You’re just kind of there and then off you go. In Minecraft, you just spawn in a big world for no real reason. One thing that Survivalcraft does that might seem insignificant but I think is actually pretty important is add an overarching context to the game. Survivalcraft doesn’t support any sort of multiplayer at this point, but being able to download other peoples worlds and texture packs is a really nice feature that makes it feel more social and connected to the fan community. The closest Minecraft – PE comes to that currently is a local multiplayer mode, though Mojang is working on official online functionality and there’s at least one 3rd-party solution that works for that. You can also upload entire worlds online in Survivalcraft to be shared with anybody. In fact, the most popular texture pack for Survivalcraft is the one with proper Minecraft textures. Survivalcraft supports this functionality, but Minecraft – PE does not. With the ability to create and use custom texture packs you can pretty much skin the world of Minecraft however you like. It gives you that same exhilaration but on the small screen.Īnother big part of the Minecraft experience is modding and customization. However, Survivalcraft has caves right now, and they’re just as satisfying as if you’re playing the full-blown desktop version of Minecraft. Unfortunately, Minecraft – PE doesn’t have caves at all, though it sounds like they are planning on adding them at some point in the future. There’s nothing quite like coming across a tiny nook in the side of a mountain, seeing that it’s actually an entrance to a cave, and then finding out just how far down the rabbit hole goes. It’s astounding for a mobile device.Įxploring a giant open world is one of the biggest attractions of Minecraft, but that also includes exploring dark, foreboding caves. In Survivalcraft this just plain isn’t an issue. I’m not sure if it’s just a huge world that circles around or if it just keeps on randomly generating terrain as you go ad infinitum, but as anybody who has played Minecraft – PE knows all too well there’s nothing more disappointing than hitting the invisible walls of its tiny world. Survivalcraft is an absolutely massive world, and for the life of me I cannot find its boundaries. So what exactly is it about Survivalcraft that puts it ahead of Minecraft – PE? Well first and foremost is scope. And, despite our initial hesitations, this is anything but a cheap knock-off attempting to cash in on the Minecraft craze, and is in fact the best mobile sandbox game of its kind that you can get at this time. That game is called Survivalcraft ($3.99), and despite being made by just a single person it bests even Mojang’s official mobile offering and even does some unique things to set itself apart from the pack. With that said, a new Minecraft-y game has been ripping up the charts lately and even jockeying for position with Mojang’s official Minecraft – Pocket Edition ($6.99). It gets very easy to dismiss these games when so many bad ones are churned out at such an incredible pace. I can tell you from personal experience working at TouchArcade that with dozens of these kinds of games coming out every week it gets very hard to decide which ones are worth exploring and which ones should just be written off as the cheap clones that they are. “Minecraft" is the new “Angry" or “Temple" in terms of latest SEO hotness, I guess you could say. But in the mobile space especially, 99% of anything that gets released that’s reminiscent of Minecraft is just a crappy knock-off and cash-in attempt that’s of little value to anyone. I mean heck, even Minecraft was inspired by similar games that came before it. Not that I’m saying there’s anything wrong with taking heavy inspiration from a game. There’s no doubt that Mojang’s Minecraft has become a nearly unfathomable success over the past few years, and as with anything that becomes popular there’s a seemingly unending line of people that rush to ride the coattails of that success.
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