Are there actually any good mobile games?
Mobile games usually get a bad rep as they're usually asset flips and/or MTX-ridden and/or ad-filled, etc., and I'm sure this is actually the case for most games on the app/play store. But are there any ones that are actually good, maybe just something to pass the time with?
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Balatro. Be warned though, it’s digital crack. One time payment though, no mtx
I couldn't agree more. I bought it, on a whim, just to see what everyone was talking about...and now I'm hooked!
I haven't gotten this for a very unusual and stupid reason. I'd want it on my phone, and on my pc\steam deck; but don't want to pay for it twice, out of spite.
I refuse to but it on mobile because I already bought it on steam.
Because when I get into balatro I get hooked hard, and the last thing I need is immediate access to fucking crack every where I am.
In that same category, Merge Maestro. Very fun and addictive game where no two runs go the same way.
Edit: Free to try, full game is a single $2 purchase.
Just played my first Merge Maestro game and won. Fun so far at a super good price at $2. I have a feeling that my work will be cut out for me chasing down exploits to take advantage of. I see it becoming almost overly hard to keep track of everything.
It isn't hard exactly, you get a feel for synergies and they usually happen organically. Sometimes something triggers that you weren't even expecting and next thing you know you have 1,000 attack with 200 multi strike.
Yeah. I can definitely see that happening. My first go I was able to spam hotels that were doing like 15 damage a piece at the end of each turn. Boss only had like 45 HP
Nice! It's always fun to get a good passive setup running
You bastard. I know you warned us, but all the same...
Puzzles by Simon whatshisface
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=name.boyle.chris.sgtpuzzles
Bunch of puzzle games, no monetisation
Hey, a little respect for the developer of PuTTY. (yes, it's the same guy)
Wow I didn’t know that, super cool.
Also available from F-Droid: https://f-droid.org/packages/name.boyle.chris.sgtpuzzles
CMV: Towers and Unequal are literally impossible to beat at their harder/hardest difficulty levels without any cheating or guessing.
Free, ad-free, open source phone games
Unciv: Civilization V clone that runs on a potato; a grand 4x strategy game. It seems pretty mechanically complete and has a lot of content. Easily modded. (Graphics may not be to everyone's taste)
Simon Tatham's portable puzzle collection: Mathematically inspired Puzzle games with a lot of customization and reasonable interface. This includes classics like untangle (graph planarity) and solo (sudoku, but generalized). I personally really enjoy Tower, and hadn't seen it elsewhere (and like 15 more games besides).
Chip defense: computer science themed tower defense. By the power of Turing, Noether, and Knuth you can strike down malicious packets attempting to corrupt your CPU. Good content, fun towers and educational bonus material, and I think it looks rather good. (Minor gripe/warning: early levels are optimally played with a lot of tapping that is not very ergonomic; this drops off after the first few levels.)
Honorable mentions (not FOSS, but still free, MTX free, and no ads beyond fishing for a rating). Higgster's game compendium: collection of games in a consistent and pleasing artstyle. Includes things like solitaire, wordle, binaro, and mastermind (20+ games total, several more have been added in the last year). This is really very well done, give it a look!
Flocks: Sliding puzzle game with excellent graphics and animations. Lots of levels, introduces new mechanics regularly, and easy to pickup or put down. I quite enjoy everything Robert has made, recommended!
Piggybacking onto this (all of these are FOSS):
Endless Sky is a 2D sandbox space sim. It's a spiritual sequel to the old Escape Velocity: Nova, and has very active development.
Feudal Tactics is an extremely simple strategy game that can nonetheless be quite hard.
Battle For Wesnoth is a whole-ass fantasy campaign turn-based strategy game that has been ported to mobile. Think Warcraft but turn-based.
Arx Libertatis is a port of Arx Fatalis, a first-person RPG. This one is still on my list to try out, but it looks interesting.
Feudal Tactics looks like a Slay clone. My favorite Slay clone is Konkr, playable in a browser.
Stardew Valley, Shattered Pixel Dungeon, Luanti with VoxelLibre, Mojo Launcher, Unciv, Lemuroid to play console games like Crash Bandicoot or Super Mario Bros, Geometry Dash (not the Lite version, that has ads), 2048, Vector Pinball, 1010! Klooni
![email protected]
The dev maintains a presence on the Threadiverse.
Shattered is fantastic, but I'd hate it on any phone that you don't have a stylus for.
Shattered Pixel Dungeon.
Infinitely replayable procedurally generated roguelike that is hard but fun to master, and a blast to play. It’s been on my phone for five years now and I still go back to it.
Totally offline, totally ad free, and still receiving active updates from the single developer.
