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?
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)
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.
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
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.
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.
Uhhhh BALATRO!!!
10€ for card game?! Are you real??
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.
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
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.
Balatro. Be warned though, it’s digital crack. One time payment though, no mtx
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.
I couldn’t agree more. I bought it, on a whim, just to see what everyone was talking about…and now I’m hooked!
You bastard. I know you warned us, but all the same…
