Are almost all mobile games bad?

belshamharoth@lemmy.world to Games@lemmy.world – 304 points –

Saw a game on Google Play that had great reviews (4.6k AVG with 77k reviews) so downloaded it thinking I finally might have found a good mobile game only to find it was trash like almost every mobile game I've ever tried.

Is it me, am I the problem, or are virtually all mobile games terrible?

Edit

Thanks for everyone's feedback and suggestions, I've been trying out some of your recommendations as well as trying out Steam Link to play my steam PC games

225

there are good games. but they most of the time do not get promoted. you need other websites or like reddit or lemmy with lists from actual players to find them. in store only the moneygrabs get promoted.

Yeah the hardest thing is finding them! You open the store and it gives you almost no information as to whether the games decent or a cash in. The review system seems rigged.

Generally, the games that have a larger up-front price are good. Bonus points, if they were ported from PC or consoles and don’t track you.

Exactly this. Every non-shit mobile game I ever found turned out to be a port from either PC or console.

I've not found that to be necessarily true, since some games just don't feel that great translating over to a touchscreen coming from its basis being gamepad. I've bought lot of games from spare Google rewards points like Dead Cells which is a good game and playable but not really comfortable enough for me to play it on mobile, and getting controller out feels like I'm defeating the point of mobile game since usually it's something I'll play when all I have is my phone. Not going to stuff a gamepad in my pocket.

Games that really do try to make use of the touchscreen in a great way I've found to actually be Nintendo DS games that were specifically designed to be played entirely with stylus. Other actual mobile games have felt more like gamepad games trying to translate over stuff to the touchscreen with non tactile elements. Kind of works, but feels off. Unless its like an RPG or a game like The World Ends with You which was made to be touchscreen from the start. That seems like a good port.

That’s why I prefer a Steam Deck or Nintendo Switch over phones for gaming 😄

Me too. If I'm at a place where I can grab a controller then usually it means I've got my switch or deck with me so would just opt for that if I'm in the mood for handheld. DS emulation on phone is the only one where I found the experience the best there over the alternatives I have available. Aside from an actual DS.

IMO, smartphones had the chance to revolutionize the gaming industry, but ended up wasting almost all of that potential on skinner boxes riddled with ads and microtransactions. Most of the best mobile games are ports from other systems, like the mobile edition of Minecraft and whatnot.

I think Pokémon Go was possibly the closest any major publisher has come to actually realizing the full potential of mobile games as a format, but it still fell painfully short with massively dumbed down mechanics and an absolute grindfest of a progression system.

There are still a few good indie projects out there (I like Soul Knight) but generally the mobile gaming market is so full of absolute dreck that I usually just don't bother.

Or did it revolutionize the industry to it's endpoint, that we just don't want to admit was the natural conclusion of capitalistic society video games?

It's the common denominator phenomena of all systems though. Mobile is literally the easiest point of entry to games and content in the entire world and it's not even close with all other platforms combined. The ENTIRE spectrum of intelligence and discipline have phones ("do you all not have phones?" -blizzard DI launch). It's in your pocket, it has all your information, access to your funds, and the majority of people probably get interrupted too frequently to scrutinize the quality of game design. It's a cigarette hit waiting for the bus kind of vice that the rest of the majority know that the game is garbage but just don't care- they need that dopamine hit.

There are a few hidden gems (I enjoy Plague inc. and Rebel inc. on occasion, for example), but for the most part, the majority of mobile games are mtx-laden cash grabs. So the actual quality is commensurately low because the devs figured out they don't have to put in real effort to implement gambling and hook addicts.

There are a ton of good mobile games but the reason you can't find them is because 99% of what you see in app stores are paid advertisements. Every section is basically paid, and the few which aren't get botted by major companies. That app that has 5 million downloads and 4.6 average score? Most likely spammed with bots that give it 5 stars. Google Play is a disaster.