It’s also got a pretty robust community.
By the way, it's completely open source (GPL-3.0)
Oh yeah! And a lot of spins because of that, if you use android or computer.
The mobile version of Papers Please is exquisite. I highly recommend reading the developer's documentary of it: https://dukope.com/devlogs/papers-please/mobile/
This is glorious! I got into that game on desktop ages ago but haven't played in a long time, and reading that post by the author has me really interested to play the mobile version.
I played the game for the first time on mobile and if I hadn't known it was a PC port, I would've thought it was originally designed as a mobile game.
What a delightful read!
Balatro and peglin
+1 for Balatro. I didn't think it'd be as much of a time sink as it has become for me though.
didn't realize peglin is on mobile! cool!
It's the only version I've played and it's a great time sink.
Let's fucking gooooo balatro
Monument valley
One of the most charming games I’ve ever played and I play a shitload of games
Shattered Pixel Dungeon
WorldBox
Mindustry
Unciv
Upvote for Shattered Pixel Dungeon! I unlocked the last two classes while on a plane.
Such a great game. I've actually run into the developer on Lemmy before.
He is pretty active in the PD com. Posts about about updates, answers questions. Its really cool
Chess.
Hasn't gotten an update in awhile but the community is thriving.
And go for Lichess, it’s free.
A while ago, I came across a curated list of no-BS games for Android and iOS.
BS consists of ads or barriers to progress that can't be removed with a one-time payment. It has user ratings, and the highly-rated games are nearly certain to be good examples of their category.
Stardew valley.
It's a fabulous chill game, but I didn't find the mobile version as satisfying.
Look for old games, that were released a long time ago before the “predation” was so required.
Osmos and World of Goo come to mind. Monument Valley 1 was a more popular, recent one in that vein.
Other than that, the FOSS and emulation recommendations here are great.
Atomas (Playstore)
Shattered Pixel Dungeon (Playstore) (GitHub)
Slice & Dice (Playstore)
Vector Pinball (Playstore) (GitHub)
Upvote for Slice and Dice
Uhhhh BALATRO!!!!!
10€ for card game?! Are you real??
Belatro won all sorts of awards, including GDC game of the year. $10 for an award winning game is nothing. Probably the most addicting game I'd played in years, and I'm not even into that type of game.
It's highly regarded for a reason. If you're on iPhone you can get a one month trial for Apple Arcade and play it for free, but it's worth 10€ imo. It's a good game in it's own right, but it's also one of very few mobile games that are not monetised beyond the initial purchase, well suited to touch controls and short play sessions and are actually fun.
I'm sorry but I just don't see the fun in what basically looks like glorified video poker. I could see the appeal if there were other people to play against, but if it's just single player I might as well just go to the casino and play the slots instead. It looks that boring to me.
I wish there was a free time limited demo I could play cause I'd love to be proven wrong...
It's not poker. It's a deckbuilding game based on poker hands.
Pirate it if you want. You will probably want to pay for it after a few hours.
I tried pirating, but I couldn't find an APK that isn't sketchy as fuck, and I don't want the PC version because this is the kind of game I'd rather play on mobile to kill time at work.
Not €10 10 $
I’m just giving you shit but yes, how have you not heard about this game yet, watch some Youtubers play it and see why it’s so fucking great holy shit do you like ads in your face every three minutes and micro transactions and no free updates, you do you hon I pay for quality. The soundtrack the visual design the fucking game itself, there’s so much good going on in this game. I support it 1,000,000%.
I payed for most of my games but 10€ is to much for a game like this. Im from Europe so my prices are in € not $. Often for 1€ higher than $ prices. Like its not enough that 10€ is more than 10$ alredy…
You can find copies online with some mild searching.
::: spoiler Tap for spoiler Mobilism is one such website where one can procure such items for Android :::
To try things out before buying of course.
If they are using iPhone, their chances of being able to find a pirated copy and getting it to work are practically zero without deep technical knowledge
I have iphone
What did you decide? Watching videos of people playing (for the first time) would give you an idea of value for yourself.
There is no way i would pay that amount, am not even into card games.. And also salery in my country is like 10 times less than in US so dont even judge me..
Mindustry: an automation tower defense game
Shattered pixel dungeon: a classic Roguelike dungeon crawler
Slay the spire: a deck builder Roguelike. Probably one of the most popular in the whole Roguelike genre
Peglin: a lot like slay the spire, but plinko instead of cards
Shattered Pixel Dungeon is quite a timekiller on the phone
Slay the spire, balatro, Ascension, melvor, plague inc, terraforming Mars, unciv, shapez...
