Mobile games are a big business nowadays, even the worst of titles can still rake in a good income but ever since the platform exploded back in the early 2010s, bigger game publishers have asked the same questions: how do we take our popular console IPs and bring them to mobile?

It’s a question that has been answered in multiple ways over the years, from bad ports to awkward spin-offs but in recent years we’ve gotten attempts with far more effort and authenticity to capture what makes the console versions so good.

I remember when Apple first launched the iPhone and opened up The App Store. It was a gold rush of weird and wonderful apps trying to become the next big thing and some of the most interesting games on the store were those from big IPs. Did you know Resident Evil 4 used to be on mobile? Well, don’t get too excited. The game had to be heavily altered to fit onto the lower memory and lower power of mobile devices at the time and ended up not looking the best.

It’s not bad but between the low resolution, lack of cutscenes, and well, lack of most of the game really, it wasn’t exactly a faithful recreation of its console counterpart. A lot of early mobile ports were like this, a watered-down version of the full game or a smaller arcade-style title meant more to complement the main series. Series like Marvel Vs Capcom, Metal Gear Solid, and Final Fantasy all threw their hat in the ring to mixed results. For more information, subscribe to our newsletter. You can read the full article for free just by putting your email address in the box below:

Give it a read and let us know what you think! There will be new newsletter feature articles regarding various topics surrounding video games, entertainment, and more every week.