For Mobile Friday this week is i tried out Dadish 3D, The latest Dadish game from Cat Cup Games and Thomas K. Young. i hadn't played any of the other Dadish games, but it was a series i had heard about. i played this on my iPhone 14 Pro.
from the app store page, this game was overflowing with nostalgic charm so i was excited to play it. but after trying out the mobile version, i don't think i can recommend it. i'd imagine the PC version would be a better experience than what i played.
For me, what was the most frustrating thing were the adverts. i think i had 15 adverts in less than a hour. it was shocking and abrupt the first time it happened and every now and then i'd be blasted by adverts with their volume so high. it looks like the game is using Unity and Lunar and i'm concerned that these are going to eat through your mobile data. i played the game on Wi-fi, but imagine you're commuting 5 days a week, an hour to and from work. that's 150 adverts each week just playing the game. by cutting the adverts from this video, i cut out around 4 minutes. that's like 40 minutes a week of adverts.
Unfortunately, adverts weren't Dadish 3D's only problem. whether it was using the touch screen or Bluetooth controllers, i couldn't trust the controls. with the Bluetooth #Xbox controller the lag was so great that it got me killed. i show in the video it felt like nearly half a second between pressing the button and it happening in-game. the controller doesn't work with the adverts either so you'll need to pick up and play on your phone anyway. but i never really trusted the touch screen controls. there were many instances where it was like my character had momentum when landing and walked off an edge or into something. there were other times when it felt like we barely made a jump.
That's one of the weirdest things about playing this game, i found it really difficult to navigate the 3D environment. sure, my character had a shadow so i could see where i was, but it was really difficult to judge where in a 3D space everything else was. sometimes i would have to move the camera side-on to make it a 2D experience to judge it. other times i'd hope. and sometimes i'd just repeatedly fail until somehow i didn't.
I had other issues with Dadish 3D that got in the way of my enjoyment. mostly they're question i had whilst playing it. the game has one good tutorial moment and then stops it. so when i found a star and it had little to no fanfare, i had no idea what was happening. or when other foods appeared, i didn't know if they were out to get me, if i could defeat them, or what. i had no idea how many stages were in each area or how many kids i was to get. for some reason the game never sent me to the overworld menu screen. there, i got some of my answers. but i only discovered that screen right at the end. the game never communicated it to me.
There are some other small issues, but ultimately they all combine into a gaming experience that i cut short of my usual hour play time because i stopped having fun and was more frustrated than anything else. So i can't recommend the mobile version of Dadish 3D. i don't know how it plays on #Switch or PC, but after this experience i'm not that keen to find out.
Version 1.02 Played.