Rayman Jungle Run was startlingly excellent for a mobile game. I actually 100%ed it, collecting all 3000+ Lums, which I hardly ever do even with PC/console games.
So I saw Rayman Jungle Run on sale awhile back but it has "In app purchases." I bought one or two paid apps with in app purchases and never again. You can nickel and dime me if you're a free app but not if I spend money on it. How is Rayman?
IIRC Rayman Jungle Run and Rayman Fiesta Run are not at all annoying about in-app purchases. I paid once for the game and that's it, I don't even remember what was available to buy, cosmetic stuff probably. They're great fun and I highly recommend them.
The latest iteration, Rayman Adventures, is free-to-play and so suffers from the usual mobile free-to-play tropes. It also suffered performance issues on my (good) phone.
Rayman Fiesta Run (Google Play Store) got obnoxiously annoying to the point they included forced video ads of Rayman Adventures.
Rayman Fiesta Run (Amazon App Store) has some UI issues (like buttons reacting at press rather than at release potentially purchasing pay2win stuff unintendedly), but at least it doesn't have the forced ads.
When I purchased the game at launch date, it didn't have the pay2win stuff, and it was really enjoyable, but eventually the updates degraded the game experience.
If I ever purchase a mobile game again I'll certainly backup and cherry pick the update which gets the best balance between less bugs and less mis-improvements.
In-app purchases are not inherently problematic, it's when they are used as a core mechanism to play the game that they become a problem. I have no problem with in-app purchases to make things easier, or let people skip levels when it's not a direct competition between players. That might even induce some developers to actually put some challenge into the game. The problem is when it's not just challenging, but nearly (or actually!) impossible without the in-app purchases. Then we're talking about a bait-and-switch, and that infuriates me as well.
Mobile Strike is awful about this. I have strong feelings about that game in particular because I rarely play games, but this particular one got me to try it (probably due to a massive marketing campaign) and then I ended up spending far more money and time on it than probably all other mobile games I've ever played combined. After all that I realized I didn't even enjoy it, and soon they came out with new upgrades, which was enough to make me realize I should never play it again and consider the time and money already spent as a learning experience.
Now I stick to puzzle games that provide a large amount of enjoyment relative to the cost. The Room series is phenomenal.
I'm not trying to be pedantic here or unnecessarily argumentative when I disagree and say indeed, in-app purchases are inherently problematic.
They open up pandora's box and allow game devs to focus on superficialities to increase revenue (such as a bonus level, ways to skip level, etc..). Were the playing field completely even -- no in-app purchases -- gameplay would necessarily have to win out and people might spend more time reading mobile game reviews.
When you can be angry bird and get on the top grossing list for a long, long time because you got in-app purchases, I believe it skews the data and as a result, many are poorly informed as to which game truly is the best.
> allow game devs to focus on superficialities to increase revenue
But you've defeated your own point by using the word "allow", which while it it accurate, illustrates why it's not inherent. It's not inherent because they aren't forced to. Is it likely? Sure. Are the incentives all screwed up? Sure. But it's possible to use in-app purchases in responsible ways (such as purchasing future "episodes" of more story driven content, extra level packs, etc as long as the core game provided "enough"[1] content).
1: Which is entirely subjective, and I submit that some people that would have been completely happy with content delivered as is without the ability to download more for cost interpret the situation differently when they see extra content available.
IIRC, it's completely cosmetic--you can purchase other characters from the console game to play as, but they're mechanically identical. There may also be something to unlock later levels without playing through earlier levels first, but I 100%ed the game without buying a thing and it never felt unsatisfying or grindy.
It's worth checking reviews. There are good and evil uses of in-app purchases and to reject anything on this basis means missing out on some good stuff.
