ABC: TV Shows & Live Sports
Disney
Watch your favorite ABC shows on your own time with the official ABC app.
You are using an outdated browser. Please
upgrade your browser to improve your experience.
If The 2019 Oscar Nominees Were Mobile Games
The 91st Academy Awards will be revealed in short order. The grand prize of the night is the Best Picture Oscar, and there are eight nominees this year. We thought about the themes of the eight films, and found mobile games that share similar ideas. Below are all eight films, listed in alphabetical order, with our choices for a great match on mobile.
Watch The Oscars
No matter what movie or game strikes your fancy, you can tune in to watch the Oscars live to see which of these films is crowned Best Picture.
Watch "A Star Is Born," Play "Home Machina"
A Star Is Born delivers the latest retelling of a current celebrity finding an aspiring artist, falling in love, and not being able to handle the rise to stardom of the aspiring artist. There aren't too many comparisons when it comes to mobile games despite this being the fourth version of A Star Is Born. With that said, the major emphasis of the new version revolves around the love story, mental health, and support, or lack there of, of loved ones. Home Machina is a game that lets you control a factory based version of the inner workings of a human being. There are tiny workers, little machines, and inter connected gears of the brain, heart, lungs, etc. The storyline in the game also deals with the main character preparing for a date at the end of the night. You get to see the inner workings of the body as it relates to the infatuation with another, which we see the ramifications of in A Star Is Born.
Homo Machina
ARTE Experience
A Puzzle Adventure
Inspired by the artwork of scientist Fritz Kahn, the puzzle game can help teach almost any age about the internal workings of the human body.
Watch "BlacKkKlansman," Play "Beat Cop"
BlackKKlansman tells the story of the first African American cop of the Colorado Springs Police Department, and his work to go undercover with the local branch of the Ku Klux Klan. Beat Cop is a game that puts you in the shoes of a New York City beat cop during the Eighties. The game is a gritty simulation in which you’re constantly presented with moral dilemmas. You need to handle varying scenarios knowing how they will impact your standing with the police, with the mob, and with the local gangs. Every day is a struggle as you try to do your job, and yet not get killed in the process. There are race relations of the Eighties in play in the game, and Beat Cop is one of the best movie matches on this list.
Beat Cop
11 bit studios s.a.
A gritty simulation of life on the streets as a beat cop.
Play as a beat cop on the streets of New York City in the Eighties. Each day is a new level with new situations to deal with as you write parking tickets, deal with the mob, try to handle gangs, and do your job as a cop.
Watch "Black Panther," Play "Teen Titans Go Figure"
Black Panther was a phenomenon in 2018, and delivered the first African American super hero to the big screen along with bringing Wakanda to life. Marvel has made a ton of movies, and yet this one struck a different chord by detailing the struggles of a king losing his father, taking his father’s crown, and dealing with his father’s past mistakes. There’s not the easiest comparison on the App Store, especially since most of the Marvel games are very similar to others and don’t feature Black Panther much. Instead, there’s Teen Titans Go Figure, which is DC instead of Marvel, but it’s a fun super hero experience. The game doesn’t include any deep story parallels with the movie, and is more an ad for Teen Titans Go To The Movies, but if you want to have a fun strategy experience with super heroes, there’s no better game on the App Store.
Teen Titans Go! Figure
Cartoon Network
The Teen Titans Return
A sequel to Teeny Titans, the new game sees a mysterious figure ring to put the superheroes out of business. You’ll need to help get to the bottom of the mystery. Featuring 3-on-3 figure battles, there are more than 90 different figures to collect in the sequel to Teeny Titans.
Watch "Bohemian Rhapsody," Play "Rock On - A SongPop Adventure"
Bohemian Rhapsody is a music biopic that shows the formation of the rock band Queen, highlighted by the evolution of their front man Freddy Mercury. The movie emphasizes the music above all else, which you can’t go wrong with from Queen’s phenomenal song catalog. RockOn - A SongPop Adventure doesn’t have a story to compare to the themes in Bohemian Rhapsody. Instead it has actual music from Queen as you try to guess songs and artists from clips that play for just a few seconds. The original version is a multiplayer challenge, while the RockOn extension is a level based adventure. Classic Rock is center stage in the game, and yet there’s also a progression of Rock ’n’ Roll history, which we also get to see a bit of in Bohemian Rhapsody.
