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The best mobile games
Mobile gaming has come a long way. Over the past few years we've gone from simple distractions like Snake, Words With Friends and Doodle Jump to full-on narrative experiences crafted specifically for Android and iOS devices. What's more, at least a few traditional console game developers have shifted entirely to mobile at this point, and, in a bit of a reversal, they've ported their games to consoles. By 2012, game-design toolsets like Unity and Unreal made a charming indie designed for mobile devices indistinguishable from one you'd play on a PlayStation or Xbox. As such, for the purposes of this list, we're focusing on games that have been released within the past five years.
Indie charmer 'TumbleSeed' will arrive on Nintendo Switch May 2nd
Okay, so you've had your Nintendo Switch for awhile. Ganon's corpse is but a speck in the proverbial rearview mirror and hunting for the last remaining shrines in Breath of the Wild isn't all that interesting. What's a person to do? Well, that's where indie games come in. And for the purposes of this article, we're talking about TumbleSeed specifically. The charming rogue-like about climbing a mountain as a tiny future-flora will be released to Nintendo's latest console May 2nd. That's only a few weeks away!
Ridiculous Fishing nears $1 million in sales, but could have been free
For a game as absurd as it is, Ridiculous Fishing has become a ridiculous success, with sales topping 300,000 according to developer Vlambeer. The game costs US$2.99 upfront, which amounts to a rather sizable payday for the indie team. Company founders Rami Ismail and Jan Willem Nijman revealed the sales figure today during a talk at GDC Europe, Joystiq reports. Now that the game is a bona fide App Store darling, its creators also revealed that it was almost sold through a free-to-play model, which is an increasingly popular model for iOS games. One early idea was that various boats would be sold in the game via in-app purchases, priced all the way up to $1,000, though this proposal didn't make it far. As someone who has sunk many hours into this gem (no pun intended), I can safely say that the game would not be nearly as enjoyable with a real-cash economy. As it is, it's an absolute bargain at $3, though I couldn't possibly see shelling out cash for in-game gear, even if the game was free-to-play. In short, Vlambeer absolutely made the right decision.
Daily iPhone App: Ridiculous Fishing is ridiculously good
Vlambeer's Ridiculous Fishing is finally out on the App Store today, after a long and rough development cycle that included a well-publicized battle against a clone. But in my humble opinion, the guys at Vlambeer should never have worried. No clone could ever match up to the design talent, brilliant wit and just plain love that's been put into this game. Ridiculous Fishing lives up to its foolish title and then some. You play as a fisherman. To begin, tap to toss a hook into the water. The game then runs in three phases. First, as your hook descends, tilt the iPhone back and forth to guide it past as many fish as you can, as deep under the surface as possible. As you reel it back in, you switch tactics. Tilt to grab as many fish as possible, trying to avoid the jellyfish if you can. Finally, the game gets really silly when your hook reaches the surface. The fish fly up into the air, and you've got to take them out of the sky with whatever firearms you have lying around. Each fish you kill earns money for line and equipment upgrades and finding new species can unlock new areas with new fish to hook and deeper waters to plumb. It's a very addictive gameplay cycle, and it's all backed up with some brilliant art, great sound effects and very catchy music. I've been playing the game for about a week now, and have found it hard to put down. Ridiculous Fishing has seen a little drama even before release, but the team never needed to worry, in my opinion. This is a great game that is among the best we've seen on the iPhone, ever. It's well worth the purchase at US$2.99, though I'll bet we'll see Ridiculous Fishing (and with any luck, more of Vlambeer) around the App Store for a long time to come.
Ninja Fishing for iPhone looks eerily similar to popular Flash title
Ninja Fishing is a new title coming on the App Store that combines Fruit Ninja's hacking and slashing mechanic with a fishing game, where you throw fish up in the air and then chop them down for fun and profit. Unfortunately, quite a few people have noticed a resemblance to a Flash game called Radical Fishing, which itself was already being made into an App Store title called Ridiculous Fishing. Sure enough, the original Flash title has you fishing and then shooting fish out of the air, and the planned iOS title plays generally the same way, it would seem. So what's the deal? Certainly there is a resemblance between the two games, even if the swipe-to-slash mechanic is a new addition. And this obviously isn't the first time we've seen game mechanics from another medium apparently ripped off for an iOS title. But the developers of Ridiculous Fishing seem to be taking it in stride anyway -- they're still working hard on their iOS title, and they say it'll have lots of cool new ideas and "an amazing visual style" as well. Gamenauts, the company that released Ninja Fishing, says that the title was inspired by the original Flash game, and that credit will be given, though they weren't specific on how that will be done. Mistakes were made, it seems, but given how many titles are available on the iOS store, it's probably not too surprising that we've got a few overlaps.
