63
votes
Any Android games that are worth playing these days?
It seems like every game these days is just some idle clicker or some other lazy game that tries to peddle in app purchases.
Is there anything that actually is worth playing still, for someone that usually plays PC games?
I have a metric TON of games I've downloaded over the years. I'll see if I can get a dump with links of them all from my library.
I'll give a top 5 list so that you don't have to try every game out here, but most of them have been pretty fun!
Ranked in order of most to least time played:
Aaaaaand the rest of them (with ⭐'s denoting honorable mentions)
Having a pixel 7....I can't play half these games anymore!
It's 64 bit only, and surprisingly a lot of apps don't have a 64bit version..
Now that's device I haven't heard about in a long time! I had no idea it was 64 bit actually, kinda surprised they never followed that down into the Pixel generation.
Pixel!!
I meant pixel 7. The new ones. They locked into 64 bit
Sorry
Pixel 6 has the same issues... Some of them look really awesome too. Sad that so many older games become unplayable on modern devices.
I love really bad chess!
It's a fun one. Im terrible at chess in general, so the lower difficulty levels really help me out
Antiyoy is excellent! If anyone remembers an old windows game called Slay it plays almost exactly the same.
Triple Town is so fun and cute. It's available on GOG as well, if you have an Android that doesn't support it.
The same devs also made a game called Alphabear. I used to play that one all the time and it looks like they've continued updating it some because the store page now calls it Alphabear 2.
If you like traditional roguelikes, Shattered Pixel Dungeon is a good one. Easier to get into than other roguelikes like nethack, but still difficult to beat.
There's also Brogue, CDDA (and Bright Nights), Pathos and Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup, these are all free by the way. Yodanji is another one, this one is paid but it's dirty cheap.
Yet Another Pixel Dungeon is pretty good too!
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.consideredhamster.yetanotherpixeldungeon
It is a PC-to-mobile port, but "Papers, Please". It's $4.99 on the Google Play Store. Best mobile game I've ever played.
The gist of the game sounds incredibly boring. You are a border checkpoint agent for a fictional dystopian country, and you have to check people's documents to determine if they're allowed entry into the country.
However, the game progresses over time with more and more rules added throughout the game, so you might only have to check 3 pieces of information at the beginning, but dozens and dozens at end game. It's a really good rest in detail orientation and the amount of rules in end game make it absolutely wild.
The game also has plenty of discourse on your morals and inter-game political beliefs, which develop over the course of the game. There's some money management and puzzles involved as well (not mini game puzzles). There are various game endings, with lots of bad endings and a few good endings, which will be determined based on the decisions you made throughout the game.
Definitely worth the $4.99. No ads or in app purchases once purchased.
The trick is to not look for mobile games, but for games with mobile ports/versions or other ways to play them on mobile like emulation.
osu!'s new client, lazer, has a native Android client, it's quite nice!
I'm kind of neutral to autobattlers and competitive stuff, but I've really been enjoying Super Auto Pets.
It's asymmetric so you don't have to worry about someone actively being an asshole-- the most toxic thing you can do is build an annoying team. On top of that, if you just play with the weekly pack (which I feel like a lot of people do, anyway) and choose to only play against that pack, it's 100% free and on an even playing ground.
I've personally enjoyed Slice and Dice!
Slice & Dice is so fun. It's easy to lose track of time.
I finally paid to unlock the full version after playing through the demo >30 times, and boy howdy is it worth it.
The best thing is that the demo is such a complete version of the game, it really gives you a sense of what you're going to be paying for.
This is precisely what made me buy it.
Kept me entertained for a whole work flight and I figured the devs earned the full purchase from me lol.
Personally really enjoy this one. If you like the type of game where you have to combine modifiers to become strong with a huge pool of items to work with, this will scratch that itch.
This game is so hard. I've gotten to the final fight a few times and I always lose miserably. I know there are a few options for the final boss, but I keep getting the demon that summons other demons. I can't seem to kill them fast enough.
Very fun game though!
I was only able to beat him with a cantrip juggler build lol. That ended up being super overpowered.
I've been enjoying Terra Nil. The Android and iOS versions are included with a Netflix subscription at no additional cost. Requiring a Netflix subscription is a bit unconventional, but there are no microtransactions.
