Originally released for the Xperia Play, Pocket Edition quickly rolled out for Android in October 2011 and iOS a month later. Currently, both iOS and Android have the same features.
Pocket Edition comes with two modes: Creative and Survival. In creative mode, players can fly around and focus on building from an infinite supply of materials. The core gameplay is in Survival mode, where the day is for building above ground (stacking blocks to make castles, bridges, etc.) and night is when monsters come out and attack the player and destroy his or her creations. There's no story, no conceit. The only advantage the player has in a hostile environment is creativity.
For a longtime player of Minecraft, some aspects of Pocket Edition breathe new life into the game. Jumping into combat against a squad of skeletons in the dead of night and frantically tapping the screen feels thrilling and dangerous. When building my first home, I didn't want to put the game down. I kept telling myself that I just needed to mine and lay a few more blocks, and then I could stop.
All the while, it's hard to believe that all of this is happening on a phone. The game looks great (in its own, blocky way) and the controls are extremely responsive. Even with 15 other apps running in the background and the game's graphics set to "fancy," I only noticed the slightest stutters as I skimmed over the digital landscape in creative mode. Survival, which has AI monsters, saw a few more hiccups but nothing that interrupted gameplay.
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