Mobile Games in 2020

For me it depends on the type of ad – frequency, intrusiveness, etc – but if it’s a game I enjoy, I don’t mind throwing a few bucks at the publisher. Especially since I earn $5-10/month on average in Google Rewards money.

I’m not opposed to paying for a game I’m enjoying, but I usually need to know that I find a game worthwhile before I drop money on it. I flip games in and out on my phone constantly, there aren’t many that I’m attached to, so it feels wasteful to pay for games, generally speaking.

Agreed. The frequency with which games get installed/uninstalled is crazy, and I rarely pay for a game up-front without a very strong endorsement, or having played the ad-supported version.

My last two phone purchases have had expandable storage. A fast 128GB SD card on top of the phone’s native 32GB means I never have to uninstall anything anymore.

This is my first phone in a while that doesn’t! I’ve got 64GB internal storage, which is pretty good. But I’ve got some space hogs on there, so every now and then I go and uninstall stuff I just haven’t touched in a while.

DOTA Underlords is really great, and while free has no IAPs at the moment.

Gems of War is like a new 20 hour Puzzle Quest. Tons of content to replay and troop combinations.

It gets very time consuming and/or pricey trying to make a high end team. Stay away if you’re the type to chase after units and abilities. I pretend the events, guilds & upgrades don’t exist. I’m over 50 hours and still having fun with two starter troops in my main team.

The freemium stuff ruined the other mobile Puzzle Quests for me.

Have you tried Hungry Cat Picross? It’s wonderful. I even reset my progress after I was done to play again someday.

I found a workaround to start over Hungry Cat Picross without deleting my progress: I married somebody, so I can then use their tablet when they aren’t using it!

It’s a good game, but I find it’s a pretty terrible mobile experience. I don’t play it that often, so every time I load it up, it asks me to download a several hundred megabyte patch, or it won’t even let me play a bot match. And it’s all in-client, so it won’t background download.

I’ve played it, and I like it. I don’t like it as much as the more traditional Konami picross game because I’m not sure how I feel about the introduction of multiple colors into the game. Seems like an unnecessary complication. But I appreciate their trying something a little different.

Has anyone played Tropico on mobile (particularly Android?)

I have enough Google Rewards credit to cover it, and it’s damn tempting, if it’s a good adaptation.

What’s the gameplay in Star Trek Fleet Command?

Well, it’s kind of a base building game, in that you can build your own starbase. The idea is that you’re independent, and can run missions for the Federation, as well as the Klingon and Romulan empires. You build ships and improve them with stuff you get from fighting and mining. At a certain point you become eligible for PvP which I don’t really engage in because, since I don’t pay any money into the game, I’m relatively underpowered. My base gets raided every so often by much more powerful players, but I take it as a cost of living.

I’m not doing a good job of explaining why I like the game, but I do find it quite addictive. I’ve joined an alliance of other players so we can kind of engage in “collective bargaining”, aka defend each other if someone decides to attack one of us, kind of like NATO. Naturally, as you level up you get access to more powerful ships and can enlarge your starbase, which I find fun. But basically it’s kind of a time waster, I guess.

Is it like all the other “base building” games out there? There was a Game of Thrones game that looked promising, but I tired of it quickly for the same reason none of the others have really clicked for me…which I haven’t exactly put my finger on. They just haven’t clicked for me. Have you played any of those to compare?

I haven’t played the Game of Thrones one, so I can’t compare to that specifically but I have played a couple other similar base builders, though it’s been a while. There was a zombie-themed base builder I tried for a little while that was kind of fun, but its interface was pretty messy and it was hard to keep all its parts straight, knowing when things need to be done or how to get to it. I guess that’s one thing that’s pretty strong about the Star Trek game, it has a clean interface and it’s pretty clear about letting you know when your mining ship is full, for instance, or a building project is complete. I’m a bit biased in that I really dig the Trek theme, but it’s probably the best of these kinds of games that I’ve tried.

Fair enough. It’s free, no reason not to check it out. :-)

And that’s another thing, you can certainly spend money, buy additional resources but just about all of it’s available in-game. So far I’ve spent nothing and I’m actually looking for somewhere to drop a few bucks, just since I figure if I’m enjoying the game I may as well show the developers some appreciation.

I’ve played only the first scenario, but so far it seems like another excellent Feral port.

Did you try Fallout Shelter? I think that’s the only base builder I’ve ever attempted. I enjoyed it, but burned out after a few days.

Tried this this morning. I’m a bit irked by the fact that some of the puzzles do not have unique solutions, but the game expects you to find the one it’s looking for. Maybe that’s less of a problem after the initial stages?