Vampire survivor is good too
Hoplite
Pixel Dungeon
Tiny Folk
Unciv
Battle for Polytopia
micRogue
Doom & Dentiny
the mobile port of Chrono Trigger
and I strongly recommend the GBA and GameBoy emulators MyBoy! and MyOldboy! for playing those entire libraries on the go
The Room by fireproof games. Probably one of the first actual proper mobile games. Its spawned clones no IAP, no crap. Just fun, hard af puzzles.
Hoplite. Fun little iso turn based roguelike. Vampire Survivors. Reverse bullet-hell roguelike. Has spawned so, so, so many clones.. GTA:Chinatown Wars Have not played this is a very very long time, but i'm sure it still holds up (if its available). Old school (2d birds eye view) gta style.
These are games that work well without a controller, The Room actually would play worse with one. If at all.
Then of course theres emulators and roms and stuff.
I think the opposite of a bullet hell is a bullet heaven, and vampire survivors counts.
A dream of mine is to make good mobile games, no ads, just a single low purchase. Realistically it just wouldn't be economically viable at all unless there is a free version with ads. But also realistically most mobile gamers aren't using a controller and touchscreens suck.
People on iphone dont have a problem with paying a couple of bucks for a good game so you could make a lot of money if game is realy good..
Yeah but I would have to bootstrap myself on Android first to get an ios devkit :(
Although I have also considered cornering the Mac gaming market for basically the same reasons
The Battle of Polytopia is a fantastic turn based strategy that I've spent way too much time playing.
Beholder is also great on mobile. Similar authoritarian setting to Paper's Please, lot's of decisions, consequences and replayability.
I Love Hue is a super relaxing colour puzzle game.
Some great suggestions in here, but I'd also like to mention This War of Mine. You can read all you like about how good and gut-wrenching it is, but I still always need to schedule some light downtime after playing it for a bit.
https://gitlab.com/Hague/forkyz
Mobile gaming is so good. There is a lot of chaff to sort through though.
Balatro is amazing. Great to pass the time with, very playable even for people who aren't that into games.
Slay the Spire is one of the greatest games ever made.
Root is very good if you're into board games.
Baba Is You if you want a mind-bending puzzle game.
Marvel Snap if you like competitive card games, have way too much time on your hands, and hate yourself a little.
Halls of Torment - It's like vampire survivors
Oh yeah there's also Vampire Survivors which is weirdly good.
Steamworld Heist is so good on phones and tablets. Zero ads, dark patterns, or scummy behavior.
Endless Sky is wonderful, though the mobile version is a bit clunky (not even an "official" version afaik, but stitched on the ongoing-development FOSS game).
Balatro, all the other rougelites, monster train, slay the spire, etc.
Balatro is great but eats my battery for some reason
You can try lowering or outright disabling some of the special graphical effects like the simulated CRT scanlines.
Me and the boys rolling into the function with our state-of-the-art Nokia 3310s
You could check out https://www.darkpattern.games/
It's a website that ranks games based on how awful or not awful they are.
I love this concept but no ratings shouldn't be 5 stars by default.
Should be 0 neutral and -10 dark + 10 positive.
I see a lot of negative comments on 5 rated games
Not awful: Game about managing a surveillance state.
Very awful: Shit ass shovelware any slightly savy people wouldn't download
Weirdest fucking take.
You don't seem to understand the basic concept of the site
Didn't see it here yet, but Dawncaster is a really good roguelite deck builder that was actually designed around a phone UI so doesn't feel clunky.
You Must Build a Boat is an RPG/match 3 hybrid with no shady shit. Pay once. Own the game. It's pretty fun.
Walkscape is a step counter and an RPG, it's pretty cool but not exactly a game you spend a lot of time on. You mostly just walk and then check your progress and make a few decisions for your next walk (inventory, equipment, tasks, travels...)
there are a couple, a lot of them are ports of PC Rogue-like Games.
alphabetically, these are the ones installed on my phone that I actually play.
Balatro
Bloons TD 6
Luck be a Landlord
Mindustry
Mini Metro / Mini Motorways
Monument Valley 1+2
Peglin
Shapez
Super Auto Pets
Turmoil
Crying Suns falls into this category, being a FTL/Pauseable RTS mix
Slay the Spire
I mean... not sure if it counts as mobile but the entire history of console gaming up to few years ago works on emulators, so that's a VAST choice. Sure you might dislike 99.99% but if there is even 0.01% you enjoy, that's hundreds of games if not more!
Check https://search.f-droid.org/?q=emulator and consider a BT controller.
Not all of them are enjoyable when played on a small touchscreen, so the question is still relevant: which ones actually work well for the form factor?
