I have played and bought a lot of mobile games, I consider them to have the same potential of quality and value equivalent to PC or console games, however the way app store environments are and the casual market, it just makes finding good stuff really hard as the most downloaded games are usually just free apps that are just money sinks or just ad players with nasty psychological manipulation to keep a person drugged up on serotonin or whatever makes a person addicted.
I hate the fact that whenever I play some mobile games, I can't help but think that they could be so much more, there could be so many unique stories and experiences that could be done by being a handheld device using only touch controls and/or gyroscope and/or camera. But no, studios rather make something that can make a steady stream of income in the long run than a "flash in the pan."
I have made a rule for myself to buy games as they're usually of better quality and no ads, and because of that I have had some really awesome experiences. If the app stores (especially Apple's) had a way to show sales/discounts like steam maybe people might be interested in buying good mobile games.
Also a list of my favorite mobile games so far:
- Wayward Souls - Rougelike soulslike pixel art goodness. The most dark souls game I ever played on my phone.
- Downwell - Need I say more?
- Desert Golfing - 6474 holes down, 3526 more to go
- Card Thief - Super hard card game
- Spaceplan - Quality idle clicker
- Kittens Game - Idle clicker I'm currently playing. I cant put it down, and no ads
- Universal Paperclips - HYPNODRONES
- Literally any game published by Devolver Digital
- Xibalba - A free short Aztec doomclone, I can't get enough of this game.
- Mindustry - quality factorio like for phones, takes a while to get used to.
- Dandara - great metroidvania
- Cytus - Good rhythm game series
- The Room series - Quality puzzle games dripping with atmosphere