Here are some Android games I would absolutely recommend:

  • Fancy Pants Adventures

  • Data Wing

  • The Battle of Politopia

  • Sonny

  • Plato

  • Cube Escape Collection

  • Pocket City (or its sequel)

  • Bloons TD 6 (paid)

  • Dicey Dungeons (paid)

  • Dead Cells (paid)

  • Downwell (paid)

  • Baba Is You (paid)

  • Levelhead (paid)

  • Kingdom Rush series (paid, usually on sale though)

  • If you own Netflix you get to play their catalogue of games for free. I recommend Into the Breach, Shovel Knight Pocket Dungeon, Oxenfree

I could go on, but the point is ignore everything you see on the store. The store is garbage. Try to look for games that are well-talked about online.

Edit: Forgot to mention, there's an app called MiniReview where you can browse game reviews from people who actually care. It's a good resource if you're looking for good games.

A chunk of those aren't mobile-first games. Dead cells is like an award winning game on PC and console. They're good games. Maybe the metric should be "is this on other platforms , too?" Somehow the shitty models of mobile games haven't fully developed on other platforms.

Thanks for those Netflix suggestions, didn't know about that at all.

Into the Breach was my final push into getting a netflix subscription. It's that good.

Polytopia is awesome. It is free to play offline, and only requires one one time purchase to play online. No ads.

Almost all mobile-only games from mobile-only game developers and advertised in mobile-only environments are trash. Look for mobile games related to other gaming environments or advertising channels. Android games through Humble Bundle are great (although they don't do mobile-only bundles any more?). Android ports of PC or Switch games tend to be pretty good. Open source Android games run the gamut of quality, but the ways they are bad are the same ways open source PC games are bad, not the very different set of ways that mobile games are bad (microtransactions, ads, etc).

After trying bunch of Android games I found Nintendo DS games that can be entirely played with a stylus have been the best games to emulate and play on mobile.

Edit: Kirby Mass Attack is great and felt like a native experience.

Some others that might be worth trying.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/boards/925329-nintendo-ds/65539209

Any particular suggestions that you've enjoyed playing? I've mostly been playing GBA pokemon romhacks (Radical Red mainly) and Fire Emblem Romhacks.

Kirby Mass Attack is one I enjoyed and played all the way through. You flick around bunch of kirbies so it feels like a very polished mobile game with it being entirely touched based and no reliance on trying to emulate tactile buttons on a flat screen.

Warioware touched is fun for a quick session. I haven't tried tried Legend of Zelda Phantom Hourglass yet, but it looks promising. It's also entirely touch based.

Another good Kirby one is Canvas Curse, entirely touch based. Any of the many puzzle vns on DS should be good too, like hotel dusk or 999

I find Dark pattern games site to be fairly informative on which mobile games are good and which are not. The Healthy Games section has bunch of good games while the dark games section has games you should actively avoid.

If game is listed as healthy and has a good rating there's a pretty good chance for it being actually good.

If you want good mobile games, look out for paid ports of PC indies, like:

Meh, whole they're undoubtedly great games, the experience on mobile just isn't.

My hard and fast rule is, "Don't play freemium games." The second I see stars, coins, tickets, tokens, I'm out. I exclusively play what are mostly ports from console. Trials of Mana, The Alliance Alive HD Remastered, Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney Trilogy, Danganronpa, Spiritfarer, Oxenfree, Stardew Valley, Minecraft etc. I also have Apple Arcade from my Verizon package, and I play the Netflix games. Avoid freemium / gacha / IAP-riddled games, and some of the ports are at least decent.

Absolutely agree on the freemium bullshit. Haven't seen a single one that was worth playing.

I'll also add on a handful of suggestions if anyone enjoys puzzle games: The Room series (4 games in the series), and The House of Da Vinci (3 games in the series, heavily inspired by The Room).

Personally don't mind freemium games, I don't care about wait times and shit, just play the game at my own pace.

What I do hate is FOMO, I'm an all-or-nothin' kinda gamer. If i feel pressured to play because I might miss an exclusive item, I'm out.

Just download a SNES/Genesis/GBA emulator, no need to waste time sifting through the piles of shit that is mobile gaming.