Fair enough, hence why I mentioned the BT controller but OK so might want something more compact, say if you are walking around or in the subway for 1 stop.
That's not my situation so naively I'd suggest stuff like https://hexgl.bkcore.com/ or (and sadly I can't put my hand on it right now) those who rely on accelerometer, this way you don't even tap on your screen.
That being said I think there are also now Web based emulators that do have controller overlay. This way you use your entire screen real estate but also use the device it as a controller. There is no haptic feedback but works relatively well, I used that for WebXR on mobile.
Edit: it wasn't any of these but still gives the idea https://forums.libretro.com/t/rgpad-a-universal-gamepad-overlay/41134 https://github.com/ShawnHymel/phaser-plugin-virtual-gamepad/
can't forget about NetherSX2. It's a little bit of a pain to set up but it gives you all the PS2 options.
Out of curiosity why is it not on F-droid?
I don't mind installing myself the
.apkviaadbbut the more I learned about how positively strict the process to publish to it is (via https://github.com/Mentra-Community/MentraOS/issues/1168 ) then I also take absence from F-droid as potentially warning side a project isn't truly open or rely on proprietary parts or anti-pattern.Good question, I think it might have something to do with it being useless until you download a region iso or something. I can't really speak to it though.
Unciv
Hoplite - hex dungeon puzzle Spelltower - word puzzle X-COM (on a bigger screen)
True but Bluetooth controllers aren't so expensive now and many work well with emulators. If you have an Xbox or PS4 or PS5, you could pair those controllers as well.
Scrolled the entire page. Just to not see hill climb racing, and slither.io
There are actual AAA full games, Feral Games is releasing a lot of their games on Mobile now (Android as example), like Alien: Isolation, XCOM 2, GRID Legends, Several Total War Entries and Tropico.
Hitman Absolution launches now in October 16th.
There are also some from other devs, like Focus' Mudrunner and Square Enix's Life Is Strange.
If you want awesome casual ones, there's Balatro, Isle of Arrows, Keep on Mining (non-slop incremental), Dungeon Clawler, Siege Up! and All Aboard! of the top of my head.
if you like factory builder type games, try out mindustry or shapez
I'm a big fan of Shattered Pixel Dungeon!
Into the Breach
You'll just need to find a patched .APK to play without a Netflix account.
Wish I could find one. Never trust the sites I see it on
I use https://www.androeed.ru/ and haven't had any problems. You'll need a browser that can translate for you.
How do you like FSB spyware on your phone?
(Hey, your ignorance is showing. You might want to do something about that.)
Slay the Spire: it's the same game as on PC or any other medium. Fantastic game. Obviously costs the same as other places (about $10), but well worth it!
Pokemon TCG Pocket. I started early with this, so I have had no problem with being F2P, but I'm sure that late adopters would need to pay some amount to become competitive. Still should be playable F2P, though. Anyways, it's amazingly unintrusive when it comes to real money transactions. No interrupting ads and you basically have to search for the in-game shop to find the microtransactions.
Roller Coaster Tycoon Classic. This one might have changed since I got it ~8 years ago. It's a pretty good mobile version of the original game. I've spent a lot of time with this game.
I really like the polybridge series of games. Bridge puzzle game worh great mechanics.
Lots of good PC ports. The Kotor series and Baldurs gate 1 and 2 and icewind dale ports are good.
Autochess is fun. Lots of opportunities to spend money but none are important, just cosmetic.
Balatro is good (if you like that game as i do)
And also a series of games called "doors" are fun to pass the time. Like a puzzle box where solving one element opens another until the door is opened.
It is 99% crap on the stores though. I tend to get ports and emulators for most of my mobile gaming.
I've been playing old electron engine game like icewind Dale & Baldur's gate. Even Neverwinter nights runs & plays great.
Emulated? Ported?
They are the enhanced edition ports i would imagine. Ive played through icewind dale fully on my foldy information rectangle. Played through most of bg1 and going to play the err midqual? Between bg1 and bg2 called siege of dragonspear before i go on to bg2. Characters can be imported between all three.
Fully ported, mod & module compatible! There is potentially infinite playtime in Neverwinter nights cause of it.
Dayum. Sold.
Most of the mobile games I play have been mentioned by others, but I'll give a shout to one I haven't seen in the thread: Dungeons of Dreadrock. A fun puzzle game with a good amount of content. Free with ads, or ad-free with a onetime purchase; no MTX. Doesn't offer the same replayability as something like Shattered Pixel Dungeon, but I was happy with what I got.
Slice and dice, infinitnode
I lost a full day to that free demo
Magic Survival has been my main game for months; its such a simple game but really scratches that itch.
