Portable Gaming Scene and What Fellow OzBargainers Prefer to Play

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  AssamLaksa on 20/07/2015 - 22:48

  Seems like it's dying, but i really wish it wouldn't :( I've been a handheld gamer all my life (Gameboy Color -> Gameboy Advance SP -> Nintendo DSi -> Nintendo 3DS) and I also own a Vita Slim.

  I personally just can't get into mobile phone/tablet gaming because the experience just isn't the same. Nevermind touch screen controls being wonky and less fun without having physical buttons to press, but all the "pay to play" games gets on my nerves too. Hate the idea of playing for 10 minutes and having to wait a whole hour or two just to continue playing. Furthermore I'm always wary of using my phone to play games in case I run out of battery. Not that I need to, I bring my 3DS where ever I go!

  I actually played Guacamelee! on the Vita and it was awesome. Although I guess playing on any console with a controller would still make the game awesome. The Vita is actually a really great piece of device. I've been playing my Vita way more than my 3DS these days.

  I reckon as long as there is a large enough dedicated fanbase of people who loves handheld gaming, it can't "truly" die off. As long as there's a need, some company out there will fill the gap and continue producing dedicated handheld gaming devices and games. Or at least I'm banking on that.

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    [Deactivated] on 21/07/2015 - 07:00

    Pay to play

    That's the reason I don't have a single game on my iPhone.

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      AssamLaksa on 21/07/2015 - 09:58

      Not gonna lie, I do have games on my phone still, and i do play them occasionally but it's not the same. I want games where I can immerse myself into for a couple of hours at a time and Candy Crush wouldn't let me lol.

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      feral on 28/07/2015 - 17:08

      There's always emulation if you are jailbroken or prefer android.

      My portable of choice is an iPad mini2 and I too abhor the IAP P2P direction mobile gaming has taken, particularly good games that have slowly integrated this annoyiance into their User interface, ie bad piggies annoying me to hire a mechanic after I fail a few times. Great game but didn't used to do that.

      That being said there are a few gems in the rough, stuff like limbo, grimrock, pumped bmx2 off-road legends, the room, where this kind of crap is either non existant or not in your face. Some games lend themselves really well to a touchscreen.

      I used to use a gp2x before Apple came along.

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  iridiumstem on 21/07/2015 - 01:27

  I don't know, I think the biggest problem that's plaguing handheld consoles right now is the fact that they cannot compete with the hardware spec of the smartphones. That said, like console vs PC (which I think has a similarity), handheld consoles probably would survive, albeit with smaller market share.

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    [Deactivated] on 21/07/2015 - 07:06

    I would say, portable gaming console don't need to be fastest or sporting latest tech.
    Look at DS for example, which wasn't the fastest had poor graphics as compared to PSP still managed to produce some very unique games and sold better than the psp.

    At the moment VITA has become a indie console, what is Sony forgetting is that the indie games are lot cheaper and sometimes free on PC. without the AAA EXCLUSIVES VITA can't differentiate it self, and that too you don't need more than 5 good games a year to keep gamers interest.

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      iridiumstem on 21/07/2015 - 07:15

      I should've clarified what I meant by smaller market share, what I've meant was, they will survive but portable consoles will have less market share than before (they will share the market with the smartphone/tablet, so less market share as they now have a competitor).

      That's why I've mentioned that it's sorta like PC vs gaming consoles. Gaming consoles have worse hardware than many gaming PCs out there. I am not trying to go "PC Master Race", but rather, I personally think PCs have the hardware advantage (that comes with a higher price tag). At the same time, people still like gaming consoles, they differentiate themselves with console specific games and being cheaper (of course, this is just my opinion).

      I think similar logic applies with portable game consoles. While I enjoy some of the mobile games on the phone and the tablet (i.e. physics based games, Candy Crush Saga, Kingdom Rush along with other games that utilises touchscreen), there are certain games that I know that wouldn't be suitable for phones and tablets (i.e. Monster Hunter series is one of my favourite game series and I don't think they are suitable for touchscreens, just like how some games are just not fun on keyboard and mouse). Also, the latest gen smartphones cost north of $700+ whereas portable gaming consoles cost like $200~$300 max (I guess you could argue that smartphones are more versatile, like PC vs gaming console argument).

      That said, in terms of the game quality, I don't think current gen portable gaming consoles are offering much. I've had a Game Boy Colour, PSP (my brother had a DS at that time) and now a new 3DS XL. I personally feel that the games haven't changed much from PSP era, in terms of how much the enjoyment value they offer. The enjoyment values I get from the new 3DSXL games are either same or even worse than what I've felt when I had a PSP. There is little to no renovation, I feel, in the gaming market (though this might simply be me being nostalgic). I honestly am slightly disappointed with the 3DS game selections; I'd gladly buy DS games, because I don't find any of the new games offering anything different.

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        FrankMcFuzz on 21/07/2015 - 09:32

        There are quite a few very good 3DS games; Monster Hunter 4, for one. I personally also like Kid Icarus because of how different it is.

        However, over the past 2 years, Nintendo have let their handheld slide, which is weird considering it has far more marketshare than the Wii-U. Now they're not touching either of them and focusing on their PS4 clone console NX, which, again, nobody is going to buy unless they don't get any videogames.