GBA emulation is the best. All the games are meant for small screens and modern hardware has absolutely no issues with emulating the GBA. It has soooo many games. You can also get ROM hacks (most common for Pokemon games), which are fan edits to games. Some of which are such massive edits that they're basically entirely new games only using the existing framework for the style of gameplay.

Only downside is controls. Touch screens are simply not as good as physical controls. I don't recommend trying any games that require fast paced and precise controls, as you will hit wrong buttons plenty. You can get Bluetooth controllers to help with this I think, though I've never personally tried them. I've also seen "case controllers", which go around your phone and make it sorta like a Switch form factor.

It could just be you are not the target market for these games and you see through the bullshit. A lot of them are designed with shitty dark patterns to keep you coming back for more. Also, a lot of those reviews are probably fake to draw in the curious.

It is really hard to find good mobile games.

Most games are just blatant pay to win fronts. I especially despise those "idle whatever" style games where you wait for your 'money' to rake up. Boring stuff.

With smartphones getting more and more powerful, I miss sophisticated games on it. And I am not talking Skyrim here. Even most stuff we could play on Newgrounds 15 years ago blows most of the shit in the store out of the water.

There is just not a big enough market for it, it seems.

I call those idle games battery killer sims. You do nothing on the game, it has no merit whatsoever.

Leaving those games open, especially during the summer, degrades your battery so much.

Monument 1 and 2 are great puzzle games well worth the purchase price.

There's no good mobile exclusive game, in my experience. There are plenty of great games that are 1:1 ports of their PC or console versions, with buy-once pricing and no microtransactions.

The ones I have installed on Android are: Baba is You, Slay the Spire, Peglin, Downwell, Super Hexagon, SNKRX, and 20 Minutes Til Dawn.

Part Time UFO used to be Mobile exclusive. Made by the Kirby devs, though they later ported it to Switch.

Seconding Slay the Spire so much. Though I steam remote play it most of the time because it doesn't support cross-saves (from what I've read online, you can do it manually though)

Mobile games aren’t games, or at least not what I’d consider a game. Mobile “games” are simple puzzles, swipe action fighters and click-and-wait builders. They are built around the concept of microtransactions and are in place to make developers money and to be a time-suck for the end players.

those are actually… games. But also, beyond that, been playing some fun platformers and having a blast! Oddmar & Suzy Cube are 2 stand outs I’ve been enjoying.

Actually, if you have Netflix, there’s a decent number of good mobile games through that

Apple Arcade seems to have escaped this cycle and has games that feel like early mobile games where developers made their games passion projects; games are focused on fun without any in app purchases, games get constant content updates, remasters of some of the best mobile games but without ads or in app purchases.

There are plenty of highly-rated indie games ported to Android and iOS. Why plays gatcha games and ads/microtransactions-laden mobile games when you can play Into the Breach, Terraria, Stardew Valley, Limbo, Samorost, etc for a small sum of money?

Into the Breach is a perfect game for mobile. Haven't played it on Android (I have it on my Switch), but it reminds me of playing a ROM of Final Fantasy Tactics on my phone and it was perfect. And that was 10 years ago, so Smartphone technology has come a long way since then.

Pretty much. Unless you're an anime/gacha fan there really isn't any 'good' mobile games since the entire world decided that premium mobile games aren't worth it. Which pretty much fed back into itself. So the only thing approaching good will be either emulation/ports of games from console, the your mileage may vary genres (incrementals/idlers, and gacha) and the occasional diamond in the rough.

Yes, almost all of it is bad. But that's only because there's a lot of bad games on there. There are certainly great games on mobile, you just have to find them.

There are good mobile games out there. World of Goo, Little Inferno, Angry Birds, The Room, What the Golf?, Plants vs. Zombies, FTL, Genshin Impact, Jetpack Joyride, are good examples. There are also some ported games that are fantastic, like Minecraft, Papers Please, Roblox, and I'm sure countless others.

However, mobile devices don't have enough resources for many triple-A PC/Console games, they also don't have the ergonomics of a controller, and the screen is inherently too small for some games. Even if the technical issues could be mitigated, would you want to play something like Elden Ring on a phone? Likewise, would you want to play Angry Birds on your television? I think the best compromise is when mobile games are specifically tailored for the platform they are on. FTL and Plants vs. Zombies come to mind as great implementations. But if those type of games aren't something you like, then you're out of luck.

