Yes, its my very first official gaming article on the Shadow Realm. Recently, I’ve been insanely busy. The only time I ever get a chance to play games is for quick bouts on my Mobile phone, where I’ve got quite a few games installed. As a huge RPG gamer myself, naturally I’ve got a lot of RPG’s as well.
I must confess. I don’t consider Mobile gaming hardcore. I also don’t think its “the way of the future” either. Its only for quick time-wasters. I’d much rather spend time playing Runescape than spend a lot of time playing games on my iPhone. Unfortunately, I don’t have a Runescape membership at this point. I should be able to get my character RelmKisaragi her membership back this week, though, and with a Gold Membership as well.
Whatever the case may be, let’s review the nature of Mobile gaming. Typically, they’re always short. Obviously, you can’t exactly have an epically long game on a Mobile device with very little memory; that’s the first major disadvantage to Mobile games. I’ve played a large variety of games, and there’s really only several varieties that exist, all of which use touch pad controls in some way.
Literally all of the RPG games I play are nothing but long, extended fetch quests. The plots are generally quite insignificant. So far, the only Mobile RPG I’ve play where I was honestly enthralled by the deep sense of plot was Destinia, by Gameville. Until I played through the game and realized; there’s absolutely no substance to it. And unlike Gameville’s other series, Zenonia, the environments you’re playing through… ARE EXACTLY THE SAME.
Another thing that really kills these Mobile RPG’s in addition to the fetch quests in level grinding. All of these games essentially feel like miniature MMO’s that are incredibly short, boring, and single player. I compare them to MMO’s because, essentially, all you do in the grand majority of MMO’s is fetch quest and level grind. The only MMO I’ve played where I actually enjoyed the quests in Runescape, which has purely amazing questing in it (so long as you fork over the cash for a membership).
So, not only are Mobile games short, they’re also boring for the most part. The plots are generally lackluster as well. Plus, in Zenonia there’s a boss that’s incredibly impossible to beat because he heals himself infinitely. I was slaughtering everything else in the dungeon, but that ghost kept infinitely healing himself and it took me forever to beat him. And now in the next dungeon I’m getting slaughtered again, and I have no quests to help speed up the leveling process.
I guess the only reason why I really play Mobile games is because they are pick up and play. If I want to play on my PS2, I gotta get up, turn on the console, wait for it to load, and it takes a long, long time just to get started. On my Mobile phone, I just open up the game, play a little bit, save, and quit. I don’t have to spend hours just trying to find a save point.
Of course, as a consequence of Mobile gaming, you really lose all the substance and enjoyment of an epic long adventure. Although it does appear the latter Zenonia games are getting better… but then there’s also the fact that literally all free Mobile games (and some paid ones) constantly beg you to buy things in them. Its really, really frustrating.
Granted, there are some non-RPG games which aren’t so bad. I love my FreeCell, Temple Run, and Sonic Jump. Yup, a Sonic reference for a change. But even these get boring after a while. This only gives me the desire to make my own Mobile games even greater, but I’ll need to get a Mac before I can possibly hope to accomplish such a task.