Mobile Games Worth Buying
Posted by Azuriel
…are there any?
I have around $15 in Google Play money from taking surveys and such, and I was recently notified that some of those dollars will be expiring soon. Looking at the Play store though, I am a bit of at a loss of what might actually be worth buying. What I want to avoid, if possible, is throwing money into the hole of gacha games and/or Clash Royale.
The current top contender right now is the mobile version of Stardew Valley. I have spent a few dozen hours in that game on PC, but stopped a few months ago, as it was not particularly conducive to my play style at the time. Namely, the fact that the game only saves at the end of each day, thus requiring you to play a whole day each time. After researching a bit, it does seem like there are backup saving mechanisms for the mobile version, e.g. if you get a phone call or the screen locks, but I’m still a bit concerned. Clash Royale needing basically 4-7 uninterrupted minutes can already get dicey unless I’m specifically playing during lunch (shhh), whereas Hearthstone might consume longer amounts of time but the turn timers allow short breaks inbetween.
Anyway, are there any paid mobile games that you have been enjoying? Genre isn’t particularly a limiting factor. I have enjoyed Plants vs Zombies, Where’s My Water?, 10000000, and other such games in the past. Not sure that I want anything like FF6 or games that I could basically play on an emulator. Again, the goal is to not throw money at games like Puzzle & Dragons or Clash Royale.
Posted on April 18, 2019, in Commentary and tagged Clash Royale, Google Play, Mobile, Stardew Valley, What's Worth Buying?. Bookmark the permalink. 13 Comments.
In An Age 
Well, mobile games are hard to control. My two cents:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.skvalex.cr
Not a game but a voice call recorder. Useful if your phone doesn’t have any feature like that or you don’t like the basic UI.
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Clash Royale emotes, duh.
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I spent 250 gems on the goblin “eyeroll” emote, which is the only one I ever need.
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There is Ark Mobile, which is similar to the other versions but you need a very good phone. It’s way better than it was at launch and pushes updates out monthly. They are working towards there 2.0 release featuring Dino Dungeons that reward Tek bps.
Perhaps try Eternium, its similar to Diablo as a hack and slash.
Plague inc has some premium content you could unlock.
A bunch of the Final Fantasy Titles are on now if you missed one and so is Knights of the Old Republic.
There are a bunch of Mobas that play well, personally I like Mobile Legends.
PUBG mobile plays pretty smooth too.
Most of the options aren’t as good as their PC rivals tbh.
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You know, I did say “no Final Fantasies” since I may as well be emulating them, but I didn’t think about Final Fantasy Tactics… I miss that sort of game something fierce.
I’ll look into ARK mobile, but I am deeply skeptical of any mobile ports of games that don’t really run all that well on PCs to begin with. Or ones that need some kind of virtual thumbsticks to control, assuming it behaves similarly.
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FFT on mobile is kinda eh IMO. The control are fine, but something about the slower pace of that game didn’t mesh well with it being on a smaller screen and mobile.
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The main allure of Ark Mobile is that tames are revivable with amber which is mainly acquired by purchasing with cash but can be found in game or through ads. As such tame killing is like hitting someone in the wallet making pvp pretty serious. Also the leveling curve is way steeper towards the end making reaching lvl 100 almost impossible meaning quetzal platforms are rare and Titan saddle almost unseen though you can get one through a pursuit.
The main downside is that tames unclaim in three days and structures decay in seven days.
They do have dodos that can be bred to huge sizes, become ridable and damage metal though. Boat bases are viable as the whales can’t sink them and they can have turrets on them.
Turrets are way stronger and scale depending on difficulty, heavy turrets don’t exist, but errie turrets do which have unlimited ammo but do less dmg.
Honestly I played it for eight months solo and built a base that stretched about 15 lat high and about 10 lat across. Having been at war, neutral and allied with three different Alphas during that time. Pretty much you get wiped until you have turrets online. I have seen lone griefers menace the whole server for months without being captured if that is something you would rather do. They have server transfer tickets too if you pick a bad server. The developers seem to listen to feedback so that helps too
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Terraria is worth the money
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I have played Terraria quite extensively on PC back in the day. Is it essentially the same game (plus any updates in the last ~2 years)?
Also, how are the controls on a phone?
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If you don’t mind something relatively short, I found both Monument Valley games to be relaxing, beautiful, fun experiences.
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I would love to read what you write about Gems of War, but unfortunately it’s “free”…
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I’m actually playing it a bit now, on your recommendation. Not enough to form any thoughts, but I’ve gotten through the beginning stages.
I’m fine with this sort of game even if it’s a bit P2W/gacha-style – I just don’t want to spend any of my accumulated survey money on it. I have done some irrational splurging in these games before, but almost never “splurged” on games with outright price tags. Since these dollars are non-fungible funny money though, I better spend it on stuff I wouldn’t be normally inclined to buy.
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I wouldn’t recommend spending cash on it as the cash shop is extremely greedy. On the other side you can do a lot without spending and I can’t even see how to effectively spend money.
I do like the cards and the combination of TCG cards with another game mechanic – match 3 in this case. Like in Faerie, where they combine a TCG with a board, but that’s a PC game.
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