Wait FTL is on mobile? That sounds amazing..... dang it looks like it is ios only.

damn!! That was my reaction too. Well.. probably good thing it's ios only or I'd suddenly have a lot of time sitting in the bathroom.....

Afaik its for iPads only. Into the breach, however, is on mobile.

However, mobile devices don’t have enough resources for many triple-A PC/Console games

I don't think this is ever an obstacle when one of the most popular games out there is Stardew Valley, which can run on mobile without even straining it. There is a whole ecosystem of indie games that could be run on mobile just fine, but even indie developers are more likely to target PC as the primary platform.

As for ergonomics, that's pretty much a circular problem from games not being made for mobile in the first place. Games designed around touch controls, like Monument Valley, can have pretty good ergonomics. Those trying to emulate buttons and analog sticks, not so much.

Unfortunately, more than anything I believe the real obstacle is the culture created around apps, where users are driven away if they have to pay anything at all, and even a $20 price point is nigh unthinkable. So mobile games all lean towards microtransactions, which often makes the monetization of those games downright predatory, at expense of the fun. They look "free" until they trick the player into spending $100+

Most of your examples are not 'mobile games', they are actual games that are also available on mobile devices. That is a big difference in my opinion.

Cultist Simulator, Stardew Valley, Minecraft, Slay the Spire and Dead Cells are all good options. Admittedly they're all PC games you can play on mobile but they're still good.

I can't imagine Dead Cells on a mobile device oof

It's all about getting used to it, many people have finished the game on 5BC with touch controls. I'm pretty sure it has controller support too.

I used to visit the incremental games subreddit to find new, good ones.

After all, why download a game when others are willing to play test it for you?

That's honestly one of the subreddits I miss the most. I mean, sure, I can go visit it still, but it just feels wrong. It honestly feels like a bad prestige or accidentally clicking "Hard Reset."

Just wanted to share that if you have a Netflix account, you can probabaly try some good mobile games. Here's some I found that were good:

Arcanium

Bloons

Into the Breach

Terra Nil is also pretty good too imo

Is that on the Netflix service? I might have to look into that..

Edit. Thanks for saving me 25$!

Magic the gathering Arena is on mobile and it is basically PC port of the game. Highly recommend if you are into collectible card games.

Isn't it as expensive as the cardboard counterpart?

Depending on your prefered format, patience and number of games you play it can be actually free or it can cost you thousands od dollars.

I spent around 20 dollars since I started playing in 2019. I have practically all cards for standard format i want to use + bank of gems and gold to purchase new set when it comes out in September.

I played it for months and received enough free cards to have several decks, including multi color ones, ready to go.

If you're looking for a free version of Magic, there is Forge. It's a FOSS engine for MTG with multiple game modes, including an adventure mode which is extremely reminiscent of the old Microprose Shandalar game. It will even automatically download the real card art as you come across it in game.

It's under constant development with the latest cards and has multiple updates per week. I primarily play adventure and in the six months or so that I've been playing, there have been huge content additions such as quests, boss dungeons, new enemies, graphics etc

Just be warned that it is dangerous to your free time to have this available on your phone at will.

Nope, you just have to dig...

  • Minecraft

  • Ocean Horn

  • Terraria

  • Don't Starve

  • Neon Chrome

  • Stardew Valley

  • GTA III

  • GTA Vice City

  • GTA: San Andreas

  • GTA: Chinatown Wars

  • Bully

  • Max Payne

  • Star Wars KOTOR

  • Limbo

  • Roller Coaster Tycoon

  • OpenTTD (Transport Tycoon)

  • Portal

With some fiddling you can even run some PC games like Half Life 1 and 2, Doom 3 and Morrowind (not even emulated, their engines were actually ported to Android).

If you add emulation to the mix you can play everything up to the Wii if you have a half decent phone, which means an endless ocean of good games.

