Hotline Miami Not Coming To iOS Because Controls Would Suck

You won't be playing Hotline Miami on your iPad or iPhone anytime soon. Developer Dennaton Games says that an iOS port simply wouldn't work properly.

Controls are a big sticking point for a mobile port. Hotline Miami is a top-down shooter in which players die from taking any damage. Even with a gamepad, you die constantly to stray gunfire. Touchscreen controls are less precise and would make the game almost unplayable. Or the developers would be forced to make the controls too easy (tap the enemy to shoot him?) and remove the challenge that makes the game so satisfying in the first place.

As another Twitter user points out to Dennaton, though, Apple will be implementing native controller support for their smartphones and tablets with iOS 7. Players could hypothetically use a gamepad to play an iOS version of Hotline. Problem solved, right?

Total Biscuit points out that the vast majority of iOS gamers won't have these controllers, though. To put it another way: there's probably not enough iOS gamers out there playing with controllers to justify a controller-only release. Dennaton Games, in a bid to accommodate everyone, would therefore have to include touch controls. Touch controls that, as we said, would probably be awful and widely disliked.

It's not completely impossible to create a twitch game with touchpad controls. Team Meat, for example, is currently making an iOS version of the notoriously difficult platformer Super Meat Boy. However, the iOS version is a complete remake of the game. Transforming a console/PC game into a mobile experience isn't a trivial process.

Instead of slaving away at an iOS port, Dennaton Games has decided to make a sequel to Hotline Miami. Hotline Miami 2 is set years after the events of the first game. Players will take on the role of a group of fans seeking to emulate the vigilante from HM1, as well as a film crew trying to create a slasher film based on his exploits. New weapons are promised as well as a Horde mode.

I don't know about you, but a brand new sequel sounds like a better use of Dennaton's time than a mobile version with cocked-up controls.

Mobile gamers have plenty of other opportunities to play the first Hotline Miami anyway. The game is currently available on PC, Mac, Linux, Xbox 360, PlayStation Vita and PS3. You don't even need a good computer to run it. It's a sprite-based game that looks like it was built for Sega Genesis. You'd need an ancient rig not to be able to play it.