I want my l—k and f—l

So Secret of Mana is rolling out in the App Store across the planet, and I’m trying to read people’s impressions of it to find out whether or not I should buy it. Instead, what I am finding is a bunch of whiny posts about how expensive it is at $8.99 and how it’ll “never sell”. (It’s currently #26 in the Top Paid charts in Japan, and #5 Top Grossing. But nice try.)

I could go into a long rant about how Square-Enix has brand recognition, so people are more likely to pay a larger sum of money for a brand they can trust versus some one-off game some guy in his basement made, but there’s an even simpler point to be made here.

Let’s turn the clock back five years.

Five years ago, if you wanted to get a new game for your portable game system, you had to get off your fat ass and take a ride to the mall. And then you were expected to hand over thirty to forty dollars to the cashier, who would hand over this bag containing a box containing manuals and a tiny cartridge holding the game you wanted.

Now, you can stay on the couch, press a button, and a minute later you’re playing the game. Oh, and it only cost you $8.99.

So stop bitching and embrace progress. [But take a break every once in a while and go for a walk outside. Please. For your health.]

I keep talking about how people should have as little apps on their phones as possible, keeping only the apps they use on a regular basis on their home screen and apps they use occasionally stashed away, either hidden on a second page or hidden entirely [through the magic of libhide]. One thing is making it incredibly hard to do: the insane amount of awesome iOS games coming out these days. So here’s an attempt at keeping the number of games on my device down to three: the three-game strategy.

Why three?

• One game must be playable one-handed* without accelerometer input (for when I’m standing on the bus)
• One game must be playable two-handed without accelerometer input (for when I’m sitting on the bus)
• One game where anything goes (for when I’m at home)

I’m not sure how long I can keep this going for, but it’s worth a try.

And if you’re looking for recommendations for each tier:

• Standing on the bus: Any of the Cave shooters, Tetris, Words with Friends, Zen Bound 1 & 2
• Sitting on the bus: Any of the Rocketcat hooking games, Mushihimesama Bug Panic
• At home: Space Miner, Real Racing 1 & 2, The Incident

* This implies portrait orientation, since my thumb can’t reach the opposite end of the screen when in landscape.