Terra Nil is pretty neat, but I recommend you slap the difficulty up to "Engineer" (the hardest) if you're looking for a challenge as on the recommended difficulty it's not particularly a much of a challenge.
Just make sure you read all the buildings you unlock carefully and check the progress book for what you're trying to achieve.
I play Bloons Tower Defense 6 on mobile sometimes (though I mainly play it on PC). You can sync progress and since it's a tower defense, it plays pretty much the same. It does have some mtx, but you can easily ignore it.
I've also tried using a DS emulator (I used DraStic), but the virtual controls in the long term were just too clunky for me (mainly played Pokemon Black). If you're more comfortable with virtual controls, I would recommend at least trying this out, though.
There are also some nice open source games, like Mindustry. It's an automation/tower defense/RTS game, where you harvest resources, transport them around to your base while defending from enemies and moving out with units.
Cultist Simulator played pretty well. It's a card game where you basically manage cards as resources to lead a cult and do cult-y stuff. It has quite a bit of lore/reading if you're into that. This one is also available on PC.
Cultist Simulator, at least on PC, is a wild trip. I can see it porting to Android beautifully
Also a huge fan of Mindustry, especially the refined visuals. Great call for mentioning it.
I got Final Fantasy 9 on my phone which has been a great nostalgic blast and usually runs well besides a random crash here and there. Not enough to quit but enough to be annoying here and there.
I've been playing through Magic Research for the last week or two - - I'm a fan of incrementals and it has a good feeling of growth without being too exponentia. I also really liked Evoland and Evoland 2, but they're pretty short.
I've spent the last few years spending my Google Opinion Rewards money on premium ad free games. Well worth it, even if a lot of them I only get a dozen or so hours out of. One of those is Dungeon Village 2, more are Reigns, Her Majesty; Pocket City; and Human Resource Machine
I still play wordle and waffle (similar) daily. I love PWA and hope we get more.
Other simple mini daily games "tents and trees" is a must try
Atomas is fun little solitaire game. Or onirim
Do you like board games? Plenty of app recreations.
Marvel snap is great, no ads, I never felt the need to buy anything.
ORrrr... Get a razor kishi or similar. Install dolphin, play GameCube games? N64, Dreamcast, 3ds, some ps2 games etc
Thanks for introducing me to waffle!
Slay the Spire is probably the game I play most on my phone, it's a roguelike deck-building game with turn based combat. It was originally made for PC, but I think it plays incredibly well on a touch screen since it has large touch targets and being turn based makes it easy to put down and pick up again later even if you're in the middle of combat.
Northgard is real-time strategy game that was also ported to mobile. I think it's nicer to play with a mouse and keyboard, but the mobile port is pretty good as well.
Polytopia is a turn-based strategy game with a cute low-poly aesthetic. It's fairly simple compared to other games in the genre, but it has a lot of options for difficulty, map size, and civilizations to start with.
Dead Cells is a roguelike-Metroidvania with a good Android port. The only problem with this one is that it can be a bit fast paced and it's clearly made with a controller in mind, so it's great if you have an external controller or can get used to the touch controls.
I'd recommend Rogue Dungeon to any Slay the Spire fans. It's basically the exact same game.
I'm surprised nobody's mentioned Vampire Survivors.
My favorites tend to be the ones that are obvious labors of love by single developers or small teams, and generally games that don't try and replicate the full PC / Console experience on a wee little phone. So many times I'll see these amazing screenshots for games that would look great if they're on a tablet, but on a phone the UIs just get way too crowded.
QuestLord - If Gurk is a fantastic Android version of Ultima, QuestLord is The Bard's Tale equivalent. The dev totally nailed the graphics, sound, and gameplay of those games
I'm having a lot of fun with Marvel Snap, if collectible card games are your sort of thing. The games only take a few minutes, but with enough depth to keep it interesting, and it's very F2P friendly; I haven't spent any money on it and have a pretty competitive deck.
As a caveat, I was about 50 hours in when I tapped out. It handles well as F2P early on, but once you get to the point where you're in the tier 3 and 4 cards and something like Thanos is on sale as part of a pack, that person will have an insane competitive advantage over you.
