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Mobile Gaming: A Hardcore Gamer's Guide

Mobile gaming is more than just Bejeweled. Find out why it can't be ignored anymore...

"Cell phone games are intended only for the ultracasual gamer."

"The nonstandard hardware means the controls are always crap."

"I need an expensive, high-end phone to be able to play anything worthwhile."

For the reputation hardcore gamers have for progressive, early adoption of technology, as a group they sure do seem to come up with a lot of excuses to ignore the mobile gaming medium. All of the above oft-cited reasons to ignore mobile games certainly contained varying degrees of truth in the past, but hardcore gamers should understand better than most how rapidly things can change.

In the fall of 2005 the most powerful home console you could buy was (arguably) Microsoft's Xbox. Yet in a single day in November the release of the Xbox 360 flipped that balance of power onto its head. Suddenly the most powerful home console was significantly more powerful. So why should it be assumed that mobile gaming has stood still since last fall, or even earlier?

Every month top-tier mobile publishers push the limits of mobile gaming's creativity, depth, and all-around quality. If you thought mobile gaming was "crap" when you gave it a chance 12 months ago, why should you assume it still is today? It's true the games don't look as good as what's available on the PSP or DS, but GBA-level visuals have rapidly been reached and subsequently surpassed. Today's top-end titles look closer to PS1-era games.

I'm not trying to convince mobile gaming skeptics to begin browsing their phone weekly for hot new games or to check Modojo multiple times throughout the day for the latest mobile gaming reviews, news, or media. Mobile phones will never be the primary gaming platform for many enthusiast gamers. What I am suggesting is that mobile gaming has matured, and gamers that want to be playing the most fun and most creative games out there, regardless of the platform, can no longer ignore mobile. More and more can't-miss titles are exclusively available on cell phones.

This guide is intended for those aforementioned open-minded gamers. For those gamers willing to "risk" the six or 10 dollars to explore an entirely new, rapidly-growing, and extremely exciting videogame medium. Today's feature examines the three misconceptions above. In the interest of fairness I'm also going to talk about the biggest problem still holding mobile games back. Next week part two will rundown the best looking, best playing, and all-around greatest mobile games for the hardcore gamer who needs more than just Bejeweled to care about what phones can do.

Read on to find out why enlightened gamers should be digging the mobile gaming experience.


"Cell phone games are intended only for the ultracasual gamer."

This is probably the one I hear most often from my friends, when I try to convince them to give mobile gaming a chance. Most likely because it absolutely was the truth, when cell phone games were in their infancy. Today, just like the console market, there are some developers who focus on casual, puzzle-style games, and others who focus on developing games just as "hardcore" as the deepest GBA titles.

Off the top of my head within the last month I've played and reviewed 2D platformers, 2D and 3D racing games, a scrolling top-down shooter, a boxing title, and an on-rails 3D shooter. Not all of them were great, but that's where our reviews come in. There's a lot of crap on there for download. Let us play it, so you won't have to.

"The nonstandard hardware means the controls are always crap."

This one does contain at least some truth. It would probably be more accurate to say that nonstandard hardware means the controls are sometimes crap.

I've played and reviewed games on probably about a dozen different phones from all the major manufacturers, and I'm fairly certain that every single one had up, down, left, and right arrows as well as a center button. So where does this belief that phones are so radically different from one another that its impossible for the game makers to ensure their games are fun across all the various hardware configurations?

There's a heavy parallel to how the PC gaming works. World of Warcraft is probably more enjoyable on souped-up hardware that allows the game to run with all effects on at a high resolution, but Blizzard ensured that the game was still fun for me to play on my hardware, which was much, much older. Which actually segways into the next misconception handily...

"I need an expensive, high-end phone to be able to play anything worthwhile."

Just like PC game developers, every mobile game developer makes choices about the range of hardware they want to support. Half-Life 2 is a hardcore gamer's game, and you need pretty nice hardware to run it. A game like Final Fantasy XI is arguably just as hardcore, but it runs on a wide-range of machines. Mobile gaming is the same way. To play some cutting-edge titles, its true you might need a pretty pricey phone. But more often than not that isn't the case.

Think about it. The whole reason mobile gaming is so exciting from a business perspective is because of the huge volume involved. If only 5% of the U.S.'s 200 million phone owners play games on their device, that's already the equivalent of a 10-million-selling console. If game makers can get that percentage up to 10 or 20, then it makes sense why mobile gets so much attention these days. So it's in developer's best interests to hit absolutely as many handsets (and thusly as many potential consumers) as possible.

Most developers have around three to five completely separate reference builds, then stretch those up or compress them down to fit the handsets that fall around the build's level of power, memory, etc.

Mobile Gaming's Biggest Problem

The largest thing holding back mobile gaming isn't actually the games at all. Virtually everyone, at every level, agrees that the shopping experience is absolutely horrible. Some carriers are better than others, but even the best turn away the "mo-curious" thanks to poorly designed, confusing menus. I write about mobile games for a living, and it's confusing even for me.

Let's say you read part two of this feature that will talk about specific games worth checking out, and decide to give one or two a try. Is it in the "new release" folder, "best seller" folder, or maybe just "action"? Maybe your carrier doesn't have that game at all. There's no way of knowing without digging through the several places it could be. Then once you've found the game you get a single sentence description of the game, and nothing more.

I want to view screenshots on my phone displayed at my screen's native resolution. I want downloadable demos. I want games to be searchable, not just browsable. I want reviews from Modojo or another mobile gaming website available on the phones themselves. It just makes sense.

I don't expect mobile games to replace anyone's PSP or Xbox 360. If I can convince readers of just one thing, I hope it's that mobile gaming is much less lame, and much more addicting than they probably think it is. Games like Diner Dash or any of Popcap's PC titles are renowned in the hardcore gaming community for how surprisingly deep and addictive they are, but many of today and tomorrow's "Diner Dashes" are now hitting cell phones instead of PCs. Be sure to check back next week, where we'll run down the best games for any type of gaming taste.

If you have other reasons you're uninsterested in mobile games, feel free to email me, or comment, using the form on the right. I can't and don't speak for the entire mobile games industry, but as a big console/handheld gamer who now regularly games on my cellphone, I can probably answer any concerns you may have before plunking down the $7.


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