Churchil Solitaire - The game that turned me off from buying mobile games
Churchill Solitaire is a mobile game that you can play on Apple or Android devices. It came out in 2016. I found out about it in 2018. It had some very good reviews. It was mentioned that the game is difficult to beat. At the time I was playing some different solitaire games on mobile so I decided to try another. I paid $4.99 to unlock "all deals and free play".
The game is pretty good. $5 was a little expensive to pay for a game that only had one variation of solitaire. For example, I had the game Solebon Pro which has 160 variations. That game cost $10.
So Churchill Solitaire is not a great value. Not all games have the same value of course. But the reason I stopped playing it is because it charges you to get hints and undo moves. A game that is this hard just wastes your time if you can't undo. You can get quite near the end of a session and need to completely restart because you had several choices earlier and picked the wrong one.
Here is the In-App purchase list that is currently on the App Store in 2024. I don't remember if these prices were the same in 2018, but they are the current prices if you want to unlock any of the features:
- Undos - 15 Pack $0.99
- Hints - 15 Pack $0.99
- Undos - 100 Pack $5.99
- Hints - 100 Pack $5.99
- Unlock All Deals & Freeplay $4.99
- Game Pack 1 $0.99
- Daily Game (Monthly) $4.99
- Game Pack 2 $0.99
- Game Pack 3 $0.99
- Undos - 50 Pack $4.99
I understand that the developer should get paid money for unlocking the basic game. I understand that making additional winnable deals may take developer time (most deals are unwinnable in this game, but there is a "campaign" that has winnable deals). I understand that having a daily game may cost the developer to maintain servers and create winnable deals.
But I don't understand charging for hints or undos. I mean, I understand it from a greed perspective. But not from an "I respect the people who paid money for my game" perspective. Yes, I know about Candy Crush and all the other super addictive mobile games that are pay to win and farm money from whales. But this one just pissed me off in particular. This is the mobile game equivalent of heated seats in a BMW.
Since 2018 I've only bought 2 mobile games. So sorry other game devs, I don't even check the app store for games anymore.
Edit: It has been rightfully pointed out that this is a bit of a cranky post. I didn't make clear my intention. Maybe someone can recommend some recent small mobile games, like card or sudoku or something, that aren't pay to win. I am aware of one: Good Sudoku.
I've stopped using anything on mobile that isn't on f-droid, or my actual bank.
Last straw was when my guitar tuner app I'd been using for years wanted a subscription. A monthly subscription for a darned tuner app, and that was an app I'd paid for in the past too, so-called lifetime
purchaseslicenses aren't worth shit in today's world.Did you buy any undo or hints? Why not just play another game? 6 years is a long time to hold onto this. I get it, just saying is all. It's not worthy of your time and energy IMHO. It's sad that it affected your ability to look for or play other games. Hoping you can recover from that at some point as there are a lot of great games out there.
Yes I see that my post seems like I'm a total crank lol.
I'm not really hung up on this game. I never bought undos and I just stopped playing it a long time ago. I just noticed it on my phone yesterday and played it again, and I got a little annoyed.
I should have been clear in my post that I wanted to start a conversation about recent small mobile games that aren't pay to win. I'll edit the post to add that
There are many good mobile games that are pay once for full experience. Generally speaking I only buy premium games that have no other necessary micro transactions to enjoy the game. There's a few I'll purchase that have cosmetic items or other things available for purchase but it's rare that I'll get into those too much.
You might try the /r/androidgaming sub reddit for ideas if you have a reddit account and don't mind using the site. That's the main resource for games I used but I guess that might be less geared towards solitaire style games (but you can still find good recs for puzzlers and other slow style games on there).
The game Balatro is a popular deck building game based on poker hands, but it's decidedly not poker or gambling, and has zero micro transactions. It's a premium game with a premium price, but it is highly addictive and fun to play.
*Edit: I hit submit while trying to do a line feed. The dev that makes the sudoku game that I have installed also makes a solitaire game for Android. Their focus is clean, simple design for their games, with a in-app purchase to remove ads that I was happy to pay. The app is called Solitaire - The clean one
Thanks for the recommendations. I have Balatro on steam so I play it on my laptop. Too bad steam doesn't work on mobile devices.
It's in the app stores btw! (Both Android and iOS)
If you keep your computer on, you can technically run Steam Link and play streaming it off your desktop...
Is this the same Churchill Solitaire that was developed with the involvement of Donald Rumsfeld?
Yes it's that one. I guess that could have been a clue that there were unknown unknowns when I bought it.
Are you only looking at recent games? I mentioned Simon Tatham's Puzzles in a comment the other day, but it's been around for quite a long time now.
Yeah, I really just want a fun game for me and/or my kids to play, and would be willing to spend 10+$ for a one-time purchase, but many games are overloaded with ads or cost ridiculous 5-10$ subscription per month... That being said, I am having a blast with Burrito Bison right now. It's free, you may watch ads or use real money for power-ups or bonus currency, but it's totally playable without any of that in my experience. I am sure there are many games like that, it's just somewhat hard to find them.
If you have Netflix, check out the mobile game offerings that come with your subscription. They have some surprisingly decent games and as those include no in-app purchase nonsense, their design is not as hostile against users as your average mobile games tend to be.
The same goes for Apple Arcade, if you are an iPhone user. I'm not a big fan of subscription services for game libraries, but I have given up trying navigate mobile app stores, discovery is just so insanely bad and most of what is out there is just focused on reaching for my wallet, rather than my soul.
If you like dice games, also check out the free Deep Space D6. And if you like Sudoku, the Cracking the Cryptic app is great. It does have in-app purchases for individual sudoku packs, but I feel they are fairly priced.
I second the recommendation for DSD6. It generally takes about 7-10 minutes per play, and I play it several times a day.
It's based on the Print-n-Play version of Tau Leader Games physical dice game.