Almost every video game company has dabbled in the mobile game market: Bethesda, EA, BioWare, Nintendo, Sony, Square Enix, the list goes on. But it seems we’ve come a long way since Bejeweled and the casual gamer that only plays on their train to work. The mechanics of free to play improving has helped of course, like in Fallout Shelter , but I want to see if the games themselves are on par with their portable console counterparts.
For example, on my Vita, I have Need For Speed: Most Wanted and on my mobile I have Need for Speed: No Limits . Most Wanted is definitely more complicated and open world than No Limits , but they are still very similar. In comparison to the mobile, the Vita graphics are equally clean and only slightly glitchy at times. The gameplay is not much different, save in the mobile version I haven’t noticed a difference between a wet track and a dry one.
The design, however, is what separates these two games a great deal. Most Wanted is an open world where your mission is find cars, beat the cops, upgrade your car, and race the “most wanted.” No Limits is not an open world, and you race to upgrade your cars. There is a similar main objective in No Limits to race particular people, the only difference is in name. In addition, the same set of events is assigned to each newly unlocked car as there is Most Wanted .
One again, there is no open world in No Limits; there are specific places you can go and there are no means to wander about freely. As such, there are no cops to beat save in specific races. If you like an open world in a racing game, than Most Wanted has the advantage here. In addition, because of this lack of open world, you cannot race wherever you please in No Limits . There are no buildings to cruise on or airfields to play in. Again, Most Wanted has the advantage of varying tracks (though they are 90% cityscapes). Online play is again in Most Wanted ‘s court, as you can choose your team and track. In No Limits , every race is with randomly generated online players somewhere in your class range.
I think it’s fairly clear that which game is better is a matter of personal preference, not what console they use. I’m not a big fan of an open world in a racing game, but I generally like varying tracks (not the same ones over and over and over), so Most Wanted has more appeal to me (though not by far). I do not find the gameplay or controls different, each are just as smooth and responsive as the other. Looking at these two games, I do not think it will be long before mobile games will be able to compete with portable consoles – it’s a matter of games and design now, not controls or graphical capabilities.