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Comment by lifthrasiir | Hacker News Reader

While it's unfortunate that the Threes team didn't receive a proper recognition, I believe the popularity of 2048 mainly comes from the fact that it can be, in some sense, "finished" unlike Threes. Yes, you can continue after 2048, but it was a good milestone that is initially hard but can be done relatively easily once you've got the hang of it. The clear milestone makes every game play much more disposable unlike Threes, even though you can surely continue even after that. (I did play Threes a bit before 2048 got popular and realized this in retrospect.) The same principle applies to more recent Suika Game and I still find it amusing that the only major change for both was the title.

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Hmm, I'd guess that difference isn't significant for the vast majority of players. And for those that care, the greater depth of Threes is surely an advantage.

I think 2048 became more popular because it was a) on the web, and b) free, whereas Threes was only on the iPhone and cost a few bucks.

Oh, and c) the OP, to give him his due credit, did a really nice job with it! It had the same kind of simplicity and virality as Wordle.

I will add, from playing with this just now, three's feels so much harder.

Yeah, that was also why I stopped play Threes shortly after trying it a bit.

Suika Game has the same core mechanic (and many clones) but still represents a fundamentally different game. The gameplay is not even in the same category, as it involves some kind of physical simulation.

... or did you mean that Suika Game itself wasn't the original game with the falling-circles mechanic?

More like the latter, but not exactly (and that's my fault, sorry). As I said, 2048 is primarily distinguished from Threes by its title which implies the clear milestone. While the author of 2048 probably didn't intend this---after all, it is a clone of another clone 1024---, it seems that the Threes team also overlooked this to me. The title Suika Game also seems to share this quality probably by accident, which was what I originally meant to say.

... As effective as those titles are, I suddenly find myself imagining an alternate timeline with games and franchises like Bowser Bash, Quest for the Triforce, 25 Lines, Megalopolis, The Space Race, Shadaloo Smackdown....

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