The world of mobile ports to other platforms is often fraught with bad controls, poor optimisation, and a long list of other complaints that make them barely worth considering. Often it's because the process adds a bunch of clunky patches in an effort to make it work, while ultimately distilling out the very thing that made it fun in the first place.
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puzzle
Seems I've been playing a few mobile ports lately, which could reveal an improvement of mobile games, or perhaps a better understanding of how to port mobile games to PC. A while ago it seemed like every mobile port was guaranteed to be garbage, but it's hard to deny that developers have learned from past mistakes and there are some cool titles available if you look hard enough.
I'll probably give it a post eventually, but one of my favourite games of all time is The Tiny Bang Story. It's a simple little game that mixes solving puzzles with finding hidden objects, but it's all about the presentation. In a game with such simple gameplay, there's loads of room for beautiful art and music to tie the experience together and The Tiny Bang Story does this without ever uttering a word of dialogue, written or otherwise.
There aren't many genres that invoke a noticeable cringe from me when they're mentioned, but "puzzle platformer" sits among the very top of the list. Even without the puzzles, I'm averse to platforming a lot of the time, despite the occasional exception to the rule.
I'm really enjoying these experimental little games from accomplished developers that are tiny examples of a good idea that probably could never be expanded on. Before playing the wonderful Subsurface Circular, I unironically got my hands on Edmund McMillon's experiment; Fingered.
Following up a huge indie success must be like trying to write a novel after publishing a best-seller. All that expectation and affection gained from success can often be a recipe for disaster, as a sequel rarely lives up to its predecessor. Of course, we remember the ones that do, but have a look at movies in particular, and you'll find that there are a hell of a lot of sequels that you've probably never heard of.
The first time I saw the computer game version of Monopoly, it blew my tiny little mind. As with Battle Chess before it, here was a game I'd played in the real world enhanced by animations and sounds that seemed impossibly immersive. However, when the novelty wore off, the lack of physical interaction with a game like Monopoly only served to expose its weaknesses. The more you play the video game version, the more you realise it's one hundred percent dice rolls, with little else happening along the way.
An exercise in simplicity and elegance, Zen Bound 2 is a beautifully realised puzzle game. It's attention to detail and minimalist mechanics serve to keep this sequel evergreen as technology grows. It goes to show that if you do something right, you rarely need to change it later.
SteamWorld Dig is not a deep game with a compelling narrative and complex mechanics. It's not an action platformer with knuckle-whitening controls and precision timing. There's absolutely nothing about the game that warrants excessive hyperbole; but make no mistake, this is a very, very good game.
If paintings ever came to life and you were able to walk around in their world, I imagine it would be pretty close to what Nubla proposes. Even the shortcomings of this student game could be realistic downsides to a painted world that probably doesn't work the way you'd expect.
Once upon a time I was house-sitting for someone, so I took my trusty PS3 with me and prepared myself for a week of pooning out on the couch where I wouldn't be disturbed… for days…