Just to nitpick, Morrowind's engine absolutely wasn't ported to Android. What actually happened is that we made an entirely new game engine from scratch that can also interpret Morrowind's game data. That's obviously massively more effort than 'just' adapting source code to run on a new platform, but unlike DOOM, the source code has never been made available to the public, so that was never an option.

Also, OpenMW's Android port is technically not official and tends to lurch from maintainer to maintainer, so if anyone reading this wants to help bring it up to scratch so it can be absorbed into the main project, that might be good.

Sick to see the delveoper behind it here! Almost feels like that website :)

Thanks for providing this info, I was not aware of that.

I'm not sure about many of these and wasn't aware of most of them being on phones. But you're the first comment I've seen that mentions Stardew Valley. It's by far the best mobile game I've ever played.

That said, I preferred it on PC for better controls, easier modding, multiplayer, and quicker updates. Though you actually can mod Stardew on Android. I still started with it on Android and it's a very high quality mobile game.

3 more...

Try getting your games from F-Droid instead of the Google Play Store. Although a lot of them might still be bad, because everything F-Droid offers is required to be Free Software, you can at least be assured that they're the kind of bad that comes from the amateur dev not knowing how to make a good game, not the exploitative kind of bad that's a glorified Skinner box designed to addict you and extract microtransactions.

Games from F-Droid that I like include:

  • Shattered Pixel Dungeon
  • Mindustry
  • Endless Sky
  • Feudal Tactics
  • Vector Pinball

There are also a bunch of the usual traditional sorts of games: card games, tetris, chess, etc. l won't recommend particular ones for those since it basically comes down to personal preference, but I'll point out that you can pick any of them without worrying about them being infested with ads and shit, unlike in the Play Store where trying to find that one implementation of Solitaire that doesn't try to monetize you is like finding a needle in a haystack.

I'm seconding Mindustry. It's on the Google play store free as well. I play it on PC though because I could never do the controls on touch well. Free on PC itch, or $10 on steam which I bought to support the fantastic game.

My favorite from FDroid (also on the Play Store) is called simply "Puzzles"... It's a collection of ~40 logic puzzles (including Sudoku) that's great for micro-gaming. Individual puzzles are randomly generated, so you never run out of content.

Not sure what you're into but Super Auto Pets might seem silly but is great to kill some time or when sitting on the toilet.

You can access a lot of content completely free to play and if you want more it's one-time unlocks in the form of expansion packs.

Another good one is Brotato.

I love Brotato on PC and Steam Deck but a touch screen just isn't a good interface for that kind of game. Setting precision issues aside, your big fat thumb blocks the screen where enemies or trees might be.

Avoid Freeium games. If you known what to look for, it’s pretty easy. Combat Master is a pretty good CoD clone. Galaxy on Fire II is worth a shot as well.

There are a lot of good-amazing games but they are buried under a mountain of garbage, as @simple@lemmy.world suggested I suggest you give the MiniReview app a try I'm pretty sure you will like it, it is pretty much a hidden gem that deserves more popularity

Virtually all free to play games are. The most popular are designed in a way to lure you in with freebies and gameplay that tickles you lizard brain in a pleasant way. Then, when you are invested enough, they annoy you with waiting times and artifical speed bumps just enough to make you spend bucks in their cash shop but not enough to stop playing. These games are basically slot machines masquerading as a game, where the only goal is to milk you dry of your income.

Not all but most are terrible.

I'm currently having fun with Mario Kart Tour

Nowadays Apple Arcade is the only way to get somewhat quality games for mobile

It's been years, and I see that it contains ads now, but I absolutely loved Super Stickman Golf 1 and 2. It is a simple 2D golf platformer with a ton of courses (at my time of last play you could download like 15 extra courses individually, on top of 6 or so to start). I'm sure it has been ruined by the freemium model, but it was a joy back in the day.

