Gamer Confession: I Hate Mobile Platforms. There, I Said It.

The Internet tells me (pretty often) that mobile gaming is slowly overwhelming the physical console market. I’ve owned smartphones and related devices for nearly four years now. In those past four years, I’ve spent a pretty decent amount of my time using said devices for gaming. But I have a hard time finding games that intrigue me in the slightest, and I certainly haven’t found a game that I enjoy and appreciate enough to pay for–even a meager $.99. (Think about all of the things you could do with a buck. You could buy a bottle of crisp mountain water. A slice of pizza. A used book. A few cups of lemonade from a sad, woefully poor kid on the corner.) 

There seems something sort of… not genuine about mobile games to me. I’ve been bogged down with social-media games where you have to buy energy (nothing makes me want to Hulk out and rip my phone into two pieces more than purchasing ‘turns’) and have lost all sense of trust in mobile games as a result. 

But here’s a secret:

I really, really want to. Surely some brave game developer has looked at his competition and said, “I can create a more engaging game than that!” I’m not saying all mobile games are inherently of a poor quality (obviously not, given very strong sales figures), but I am saying that I’m simple when it comes to gaming. I know what I want. Maybe the mobile gaming business has yet to tap into the particular market niche that I occupy. I understand the sort of content that the mobile platform lends itself to. Slinging fowl through the air. Puzzles. (Don’t get me wrong; I love puzzle games, but after the five hundredth, they all sort of seem to run together.) Satisfying the shortest attention span known to man.

I have needs.

I need a game I can play for ten minutes or four hours. I need to feel invested in something. I don’t need an ending, but I need a goal. And I have yet to find a mobile game that delivers that atmosphere.

And I need recommendations.

If you have any mobile games that have absolutely wowed you, please share them with me. I’d love nothing more to be reassured that this particular corner of the game industry is actually going somewhere instead of just churning out the same leveling, upgrading, do stuff with your Facebook friends time-killer.