Loose Threads: Which flash games should get a handheld release?

Before the Wii, before the DS, before mobile games even, casual games were almost exclusively to be found online. Since then of course, what was once a quiet little niche has become something of an industry-wide money explosion and countless web games have been ported to mobiles and a significant handful have ended up on the DS too.

Now a confession: last week we suffered a bit of a terminology slip and naively asked you, 'Which Flash games should get a handheld release?' What we should have asked is, which web games should get a handheld release?

Even so, being a collection of blindingly bright young things, you lot thought outside the box without any prompting from us anyway, suggesting all sorts of web-based games and desktop client titles that would make great handheld games.

First to the table was the ever eager hunter_alien:

"Well to be honest there are not that many Flash games that are truly worthy for UMD release. But as a PSP Store game there are plenty."

Our thoughts exactly...

"Lately I found a couple of 2D racers, side-scroling racers. They where a bit awkward at first but soon after they got so addictive that I still have a couple of them saved on my desktop. A good example is Dirt Bike 1/2 (the best ones from the series). They are simple, tricky and fun. Sure you can complete them in 3-4 minutes, but make 5-20 times as many levels, add a level editor and you get yourself an addictive PSN title. "But then there are more complex and longer games like N+ , games that have enough value in them to be released (and thank god this game will) on UMDs/carts."

With a little extra meat, there are loads of little titles out there that would be worth a go on the PSP Store. As a case in point, we agree with you completely as far as N+ goes. Next to contribute was SetsFireToPoshHammer:

"I'm not too familiar with the darlings of the flash scene, but there is one thing I can think of. I'd love to see the forthcoming Quake Live get optimized for the PSP, then I could die happy. "I know it's not really a Flash game, but just think, a PSP game with an online element that people will actually use! It couldn't fail if you ask me. Pity it will never happen."

Ooooohh, now there's a good idea. If the game is being optimized to run on as broad a range on PCs/Macs as possible, then there's a good chance that the specs will be well within the PSP's abilities. Like you SetsFire, we are equally pessimistic about it actually happening. It would be great though - make it happen Id!

Next up was Joe_Mama:

"I'm not entirely sure the PSP is a particularly good home for Flash games. Or a bad one. I don't see any Flash games really taking advantage of the hardware, but nor do games like Patapon I suppose. If you've got the ability to play online Flash games on the PSP, I'd say leave it there. It's such a populous range and so technically undemanding that to pick just one would seem ludicrously parsimonious, like asking someone how many bits of spaghetti they wanted in their dinner. "Still, I can tell you which one I like. Gimme Friction Baby, it's called. I found it on Jay is Games a while ago, and it's genius. "Thinking about it, there's probably a good match between 'serious' sites like that and the PSP. I'd like to see those, or Yahtzee's effort - whatever that was called - or some of those high-faluting games by Ian Bogost. The PSP is quite a mature, hardcore platform, so mature games that are as hardcore as Flash allows would be my choice, generally. "Incidentally, I'm aware that most of the games I mentioned aren't in Flash. I took it to be a metaphor. Unless they are, in which case I didn't."

Normally we favour exactly 31 pieces of spaghetti in our dinner, but that's really a moot point because we totally agree that Gimme Friction Baby would make a great PSP release. Perhaps as a free morsel thrown in with something else as a bonus, like when you notice a fourth meatball lurking beneath what you thought was just a generous heap of parmesan. Where were we?

Oh, yes! Next to the discussion was good old Stuart Dredge with some straight talking sense.

"I'm not really up on Flash games, but I'd like to see some of the best Facebook games coming to mobile. Particularly Bumper Stars and Bowling Buddies - if you haven't played either of those, you should go and install them on your profile right now! - although the question is whether they'd be as appealing without the competitive elements of your friend networks."

Many of Facebook's games would make for great mobile, DS or PSP releases. Of course with the former, the whole online aspect would be a touch more thorny. If Sony or Nintendo could release a device with a more fully featured internet browser however, then maybe there could be a nice lateral approach to getting these sorts of titles on handhelds. What's that? Is someone in the back shouting 'iPhone'?

Last to the discussion was Accelorata Jengold, cementing this week's responses as strangely PSP heavy, which we certainly didn't expect.

"It'd be great if ThatGameCompany (the folks behind PSP/flOw/review.asp and the forthcoming Flower) released their original game, Cloud, on the PSP Store. At the moment it's not even a web game, it's only available as a PC download (for free of course) but it would make for a great title in the same vein as flOw I'd say. I'd definitely buy it."

So would we Accelorata, though we doubt we will ever have the chance to. Which concludes this week's topic. Truly there is an embarrassment of riches out there, sadly it seems it is little more than a fool's hope to expect many of them to find their way onto our beloved handhelds.

And so, as ever, we march bravely on with next week's topic:

Does the DS make good enough use of the Wii?

You know what to do and where to find out more so for the time being all there is left to say is remember to click 'Track It!' to catch next week's Loose Threads, and happy posting.