Slice and Dice is a solid phone game, easy time waster and a lot of fun rolling some dice to kill some baddies. In general though I do think they are quite trash, but ports and emulators are probably the best option

It's definitely not you. You're right and most of them are complete garbage. Idk what kind of game you are looking for but Bloons TD6 is great. It does have an up front fee but if you buy it it's actually playable. It does have some microtransactions unfortunately but it's 100% totally playable without spending any money beyond what you paid to buy it. The Stardew Valley mobile port is another great one that does come with an up front fee and no microtransactions. Since the mobile version isn't actually done by concernedape himself though it isn't always up to date with the latest and greatest updates he has added to the game.

Mobile is up to date with the PC version now for Stardew

Woo hoo! I haven't played the mobile version in some time but last time I did it was seriously out of date. Thanks for the update.

It was pretty recently that they updated mobile to include Ginger Island and all that content. The mobile port of Stardew is fantastic all around. Sure you can't use mods (although you can on android if you put in some effort) but it is such a perfect game for touch screens. The only thing that can be a little difficult is the combat but they have an auto combat setting that works pretty well in my experience.

I would guess that almost all games ever created, in all platforms can be considered bad games. Mobile gaming could be the worst offender because the barrier to publish are low and they are easy to monetize via ads, or just by selling your data. Taking this in account, try to look at paid games and you are going to find good quality games like Dicey Dungeons or Slice & Dice.

There are good games, but usually they don't have the advertisement budget of these crapware companies that oversaturate the market. Best advice would be to look for good mobile games using other media, then get them on the store; not looking at the store's suggestion.

Simon tathams puzzle pack! They're all puzzles, all procedurally generated, but I challenge you not to find one you absolutely love out of the whole set.

I could play Loopy everyday. This puzzle pack has been on every device I owned since I discovered it around 2003. including on Nintendo switch.

I would suggest to use the website: darkpattern.games to find fairly designed games.

On the other hand, I fell for a pseudogacha but really engaging card game: Marvel Snap.

I was exploring for over half an hour for a paid games and didnt find anything decent to play

If you find a good developer, it's worth checking their catalogue. For example, Butterscotch Shenanigans is one I am a fan of. Another to look at is Noodlecake.

Love noodlecake for the pumped bmx series alone but they make some good stuff besides too. I'll have a look at butterscotch as not heard of them.

Ninja kiwi make very little besides bloons but btd6 is arguably the best value games I've ever played, mobile or not. Cost £6 and I've been playing it daily for 30min or more for over a year, and haven't even come close to exhausting the content. If you like tower defence games then you've almost certainly already played it though. But I'd definitely consider it a very good mobile game (also available on steam/apple now but was android/ios originally so I think we can call it a proper mobile game).

Space Marshals 1 and 2 Anomaly Warzone Earth and Korea ...

Holy shit I am not able recall anymore decent games I have enjoyed on mobile! 😂

Well definitely ports of old games from other platforms, like Professor Layton and Ace Attorney series.

I mean the bitter truth is, mobile games nowadays are completely plagued with the same cancer of trying to sell you stuff inside the game. Virtually every "worthwhile" game on mobile has become a flea market in on itself. So even the decent games a chore to get through to the actual meaty part. I used to enjoy PUBGmobile and CODmobile with my friends but even that I stopped playing because it was just rinse and repeat live service model of trudging through gutter waste. It became just an obligation to my friends rather than anything I would enjoy so I quit.

Problem is that nobody takes mobile as a serious platform for gaming. And somewhat sad reality is that the huge user base you see in mobile space, especially Android, is coming from people who are not going to spend a single penny on anything software.

Yeah emulated games on mobile are usually fantastic. Playing through the ace attorney series worked great, and the number of really well done Pokemon roms are also high.

It is not you. There is a glut of terrible games on mobile. The reason: Most of the time, they are free to download with in-app purchases. The point isn't to play the game. The point is to try to see how much money people will pay for the in-app purchases.

There are a couple good ones out there, but you wont find them in the Play Store, one example might be Morrowind, witch runs in Android nowerdays, with decenz Internet Steam Link ist also something to consider

I would argue that the problem with gaming on android isn't as much the quality of the games as it is the quality of google play.

