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?
Mobile gaming is so good. There is a lot of chaff to sort through though.
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Balatro is amazing. Great to pass the time with, very playable even for people who aren’t that into games.
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Slay the Spire is one of the greatest games ever made.
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Root is very good if you’re into board games.
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Baba Is You if you want a mind-bending puzzle game.
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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.
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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.
I’m a big fan of Shattered Pixel Dungeon!
Snake
Me and the boys rolling into the function with our state-of-the-art Nokia 3310s
Removed by mod
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.
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.
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.
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/
Slice and dice, infinitnode
I lost a full day to that free demo
Upvote for Slice and Dice
Monument valley
One of the most charming games I’ve ever played and I play a shitload of games
no, just get a steam deck
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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/
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
