To be honest, the recent trends in the gaming industry are a bit confusing. There are always open worlds, card draws for krypton gold, and monthly card battles. The gameplay is becoming more and more like work. As an old guy who has been playing mobile games since the Nokia N70 era, I often miss the era when I could have fun for a long time by installing a jar game worth hundreds of K.
A few days ago, I accidentally saw someone recommending "Chainsaw: Super Mecha" on the forum. I thought it was a reskinned game that was following the trend, but after downloading it and playing it, I actually regained a bit of the pure joy of "Snake" and "Doodle Jump". I don't want to brag about it, but this vertical screen io gameplay is really interesting.
The game is actually about controlling mechas to collide with each other in a limited map, and using various weapons to tear the opponent's chainsaw chariot into pieces. The rules are so simple that you don't even need to read the novice tutorial to start fighting. But the difficulty is "how to survive to the end", which has the same core as those games on Symbian back then that were about stacking props and fighting for reactions - the upper limit of operation is high, but the threshold is extremely low. A game lasts ten minutes, and you can play as many as you want in the fragmented time.
I looked carefully at the developer, Shenzhen Kesheng Network, I have never heard of it, but the charging model is 0. In today's mobile game market, new games that are completely free, don't play ads, and don't cost money to become stronger are really rarer than giant pandas. The io category exploded around 2015, and was later squeezed by various heavy-duty mmo and chicken-eating games. Now it has found a new direction in vertical screen and minimalist style. A game like "Chainsaw Super Mecha" is actually a return to the essence of io - no need for combat power, it doesn't matter who has the most charge, it just depends on positioning and timing.
Of course, as for the graphics, after all, the vertical layout and simple style cannot be compared with 3A mobile games, but I feel refreshing and there is no light pollution everywhere. Moreover, the modification system is not complicated. You can change weapons or upgrade armor, and you can immediately feel the difference in battle. This kind of "small changes bring big changes" design is exactly what many major game companies cannot do now. They always want to stuff you with dozens of skill trees, but in the end most people can't even touch the door.
After thinking about it, this is probably a microcosm of the development of mobile games after more than ten years. Headline products are becoming more and more important, but what really impresses old players are the small games that can be played by turning on the mobile phone, without using the brain to calculate the profit rate, and the next game will be played immediately after death. If you are tired of playing card draws and daily tasks, you might as well try this kind of brawl io. Maybe you can get back the joy of hiding under the quilt and secretly pressing the buttons on your phone. 😄