For as long as I can remember, I’ve had a video game console attached to a TV. It’s something that my dad fostered from the moment I could hold a controller, and ever since video games have been a pretty big part of my life. So, when they became “a thing” on mobile devices way back in the day, with those pixels representing a snake trying to eat another pixel, or Brick Breaker (because Brick Breaker was the best game back then), I gladly adopted them into my life.
Mobile games have come a long way since the original Snake. A lot of mobile titles out there will tell you they’ve got “console-like” graphics, and to their credit plenty of them look amazing. The controls have gotten a lot better, the depth, and just about everything else. There are titles for everyone at this point, and a reflection of that is that most everyone has played a game on their phone at this point.
Sure, those games might be titles like Candy Crush or Angry Birds, but they’re still games and they’ve managed to make people who have probably said in the past, “I don’t play video games” have to reconsider that statement. These games tend to be a lot of fun, and more often than not strictly designed for a smaller screen.
But that hasn’t stopped manufacturers from allowing people to expand that experience onto a bigger display. The biggest in the house, in most cases.
Bringing mobile games to a TV isn’t a new idea by any means, but it’s certainly one that keeps getting gusts of attention seemingly out of nowhere. When Google introduced Android TV, for instance, earlier this year, playing games that would probably look/work better on a mobile device were cleared for game time on the TV.
Despite the fact that I’ve tried a few times in the past, both with games on a computer streamed to my TV and with games on my tablet to my TV, it’s not the same experience that I’m looking for. There has never been a moment where I’ve been wanting to play a game on my TV and thought, I should fire up some Angry Birds. No, I’m looking for a different experience when I turn my TV on and switch on a video game console. Even if I’m only looking to get a game in for 15 minutes or so, there are options for that. Better options than streaming a mobile game to my TV.
At least, that’s how I feel about it, and I know that that’s probably a lot more to do with the fact that I’ve just always played games on my TV with a console. There are probably more than a few people out there who are doing the same thing, but instead of a console from Sony or Microsoft (or even Nintendo), they’re using a set-top box that’s built to stream a game (or play it natively on the box) from their mobile device.
So I’m curious if you’ve tried to play a mobile game on your TV, and if so how the experience was for you. Do you still do it? Or do you keep the mobile games on your mobile device?
