This week’s Friday rant isn’t a negative rant. Rants don’t have to be negative. This is a positive rant - it’s me stood on my big silly soapbox shouting about one of the things we should cherish about mobile gaming.

And that thing is the resurgence of the arcade game. I grew up in arcades, crunching over dirty carpets to get my hands on some obscure helicopter shooter based on an even more obscure American TV show (Airwolf. Check it out).

Which is why I’m always going to have a soft spot in my chest for the sort of experience that Crossy Road is peddling. AND YES I GET THAT IT’S JUST FROGGER. Good lord you have to let that one go.

Anyway, what was I saying? Oh yeah, the device in your pocket has become the new home of the arcade. It probably smells better, it almost certainly doesn’t have as many unsavoury characters in it, and you’re unlikely to get hit in the crotch by a pool ball while you’re there, but other than that it’s pretty much identical.

And that’s because both the arcade and your mobile are designed for short bursts of gameplay. Yes, it’s for different reasons. Arcade games are short and hard because you’re supposed to drop more coins in them.

Mobile games are short and hard because they’re designed to get you addicted so that eventually your thwarted attempts to acquire a gewgaw result in you spending some cash on it.

But there’s a desperate shinyness to both styles of games. They’re both vying for attention in a crowded space. Arcade games literally, mobile games within the digital confines of the App Store.

The Apple recommendation is essentially a better painted cabinet. But everything is still designed to draw you in, to suck you into the experience and keep you there for as long as you can be held. Or until your quarters run out.

There’s the same quick-fire joy involved though. Small successes piling up on each other. And while the leaderboard might be bigger, it’s still great to see your name working its way up those lists.

What I’m saying is we should cherish some of these smaller experiences. They’re essentially gateway drugs. They’re the training wheels of the gaming bicycle. This is how the next generation is going to learn how to play.

And yes they might not be as thick or as full or as interesting as some of the games we champion and cheer for, but there are kids growing up now with their face buried in an iPad rather than a Neo Geo cab.

So let’s have a cheer for the smaller games, for the experiences that are simple but addictive. Because that’s exactly how I got into gaming in the first place.