iPhone: Not the Future of Gaming

Tech writers raised much ballyhoo regarding the adoption of the iPhone as the preferred gaming device of the masses.  There is one problem with this:  the iPhone is simply too expensive.  Apple sells their latest phone at $650 as the base price (additional storage raising the price in $100 increments).  The iPhone 5s pushes approximately 115 GFLOPS of graphical power for that amount of money.  The forthcoming PlayStation 4 on the other hand delivers 1840 GFLOPS for $400.  The PlayStation 4 provides more value for the dollar compared to an iPhone 5s.  Other devices beat it or are at least competitive with it.  I've assembled a table to display relative GPU efficiency of devices:

Gaming Efficiency
Device	iPhone 5s	PlayStation 4	Xbox One	3DS	Wii U	Lumia 521*	Vita
Cost	$650	$400	$500	$170	$300	$150**	$200
GFLOPS	115	1840	1230	4.8	352	19.2	51.2
GFLOPS per dollar	0.177	4.6	2.46	0.0282	1.173	0.128	0.256

*Assume it runs Adreno 305 GPU.  There should be similar Android phones in that price/performance range.
**Nokia/Microsoft cut the price to $100 recently, but they may be taking a loss and the nature of cell phones means a new model will be out next year.  So, $150 makes a good base price for comparison.
(Source for device GFLOPS:  http://kyokojap.myweb.hinet.net/gpu_gflops/)

With a voice and data plan, the iPhone 5s costs a user about $1,000 per year.  A typical family can't afford to give their children iPhones purely for gaming.  The iPhone 5s is so expensive that for the same price a person could buy a $50 pre-paid basic phone, a PlayStation 4 or desktop computer, and avoid a monthly cell phone bill.  Phone carriers subsidize the cost of the phone as part of the monthly bill (taking money from their standard plans to pay for the phone), but the costs are still too high for most families.

Additionally, a new iPhone comes out every six months to a year.  Keeping up with that pace drains the finances of the average consumer.  Consoles typically last at least five years before a replacement shows up and used games allow players to avoid $60 lemons.  Even copies of brand new console games drop after a while (see Greatest Hits versions of games on PlayStation).  PC gamers can upgrade graphics cards and make use of Steam sales to purchase games cheaply.  The iPhone is a money sink that practically requires cheap games to make up for the high costs of ownership.  And cheap games are not necessarily good games despite the hype for indie and mobile developers.  Not to mention that some mobile games push downloadable content heavily, sometimes costing over $100 to obtain every feature in a game.

GFLOPS aren't the be-all and end-all of gaming, but even in other areas the iPhone is lacking.  Fast-paced games require buttons; a touchscreen isn't good enough.  Using third-party controllers won't work well because developers would need to plan for multiple input schemes (such as one controller which includes shoulder buttons and another that doesn't).  Despite its far lower GFLOPS, the Nintendo 3DS at least contains buttons allowing for fast-reflex games and every developer can assume they are present during the development cycle.  The iPhone also does not allow for external SD cards or the swapping of batteries whereas far cheaper smartphones from competitors do.

Expensive smartphones and data plans have their uses, but their total cost of ownership is far too high to function as dedicated gaming devices.  They could be casual gaming devices, but casual gaming devices don't need to cost $650 and push 115 GFLOPS.  If your job, if you have one, doesn't involve constant communication, then you probably shouldn't buy something like an iPhone.  At that point it's just a toy and there are cheaper and better toys out there.

Chrono Trigger DS (Nintendo DS - Square Enix - 2008)

Originally developed and published by Square in 1995, TOSE added additional quests and re-translated the game for the Nintendo DS.

Positives

Accessible from the start of the game, the Arena of the Ages permits low-level challenges by enabling the player to win a Workman's Wallet early on.  The Workman's Wallet converts experience to gold and thus causes party members to avoid gaining any experience.  Stat-boosting Tabs/Capsules can also be won and are quite necessary for said challenge.  The Arena also allows two players to battle each other using Smidges (small generic monsters that evolve into more powerful creatures).

Compared to the PlayStation version, it loads very quickly.  If the choice were between the Nintendo DS and PlayStation version (available on the PlayStation Store), I'd go with the Nintendo DS version as it loads much faster.  The battles in Chrono Trigger fly by quickly once the player knows what to do, so excessive load times detract from the experience.

The Dimensional Vortex designs and layouts almost live up to the game's original dungeons, though the story elements that crossover with Chrono Cross may not be everyone's cup of tea.

New items such as the Master's Crown (permits Haste and a damage boost), the Elemental Aegis (blocks elemental damage for Lucca), and the Dragon's Tear (boosts critical hit rates) are some of the new useful items added to the game.

Nitpicks

A few translation points are perplexing, but especially the changing of the term "Mystic" to "Fiend".  I personally prefer Mystic because it seems to fit into the fantasy setting better.  Magus even gained the title "Fiendlord" which seems clunky since "Magus" is already a title!

Some of the rest of the translation may fall into the trap of being too literal, but, having quickly played through the Super Nintendo Chrono Trigger recently, the changes aren't too bad or drastic save for the modification to "Fiend".

Negatives

The Lost Sanctum fetch quests are horrible, consisting of going up and down a mountain repeatedly.  The party acquires some useful items, but this is the antithesis of the original Chrono Trigger's design philosophy.

New items such as the Mirrors are some of the less useful items found in the Arena of the Ages.  For instance, the Pontic Mirror counters non-Water attacks 25% of the time and is only usable by Marle and Frog.  The trouble is that Rage and Wrath Bands counter all attacks 50% and 80% of the time, respectively, and all party members can equip them.  The Mirrors have some use in a low-level run, given that Rage Bands can't be easily won.  A higher counter-attack rate would negate some of these complaints.  The same goes for the Nu Arcana:  it can be useful in a low-level run to potentially reduce a non-boss enemy's health to one hit point.  It becomes less useful as the party gains more power.

Rather than using portals that appear on the map, the new locations could have been placed on an island at the corner of the map.  It wouldn't be accessible until late in the game, but it would both fit in with the changing-world theme and stay out of the way of the normal game.  Using portals just makes the new content feel even more tacked on.  Even something as simple as an earthquake opening a cave in a mountain could have served as an excuse for their abrupt appearance.

Pro-Tips

If going for a low-level run, never allow the Smidge to transform to a higher form.  The cost of fighting in a tier increases, but the prizes won't change.  It completely wrecks the economics of fighting in the Arena of the Ages.  Always keep a backup save in which the Smidge has not been sent to train.

It is possible to re-enter the Dimensional Vortex dungeons after defeating the respective bosses.  Since parts of the dungeon are random, this allows the player to retrieve all items or visit all sections.

The Nintendo DS version adds a clear save file after defeating the final boss, so that it is not necessary to go through the entire game again to access the Dimensional Vortex dungeons.

Conclusion

If you're looking to play Chrono Trigger for the first time, challenge yourself to a low-level game, or desire to battle Smidges in the Arena of the Ages, then Chrono Trigger DS may be the game for you.  Despite a few quibbles with the new translation and content, the basic story and game are there and are still enjoyable.