Everyone has seen the current mobile game market. It is either drawing cards or making money. Various social networking, rankings, and limited-time activities are bombarded in turn, making everyone exhausted physically and mentally. To be honest, this kind of pure, buy-out single-player puzzle game has become a scarce commodity. I'm not bragging, but games like "Escape Room 18" have no network requirements, no physical limitations, and no need to worry about the countdown. You can just follow the plot quietly and solve the puzzles step by step. This is simply the original respect for the word "mobile game".
Judging from the setting of "Mobile Lost City", the developer Martian Interactive Entertainment obviously wants to incorporate more narrative elements based on the classic escape room series. Ghost ship, witch's curse, compass treasure hunt... These classic adventure themes, combined with the graphics and sound effects, can easily remind people of the time when they used to play "Mysterious Island" with a keyboard on a Symbian machine. At that time, mobile games did not have as many bells and whistles as now. Telling good stories and designing good puzzles was the last word. 😅
Speaking of industry trends, I actually miss the golden period of mobile games around 2010. At that time, "Angry Birds", "Fruit Ninja" and "Cut the Rope" were all purely buyout games, with pure gameplay and naturally good reputation. What now? Free plus in-app purchases have become mainstream, and even many stand-alone games give you a "free trial + paid unlock full version" routine. Direct downloads like "Escape Room 18" for 0 yuan (should it be free chapters or completely free? The introduction said the charging model is 0, maybe it is completely free?), which is indeed rare in today's environment.
But to be honest, the audience for this kind of pure puzzle game is actually relatively fixed, and it is unlikely to become a phenomenal product like "Genshin Impact". But as an old player, I feel that this kind of "small but beautiful" existence is a manifestation of the ecological health of mobile games. Think about it, if all games are focused on social competition and card drawing to earn money, wouldn't players like us who like to sit back and burn our brains be completely marginalized? 🤔
From the perspective of IP continuity, the fact that the "Escape Room" series can reach 18 generations shows that its core gameplay can indeed stand the test. Moreover, this time the protagonist is positioned as "Female Brave Susan", and elements of pirates and ghost ships are also added. It is obviously intended to broaden the depth of the narrative, so that solving puzzles is not just about finding clues and unlocking locks, but truly advancing the plot during the adventure. I think this direction is better than simply stacking the number of puzzles.
The last thing I want to say is that for current new players, if you are tired of going online every day to do daily tasks, play rankings, and stare at the stamina bar, you might as well try this old-school puzzle game. No pressure, just pure joy of exploration. Just like on the Symbian mobile phone back in the day, although the screen was small, a puzzle could keep you stuck for an entire afternoon. The moment you solved it, it was really more enjoyable than playing ten games in a row. 😊
I wonder how many friends in this forum still remember those classic puzzle games from the Saipan era? Do you think there is still a market for this kind of stand-alone puzzle mobile games now? Welcome to chat together.