It has a pretty extensive wiki too. Decent amount of depth for a simple concept.
-endless sky is pretty good -hyperrogue is interesting game, also quite good -dungeon crawl stonesoup is good
though i'm not sure if there are any good pure mobile games, as those are for pc too.
For games currently out and available:
• Slay The Spire ( a bit more than just something to pass the time with IMO, but again, it's a direct port from PC )
• SuperTuxKart ( I personally don't like the mobile version over control issues I have, but it's still real fun IMO, if you like good kart racers )
• Feudal Tactics ( definitely a time passer on smaller maps )
• HyperRogue ( trippy non-Euclidean game )
• Shattered Pixel Dungeon ( I suck at it, but it's a fun enough dungeon crawler )
• Mindustry ( PC port is more my style, but fun base defense resource extraction game overall )
For games to come out hopefully soon:
• Maze Mice ( I'm addicted to that game and am half tempted to buy it on mobile when it drops if the dev provides a way to buy an APK for the game instead of going through g••gle play. Think Superhot meets Pac-Man meets roguelite ( rougelike? ) )
I love Stardew Valley and Gameboy Color emulator
Flow free is pretty cool
Alto's Adventure. One of those simple is powerful games. Though it can get really frustrating as there definitely are situations where the game just decides that actually, you're done.
Eh, my gripe is kind of the opposite. At a certain point, the levels get way too long to progress as a quick mobile game.
Old school RuneScape
Dawncaster - a portrait mode rogue deckbuilder. It's gorgeous and fun and actively developed - all new card expansions are free and the release cycle alternate them with paid expansions that give you new possible harder bosses (or different card art etc). So far we have 2300 cards, extremely well received visual impairment support (honestly the only game I know of that have good blind support), and over 700k words of text (for story, events, mechanics etc).
Overall I find the price model very fair - kinda like Path of Exile model?
I downloaded this last night and came back to say thanks! Great so far and it looks like there's a lot more content to get through and fun builds to try
We also have an active Discord server, jump in if you ever need help or wanna chat about the game or fun builds :)
Breakout 71. I could play for 30 seconds or 15 minutes. No ads, lots to unlock. Really like this one.
https://f-droid.org/packages/me.lecaro.breakout
Others have Mentioned Shattered Pixel Dungeon. Love that one too.
NYT Games app. Realistically its just advertising to get you to buy an NYT subscription. The Mini and Wordle are good for killing a few minutes each day.
Isn't the mini behind a paywall now?
baba is you is pretty good.
Yeah game-enjoyment is subjective. Mobile games don't require a 2-hour tutorial before full game starts so people play them. I seen people play the "ad-spam" games on bus without being bothered by the ads.
If you're into deck building give "Dominion" a go. The base game is free (which is absolutely playable) and a good way to get into the swing of the game. The AI is a cheating bastard through, so either play it on "easy" or play with some friends. It's SERIOUSLY addictive.
People have done a good job of mentioning the free open-source games that I'd call notable already.
I don't play most mobile games, because most are commercial, and I'm not willing to get a Google account and associate it with my phone. I think that Google has enough information about me.
However, there are a number of commercial games that exist for both the PC and for Android, stuff like Bloons TD 6. Unless you have a PC, I'd probably take a glance there, since if a game is good-enough, unless it's deeply tied to a touch interface, I'd expect it to have a PC port.
goes to find a list of Steam games with mobile ports
https://store.steampowered.com/curator/44803552-Mobile-Ports/
Some games on there that I know and think are good --- though I haven't played the mobile versions, and can't speak as to port quality:
Stardew Valley. I'm not a huge fan of this type of game --- lots of drudge tasks --- but I think that it was well-made, and lots of people like it.
Balatro. Already mentioned here.
Hades. Action roguelite. Might want a controller for this; I don't know how well this would translate to a touch interface.
Terraria. I don't know how well this would work without a mouse.
Bloons TD 6. I already mentioned this.
Subnautica. Dunno how well this translates to not having a mouse, and the game is 3D-heavy, so I dunno what tradeoffs someone is gonna make to get it running on a phone, but it's pretty neat.
Vampire Survivors. I'd guess that this is probably playable with a touch interface, though probably best with a controller.
Slay the Spire.
Dead Cells. This might want a controller.
Papers, Please
Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. I would definitely want a controller for this.
Spiritfarer. Didn't really click with me, but popular, and if you're looking for an adventure game...
Little Inferno. Older puzzle game that I enjoyed, and I don't usually do puzzle games.
