It's inevitable that I'd look fondly upon my childhood gaming years. Back when we were young, everything was new and emerging. The industry was young, the creators filled with ideas, and the market was booming. Everyone seemed to be playing mobile games.
Right off the bat, I can think of so many games that soared up the charts. Temple Run, Fruit Ninja, Angry Birds, Bakery Story, Dumb Ways To Die, Subway Surfers, Cut the Rope, FarmVille... the list goes on. My personal favourite was Tiny Tower. The concept being that you could build a tower with oodles of different floors from food and retail to residential and recreation. My highest tower reached nearly 100 floors.
What once used to bring me so much joy is something I never even consider playing any more
Nowadays, some of these games have stood the test of time. Subway Surfers is used to make memes, Candy Crush is still as popular with forty-something year old women as it always was, and Geometry Dash still makes me want to pull my hair out.
These games all succeeded because of how special they were. Mobile was a new platform that creators had to adapt to. An entire new format forced studios to stray away from formats used on consoles such as the Wii and the PS3 and try something wholly different.
However, some of these have just lost their draw. But why? Is it because we've grown up, or have mobile games become so repetitive and similar that it's not worth it anymore? I'd say it's a bit of both.
One app I use is abundant for pop-up ads. Nearly all of these are for mobile games. Whether it's a word puzzle game, a match 3 game or a makeover challenge, they are endlessly repetitive and seem to pop-up only to my annoyance. I never have any intentions of playing these games. For one, there's always a thousand other games like it, and you know for a fact that said game will have pop-up ads, too.
It's sad to think that the industry has gone downhill. What once used to bring me so much joy is something I never even consider playing any more. I hope in the future we get some better mobile games. Right now, the games are dry and similar with no signs of uniqueness whatsoever.