Rock On
FreshPlanet Inc.
A rock 'n' roll version of the guess the song game.
SongPop made a name for itself by testing players to guess the song or artist with just a clip of a few seconds. Now, there's a level based adventure all about Rock 'n' Roll music.
Watch "Green Book," Play "Death Road To Canada"
Green Book follows world class African American pianist Dr. Don Shirley on his tour through the American south in 1962. Shirley hires Italian American bouncer Tony Lip to be his driver and bodyguard for the tour. The movie covers numerous discussions about race and friendship during the era of segregation. Mobile games don’t often cover these topics, and instead Death Road To Canada is the best comparison. At first glance, it’s a zombie survival challenge, but on closer inspection, you see how the game presents a road trip through a dangerous area for the protagonist, and along the way you form friendships to help you survive. There are differences to be sure, but Death Road To Canada delivers a great Oregon Trail inspired survival challenge that is also applicable to the subtle themes of Green Book.
Death Road to Canada
Rocketcat LLC
Survive the zombie apocalypse with a band of crazy people, and even crazier circumstances.
Your goal is to get on the death road, and survive as long as you can. The game presents other people to interact with, destinations to scavenge in, and plenty of humor mixed in during the zombie apocalypse.
Watch "Roma," Play "Donut County"
Roma details the day to day life of a live-in housekeeper for a middle class family living in Mexico during the Seventies. The film is semi-autobiographical with extremely artistic takes on relatively mundane undertakings that often don’t lend themselves to games. Donut County is also an extremely artistic creation that starts in the mundane with a raccoon heading a company that will clean up your property. The clean up idea is shared, though Donut County unravels into causing chaos rather than creating orderly conditions. Roma delves into the political upheaval in Mexico during the time period. Donut County drops things into the center of the Earth, but doesn’t get that deep as the town is on the brink of collapse due to the raccoons cleaning actions. The film is serious, the game is not, and yet both are fine crafts of their respective mediums.
Donut County
Annapurna Interactive
AppAdvice's Best Game of 2018: Donut County
In the unique physics-based puzzler, trash is king as you’ll attempt to devour everything in Donut County with a hole that keeps on growing. Combining the quirky story with fun gameplay, Donut County will definitely suck you in. Make sure to check it out.
Watch "The Favourite," Play "Reigns: Her Majesty"
The Favourite is a period peace that details Queen Anne’s reign, her personality, and most importantly her relationships with some embellishments. Two ladies are striving for Queen Anne’s affection to gain influence and favor in the kingdom. Reigns: Her Majesty is a practically perfect comparison as the game delivers a choice based adventure that puts you on the throne. Her Majesty is a queen based version of the original monarchy decision engine Reigns. The game gives you a stack of cards with each card representing a person or situation that you have either a yes or no on. Each decision impacts the kingdom’s wealth, power, religious standing, and population. The Favourite essentially shows Queen Anne faced with particular people and situations, and she has to decide what to do, and you get to see the ramifications play out just like in Reigns: Her Majesty.
Reigns
Devolver
Reigns returns in an all new time period with all new swipe based choices.
The follow up to Reigns introduces a queen as the protagonist in the era of Enlightenment. Swipe left and right to handle the various attacks at your throne.
Watch "Vice," Play "Tropico"
Vice depicts the film makers interpretation of Dick Cheney’s life, and rise to power as Vice President of the United States under George W. Bush. The movie examines the darker moral ambiguities that Cheney wrestled with as he gained power that previous Vice Presidents hadn’t sought. There are quite a few games that delve into world power, and the strategy that lies within, though not many are U.S. specific. Tropic is a world leader simulation game that lets you rule a third world country as essentially a banana republic leader. There are similar games, but none on mobile have the depth of Tropico. The game is just filled with choices from deciding what type of leader you will be to the day to day control of your country and its relation with others. Tropico is not a direct comparison to playing as a relatively powerful Vice President of the United States, but it definitely shows how absolute power corrupts absolutely, which the film definitely probes into.
Tropico
Feral Interactive Ltd
All Hail El Presidente!
The humorous building simulator allows players to transform the small island country while playing politics and ruling the residents.
