It's sad how much better iphone games are...

[jrl9851]

I owned and iphone previously and before switching to android I was warned of how crappy the games were, but I didn't think much of it because I didn't play many games. Got my droid and loved it way more than the iphone (still do), but it just sucks about the games.

The game in particular I'm talking about here is doodle jump. First of all, it's $3.99 on the market compared to $.99 on the app store. No big deal, but once you actually buy the game it is a big deal.

The android version just doesn't compare to the iphone version. It's hard to explain (you would actually have to play both games), but the iphone one just has so many more options. You can upload your scores to facebook, it is super smooth, tons of in game options, etc. The android version is pathetic. It's way too laggy for me to even enjoy it. Good thing about the android market is the return policy.

There's my rant. I still love my droid much more than the iphone, but I just wish games would REALLY improve. I've been hogging my gf's iphone lately just to play doodle jump. :icon_eek:

 

[hacku]

Take it easy. They will start coming to the Android. You have to think that it's a lot easier for developers to make iPhone games because all their phone are exactly the same. Same specs, same screen size, etc.

It's not as easy for Android developers since there are so many different phones.

 

[jrl9851]

Take it easy. They will start coming to the Android. You have to think that it's a lot easier for developers to make iPhone games because all their phone are exactly the same. Same specs, same screen size, etc.

It's not as easy for Android developers since there are so many different phones.

I definitely understand that, but what I don't understand is how they leave a couple options out (which shouldn't matter what phone they are developing it for), like uploading scores to facebook. Just simple things like that.

On the flip side, there are some apps I prefer on android over iphone (most of them actually). It just on the games where android lags.

 

[Brokn68]

Hopefully developers will see opportunity in the Android platform and develop for it.

 

[calicocal]

One of the problems with android games is that apps can only be on the internal memory of the phone. This means that for all of your apps you have 256mb of storage. Compare this to the 8 to 32 gigs that an iphone has. There just isnt enough room for the large game files required for top notch games. Hopefully sometime soon apps will be able to be run off of the sd card and we will see an improvement in game quality.

 

[EtherGnat]

One of the problems with android games is that apps can only be on the internal memory of the phone. This means that for all of your apps you have 256mb of storage. Compare this to the 8 to 32 gigs that an iphone has. There just isnt enough room for the large game files required for top notch games. Hopefully sometime soon apps will be able to be run off of the sd card and we will see an improvement in game quality.

This just isn't true, at least not completely. Only the executable must be run from the internal memory. All other program files and textures may be installed to the SD card, which many games do. Executable files are typically pretty small, so there is little issue with large games.

I think the larger issue is that until the release of the Droid/Nexus/etc. there just really weren't Android phones well suited to powerful games. Combined with Android's rapidly increasing market share I think we'll see lots of great games in the near future.

 

[adrynalyne]

Yes.

Raging Thunder 2 and Homerun Battle 3D are two examples, and I feel thats just the beginning of the good stuff.

 

[tktouch12]

games (and some of the music playing abilities) are the only reason i still have my ipod touch. games (and apps in general) look so much nicer on iphone than droid. i hope they will continue to get better, but idk
however, droid beats iphone in everything else

 

[iPirate]

Try abduction it is like doodle jump

 

[demon69120]

I agree. There are probably 50+ fluent 3D games on the iPod Touch 64gb/iPhone. I am coming from in a way from my iPod Touch and I love Android so much I wish there was a way to bring it to my iPod. The only strength I see in iPod Touches are the 3D games. The app store there SUCKS, and it's a bunch of 20 for everything, 20 for pointless things, and 20 for even more "fluff", but somewhere inside there, there are a few nice apps (where as the Android Market has mostly quality and useful apps). Yes the games on Android are a joke. Disagre? Go try out Nova on the iPhone. Graphics are around PS2 Quality, and there are a bunch are good 3D games I could mention. Probably 3 on Android and they still lack "Great" 3d graphics

Now Droids are powerhouses for sure... iPhone dominators every way except gaming, which they suck at. I don't really have interest in gaming, though I wish I did because it used to be a lot of fun, so this doesn't affect me. I hope that game quality will grow to succeed the iPhone yet we maintain a pleasant app store. Making games might be hard because things aren't standard and I'm sure revenue is dwarfed by the iTunes app store.

And I believe phone ROM is going to grow anyways. Pirating apps is easier than hell even if the apps need to be on ROM in the end, so why not allow full SDCard use?

 

[droid_mike]

Unfortunately, gaming does suck overall on Android (with a few exceptions), and that's its only major flaw... one that needs to be rectified if it is to compete successfully with the iPhone. The problem is not the hardware... it does well, but the software and the memory card executable limitation (which can be circumvented, but still cumbersome). The other issue is that Android uses Java, an interpreted language which can be too slow for some games. Again, that can be circumvented as well by using native methods and programming in C, but that again adds another layer of complexity. The fragmentation of Android phones also is a problem, and the app Market still has some serious design flaws.

With Android's increasing market share, we should see some major game developers bring in some good games in the near future, hopefully.

 

[jsh1120]

Unfortunately, gaming does suck overall on Android (with a few exceptions), and that's its only major flaw... one that needs to be rectified if it is to compete successfully with the iPhone. The problem is not the hardware... it does well, but the software and the memory card executable limitation (which can be circumvented, but still cumbersome). The other issue is that Android uses Java, an interpreted language which can be too slow for some games. Again, that can be circumvented as well by using native methods and programming in C, but that again adds another layer of complexity. The fragmentation of Android phones also is a problem, and the app Market still has some serious design flaws.

With Android's increasing market share, we should see some major game developers bring in some good games in the near future, hopefully.

The absence of games on the Droid doesn't bother me. I'm old. But the points you raise are all valid to a greater or lesser extent.

However, you failed to mention the single most important constraint. A multi-tasking operating system is simply not an ideal platform for a dedicated gaming device.

 

[darreno1]

However, you failed to mention the single most important constraint. A multi-tasking operating system is simply not an ideal platform for a dedicated gaming device.

Well the Pre does gaming very well and it's definitely a multitasking device. Remember processes can be frozen and revived as needed. Not every process continually runs in the background.

There was a recent article about an updated SDK frrom Google that will allow deeper access to hardware and result in much better 3d gaming. It will come people, just be patient.

I remember when I had my Sprint Pre all the naysayers were dismissing the idea of 3d games running on WebOS as the SDK was severely lacking. Well Palm proved them wrong and now they have some big name titles running smooth a butter. Nothing is impossible and the sd card limitation will be dealth with.

 

[LtKen]

With Android's increasing market share, we should see some major game developers bring in some good games in the near future, hopefully.

This is the most logical answer. When the iPhone happened, it grabbed the market by the balls and hasnt really had a reason to let go. Android has been around for almost 2 years (TMobile), but really has only gained a large market share in the last 6 months (VZW).

I suspect in the next year we'll start to see a lot of good games like the Apple market has, devs are just now figuring out that there is money to be made in Android.