Noun Project – Icons for Everything
Little pictograms for buttons are often extremely vague and open to interpretation.Eg. Heres a random game where upon opening it I was immediately confused 
http://mobile.cdn.softpedia.com/apk/images/color-switch_1.jp...
(also the icons are all animated / rotating, making it even more confusing, made this game menu stick out in my memory as an egregious example)Some designers seems to love the minimalism of if though, from an aesthetic reason, I assume.Imo Text is the clearest thing you can put on a button to tell the user what that button does 'save' 'load' 'new game' etc. Yes, it will need to be translated, but thats simply putting in more work for a better product.