I'd also mention:
Cataclysm: Dark Days Ahead (if you want Android; there isn't a current iOS version) is a good free and open-source game on the PC with an extremely steep learning curve. It is a very deep open-world roguelike. However, it is seriously tied to a keyboard interface. I have played the Android version, and while I think that the porter did do a better job than I expected making it playable on Android, it's clearly not optimized for a touch interface, and it is very CPU-hungry, so can run slower than the original does on PC.
Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp went paid about a year ago and there are no MTX or ads anymore. You can also take a look at Epic, they offer a mobile app with giveaways of paid games just like they do on PC.
MDickie games are pretty fun.
Mat Dickie! Didn't really care about the mobile games, but the classic 3D ones were the shit.
I haven't seen it mentioned yet but I would add the mobile port of Wingspan.
Backpack Battles
Very fun strategic game, there are MTX in the game, but they're not necessary to play in the slightest.
I have bought a few things to support the Devs though.
Outside of emulators and other similar apps, there are some games that have decent mobile ports. Some of the good ones I know of are:
Lego Star wars: the Complete Saga, which as far as I can tell, seems mostly identical to at least most of the other versions but it lacks all of the co-op/multiplayer components. I did also see some minor graphical glitches but they didn't effect gameplay.
The 3D remake of Final fantasy 3. It seems identical to the PSP version but it's obviously running at a higher resolution and possibly a higher frame rate as well.
Bloons TD 5, other users have mentioned 6 but 5 is also good too.
HamSandwich, which is not available through the Google Play Store, so you may soon be stuck with the browser version when Google's changes to side loading take effect. Also, I recommend using either a keyboard or a controller, as the touchscreen controls are not that good.
The Enchanted Cave 2, the first one is also pretty good too but 2 has a lot more content and is a much better game all around.
I know that a lot of people have issues with games that have MTX, but I will defend these games if they are actually good and I can play them without feeling like I'm being force to put money in. Here are some of the games I can remember:
Honkai Impact 3rd, I haven't completed the story yet but I've played up to the end of chapter 28 of part 1 and I haven't had to put a single cent into the game. My only issue with this game is that, while the game does have keyboard support and the keyboard controls are decent, it doesn't have controller support for some reason.
Bloons Monkey City, this game is basically just Bloons TD 5 but with a city building mechanic and some online components.
The Walking Zombie 2: Shooter. This ones a bit weird but I've been playing this occasionally. It's a pretty decent FPS that takes at least some inspiration from the Fallout games. It's not a masterpiece by any means but it still seems worth mentioning. I just wish it had keyboard and mouse support.
Puzzle Heros rpg - this is a turn based match 3 game with diagonals and a time limit to match as many tiles as you can, this powers up your colour coded heros and you use them to defeat/harvest food based enemies to stock your food stalls. Stalls make money, money levels up heros, etc.
It's a 'reskin', albeit a very minorly changed one, of Match Quest, and the art/design is all really well done in an old school 8bit pixel style, with some really beautifully done layered scenery.
It gets a bit grindy and will take forever if you want to win every hero and level them all up to max, but as a casual game to dip into a few times a day to collect profits and loot old levels, and then spend twenty minutes or so playing levels, it's very fun.
I also recommend Flappy Dragon. It's a resin of the bird game, I think, idk I never played that one. The physics is fun and well thought out for each dragon and the dragons all have really nice designs.
Oh and it's probably been mentioned a ton on this thread already but Simon Tatham's Puzzles is a fantastic app full of puzzles that can be played offline.
Solomon's Keep and Solomon's Boneyard.
Keep is a traditional dungeon crawler and Boneyard is an endless wave survival game.
Swordigo!
There are many great Indie Games. My far favourite are the ones by 'yiotro' which seems to be a single (Russian?Ukrainian?) developer. Each is some kind of strategy/simulation mix and very cheap with simple graphics but a lot of depth. I discovered his work from seeing Antiyoy which either is so old that I got a demo of it in a ~2002 gaming magazine, or a copy of that old game. Just amazing fun all around and the only reason I don't have any of them on my phone right now is that I can't stop playing if I install them (similar to Unciv and Shattered Pixel Dungeon, both FOSS and excellent choices that were mentioned already).
Antiyoy is a clone of the 2000s game "Slay", which is on Steam with updated graphics, to my surprise.
Thanks a lot, learned something new today! Though the guy keeps pumping out great other games which seems original, so I maintain my suggestion.
I found Gorogoa pretty interesting.
Space flight simulator is pretty fun
It is pretty fun. I should download it again
Most games on Apple Arcade is proper games.
Mecharashi has had me kinda hooked lately. It's a mech builder with turn based squad tactics combat. It's got gacha elements but I haven't felt the need to spend any money. Free rewards have been plenty to get the pilots and mechs I want. It's also a noticeably crash free game. I often swap between apps, changing podcasts and whatnot. This makes many games I play crash or return to the login screen, but not this one. Highly recommend.
