Mobile games and their ads

I'm sure I'm not the only one that is kind of angry at mobile games ads. The ones where you can see someone playing but they are playing horribly and it is super frustrating, obviously they want you to download the game and prove that you can play better but when you play the game it isn't even the same gameplay.

There probably should be laws to prevent this and maybe there is a more nuanced discussion to be had but I'm just here to do a little bit of an experiment. I want to play some mobile games that I've been getting ads of and comparing them to the actual gameplay. Maybe this will be useful to someone.

All the games I'll be playing will be from ads I've seen in Instagram, Duolingo and other mobile games.
All the games will be in Android

Disclaimer: I am doing this out of curiosity and a little bit of annoyance with game ads, I'm not taking it that seriously and this is not an experiment with strict rules.

Cooking Diary

The ad:

		In the first part of the ad you can see 3 tubes that dispense a variety of things. One dispenses the type of cake, the second one dispenses the frosting, and the last one dispenses toppings. According to the add you have to choose the correct things according to your clients desire.
	The second part of the ad shows two people tending to a bakery, one of them is carying a cupcake to a client and you can see burning ovens in the background and various ingredients for cake making.

The game:

Price: freemium
Mode: landscape
Developer: Mytona
Online: optional

The first thing you do is customizing your own charcter.
After you customize you start the story. You are supposed to be the grandchild of a man that has a dinner type restaurant. When you arrive to visit you find the restaurant to be in horrible conditions so you start working to fix it.

You start learning to play the game. The gist of it is this: you have to prepare the orders of your customers with the elements you have at your disposal. Then you can start buying more and more upgrades to your restaurant and your kitchen.
The more you play you start getting more challenges and different objectives.
Ocassionaly you'll get little mini games in which the gameplay is different. They are supposed to be the protagonists bad dream and they consist of cleaning you up since you look dirty and "ugly". You have to get cleaned and dressed up in the correct order. They have no bearing in the actial game, if you loose nothing happens, if you win you get some in game currency.

You have 5 lives and if you don't complete a level you'll loose one. If you loose all 5 it just means you'll have to wait some time for them to recharge. Altough you can ask for lives from your guild buddies or win immunity for a certain amount of time.
There is a leaderboard in which you can earn rewards. And eventually you'll be able to be part of a guild (which grants you some benefits).

At some point you can see that you can access a map of the town. I haven't played enough but I believe that you'll be able to remodel a lot of other restaurants when you are done with the current one.

As many freemium games you start getting events and "promotions" so you can buy the in game currency. And the screen when you start playing looks filled to the brim with all sorts of buttons. You can also get in game currency by watching ads.

Comparison:

The first part of the ad has nothing to do with the game, not even the little dream sequence mini games have anything to do with this part of the ad.

The second part of the ad is accurate. Although the game presents itself as a baking store simulator and the restaurant you arrive to is a burger and fries sort of place. I am assuming that if you play long enough eventually you'll get to play at a bakery.

I think the main problem comes from that first part, especially if it's the thing that grabs your attention. And if you are interested in the baking aspect of it, then you'll also be disapointed since you don't even start at a bakery. Also the icon of the game (at least in Android) is bakery related (a cupcake).

Score: 75/100

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Royal Match

The ad:

		The ad shows a king and sometimes his butler in dangerous and deadly situations, you have to save them through gameplay. For example, the king needs coal to keep warm since he is almost freezing, the ad shows that by doing match 3 you can unblock a path for the coal to reach him.
	These are some of the ads that annoy me the most. They are far too long and you cannot exit them before they are finished and they are really repetitive. I've come across some ads that you supposedly can try the game in the moment but the only thing that happens when you click is that you are redirected to the download page for the game.

The game:

Ironically, even though I hate the ads, I thinks the game is actually quite good. Even though you have reminders of events and in game currency or other things to purchase.
The game is well designed, it feels satisfactory to play and level up, the design is simple and aesthetically pleasing. I like the power ups and the levels feel challenging without feeling impossible.
Each level has an specific objective and a limited number of moves, if you don't achieve the goal you'll loose a life or you can use in-game currency to get 5 more moves.

As you play you'll collect stars which you can use to decorate the king's castle and you will unblock new areas.

As many games of the same type and genre you have 5 lives with the posibility of imunity for a certain amount of time. You can get power ups by making certain matches or by participating in some events.
You'll start to recieve special events and "promotions" to buy the in-game currency. Even though the screen is filled with these events and promotions it doesn't feel as cramed as the game "Cooking Diary".
You can join a team or create your own. You can participate in events to get prizes with you team of ask you friends for more lives.
There are also some cards you can collect and when you get a certain number you get prizes.

Sometimes you'll get levels calles "The king's nightmare" where the king finds himself in a perilous situations and you have some amount of time to complete the objective and when you reach it you can save the king.

Comparison:

I think the ads don't represent the game correctly. Even though the gameplay show is the actual gameplay (match 3), the way it's used is very different. The ads show how you have to be very quick and strategic to save the king, matching things in order to create a path so that certain elements get to the king or even to avoid certain thing from reaching him.
The actual game is not timed and is just a normal match 3. The only part that its remotely similar to the ads is the "king's nighmare" sections, which don't happen enough to consider them part of the main game. In the ad it looks as if you can directly affect the king's enviroment in order to help him but in reality you just have to complete certain objective and you'll get something to save the king.

Score: 60/100

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