History Main / MobilePhoneGame

* ‘’VideoGame/HeroWars’’

It should be noted here that even if, as noted above, mobile hardware has horsepower comparable to PCs and video-game consoles of not much long ago and includes things as high refresh rate screens (120 hz, with some phones designed for gaming going even higher) even on mid-range devices it's designed for power efficiency as it must contend with limited resources as available power (the tablet/phone's battery, even if power consumption improves as technology progresses), storage (there's less available storage space on a phone even if flagships have up to 1 TB of it), and {{overheating}} (as all components are crammed in the same chip and most devices have at best, except some designed for gaming, passive cooling systems).

* ''VisualGame/FantasyXRunners''

** ''VideoGame/Nibblers''
** ''VideoGame/SmallTownMurders

* ''Franchise/AngryBirds'' franchise
** ''VideoGame/AngryBirds''
** ''VideoGame/AngryBirdsEpic''
** ''VideoGame/AngryBirdsGo''
** ''VideoGame/AngryBirdsTransformers''
** ''VideoGame/AngryBirds2''
** ''VideoGame/AngryBirdsSpace''
** ''VideoGame/AngryBirdsStarWars''

* ''VideoGame/{{Nibblers}}''

* ''VisualNovel/MazMThePhantomOfTheOpera''

* '' VideoGame/PhantomOfTheKill''

Android also has a ''much'' bigger hold on large parts of the world such as China, Russia, India, the Middle East, and South East Asia, due to its open-source nature and competitive, generally cheaper pricing. To use the FactionCalculus trope, Apple is [[UnskilledButStrong Powerhouse]] while Android is [[WeakButSkilled Subversive]], and it shows in the prices: while Apple users spent $650 or more on the iPhone 6, Android users could get their hands on a two-year-older, used Nexus 4--with, as one satirist pointed out, [[http://pic.twitter.com/NrwbqHMVL4 almost identical features]]--for $250, or a Moto G with [[http://www.phonearena.com/phones/compare/Apple-iPhone-6,Motorola-Moto-G-2014/phones/8346,8898 slightly inferior hardware]] for ''$180''. Google is consciously exploiting this fact with its Android One program, rolling out cheap devices in the developing world and seizing a market Apple hasn't touched--a market Apple ''cannot'' touch, unless they change their policies drastically. Apple exploits the CultClassic mentality, so they're unlikely to go out of business any time soon--in affluent places like America, Japan and most of Europe, [=iPhones=] have the lead--but the ratio of iPhone users to Android users ''worldwide'' is simply not going to swing in Apple's favor unless Apple drastically changes how they make money.

Compared to console games, mobile games have less distinctive "generations". Most early mobile games during the early-mid 2000s were coded in UsefulNotes/{{Java}} ME and are designed for playing in short bursts, with the player controlling the action using the phone's number pad, while online play and downloadable content were still years away. Examples of this era include ''[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doom_RPG Doom RPG]]'' and ''[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/God_of_War:_Betrayal God of War: Betrayal]]''. The release of iOS in 2007 and Android in 2008 with their dedicated app stores, as well as the decline of older model phones, greatly changed the mobile gaming landscape, and by the era [[{{Freemium}} free to play games]] and {{Microtransactions}} became commonplace, mobile games can potentially net publishers more revenue than console games. This can be partially attributed to the greater accessibility of smartphones across the world, allowing them to target audiences not traditionally associated with gaming.

A major issue with mobile games is preservation. Many older pre-smartphone games, especially ones from Japan, are lost today due to the closure of the older distribution platforms. Even many newer smartphone-era games are regularly pulled from the iOS and Android app stores, whether due to loss of licenses, replacement by newer releases, lack of compatibility with newer hardware, or online-only games having their servers shut down. Unless the player purchased them previously or resorts to emulation, good luck trying to play ''VideoGame/InfinityBlade'', ''[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mass_Effect_Infiltrator Mass Effect Infiltrator]]'', or ''[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dead_Space_(mobile_game) Dead Space mobile]]''.