        Luigi's Mansion 2 is pretty good, but nowhere near as good as the first one. Fire Emblem Awakening is good as well, but far more streamlined than it deserves to be; FE is better when they don't include methods of infinite grinding. I also enjoy the Professor Layton games, but the puzzles have certainly reduced in quality…. It feels like all I'm doing is saying bad things about the 3DS :|

        I would still rather pay $40 for a good 3DS game rather than pay nothing or under $10 for a phone game; they lack the depth, complexity, and sanity that you find in even the lowest quality of a Nintendo first party title. Infinity Blade is rad tho' :3

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        iridiumstem on 21/07/2015 - 11:28

        +1

        @FrankMcFuzz: I feel like the gaming companies are sticking to their safe zone. While I do like MH4, I personally feel like it's not offering much from MH: Freedom. I actully liked "The World Ends with You" on DS, because it felt different for me. I haven't seen anything that did that for me on 3DS (yet). Perhaps it's because I have become less vigorous on following the gaming industry, I am not too sure.

        I don't know, I personally feel like more renovations are done on the smartphone and tablet end of the gaming industry. I feel that while many tablet/smartphone games lack the complexity and depth, they are bringing something new. Also, some of the tablet games and smartphone games are becoming fairly complex as well. That said, I definitely agree that portable consoles offer something different from smartphone games, but that said I am not sure how many people will find that to warrant buying a current gen portable console.

        Not to mention, you can play older gen games on smartphones because of the hardware advancement. There are a lot of ports done for older games, like Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, GTA: SA etc etc because smartphones can run them. Some people choose to emulate games (PPSSPP has 10,000,000 - 50,000,000 installs). I find older gen games to hold fairly well compared to current gen games on the portable gaming front at least. So I feel like there are less and less reasons for people to buy 3DS or PS Vita. Just my opinion (I have a limited edition of 3DSXL, so I probably am going against what I've said).

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        FrankMcFuzz on 21/07/2015 - 13:22

        +1

        @AznMitch: I do a lot of phone/tablet gaming, and there are some absolutely fantastic games, both paid and free. The most interesting parts of these are usually seeing how they do the paid model and encourage microtransaction, though I never intend on paying anything, I just find it interesting.

        There is, however, a WHOLE LOT of garbage. Clash of Clans is addictive, but it's very debatable whether it's actually a decent game or not. Monument Valley is very inspiring for one dollar, but there's hardly as much content as similar games like Fez. One of the BEST tablet games is Does Not Commute, which doesn't get a whole lot of love.

        There are still a lot of great games coming to the bigger, more expensive consoles though. Perhaps it is because of the big kid in me, but Yokai Watch looks RAD AS HECK.

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      AssamLaksa on 21/07/2015 - 10:04

      Keep telling Sony that, they've practically accepted the fact that the Vita is a goner… I reckon their best option right now is to lower prices of their console and ridiculously priced memory card. Once they do that, more people might be more keen on buying it, then developers will be more interested in making exclusive titles for it. The 3DS is annihilating the Vita not just based on game selection alone, but price point too.

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  Zachary on 21/07/2015 - 13:50

  I had to choose between a 3DS or a Vita at the time. 3DS for more games or Vita for better graphics. I chose 3DS XL in the end as it's got a higher pool of games to choose from(that and the fact that it's got Pokemon!! Which is exclusive to Nintendo), not to mention that you can still play DS/DSi games on it, unfortunately there's no slot to insert my GBA cartridges which I still had. There's no emulators either for GBA as well, unless you get them hacked cartridges….and even then, they're somewhat derpy and not bug/glitch free yet.

  Playing games on my phone feels, weird/awkward because there's no physical buttons to press as that's what I'm accustomed to, only touch screen. My 8yo sister seems to like playing on it; she plays My Talking Tom and other similar games.

  When I want portability, I would bring my gaming laptop, if I had one(which I currently don't) and play games on that. But since I don't have one, the next best thing(or just as a backup) is I bring my 3DS XL instead - oh and headphones too if you want sound(if you're in an area with lots of noise or prefer to show courteous to other people and use headphones instead of speakers on the console).

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  [Deactivated] on 21/07/2015 - 19:15

  The only tablet games I play are KoTOR and the FTL like game that I forgot the name of (Space Command?)

  I absolutely love KoTOR, always did so had to buy it on Android. Those are the only kind of games I would consider, full games, not this pay to play crap. I have a Vita and New XL as well, love em both tbh though I go through phases of not touching the XL for weeks at a time but when I do I often binge on it.

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    [Deactivated] on 21/07/2015 - 19:53

    well when i said tablet games, i meant real pc games that are playable with a controller. like guacamelle, spelunki terarria etc… and they are the same games that available on vita and for which i paid a fraction of the price on steam than i would on PSN

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      [Deactivated] on 21/07/2015 - 20:21

      I paid $7 for Terraria but the others I got from PS Plus so I'm not too worried about that.

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  froggym on 24/07/2015 - 10:54

  +1

  I love handheld consoles because I don't have the space at them moment to set up and properly play my ps3. The only place I can put my TV is up so high that half an hour of playing and my neck hurts too much to go on. I have a Vita and a 3ds and play them both quite a lot. The Vita more at the moment because I haven't really had it long. I don't play games on my phone because I need it for phone things. A smartphone battery is lucky to last a day of medium use let alone using it to play power hungry games.

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    Zachary on 25/07/2015 - 13:04

    Oh yeah true, forgot to mention that smart phone battery don't lasts as long as you think they would especially when playing a game. I was playing some decently looking graphical racing game on my phone a while back(just to see what playing games on my phone was like). Phone was on full charged and only lasted a couple or so hours(maybe less) till it went flat - my 3DS XL lasts at least 3 or 4 hours on 3D mode and nearly a whole day on 2D mode before the console shows red on the charge light, yes I play on my 3DS XL that long…. Playing hungry games do drain quite a bit of battery.

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  save my dollarydoos on 28/07/2015 - 17:51

  I'd play the shite out of Pokemon on the bus to work. Nearly every mobile phone game I've played sucks.

  But as a 31 year old - I don't want to be seen brandishing a gameboy whilst wearing a suit.