| > Angry Birds (either version), Plants vs Zombies, Bejeweled 2 All of these are examples of "shallow" or puzzle games. That's not to say that they're bad games, but it's simply not in the same market as DS games. > I now I've sat there and played Angry Birds for an hour. And that's an outlier. I was a kid of the Pokemon generation. I'd sit and play those games (and similar) all night, only stopping to do homework. For a good example of what the DS market is, I'll look at the top games under "DS" on Gamefaqs. This isn't a perfect representation (represents activity on the site vs sales), but it'll do. 1 to 3 are all Pokemon. 4 is a Kingdom Hearts game, a series known for it's story more than anything. 5th is Golden Sun: Dark Dawn, a traditional RPG. 6th is more Pokemon. 7th is Dragon Quest IX, another installment in the classic RPG series. I can't speak for the rest of the list because I don't know the games mentioned, but by now you should have noticed a trend: RPGs and story. These are games that (as a kid) I'd play for an hour at a minimum. You can easily get 20 or 30 hours out of these and that's before replay value (which absolutely ridiculous when you're talking about Pokemon). That $30 isn't just something to keep you distracted on the bus; it's something you'll put some time into playing. I don't mean to sound rude, but it seems like something you just aren't getting as a "non-gamer". I don't mean that in a bad way, but to me there's a massive difference between Angry Birds: February Edition! and the next installment in an RPG series I know and love. One will give me quick diversion while I wait in line, but the other one will offer me hours upon hours of entertainment and story. Edit: Apologies for the tone of this post. I love Angry Birds and similar for what they are, but I have a pet peeve about people conflating casual/social games with video games as a whole. |
I bought Street Fighter 4, and I expected the game play to suck on iOS without a D-pad. The graphics exceed any fighting game I've seen on the DS, and the game play is true to the original.
As for the market for DS games, a lot of the big winners for the DS were casual games (the DS legitimized "Brain Games"). Much of the Brain Game genre is easily/faithfully reproduced on iOS.
The driving games I've played on iOS seem better than the DS, and even the hockey game that I got on iOS (I believe it's 2K sports) plays surprisingly well.
Beast Boxing is a pretty good rendition of Punch Out too.
Yeah, all the casual games on iOS get the glory, but there are deep console level games for iOS that can rival games on the DS.