Yeah that's true to an extent, but because you never pull duplicate cards from the collectors caches if you increase your collection level high enough you will eventually unlock every card. There's also the collectors tokens that you can earn F2P and use to buy cards like Thanos when they appear in the collectors store.
I'm surprised no one mentioned Swordigo yet, it's a great game, I've been playing it quite a bit, the in-app purchases are just to remove the ads and for hints otherwise it's completely free, and pretty fun too!
I quite liked the Android port of Endless Sky, a FOSS space trading game. It's a nice way to kill time during a commute, just flying between planets trading stuff.
Also +1 for Shattered Pixel Dungeon. I'd like to add Unciv to the list as well, if you like Civilization-like games. It's an open source 2D reimplementation of the Civ 5 ruleset.
Of everything I've played, this is what I've actually enjoyed:
Solar 2
Flow
Little Inferno
Crashlands and LevelHead
League of Dungeoneering
World of Goo
Space Chem
Eufloria
Canabalt
Osmos HD
Frozen Synapse and Frozen Synapse Prime
Get yourself Lemuroid and step into the great world of emulation.
not OP but do you have any specific suggestions for games I could play in lemuroid ?
I'm playing Pokemon Crystal Randofuser on Lemuroid right now and having a lot of fun! Except when fighting those evil Zubeffas... who thought combining Sing and Supersonic was a good idea? (this won't necessarily happen to you, each game is randomized individually)
also I can't mention Gameboy games without a shout out to my all time favorite Azure Dreams (GBC). Monster collector roguelike that can be quite challenging!
I don't usually get invested in mobile games, but Pokemon Masters EX has me hooked. It can be really simple to crush content with powerful units, but what I enjoy is that any unit can clear content with the right team setup and strategy.
Retro Bowl (for that old school connection) and Carpet Bomber. Also used to play Hearts a lot but rather play that in person.
Not really a phone gamer just have a few to fiddle with at times.
I like my mobile gamea turn based and/or easily interruptible.
So I tend to favor puzzle or turn based game. Hence:
Threes is as good as it was in 2014. This was the main inspiration for 2048 back in the day.
Nonograms katana is a Picross game. It has a huge library (from standard black and white 15x15 ones, to jumbo 80x80 colored one with also tiny 5x5 ones). There's also an idle game aspect that's mostly pointless but does point you toward a particular theme for your daily puzzle.
Agree with some others that ports are often the way to go. To that end I currently have:
Roundguard: great if you enjoyed Peggle. Easy to pick up and put down since it's turn based.
Shattered Pixel Dungeon: such a good roguelike. I'm sure it's so much deeper than I've ever been good enough to dig into, too.
Marvel Puzzle Quest: a match-3 card collector, but with a very fair free to play model similar to Warframe-- grind everything for free or pay to skip grind. I've played for like 7 years and spent $20.
https://gamejolt.com/games/sonictripletrouble16bit/322794
Sonic Triple Trouble 16-bit is a fan game version of Sonic Triple Trouble for the Game Gear, with the idea behind it that it was designed for the Megadrive/Genesis instead. The developer recently finished an Android Port that will be the final major update for the game.
There are a number of hidden gems out there, but they aren't always easy to find. I agree with what others have said about mobile ports: they are (generally) quite good, and they tend to lack any predatory monetization. Here's a list of Android titles (not sure which of these are on iOS) that I'll gladly endorse:
-Slay the Spire
-Roundguard
-Dicey Dungeons
-LYNE
-Stardew Valley
-Guild of Dungeoneerig
-Cultist Simulator
-Roller Coaster Tycoon Classic (careful on this one, as there are other RCT titles that are really bad; this one combines the original RCT 1 & 2 into one very solid port)
-anything by Ludosity (Card City Nights 1 & 2, Ittle Dew, PsyCard, etc...)
-The Room 1, 2, & 3
-Reigns and Reigns Her Majesty
-Mini Metro
If anyone finds something new that they like on this list, I'd love to hear about it. Happy gaming everyone!
This one is a simple platformer, but I enjoy Super Cat Tales 2 and the related games. It does have in-app purchases and feature ads, but it doesn't shove it in your face and/or lock reasonable progression behind paying money like some mobile games. The levels can also be surprisingly challenging at times.
