Which mobile genres actually shine on a phone

Not every genre translates to a phone, and pretending otherwise wastes your time. After testing a lot of games across everything from RPGs to racers, some patterns are pretty clear about what fits the format.

Arcade and casual games are the obvious winners because they're built for short bursts and one-thumb play. Something like Lucky Coin thrives precisely because you can pick it up for ninety seconds and put it down again without losing your place.

Turn-based RPGs and strategy games also do well, since they don't demand twitch reflexes and you can pause to think. The touchscreen actually helps here rather than fighting you.

The awkward ones are precision platformers and complex shooters, where fingers cover the screen and virtual buttons never feel quite right. They can be great, but they're always fighting the hardware a bit. When we score games, we factor in how well they suit the device, not just how good they'd be on a console.