trigger all fit the bill. Also, TMNT: Shredder's Revenge and Into the Breach, although you need a Netflix subscription to play them.
I mostly play on android, so I'm not sure how many of these are available on iOS. I know FTL: Faster than Light has a great port that's iPad-only.
Re: Ask HN: How do you find high quality mobile games?
#55Netflix Games[1] have higher quality than usual and no ads, no in-app purchases, and no predatory tactics (in the games I tried). Bonus points for being all free if you already have a Netflix account. I can vouch for Poinpy[2], Laya's Horizon[3], Lucky Luna[4], and Skies of Chaos[5]. I haven't tried the mobile ports, but the desktop versions were very good: Into the Breach[6], World of Good[7], and Kentucky Route Zer…
World of goo is excellent. My daughters play it sometime, and I hope it may led them to be structure engineer...
Re: Ask HN: How do you find high quality mobile games?
#56Anything by Zach Gage… knotwords is a new favorite right now!
Re: Ask HN: How do you find high quality mobile games?
#57There's one publisher, "Yiotro", that I like to boost. I think it's just one eastern European guy who has published a dozen or so games. Pretty much no monetization, except for some enhanced versions of a couple of the games. I recommend Antiyoy, I've barely gone a day without playing it for years.
Very simple, abstracted games.
Re: Ask HN: How do you find high quality mobile games?
#58Nearly all mobile games are designed to get you addicted and then monetize you via micro transactions. IMO it’s better to just not participate in that form of gaming. I deleted all mobile games about 10 years ago after I found myself unable to regulate how much time I was spending on objectively stupid games like Pocket Frogs (basically you vs an RNG trying to breed and catch them all). I knew it was a low quality wa…
I have also pretty much left mobile gaming for several reasons.
But it's ridiculous and a real shame: I have a pocket computer that I'm already carrying 100% of the time, and whose capabilities would be a dream compared to what we had when I grew up with console and PC games in the 80s-90s... and I don't use it for gaming. I'd rather sit in front of a PC or Steam Deck... often to play an 80s or 90s game (although I also play newer stuff).
By the way, some of the few games that are worth it on mobile (as mentioned in other comments in the thread) are ports from other platforms or emulated games. But it feels silly to me to play those on mobile as it's clearly not the best platform for the job.
Re: Ask HN: How do you find high quality mobile games?
#59As a sister comment says, the least bad automated option I have found is going to the Play Games app, scrolling to the bottom, and filtering by Paid, No Adds and No IAP. You can also filter by genre.
But to be honest, the very few mobile games I have found in the last few years have been through asking in forums, saying what I like, and getting answers from humans.
Re: Ask HN: How do you find high quality mobile games?
#60The impossibility of finding good mobile games is why I develop desktop and console games. I have no idea how to get discovered in the soup of the mobile app stores and I don't want to build the kind of skinner's box it would take to compete alongside most of those games. There are great mobile games out there, but I have no idea to find them except by accident. It's so bad that something like 0.01% of mobile apps ma…
Do you think that could be addressed by certification or curation? For example, an org that reviews mobile games and gives them a stamp if they’re not exploitative.
Maybe somebody will start a “real games” App Store on the other side of all this anti trust stuff.