On PocketGear.com, there are currently 513 action games, 646 puzzle games, and 387 strategy games. By comparison, there are a mere 67 games in the RPG category. But even this low number is misleading because for some reason it includes such titles as Harry Putter's Crazy Golf and Animal Ringtones Vol. 2. Handango, for its part, doesn't even have a separate RPG category. These facts illustrate the sad reality that while diamodoku clones continue to proliferate, there are relatively few RPG games available for Windows Mobile devices.

RPGs available for the Pocket PC tend to fall into one of the following categories (this isn't an exhaustive list, its purpose is just to give the reader a general idea of what's out there):

First Person RPGs

Games in this category can trace their lineage to the Eye of the Beholder series for PC. Pocket PC games in this category include Undercroft, Legacy, Ultima Underworld, and Sorcery among others.

Eye of the Beholder (PC)

Undercroft

Legacy

Top-down (a.k.a. "Zelda-like") RPGs

Games in this category include the Arvale series, and the Pocket PC version of NetHack, which has been around for so long that there are apocryphal texts describing Methusalah's love of the game!

Arvale 2

NetHack

Isometric (a.k.a. "Diablo-like") RPGs

Games in this category include the Everquest series, Ancient Evil, and Tower of Souls.

Everquest (First Episode)

Ancient Evil

Tower of Souls

So What's Missing?

I own games in each category and I think most gamers would agree that each category has some great games in it. However, with the notable exception of NetHack, the oldest game in the list, all of these games have one major shortcoming: they're all linear. A linear game is one that has a pre-established path from the beginning of the game to the end. This is usually accomplished by having various missions that have to be completed before the game is won. And while most of the games discussed in this post allow the player to wander around and complete the missions when he/she wants to, the fact remains that they are linear, which severely limits replay value.

NetHack, by contrast, gives the player a randomly-generated gameworld every time you play. Not only does this dramatically increase the replayability of the game, but it is arguably more true to the "pure" RPG experience, although the Eye of the Beholder series itself demonstrates that linear games have always had a place in the computer RPG world.

NetHack also distinguishes itself by the enormous range of actions available to the player. Almost every keyboard key has an associated action and when you press the [shift] key and another keyboard key there will be a different action. Thus, there are dozens of things you can do with your Nethack character. This is in fairly stark contrast to most PPC RPGs with their "one tap fits all" approach to the gameworld, in which you tap on an enemy to attack it, tap on a potion to pick it up, tap on the road to move, etc.

I know what you're thinking: NetHack's keyboard-based approach reflects the fact that it was developed for a desktop, while the "one tap fits all" approach is much more suitable for a Pocket PC device. I agree, at least in part. So far, it seems as though the "tap mentality" has led developers to a fairly shallow approach to PPC RPGs. It's as if they say to themselves "there's only so much you can do with a tap so I better make the gameworld really simple." In other words, they seem to confuse interface simplicity with gameworld simplicity; the former is desirable, the latter is not.

Final Thoughts

There has to be a middle ground. On the one hand, there is no practical way to create a game with the rich and complex command structure of NetHack for the Pocket PC. On the other hand, there is no reason that Pocket PC RPGs need to employ supersimple methods of control if doing so causes the game experience to be supersimple, something which an RPG is emphatically NOT supposed to be.

Similarly, it seems high time that the spirit of the great rogue-likes migrates to the Pocket PC and delivers us an RPG in the traditional sense, one that is different every time you play it.