Mobile games have been coupled with phones as early as 1997 when all Nokia phones began to come pre-installed onto all Nokia devices. The usage of games on phones has only evolved since then, notably skyrocketing in count and popularity with Apple’s App Store and Android’s Google Play store being put on phones. Today, the list of hit mobile games available on the internet is nearly endless, meaning there’s something out there for everyone.
As of late, one of the newest hit games for mobile gamers is a game called Beatstar. Beatstar is made by Supercell, the same company that has made hit games in the past such as ‘Clash of Clans’, ‘Clash Royale’, ‘Brawl Stars’ and ‘Boom Beach’. This allows players to link their Supercell accounts and get an extra song at the beginning of the game.
Beatstar takes heavy inspiration from another mobile game called ‘Piano Tiles’. The player has to use both thumbs to tap “hits” which line up with the song’s rhythm. Each song has a difficulty rating and the harder a song is, the higher the score you can get on it.
Like Supercell’s past games, Beatstar has a level-based program system, where you level up by getting stars on songs. The higher level someone is means the more times someone levels up and the more songs that are unlocked to be played. At the beginning of the game, a player will have access to a small set of songs based on their music preferences, which the game asks for when an account is created.
“My favorite song to play is Humble,” Junior Alex Williams said. “My highest score is 50.000 on a normal song.”
Beatstar has well over 500 songs within the game – many from famous artists – which allows for endless replayability and guarantees an enjoyable song for everyone.
Along with Beatstar’s recent popularity spike, the game has also come with consistent criticism about the game. The biggest critique users have has to do with how the game is monetized, as well as the randomness that is present in unlocking songs. Players unlock songs by earning boxes, which contain a random song in a specific genre after being unlocked; a process that can take hours. Once a player has earned three boxes, they are barred from playing the game until a box is unlocked. The only way this can be circumvented is if a player uses in-game gems, which can only be obtained through an online purchase.