That Dragon Cancer review - Worth playing on mobile?
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iOS
| That Dragon Cancer

There's not much left that hasn't already been said about That Dragon Cancer. If you haven't heard of it it's a moving interactive tale about a family's struggle with their child's illness.

It's full of hope and darkness, moments that will stay with you for years to come, and stands as one of the most brutally honest videogames that you're ever likely to play.

There have been reams of content written about the game, and it feels unnecessary to dwell too long on what's already been covered extensively, and better, elsewhere.

But with the game coming to mobile, it seemed important to turn our attention to how this new port works

The mobile version

I want to make it clear from the outset then that this is very much a review of the game as it's presented on phones and tablets - That Dragon Cancer is a brilliant, difficult experience and you should play it, that fact will at no point be contested here.

Which leads us to this pocket version. It's a game that I wanted to love, a game that I wanted to wax lyrical about, but in the end it's far too frustrating to actually recommend.

It's not the game itself that's the problem, it's the control system. You move around the world with taps and swipes, poking a finger onto UI buttons to go to that point.

And more often than not it just doesn't work, leaving you poking at the screen in a way that completely pulls you out of the experience.

It's a colossal shame, because mobile feels like it should be the perfect platform for a game that doesn't task your reactions in any way. Instead you're left feeling like you should play the game on anything else.

And you absolutely should. If this is your first experience of the game then please, please don't let it put you off. Seek it out elsewhere and you'll find something incredible.

You can see the beauty and poignancy that the game carries, and even in this slightly broken shape it's still moving in ways that other titles simply dream about.

Out of the pocket

I guess what I'm saying is that you absolutely should play That Dragon Cancer. But you almost certainly shouldn't play it on mobile - at least not yet.

It feels like the game is a couple of updates away from being as brilliant as the other versions. But until it's fixed, you should try a less portable version. And please, please do.

That Dragon Cancer review - Worth playing on mobile?

That Dragon Cancer is a game that deserves to be played, but not on mobile right now
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Harry Slater
Harry Slater
Harry used to be really good at Snake on the Nokia 5110. Apparently though, digital snake wrangling isn't a proper job, so now he writes words about games instead.