Gaming

I'll side with OP from a slightly different perspective here, because you're not wrong but neither is OP. First and foremost I think the word missing here is innovation -- mobile games in their very initial start were exactly what you are describing, but mobile games that OP are talking about took some time to find freedom to innovate. The very first mobile games, almost all of them, were PC ports. Solitare, poker, mahjong, snake, tetris... These were all games that had existed for years and were just now put into a 160x128 res screen and played with a circular slider (first iPod), or whatever the specs of the Blackberry was back then. Few unique games were created for these devices.

By late 2009 the iPod Touch 3g had released. It was this and the following few years where OP is talking about, where not only were old games like Spy Hunter being remade, and funnily enough, I'm pretty sure Rockstar also released a few GTA's on this device. But there were also entirely new games like Doodle Jump, Canabalt, and to a lesser extent Pocket God. (Well, relatively new and unique, at least.) These of course paved the way for Temple Run and honestly I had so many amazing mobile games back then that remembering them all would be a trip down memory lane far too long for today.

Anyway, my point and I'm assuming OP's point is that it's harder to find truly unique and "new" experiences in the mobile game world. The idea of Talking Tom when he first came out was something truly unlike anything else available. Not that it was particularly good, or that being unique makes it good, but rather there were more games willing to take a risk on being different.

And yes, of course back then there were plenty of shovelware games trying to pine off another apps success. I think it's simply a difference of mindset, for the good games that are available today generally seem to follow the same principles -- a good game comes first, and if you accomplish that the expenses pay themselves. For your examples, the only games that didn't already exist were semi-MH Now (Pokemon Go/Ingress, but I agree they are unique and fun) and the Riot mobile games. I agree that the other games you mentioned are good as well, I'd even include the fact that there are other full PC/console games like Monster Hunter Stories 1 and 2, Final Fantasy, and plenty of others.

But none of these were made specifically with the attributes of mobile gaming in mind. Where are the disjointed IRL vs. on screen games like Panoptic! There's so much potential for mobile phone games of really wild and unique stuff, but it's easier to make money by iterating and porting existing things to the platform.

I found a little list that was fun:

• Jetpack Joyride,
• Plants vs Zombies
• Real Steel World Robot Boxing,
• Real Steel HD,
• Pacific Rim,
• Ultimate Robot Fighting,
• Cut the Rope
• Fruit Ninja
• Flappy Bird,
• Where's My Water?,
• Crossy Road,
• Asphalt 8,
• Call of Mini Zombies, Call of Mini Infinity,
• Clash of Clans Real Steel Champions,
• Transformers Battle Masters,
• Geometry Dash,
• Minecraft Pocket Edition,
• Hungry Shark Evolution,
• LEGO Hero Factory Invasion from Below, LEGO Hero Factory Brain Attack,
• Beach Buggy Racing.
• Hovercraft Takedown,
• Table Top Racing,
• Smash Hit,
• Riptide GP, Riptide GP Renegade,
• Mechanic Escape,
• Robo5,
• BombSquad.
• Draw a Stickman Epic Free,
• Zombie Tsunami,
• Badland,
• Hill Climb Racing 1,
• My Singing Monsters,
• Despicable Me Minion Rush,
• Bad Piggies HD,
• Star Warfare Alien Invasion. Star Warfare Payback,
• Pixel Gun 3D,
• Block City Wars,
• Pac-Man 256,
• The Impossible Game,
• Gravity Guy.
• Laser Air Hockey
• That one game where you're a 2D spider-man swinging