I'd like to suggest Solitairica. I can't speak to the DLCs (in-app additions? Whatever you call em in mobile games), but I've had good fun with the paid version.
It's a rogue-lite solitaire/RPG-esque battler. Card suits correspond to four different stats: attack, defense, agility and perception, with a fifth suit providing coins. Each card removed from the board or turned over from the shoe gives one charge of the corresponding energy (think mana) to your pool, which you can then use to cast spells to eliminate cards or debuff your computer opponent.
The object is to clear the board by playing cards of consecutive face value. So, if you were to turn over an ace the playable cards would be K or 2. Longer chains will start earning bonus coins.
Coins can buy you new spells with more powerful effects, but higher casting costs. There are also items that will do things like increase your life pool, give you bonus energy, give you one-time protection from debuffs or damage, etc.
There are different classes with unique starting spell sets and class-specific bonuses. Spell cards that can be purchased mid-run are all the same, however, as are purchasable items.
My personal favorite class is the Monk (coincidental, I assure you). The Monk doesn't hit hard, but is able to string together long chains and stun opponents fairly easily.
My only suggestion is to turn on faster animations after your first couple of runs. The game can be fast-paced, and the animations just get in the way pretty quickly.
It isn't a long game, but one of my favourite phone games is theSequence. It is a logical puzzle game and gets the grey matter working in the later levels.
For me, a mobile game should boot in seconds in the exact state I last left it, and be playable in spans from seconds to minutes.
Critical Mass
My all time favorite mobile game is "80 Days", a sort of choose-your-own adventure style game where you try to travel the globe in 80 Days or less through branching paths that take place in a fictional steampunk version of the turn of the 20th century.
Same people who made the Sorcery games of the same style.
I've been playing a couple of the Grand Theft Auto games (ie GTA SA and GTA VC), and those have been fun. I played DOOM for a while, but wasn't thrilled on the small screen. I played pubg mobile for a few months until I got bored, but it was fun for a time. Playing minecraft with my kids is fun -- not that I really enjoy minecraft, but it's something that we can do together that they really enjoy.
I don't remember where I found it, but I love a little game called ReversEstory. Strange name aside, It's genuinely a great bullet hell platformer, and it even has a metroidvania mode. It's on iOS and Android - the Steam version apparently isn't that good because it's designed for touch, but before I got Apple Arcade it was my go to mobile game
Smash legends was really fun for me
Not fancy, but I play a ton of polygrams, fun on the airplane, waiting in line, or killing time at home.
These are the two I'm currently playing:
They're both gacha games, where you build decks by "summoning" units with ingame currency, and they're both pretty F2P friendly.
If you're a bit of a Dragon Ball nerd you might like these.
There are quite a few good board games with mobile versions. Everdell, Root, Terraforming Mars, etc.
Board Game Arena has a lot of games that work really well on mobile as well.
I'd say even if you're not normally into board games they are worth checking out.
Alien: Isolation
Company of Heroes
Planescape Torment
Baulder's Gate
Baulder's Gate 2
Total War: Medieval II
Anything by Arnold Rauers, specially Card Thief
In the same vein as the board game ports, I really love Splendor.
I really like Dawncaster. It's a deck building roguelite. There's DLC available which adds more variety, but the base game was plenty fun for me already!
Russian Car Driver UAZ HUNTER
Found this while browsing and since I dont play games much since some years thought of trying it.
It gives a GTA vibe.
Pretty much the entire retro game library is available on Android through emulators if that's something that interests you. Also, it might be a controversial opinion, but honkai star rail and genshin impact are fantastic native mobile games, at least for the first 10ish hours, at which point the service game aspects starts to take over.
If you’re a fan of moba in mobile space you might want to check out League’s Wildrift. I missed Vainglory so much that this scratches the itch somehow. I also read that some of the devs of VG went to Wildrift after VG’s demise.
I found dead cells and crypt of the necrodancer to be entertaining, but both of them are hard rougelites (you lose most of your progress upon death) if you’re into that.
I also liked playing 2 minute chess matches on the lichess or chess. com app.