Flashback: a look back at the best mobile games of 2013

According to statistics from App Annie, back in 2013 there have been solely 7 mobile games with a income of $100 million (or extra) a 12 months (PDF). Fast ahead to 2021 and there have been 7 mobile games with revenues of $100 million or extra… a month. Mobile games are actually the dominant type of gaming after hitting 51% of all income in 2021.

Today there are AAA mobile games and a quantity of tournaments round the world. But a decade in the past in 2013 recreation builders have been nonetheless coming to phrases with the bigger shows and extra highly effective chipsets of smartphones, which have been a world other than the J2ME and Symbian units that dominated the market a few years prior.

Touch controls have been a point of interest, of course, however devs discovered makes use of for the numerous sensors that a typical iPhone or Android had – particularly the accelerometer and GPS. Let’s get a hit of nostalgia and revisit the best games of 2013.

The ninth International Mobile Gaming Awards (IMGA) awarded Telltale’s Walking Dead: The Game the Game of the Year title. This is a story-driven graphic journey that targeted as a lot on plot twists and troublesome selections because it did on cinematic cutscenes. Unsurprisingly, Walking Dead additionally received in the Excellence in Storytelling class.

Walking Dead: The Game

The jury additionally named two honorable mentions: Zombies, Run! and Devil’s Attorney. As you may most likely inform, zombies have been a scorching matter a decade in the past.

Zombies, Run! was an attention-grabbing one because it happened in the actual world – gamers took the position of “Runner 5” and needed to really exit and run whereas listening to music and directions from the recreation. It tracked you utilizing your telephone’s GPS and will set off a “zombie chase”, requiring you to run at least 10% quicker than your regular tempo. Basically Strava with zombies.

Zombies, Run!

Devil’s Attorney was rather more relaxed, a turn-based technique recreation with some RPG components that had a humorous tone, an 80s soundtrack and a bachelor pad you can improve.

Devil’s Attorney

The People’s Choice award in the ninth IMGA went to The Room by Fireproof Games. This was a puzzle recreation that noticed the participant work out the secrets and techniques of a collection of more and more difficult puzzle bins.

The Room

The best social recreation was Candy Crush Saga by King. The tile-matching recreation initially launched on Facebook earlier than getting devoted variations for the main mobile platforms at the time.

Candy Crush Saga

Then there was Spaceteam, which received the Excellence in Innovation class. This recreation had a social facet to it too – it was a cooperative social gathering recreation for between 2 and 4 gamers. This was one thing of a frantic, humorous recreation of Star Trek as gamers got a management panel full of technobabble and needed to work collectively to pilot their ship away from an exploding star.

Spaceteam

Finally, the winner of the Best Serious Game was, wouldn’t you understand it, a recreation about math – DragonBox Algebra 5+. And sure, that’s ages 5 and above. This was a type of puzzle recreation too as gamers needed to resolve numerous algebraic challenges to unlock new and tougher ranges.

DragonBox Algebra 5+

Leaving IMGA behind, let’s have a look at what Apple although have been the best games of 2013. Ridiculous Fishing — A Tale of Redemption by indie dev Vlambeer. Using movement and contact controls you can navigate a fishing hook into the depths to catch as many fish as attainable after which fling them into the air (the recreation known as ridiculous fishing, in any case).

Ridiculous Fishing on the iPhone

The best iPad recreation was Badland by Frogmind. This is much like Flappy Bird in a approach, a side-scrolling journey that gave you management of a bizarre flying creature because it tried to make its approach via a perilous, weird panorama and ever-changing physics.

Badland on the iPad

Honorable mentions went to Device 6, an interactive novel/puzzle recreation hybrid and the sequel to Plants vs. Zombies.

At the time, the high paid apps on the Apple App Store have been Minecraft: Pocket Edition, Temple Run: Oz and Plants vs. Zombies HD. The free class was topped by Temple Run 2 and Candy Crush Saga. Saga validated the freemium mannequin because it was the highest grossing app in the Store, adopted by Supercell’s Clash of Clans and Hay Day.

Over on the Android facet of the market, the Top Apps and Games of 2013 as voted by over 1 million customers featured the Knights & Dragons Action RPG and Ingress.

Knights & Dragons Action RPG

Remember Ingress? This was the first recreation by Niantic, which went on to create the mobile phenomenon that was Pockemon Go. Ingress laid the groundwork for that – it was a location-based recreation the place gamers navigated a modified model of the actual world map.

Ingress

What was your favourite mobile recreation of 2013?