Both KOTOR games have mobiles released that are pretty good
Game Dev Story was a lot of fun.
Vampire Survivors is great!
As is halls of torment
I like the board game Risk on mobile, and Lichess.
I play territorial.io and geoguessr
https://sudoku.coach/ is installable as a progressive web app and is probably the best sudoku app I’ve encountered. Extremely customizable and good for learning new solving techniques
Luanti
If you like incremental games, the Kittens Game by bloodrizer is awesome. Free website, or like a 3 dollars one time payment for the app.
Auto TD https://f-droid.org/packages/ch.logixisland.anuto
Orna, it's a gps game like pokemon go but it's a standard kill monsters get loot mmoRPG.
It does have MTX, but I've never bought any and I'm still enjoying myself. It doesn't significantly limit you for not spending like some games.
Ace Attorney I believe had a very good mobile port.
One I’ve been addicted to, and have spent no money on, is Zenless Zone Zero. Gacha game with action-style combat using dodges, parries, and flashy effects. In some ways a cool demonstration of what phones can render now. Very much depends on what your gacha/FOMO resistance is.
Chess.com
Plenty of bots to get my buttons kicked in chess.
I prefer lichess.org
Any reason why you prefer bots when there's always a random human available?
It's easier to justify when I lose.
Martin is a fuckin cheater
I think no one mentioned these yet: My favorite tablet games are the ports of old BioWare classics like Baldur's Gate 1+2, Icewind Dale, ... Excellent ports imo, bur I did play them on a 10" tablet, I wouldn't try to play them on a phone. https://www.beamdog.com/games/
Infinitode - a tower defense game with a lot of meta progression
Swordigo
Recently I really enjoyed Acecraft which is a gatcha bullet hell with cuphead art style. Its really charming and very much skill based to a point. The only negative is this constant clicking on shit to collect all of the coin garbage which eventually made me quit it but it was fun for a while.
I really, really liked it, but the gatcha mechanics became too much for me. I just want to shoot cartoons in a plane, god damn it.
I Love Hue
It's a casual color puzzle game. Relaxing and minimally intrusive
Lichtspeer is a nice time waster, Roundguard is a Peggle-Roguelike. For on the go I can recommend Krumit's Tale, Meteorfall, You must build a Boat, Hoplite, Shattered Pixel Dungeon , Reigns, Slay the Spire. I can also recommend Cryings Suns, Stardew Valley (of course) and Yes, your Grace.
Most are paid, but if you want to try a lot, get yourself a month of Play pass where most are included.
Yes, several:
Ports of PC games:
80 Days
Gris
Myst (2021 release)
Gone Home
Papers, Please
Then you have pure phone games
Mini Metro
Reigns
Freeways
Then you have old web browser games ported to the phone:
Plauge Inc.
Infectenator
There are plenty more, these are just a few that I have on my phone
I didn’t realize there was a Gone Home port on mobile! I’m gonna check that out, thanks!
I just want to add that there are a bunch of great PC ports:
Alien: Isolation
(Alien: Blackout might not be available anymore)
What Remains of Edith Finch
Life is Strange
Night in the Woods
GTA III Trilogy
Journey
Edit: formatting and added Journey
On Android Nonograms katana for picross
Lichess.org for chess
Scummvm for retro adventure games, tons of other retro console and handheld emulators on the Google store and f droid.
I used to use alphacross for crosswords but last time I installed it I couldn't get the puzzle feeds I used anymore. I tried forkyz but it's hard to find active, compatible feeds.
And for general free as in gratis entertainment Libby depending where you are, archive.org, and librivox for books and audiobooks
For paid games agent a, baldur's gate 1-2
Tetris.
Maybe it's not what you're looking for, but classics are classics for a reason. If you're on anything remotely standard you can find a port.
yes, if you like emulation. Just put a gamecube in there, maybe a playstation. I had fun with hoyo stuff too, but fuck the gacha mechanics.
Here are some that I've played:
Shattered Pixel Dungeon - Roguelike
Endless Sky - SpaceSim
Simon Tatham's Puzzle Collection - Puzzles
Katawa Shoujo - Visual Novel
Snoot Game - Ditto
Gurgle - Worldle clone
TuxKart - Mario Kart clone
Only ports of premium games, mobile games ironically were at their best before smartphones, java and keitai games are all complete experiences and demakes of other popular games.
Was replaying Deep 3D in an emulador and was surprised how well it sill holds up, also Galaxy on fire 1 and 2, Asphalt 3
Also if you have Netflix their games there are good and complete, like Into the Breach.
