Tablet games that aren't awful?

[Tribble puncher]

When you wrote Nightsky it reminded me of a great App I use called "Night Sky" where it allows you to move your iPad/iPhone around and see which stars/planets are currently in the sky in real-time. I find it fun and useful.

Yeah, I used to use Google Skymaps until I upgraded to the Tab 3 where it doesn't work well, and found one called Star Chart which is prettier but does the same thing.

Oh and yeah, Cutter. The disadvantage of having so many different Android devices, is that you'll often encounter apps that aren't compatible with certain devices. I guess that's another reason why app developers prefer developing for iOS.

Oh and I recommend "Star Traders RPG" if its not already on this thread. Great Space RPG sandbox game. Huge Universe/Tons of things to do/Cheap (2.00)/ Nothings extra to buy/ Game has been out for years and Dev. still bends over backwards to do updates (Not to fix bugs there are none that I've seen, But to add content.) It was the first andriod app. I ever paid for, and I still play it on occasion now.

The reason Devs love developing for iOS is there are a lot of people that will pay serious money to be seen with that shiny metal Apple stamped on the back of their device.

 

[Lindley]

It's kind of strange how addictive Smurf's Village is. It's in the farmville tradition, with smurfs. Now, it *is* a freemium game, but unlike a lot of them you can get a reasonable amount of premium currency for free in a variety of ways. It just takes some patience.

 

[Orac]

Plants Vs Zombies 2

 

[Owain Taggart]

One of the most annoying things I find about tablet games are the offers that pop up after launching the game. Seriously, 5 pop ups offering deals? Just let me get to the freaking game! It can take sometimes up to 2 minutes before I can even click on playing field.

 

[The Doctor]

Is XCOM available on Android? It was, hands down, the best gaming experience I've had on a tablet to date. Fantastic gameplay, excellent visuals, etc. Other notable mentions include:

Starbase: Orion. An entirely competent Master of Orion clone.
Kingdom Rush/Frontiers. Probably the best casual TD games that I've ever played. Great unit selection, really fun graphics.
Real Racing 3. Probably the best tablet racer to date. The free-to-play mechanics are frustrating for the first few hours of the game until you can afford a second car. Then it's smooth sailing.
The Walking Dead Season 1. Great story and adventure games are well-suited to touch-gaming.
Anomaly: Warzone. TD game from the creeps perspective. Good gameplay, fantastic visuals.

I have no idea if any/all of these games are available on Android. The iPad definitely has a better selection of games than its rivals.

 

[Robert Maxwell]

Unfortunately, it is unlikely to ever be available for Android. There's an iOS version because the game runs on the Unreal engine, which has an iOS (but no Android) port.

 

[The Doctor]

Unfortunately, it is unlikely to ever be available for Android. There's an iOS version because the game runs on the Unreal engine, which has an iOS (but no Android) port.

That's a shame. I played the crap out of XCOM on my iPad for a solid month.

 

[Cutter John]

Watched a video of Kingdom Rush. Looks fun, but for some unknown reason it tells me its not compatible with my device. The hell? All I can figure is that my tablets 1.2 ghz dual core cpu isn't powerful enough to run it.

 

[Hoser]

I'm kind of addicted to Game Dev Story right now. For tower defense myself and the kids tend to play Bloons Tower Defense 5, they've actually added more (free!) content.

 

[Cutter John]

I'm really digging Radiant Defense right now. It's a fun little tower defense with a nice simple story and attractive artwork. Challenging and addictive like a good game should be.

The basic game is free, but offers several add on weapon packs, for a grand total of $4. I had no problem buying them to support the devs.


https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=net.hexage.defense

 

[SPCTRE]

I'm surprised nobody mentioned it yet (I might have just missed it mind you), but The Room is a brilliant puzzle game that takes great advantage of touch-based controls.

One of the very few tablet experiences I would actually describe as worthy of one's gaming time.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.FireproofStudios.TheRoom

Other great suggestions I'd like to echo are XCOM (turn-based strategy being suited perfectly for tablets) and The Walking Dead S1. Also, Infinity Blade is quite entertaining.

Too bad some if not most of the great tablet games (the few of them that exist) are iOS exclusives.

 

[Cutter John]

Yeah, the "Exclusive on iOS" bugs the hell out of me. Screw Apple and the devs who do this.

I'd also like to take this opportunity to invite EA to once again go fuck themselves for screwing up yet another beloved IP.

http://tabtimes.com/review/ipad-game/2014/02/06/dungeon-keeper-review-money-raid-iosandroid

 

[Robert Maxwell]

XCOM only being on iOS is due to the Unreal Engine not having an Android port. That's Epic's fault, not Apple's.

The Dungeon Keeper thing is a disgrace, though. I almost downloaded it until I saw the reviews complaining about the microtransaction model. No thank you.

 

[Owain Taggart]

Yeah, EA seems to really like microtransactions and go overboard with them as a result. It's like they take the concept of mobile games and microtransactions and overplay it to the extreme. And then they wonder why people hate them. Better to develop a game first and worry about microtransactions later, otherwise you probably end up with your game being built around microtransactions and only feeling like it exists because of it.

 

[Robert Maxwell]

I'd rather just pay for the damn game up front than be slowly bled by a stupid microtransaction system. I just won't play a game that works that way, period.

 

[SPCTRE]

That'll be the way to move forward with MTs - offering a pay-upfront as well as a free-to-pay (haha) option.

Even if the paywall is designed very well - and there have been quite a few games that got it pretty right already - I'll still always prefer to pay a premium upfront for a game I know I'm going to like.

 

[Cutter John]

I miss the old concept of Demos. Download the first fifteen minutes or so for free, then pay to unlock the rest of the game.

 

[Owain Taggart]

With the way things are moving forward, I wouldn't be surprised to see something like needing to pay for skills in a mobile RPG. "Oh, what's that? You want this skill? Hand over the cash, buddy! Yes, we know.... even if the skill is a basic skill needed to proceed." Knowing EA, they'd probably make talking to NPCs a skill that is needed to be bought.