It's really hard to describe the current mobile game market. When you open a store, it's all rubbish with krypton gold cards, daily tasks, and forced team formation. When you click on it, you'll see a bunch of red dots forcing you to top up money. Playing games is as tiring as going to work. I, an old single-player dog like me, have really had enough. I feel like vomiting when I see a network icon.
However, I recently found a treasure called "Tank Showdown". It was made by a small studio in Chongqing. It is free, has no in-app purchases, and has no ads. It is a pure stand-alone experience! Can you believe it? Is there still such a clear stream in 2023? 😭
Let's first talk about the essential difference between stand-alone and online games. The design logic of online games is essentially calculating you - how to make you addicted, how to make you pay, how to make you check in online every day. What about stand-alone? The real stand-alone game is to make the game fun and make you want to open it. "Tank Showdown" is the latter.
To put it bluntly, this game is an upgraded version of the tank version of Worms or Tank War, but it is made with special care. The chariots are cute and the scenes are carefully drawn. The key is that the battles are really strategic and not mindless. You need to decide how to fight based on terrain, distance, and skill combination. Cooperating with teammates (but you can challenge the AI alone without social interaction) is full of variables. I played for three days in a row, two or three games a day, which was very stress-relieving.
What touches me most is that it has no physical limitations, VIP privileges, or card parts. The tank skin can be unlocked directly by completing levels, and the skills can be slowly explored through actual combat. This is what the game is supposed to be like! 🤘
To be honest, if all mobile games were made according to this standard, who would play those online games? Unfortunately, this kind of team often cannot survive because there is no sustainable charging model. But as players, what we can do is to support more when we encounter a work of conscience, at least download and play it, so that developers can see that there are still people like us who like pure gaming experience.
In short, I strongly recommend all stand-alone players to give it a try. Don't be dissuaded by the words “mobile game”. This thing is a true stand-alone soul. If you are tired of checking in, drawing cards to guarantee, and guild battles every day, come and play this and find the joy of playing FC Mario. 👍