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?
There were, back in the day.
Tap tap revenge and Paper toss were great.
Now everything is just shit for morons.
no, just get a steam deck
Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp went paid about a year ago and there are no MTX or ads anymore. You can also take a look at Epic, they offer a mobile app with giveaways of paid games just like they do on PC.
Saving this threat for later.
A threat for a good time.
Slay the Spire: it’s the same game as on PC or any other medium. Fantastic game. Obviously costs the same as other places (about $10), but well worth it!
Pokemon TCG Pocket. I started early with this, so I have had no problem with being F2P, but I’m sure that late adopters would need to pay some amount to become competitive. Still should be playable F2P, though. Anyways, it’s amazingly unintrusive when it comes to real money transactions. No interrupting ads and you basically have to search for the in-game shop to find the microtransactions.
Roller Coaster Tycoon Classic. This one might have changed since I got it ~8 years ago. It’s a pretty good mobile version of the original game. I’ve spent a lot of time with this game.
Antimatter Dimensions
I really like the polybridge series of games. Bridge puzzle game worh great mechanics.
Lots of good PC ports. The Kotor series and Baldurs gate 1 and 2 and icewind dale ports are good.
Autochess is fun. Lots of opportunities to spend money but none are important, just cosmetic.
Balatro is good (if you like that game as i do)
And also a series of games called “doors” are fun to pass the time. Like a puzzle box where solving one element opens another until the door is opened.
It is 99% crap on the stores though. I tend to get ports and emulators for most of my mobile gaming.
I’ve been playing old electron engine game like icewind Dale & Baldur’s gate. Even Neverwinter nights runs & plays great.
Emulated? Ported?
Fully ported, mod & module compatible! There is potentially infinite playtime in Neverwinter nights cause of it.
They are the enhanced edition ports i would imagine. Ive played through icewind dale fully on my foldy information rectangle. Played through most of bg1 and going to play the err midqual? Between bg1 and bg2 called siege of dragonspear before i go on to bg2. Characters can be imported between all three.
Besides the waiting, Clash of Clans is actually decent.
(And besides a few youth sins) I am 100% free to play)
Slice and dice, infinitnode
I lost a full day to that free demo
baba is you is pretty good.
If you’re into deck building give “Dominion” a go. The base game is free (which is absolutely playable) and a good way to get into the swing of the game. The AI is a cheating bastard through, so either play it on “easy” or play with some friends. It’s SERIOUSLY addictive.
There’s a free mobile game called sky that I’d highly recommend, it’s extremely calming but also very well made.
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.
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?
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
.apk
viaadb
but 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.
Yeah game-enjoyment is subjective. Mobile games dob’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.
Anyway go play sakura blade story mode on mobile the soundtrack is awesome.