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?
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.
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.
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.
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
Balatro. Be warned though, it’s digital crack. One time payment though, no mtx
You bastard. I know you warned us, but all the same…
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.
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.
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.
Puzzles by Simon whatshisface
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=name.boyle.chris.sgtpuzzlesBunch of puzzle games, no monetisation
CMV: Towers and Unequal are literally impossible to beat at their harder/hardest difficulty levels without any cheating or guessing.
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.
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!
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.
Yes, several:
Ports of PC games:
80 Days
Gris
Myst (2021 release)
Gone Home
Papers, PleaseThen you have pure phone games
Mini Metro
Reigns
FreewaysThen you have old web browser games ported to the phone:
Plauge Inc.
InfectenatorThere are plenty more, these are just a few that I have on my phone
Uhhhh BALATRO!!!
10€ for card game?! Are you real??
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…
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
