Once upon a time it was widely understood that gaming on smartphones was something for the causal-minded crowd. After all, the most popular titles on mobile were freemium minigames like Angry Birds that were designed with a broad appeal, little depth, and with simplified mechanics and visuals.
There’s nothing wrong with that of course – but it meant that more ardent gamers would typically pass over the platform when looking for a particularly engaging gameplay experience. The early smartphone gaming scene simply paled in comparison to the offerings available on home game consoles, or even more portable devices like the Nintendo Switch.
While nowadays smartphones have yet to seize the crown of these legacy platforms, gaming on these devices has come a long way indeed. That’s thanks to a range of factors. Firstly, it’s that the hardware in these devices has come a long way – with better cooling, more RAM, higher fidelity displays and much larger batteries, they offer something much more capable of rivalling other platforms.
This is especially so when one takes a look at the impressive devices coming out of the gaming phone sector, with the Asus ROG Phone series and Lenovo Legion Duels pushing the envelope of gaming hardware with integrated gamepad triggers, and on board cooling fans.
The other big change is that developers have begun to take the platforms seriously and are inventing real time and money into porting over console games and building new 3d titles from the ground up to run on iOS and Android. This means that the app stores have never been better stocked with compelling titles to play. But if you really want to see what your smartphone is capable of in 2024, you may need to look elsewhere.
There’s never been more options to the app stores on smart devices now, and that’s a great thing as many types of games are somewhat underrepresented in these catalogues. So if you’re looking for the best that gaming can offer on smartphones today, consider exploring these alternative formats below.
Integrated Browser Gaming
It may sound odd to recommend web browsers as a game format on smartphones today, but the logic is simple. Your web browser permits you open access to the internet – thus, any service, game or experience available in web app form can be accessed and enjoyed on your smartphone. This opens up exciting possibilities for gamers who can’t find the type of titles they’re interested in, on the app stores.
A clear example of this is to be found when exploring the world of online casino titles. One of the fastest growing sectors across the wider gaming industry, compelling digital variants of leading brick-and-mortar games epitomized by the likes of online slots have established a significant footprint in the mobile gaming space through web browser access.
Reputable platforms furnishing titles in this space have, accordingly, increasingly optimized their products for mobile platforms making them the best way to access these casino gaming experiences in 2024.
Emulation
While Android gamers have always been able to enjoy the thrills of emulating ROMs on their operating system of choice, iPhone users were somewhat more restricted in this endeavor. Of course, those willing to jailbreak their devices were at liberty to do whatever they wanted with them – but for those of us partial to preserving our warranties, there was little chance of accessing goof emulators on the platform.
Fortunately, new legislation coming into force in the EU has had the knock-on effect of ensuring Apple now permits all iPhone users to easily install alternative app stores. This is great news for fans of classic games as many of these alternative app stores specialize in offering emulators for retro consoles ranging from the NES to PlayStation 1 and N64.
There’s simply nothing like firing up a game of Pokémon Red on your modern iPhone to cure all sense of dissatisfaction with the quality of gaming in smartphones today.
