Old gamers often misunderstand the quality of mobile games.

I realized this a couple of weeks ago when I asked my 12-year-old daughter whether she wanted to bring her Nintendo Switch or her Android tablet on our two-week vacation. She chose the tablet.

Why? Because her Android has Genshin Impact, Fortnite, Roblox, Candy Crush, Wuthering Waves, and Sky: Children of Light. She simply prefers those over her Switch library — which is decent but doesn’t compare to what she’s got on the tablet.

Adults tend to dismiss mobile gaming by saying things like, “There’s no 1:1 equivalent to Super Mario Odyssey, Tears of the Kingdom, or Cyberpunk 2077 on mobile.”

Fine. My daughter has access to all those games. Our family owns over 8,000 games across PC and consoles. She can play Super Mario Odyssey any time she wants, but she doesn’t. She’d rather play Genshin Impact.

And she’s not alone. Most of her friends are on their tablets or phones. It makes sense — gaming is as much about socializing as playing, and iOS and Android dominate for a reason.

Sure, we can scoff and say, “Kids these days don’t recognize a good game when it hits them in the face.”

But I remember feeling that way about Pokémon and Yu-Gi-Oh. They’re still thriving today, with now-grown adults still playing.

I also think back to my own childhood. My mom hated Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Yet, I snuck a TMNT Game Boy game into the house and played it behind her back. TMNT never disappeared — it’s still around.

With the original Switch’s price rising (at least here in Canada), it just makes sense to consider Android tablets — especially for kids. Sure, you can’t play Black Myth: Wukong on Android, but that’s why I have PCs ready for that. Kids? They just want to have fun and connect with friends.

  • @atomicpoet@lemmy.worldOP
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    -631 day ago

    Wow, an expert on all mobile games—based on exactly how many hours scrolling and judging from your porch?

    There are over 700,000 mobile games on Google Play and the App Store combined. Over seven hundred thousand. You really think you’ve played, let alone fathomed, the quality of that entire universe?

    Lumping all mobile games together because of a few gacha titles is like calling all movies “just commercials” because of some awful reality TV. Face it: the world’s moved on, but you’re still shouting at clouds.

      • @atomicpoet@lemmy.worldOP
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        -491 day ago

        Nope. You must play a game before you call it shovelware. Anything less is just lazy, uninformed hot air.

        If you can’t be bothered to actually try what you’re criticizing, you have zero business judging it. That’s not opinion—that’s ignorance.

        So stop pretending you’re some gaming authority when all you’ve done is shout from the sidelines without ever stepping on the field.

        • @nogooduser@lemmy.world
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          12 hours ago

          If you can’t be bothered to actually try what you’re criticizing, you have zero business judging it. That’s not opinion—that’s ignorance.

          If there are 700,000 games then you must judge games without trying them. Otherwise you’d be constantly playing games to see if they’re any good and would still not get through them all.

          • @atomicpoet@lemmy.worldOP
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            -341 day ago

            I don’t need to have played every game ever made. But I do own several thousand and have played thousands more.

            From that experience, I can tell you this: you never truly understand a game until you play it yourself. That’s why I don’t waste time forming opinions about games I haven’t actually tried.

            Try it sometime—it might change your perspective.

                  • @atomicpoet@lemmy.worldOP
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                    -141 day ago

                    I read you loud and clear—I get that you don’t play mobile games because you think they’re shit.

                    And my point is simple: if you don’t play them, your opinion on them counts for exactly nothing.

                    No games played = no credibility. It’s that straightforward.

    • @smeg@feddit.uk
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      1723 hours ago

      How many of the mobile games that you specifically mentioned aren’t gatcha games?

      • @atomicpoet@lemmy.worldOP
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        -722 hours ago

        I could have just as easily listed Monument Valley, Florence, or The Room—none of which are gacha.

        And hey, I just did.

        • @smeg@feddit.uk
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          15 hours ago

          OK, just making sure you’re aware that the reason everyone is talking about gatcha games is because they’re the ones that you brought up!

    • @MotoAsh@lemmy.world
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      1423 hours ago

      There are over 700,000 games on the play store. … and 699,900 of them are basic, traditional mobile games that are basically a gamified e-store for imaginary goods…

      • @atomicpoet@lemmy.worldOP
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        -1022 hours ago

        How about we stick to facts instead of making things up?

        As of July 2025, there are 14,139 premium, paid games on the iOS App Store—meaning games that are not free-to-play, not gacha, and have no microtransactions.

        To put that in perspective: iOS alone has more complete, self-contained games than the NES, SNES, N64, and GameCube libraries combined.

        https://42matters.com/stats

        • @MotoAsh@lemmy.world
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          1 hour ago

          It was obvious hyperbole to point at how you are still hilariously wrong. Congratulations on being too stupid to understand how speech works. No wonder you let your kids engage with addictive games… You’re too simple to understand how it’s still bad.

        • borari
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          820 hours ago

          Bro are you a sales rep for this data company and this whole post is just a way to drive people to your product? Because that’s about the only explanation I have for, all t h i s.

          • @atomicpoet@lemmy.worldOP
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            -520 hours ago

            Wow, that’s some next-level conspiracy thinking—just because I share stats with a source, you leap straight to “sales rep for the statistics company” territory?

            What’s next, claiming schools teach math just to line Texas Instruments’ pockets?

            Here’s the simple truth: I’m tired of hearing people mindlessly parrot the same tired talking points with zero facts to back them up.

            If having an unpopular opinion rattles your echo chamber, so be it. I’m perfectly fine with that.

            • borari
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              719 hours ago

              Bro this entire post and every reply you’ve made is just next level unhinged, I was giving you a generous benefit of doubt here, because you being a sales rep is about the only way this isn’t insane cringe.

              • @atomicpoet@lemmy.worldOP
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                -819 hours ago

                That’s great—I love being cringe. It means I’ve hit a nerve and said something so contrary that it actually rattles you.

                Funny thing is, you haven’t actually told me how or why I’m wrong—just that I’m cringe.

                If that’s all you’ve got, I’m doing something right.

                • borari
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                  618 hours ago

                  Hahaha.

                  It means I’ve hit a nerve and said something so contrary that it actually rattles you.

                  Funny thing is, you haven’t actually told me how or why I’m wrong—just that I’m cringe.

                  You have a really inflated sense of your impact on me buddy. I’m not here to tell you you’re right or wrong, I have no opinion on this whole inane debate at all. I play video games for fun, and if other people are having fun playing video games I’m happy for them, I don’t give a single solitary fuck whether they do it on a pc, console, phone, tablet, or by uploading Doom to a cock ring with lcd display and play it by popping their dick with kegels.

                  I’m just here to tell you that you’re giving off major “meth head arguing with a brick wall in the alley behind 7-11” energy.