When comparing Minecraft - Pocket Edition vs Badland, the Slant community recommends Badland for most people. In the question“What are the best cross-platform PC/Android games?” Badland is ranked 3rd while Minecraft - Pocket Edition is ranked 6th. The most important reason people chose Badland is:
Badland uses a very unique art style in that it has a black silhouette based foreground that is in contrast of a beautiful colored background.
Specs
Ranked in these QuestionsQuestion Ranking
Pros
Pro Completely new experience with each generated world keeps the game fresh
Each new world a player starts is randomly generated, making for a different experience every time a new world is started. There are 38 biomes - snowy, cold, medium/lush, dry/warm, and neutral biomes, each with numerous sub-biomes (such as mountainous, rivers, forested, swamp, beach and more). These biomes each have their own set of blocks and configurations, and each frozen river biome will be different from the next frozen fiver biome you see.
Pro Great freedom of expression thanks to the sandbox gameplay
In Minecraft you can really do whatever you want. If exploring different landscapes is your thing, creative mode lets you do that. Building castles or villages, or even sculptures, computers (complete with redstone logic), or unique builds can be done such as roller coasters or replicas of objects like the Enterprise from Star Trek.
For more combat focused gameplay, enter survivor mode and you can fight monsters, gather resources, craft weapons, build traps and farms and much more.
Pro Local multiplayer option for when there is no internet connection
Minecraft can be played with other people locally over Wi-Fi. This is great for those that have friends or family they would like to play with locally, or when there is no way to connect the device to the internet.
Pro Plenty of fun customizable skins for those interested in customizing their look
Minecraft for Android offers player skins, so users can customize their avatar's look. While some of the skins are free, there are others that cost money through in-app-purchases offered as skin packs. All skin packs are $0.99 a piece.
Pro Active development means plenty of new features and fixed bugs
There are updates to the game all the time, new features do get added at a good pace, which means that not only do bugs get fixed but that the game will constantly be growing as the platform grows with it, which allows more demanding features to be added with time.
Pro Plenty of expansive mods available if the core game gets too boring
Minecraft can be modded in order to bring extended functionality to the game. Using mods created by the community, users are able to theme the game to their liking, such as theming the game to look like Grand Theft Auto or adding extra crafting objects.
Pro Addictive gameplay makes the title difficult to put down
There is always one more thing that the player can get done before turning off the game. Building a structure and wanting to complete it - oh but you ran out of materials. Well you will therefore need to go down into the caves again. Oh you died in a cave and need to go back before your items disappear - better get down there again. And so it continues. There is always one more thing to do before you are "done", which is the underlying appeal of the game, never wanting to stop playing.
Pro Monika
This is cool!!
Pro Good controller and button mapping support allows the game to be easily played with many different controllers
For those who would like to play with a controller, support was added in July 2015. Anyone with a HID supported controller can easily connect through Bluetooth. They can then go into the games settings to map which buttons they want to use. This customizability means that you can now adjust the controller to your liking when using an HID controller.
Pro Do not log
Pro Amazing art-style and great soundrack show off a level of polish not often found in mobile gaming
Badland uses a very unique art style in that it has a black silhouette based foreground that is in contrast of a beautiful colored background.
Pro The fun trial and error gameplay contains no consequences and elongates the gameplay
It is only through trial and error that a player will figure out what is dangerous in a level and what all of the different powerups do. By forcing the player to try things over and over until success, the game exponentially elongates the amount of time spent playing. It also makes for an interesting way to learn the full mechanics.
Pro Easily play on a single device thanks to the robust local multiplayer support
Badland has built in support for up to four player local multiplayer using a single device (sharing the screen) or using up to four controllers.
Pro Easily try out the game for free thanks to the free trial portion of the game
For players that do not purchase the in-app-purchase, to unlock the full title there are 40 free levels (of which after the first 10 there will be in game advertisements). For those that do pay for the full game unlock, there are 80 levels to play through, ad free.
Pro Excellent variety in power-ups and puzzles keeps the player guessing as to what is next
Power-ups that make the fuzzballs grow larger or smaller, clone themselves, get bouncy or sticky among others have to be used to get through a selection of great, creative puzzles. It keeps the gameplay fresh and varied throughout the experience.
Pro Full game content unlocked and advertisements removed through an in-app-purchase of $5.99
While being free to play with advertisements, Badlands full content can be unlocked, and its advertisements removed, with a singular in-app-purchase, at the price of $5.99.
Pro Great controller support, no matter the Android controller owned
Badland features controller support for HID, MOGA and Nvidia Shield, meaning that just about any Android target controller will work with the game.
Pro Includes immersive mode, which allows anyone with a stock Android device to play the game in fullscreen
The developers have included full screen immersive mode in Badland on any Android device with 4.4+. This way anyone using a stock Android device will be able to play the game without the software navigation bar taking up a portion of the screen.
Cons
Con Laggy multiplayer gameplay
Depending on the speed of your device and graphics quality, this game tends to lag and load slowly when using the multiplayer function.
Con Not as deep as other versions
Minecraft - Pocket Edition does not have as much content as other versions due to the app needing a limited size for mobile devices and their small storage. This means there is missing content in the mobile version over the PC or console versions. It is getting comparative better, but still is lacking due to the platform.
Con No real strategy to the gameplay
Gameplay can be simplistic, asking for no real skill or strategy from the player.
Con A lot of advertising if no purchases have been made in app
Often appears ad banners and videos that are really disruptive and time-killing!