Why are there no decent games for Android?

[Morbus]

not bothering to do research.

That's arrogant, rude and conceited.

I've done research, for a very long while actually.
Turns out I was searching in the wrong places (Play Store and Google), but still.

 

[gmaster456]

Plenty of enjoyable Android games. Wish I was more of a gamer but I've gotten away from it in recent years. I generally find tablets to me more enjoyable for most mobile gaming. You have to cater your expectations to the platform though, as not all of them will handle like a PC game, although most of the games listed support external controls.

 

[Denithor]

Majesty: Fantasy Kingdom Sim - excellent RTS game, unfortunately no multiplayer aspect.

Clash of Clans - Combine RTS with customizable-layout Tower Defense and you've got the idea. Although it has P2W elements, you can EASILY play all the way to endgame without spending a dime if you're patient. Other similar titles I enjoy are Samurai Siege and Dungeon Keeper.

Gods Rush - Greek hero RPG - collect heroes, fight through trials and dungeons to level up and find gear to equip. Again, some P2W elements but fairly easy to progress without spending.

Castle Clash - similar genre to CoC but with big, nasty, overpowered heroes. P2W elements much more pronounced but still possible to play free. Very fun watching your heroes tear up a base!

 

[KentState]

Xcom - Enemy Unknown is pretty good.

 

[Kaido]

I do wish that more Android games were controller-friendly. The TV boxes like the MINUX, Tronsmart, and PROBOX are so good these days hardware-wise. I have one of the Mad Catz MOJO systems (actually for a thin client system, haha) and the interface is pretty terrible as a set-top player & gaming machine. I'll have to try something like Android TV Launcher over the holiday break:

http://blog.gsmarena.com/android-tv-launcher-available-google-play/

There's an app that lists controller-friendly games now:

http://androidgamepadgames.com/

I have a CuBox-i4Pro coming in to mess around with as well, curious to see how it handles gaming:

http://www.solid-run.com/product/cubox-i4pro/

Right now tho, the bulk of the games are better with the touch & tilt interface.

 

[Midwayman]

There are some okay ports. Some good casual games. However still few few developed with a tablet in mind as primary platform with the depth of a PC game. iOS is doing better. However its still a pretty new space in terms of having enough power to push demanding games. The biggest obstacle is the price of mobile/tablet games. Nobody wants to risk the kind of money it takes to develop real games when people won't pay premium prices for it. That's why you get ports and tons of IAP. Android is worse for this than iOS.

 

[Chiropteran]

I'll second the various Kingdom Rush games (origins is the latest). They have a minor in-app payment thing where you can buy new heroes to play, but I've never bothered with it and the games are a lot of fun with the default heroes. They are a sort of a tower defense game, but not like plants vs zombies.

Original Plants vs Zombies is great. The sequel is poor, however.

Dungelot is a fun little rogue-like puzzle game, and the mechanics and controls are perfect for a small device.

Banner Sage- TBH I haven't played this yet, but the PC version was interesting to me, if they didn't ruin it in the conversion this might be another worthwhile game.

Rebuild- Zombie Apocalypse turn-based strategy game, had a lot of fun with this one. It's one of those games were you always just want to take one more turn.

 

[Blanky]

Don't be sad, not much good on iOS either. Partly it is the crowds who are used to free crap with in app purchases and this precludes decent games. And of the aaa games mentioned most are worth absolutely nothing because of the virtual joystick as mentioned in post 15. Honestly if you are playing gta with a visual joystick you are a terrible person.

I haven't tried the joysticks for tablets yet though. It may be that they make these games genuinely worth playing.

Touch lends itsf quite well to rts but utterly terrible for fps gaming. There is something inherently bad about obscuring the game screen with one's fingers.

What game pad is best?

 

[ZGR]

When I had my Transformer Prime, I used the Keyboard for GameBoy and NES games, and plugged in an Xbox 360 controller into the USB port for 3D games. With Streaming, I played Borderlands and Assassin's Creed 2 with the 360 controller. With those 2 batteries, you could game all day!

Android has a fantastic gaming lineup with excellent 3rd party hardware support.

 

[jhansman]

Why would you even bother playing a game on a crappy small screen phone?

Amen to that. Just because a phone can handle a game that is clearly better played on a bigger screen with better controls, that doesn't mean it should. Call me a luddite, but I use my SG4 for calls, text, and photos. Oh, and solitaire and breakout; these can be played on any device and are good time killers when short waits are happening.

 

[Muadib]

Checkout Brave Frontier! I'm hooked on it, and need to stop playing it.