It started out small. Just a black snake circling relentlessly on a small Nokia screen. Mobile games fill up
that crucial space between being a hardcore gamer who spends heavily on PC or consoles to someone
who considers themselves a non-gamer. You would know that all forms of gaming are legitimate and
nothing should stop you from whipping out your phone and creating that clan, or becoming a Kardashian,
or feeding Om Nom his candy or any one of the myriad delights the world of mobile gaming has to offer.
In 1997, Snake was released into the world on the Nokia 6610 and the world would never be the same
again. The Wireless Application Protocol was one of the first steps in moving from pre-embedded games
to a freer system where any game could be downloaded right onto your phone. The year 2002 saw the
release of Java and this led to a mini revolution in the world of mobile games.
Space Invaders used minimum graphics in order to keep the file size small enough for Java. The Nokia N-
Gage released in 2003 and was a specialized gaming phone but it was outshined by the launch of Sony’s
PlayStation Portable. Still, this attemptshowed that major corporations were now widening their horizons
and were eager to put in major money into mobile gaming.
In 2004, Asphalt Urban GT was released by Game loft, the successor of which is one of the best racing
games on the mobile plat form. This changed the mobile gaming market due to the close integration of
the store with the phone. It simplified the process of publishing a game to a large audience and thus
provided an impetus to game developers. It was only after the launch of the App Store that mobile games
became very highly commercially successful; Angry Birds being the case in point.
It has been many years since the launch of the App Store and Play Store and as creating mobile games has
become easier than ever before, there are a multitude of mobile games to cater to your gaming fix.
Initially, mobile games were just about mechanical tests of your reflexes but lately, as in the world of non-
mobile gaming, there has been an increased focus on story-driven games which ask you to do more than
just match three identical tiles.
Mobile games have come a long way from the 8 bit snake to the drool worthy graphics of Vainglory and it
still has a long way to go. Payment models will keep evolving with time and the degree of seriousness
people treat mobile games with. With simpler methods of creating a mobile game coming up every day,
anyone with a desire to create a game of their own can do so, even without the hard technical skills
required traditionally.
Color Switch was created with Build box in just under a week. Game developers are finding new ways to
utilize all that the mobile ecosystem has to offer and with the advent of VR, it will not be too long before
we see some decent mobile games built for Google Cardboard.
The future of mobile games is shining
bright.
Square Enix will announce a new title in the Life is Strange series on January 20 at 10:00 a.m. PT / 1:0 p.m. ET, the company teased.
Where Winds Meet on PS5 is a wuxia MMO with strong action combat, open-ended exploration, and plenty to do if you like setting your own pace.
Travis Bruno of Capsule Computers writes:
"It is hard to believe that there would be a time that not only would the Western releases of The Legend of Heroes franchise manage to catch up to the Japanese releases of this incredibly lengthy franchise, but that the game’s that helped kick it off would be getting remade at the very same time. A few months ago we reviewed the fresh remake of Nihon Falcom’s Trails in the Sky 1st Chapter and now here we are, visiting the most recent release in a story featuring characters and plot elements spanning all the way from that very first game twenty-two years ago. It’s not often that a video game sequel requires full knowledge of its predecessors, and in many ways The Legend of Heroes tried to do that with Daybreak, but now that everything has gathered together in The Legend of Heroes: Trails Beyond the Horizon, players best be ready for the most character packed, lore heavy, game of the franchise since Reverie."
