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?
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.
There were, back in the day.
Tap tap revenge and Paper toss were great.
Now everything is just shit for morons.
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
Puzzles by Simon whatshisface
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=name.boyle.chris.sgtpuzzlesBunch 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.
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
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
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.
Chess.
Hasn’t gotten an update in awhile but the community is thriving.
And go for Lichess, it’s free.
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.