One thing I don't see people mentioning is that Netflix has a bunch of good games for "free" if you already subscribe.
https://gitlab.com/lecarore/breakout71
Unnamed space idle
Night of the Full Moon Clickpocalypse Atomas Rusted Warfare Luck be a Landlord Magnet Balls 2
If you like basic racing games, mad skills mx 3 is pretty fun once you get the hang of it. Straight rhythm tracks, find the fastest line and set the fastest time to compete with everyone.
Through the ages has expansions and zero other mtx. Super balanced gameplay with pass and play if you need it.
https://apps.apple.com/us/app/through-the-ages/id966245474
CrossMe is great, simple mechanic and hundreds of puzzles to solve.
Amazing brick
Saving this threat for later.
A threat for a good time.
Lol.
"thread"
Antimatter Dimensions
Stardew Valley, which is an amazing harvest moon like game, and subnautica if your device is compatible.
Another good option is to download winlator from the internet and use it to play older Windows games. I play FTL on it. You could also play stuff like Civ probably. I think civ 5 has a touchscreen mode.
I really like Robotek by Hexage. It's free and you can play offline.
I must have spent days playing Smash Hit
Fancade! It's a huge collection of user made arcade games. Most are trash but there are some hidden gems. It works offline, but it occasionally shows ads when playing online. You can remove these ads with money or by using an ad blocker.
Some other mobile games I recommend are Mindustry, PvZ and Luanti.
I liked Knights of pen and paper 2, and Hoplite.
But that's about it 🫤
Breakout 71 is a fun game.
I used to like Bejeweled 2, Asphalt 6 and Kingdom Rush.
Unnamed space idle: free idle game without any ads kr necessary purchases
I play a game called townsfolk that's pretty fun but it's free for the basic stuff but a one time purchase unlocks a bunch of content.
The only good mobile games that i can think of are ports.
Like Knights of the Old Republic.
Ticket to Ride has a mobile version of the board game. It’s simple but very fun and can be replayed a lot. It’s especially nice when you play against bots because you can play so quickly (as opposed to real life).
I recommend not supporting that company. The old Ticket to Ride app was delisted and servers shuttered. It probably had ~$100 worth of IAP for different maps which couldn't be transferred to the new app
Damn that’s awful. I remember when they came out with the new app and I had to repurchase it for a couple bucks but I hadn’t spent any additional money in-app.
I had a lot of fun with Cat Quest. Monument Valley is pretty good too. Go series based on famous video games are also fun puzzles. Start with Hitman Go, then Lara Croft Go, then I lost interes at Deus Ex Go, I don't know if they made more.
I love cat quest, can also recommend the 3 Games for 2 player couch coop with low stakes on PC!
In my experience the play store is awful to use if you're looking for anything that's not full of ads and/or extremely monetized. I recommend only using it when you know exactly which app you're looking for.
Generally I find games through itch.io and recommendations from others. Also there are foss game emulators on GitHub and similar sites.
Netflix recently started offering mobile games as well.
Ages ago humble bundle did android games but that's all in the past now.
I've been enjoying worldbox and lichess. I used to have a bunch more but the latest Android version made most of my collection stop working.
Backpack brawl
Atomas was mentioned in another comment; I can vouch for it as well.
A Dark Room is a fun (if not somewhat short) text-based game.
Bonza and Smash Hit are good for passing the time.
Vector Classic and Shadow Fight 2 (Special Edition) used to be my favorites as a teen, though I otherwise wouldn't recommend Nekki games since they're full of ads and dark patterns.
Ppkp and sneak ops are 2 I quite enjoyed :3 there's some other ones too, but those 2 are probably the ones I played the most recently that I put a decent chunk of time into.. for the others I'd probably have to replay to see how they hold up
no, just get a steam deck
There were, back in the day.
Tap tap revenge and Paper toss were great.
Now everything is just shit for morons.
Besides the waiting, Clash of Clans is actually decent.
(And besides a few youth sins) I am 100% free to play)
Some PC ports that handle touch controls well, like Xcom 2. And emulators.
Yes yes there's been some incredible Android ports for PC games recently, other than XCOM 2, there was also GRID Autosport and more recently GRID Legends. And recently the original Subnautica also got ported. There was also Alien Isolation if you're into horror games lol
Yeah, plenty of indie games do really well on mobile formats. Slay the Spire, Balatro, Vampire Survivors, etc… All of those have really basic click-and-drag controls, which means they translate to touchscreen really well. Or if you’re willing to use a Bluetooth controller, (I keep one in my bag), then games like Dead Cells or emulators.
NO