Products · Broad category
Mobile games
Raised as a usability problem by 73 people on Hacker News over 19 years (2008–2026), in 67 threads.
This is a broad category rather than one product, so its issues aren't ranked on the home page.
No issue was raised by at least 3 people in 3 threads this year.
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
- 5
- 6
Every issue, all time, most people first
Touchscreen controls are hard to use compared to physical buttonsUnreviewed
20082026- Touch controls are unsuitable for complex game mechanics, making mobile games hard to play2026-09-02
- Games on iOS have shitty touch screen controls that are hard to play with2023-12-13
- Touchscreen game controls are bad compared to physical buttons2023-05-15
Children make many purchases easily through dark-pattern game designUnreviewed
20082026- Mobile games use dark UX patterns pushing app purchases2026-02-06
- Game design uses dark patterns that lead players toward compulsive spending2025-06-25
- Dark patterns lead young children into making in-app purchases2021-04-29
Ads pop up mid-game and must be clicked offUnreviewed
20082026- Ad pop-ups appear mid-game and the child can't dismiss them, so a parent has to fix it2026-10-26
- Must play a mini-game before the ad can be dismissed2026-01-06
- Unskippable 30-60 second ads forced on users with no interest in the app2024-09-10
Games deliberately frustrate players to push them into spending moneyUnreviewed
20082026- Games beg for money after a few minutes or are too hard to play2021-08-08
- Time gates and grinds make progress tedious and push players toward paying2021-03-05
- Games are intentionally frustrating to push players into spending money2020-10-13
Good games are buried under thousands of low-quality gamesUnreviewed
20082026- Full-price iOS games have UI so bad they are barely playable2024-03-08
- Good games are buried under thousands of low-quality mobile games2022-03-28
- Good games are buried under low-quality ones, making them hard to find2016-04-28
Unreviewed issues were grouped by machine: Claude Haiku labelled each comment as a usability complaint, named what it's about and summed up the problem in a line, and a small model grouped similar problems. Nobody has checked them by hand. Expect mistakes.
The newest 50 complaints
- Ad pop-ups appear mid-game and the child can't dismiss them, so a parent has to fix it2026-10-26
- Onboarding is horrific, mechanics and currencies are not explained to new players2026-10-08
- Touch controls are unsuitable for complex game mechanics, making mobile games hard to play2026-09-02
- Mobile game user experience is awful, forcing people to tolerate garbage for little fun2026-04-01
- Ads of two minutes appear every time a new hand starts2026-03-10
- Mobile games use dark UX patterns pushing app purchases2026-02-06
- Close button appears after long delays or ads chain together, forcing repeated closing2026-01-06
- Must play a mini-game before the ad can be dismissed2026-01-06
- Game design uses dark patterns that lead players toward compulsive spending2025-06-25
- Constant notifications and distractions pull users into menus to dismiss them2024-09-22
- Unskippable 30-60 second ads forced on users with no interest in the app2024-09-10
- Flat-phone neutral position and tilted camera make it hard to play while seated2024-04-23
- Full-price iOS games have UI so bad they are barely playable2024-03-08
- Full screen ads have tricky close buttons that are hard to dismiss2024-01-03
- Games on iOS have shitty touch screen controls that are hard to play with2023-12-13
- Children can be tricked into clicking in-app purchase prompts and get stuck in buying screens2023-09-11
- Touchscreen game controls are bad compared to physical buttons2023-05-15
- Close button on ads is near-impossible to tap accurately2022-08-10
- Good games are buried under thousands of low-quality mobile games2022-03-28
- Mobile games push invasive fullscreen ads, daily incentives and endless grinds2022-02-03
- Ads pop up at random mid-game and must be clicked off, making play frustrating2022-01-03
- Ads have arbitrary timers and intentionally hard-to-click dismiss buttons2021-10-19
- Phone screen too small, causing physical discomfort and eye strain2021-09-02
- Games beg for money after a few minutes or are too hard to play2021-08-08
- Games ignore the silent switch and Facebook follows the wrong volume, so users miss sound they expect2021-07-14
- Dark patterns lead young children into making in-app purchases2021-04-29
- Time gates and grinds make progress tedious and push players toward paying2021-03-05
- Games are intentionally frustrating to push players into spending money2020-10-13
- Psychological dark patterns push kids into repeated in-app purchases2020-08-29
- Game design uses dark patterns that let children make many purchases easily2020-07-04
- Exit button doubles as the buy button, so dismissing a prompt can trigger a purchase2020-06-02
- Spending is obscured and inconvenient, funneling players into purchases they did not intend2019-09-01
- Forced 30-60 second ads interrupt play and redirect to App Store downloads2019-06-06
- Mobile 4X games force landscape mode, which the commenter sees as an interface failure2019-05-20
- Designed to annoy players into buying in-app purchases2019-05-19
- Onboarding sometimes cannot be skipped and feels patronizing2019-05-02
- Intrusive ads and dark patterns interrupt the user's play2019-03-15
- Timers force waiting, which makes tycoon-style mobile games frustrating to play2019-03-15
- Close buttons are disguised so users accidentally tap ads instead2019-03-14
- Paid ad removal still shows ads, and extra plays require watching ads or buying gems2019-01-26
- Stamina timer forces players to log in repeatedly or fall behind2018-07-11
- Long spin animation with flashing lights and music cannot be skipped or disabled2017-12-09
- Accidental swipes or touches on the screen cause game over2017-08-22
- Crosses into the wrong control area, gets stuck and dies quickly2017-07-28
- Ads pretend the user clicked and open the app store without their action2017-06-26
- Free mobile games use dark patterns to push players into spending money2016-06-22
- Good games are buried under low-quality ones, making them hard to find2016-04-28
- Games adapt old control methods to touchscreens instead of designing new touch controls2016-04-28
- Lack of dedicated controls hurts games needing precise inputs2016-04-28
- Touch joysticks are hard to use because fingers obscure much of the game2016-04-28