Most games on the platform are not something I'm interested in, and while that goes for any platform google aggressively don't care about my preferences and would rather use most of the available space for ads instead. Sure, it has an algorithm suggesting stuff to you, but when "no" isn't an answer the algorithm isn't really useful to me (which is by design). There's no search for tags, no way to filter and even searching for the exact title of a game will present you with several other games before the real result shows up.

It also doesn't help that the ratings system is terrible. When (almost) every game has a 4.1 rating it isn't really of much use.

If you like freelancer. Try Galaxy on fire 2. It's one of the best mobile games ever in my opinion. The controls can be a little clunky but they balanced it with the enemies being as accurate as storm troopers.

I think perspective is key here. Setting aside the low barrier of entry that can't possible keep the truly dreadful garbage out, on mobile you're super limited on your input method (touch screen and not so great motion controls). This tends leads to devs gravitating towards the sort of genres that were historically plagued with low quality shovel-ware on platforms like the Wii. As others have said, true gems exist, although I'd argue that the best of the best do tend to ports from more capable platforms. Titles like Dicey Dungeons, Slay the Spire, and others along those lines have rich play mechanics underneath of the simple touch interface. It really all depends on how how far you want to dig, and how deep of an experience you want (there are hundreds of good enough match 3 games if that's your jam).

If you’re a football fan (American football that is), Retro Bowl is the best football game on mobile. It’s free, but the full game purchase is a whole $.99, and it’s the best buck I’ve ever spent. I’ve played that game more than any other on my phone. It’s surprisingly deep with quite a bit of strategy for a little football game, and it embarrasses the garbage that is the iOS Madden franchise. Here is a link to it.

And if you like futball, give Retro Goal a shot, it’s from the same developers.

The dollar I spent on Retro Bowl may be the single biggest return on investment I’ve ever gotta out of a single dollar haha. Can’t recommend it enough!

I don't even like football, but the strategic depth, required game time and elegance of controls really hits a sweet spot.

The standards for mobile game quality are through the floor, but there some decent ones out there. At least the platform has some higher effort games now, like CoD Mobile and Fortnite, instead of just being infinite runners and coin dropper simulators.

I really enjoyed BloonsTD6 on my phone. I play it almost every day.

Well... I have GTA: San Andreas on mobile and that shit is damn near as good as console or PC

There is a card game called Rogue Adventure that I've poured hundreds of hours into over the years. Love it to bits!

Try Shattered Pixel Dungeon and you wont need other games..its free, too (for non-ios)

Besides that game, I also found DCSS (Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup), also free and open-source. Other games I enjoyed in the past are Vector Pinball, Mindustry, which is like Factorio; Minetest exists also for mobile; Simon Tatham's puzzles, Pixel Wheels, and if you like Civ 5, there is a game called Unciv. All of them are free and open-source.

Yes, there are some good ones (mostly indie games like stardew valley, poly bridge etc) also some like minecraft, the basic problem with mobile games is, that you would never payn60$ for a mobile game but for console games its normal

Your sample range of one that you saw out of tens of thousands of existing games means that no, you haven't seen every mobile game and cannot use that one experience to tar all titles. The barrier for entry is low so you will find a lot of rubbish, but there's plenty of gold out there which you maybe be familiar with such as Stardew, Final Fantasy pixel remasters, Slay the Spire, and some not so much, like Yellow, Stumble Guys and Deemo.

These are my picks.

Infinitode 2: Pretty good standard Tower Defence.

Gravity Box: Very simple platformer where your only movement is rocket jumps. People say it has occasional ads but I've never seen any.

God Field: fun tacky card battle game. Quick games. Can play bots, private lobbies, casual or ranked. Anywhere from 1v1 to 9ffa. I would look up a guide online to find out how to play, as it doesn't have a tutorial (just a glossary).

Arknights: DISCLAIMER - Gacha game, I play f2p though just fine. You're only allowed a certain number of missions per day. Unique Tower defense game with levelable Pokemon for towers, except it's waifus instead of pokemons. Has lots of story (though you'll get through slowly).

Emulation very possible (though I dislike touch controls):

  • Dolphin (wii/gc)
  • Citra (3ds)
  • RetroArch (any older system)

I've seen these mentioned in other comments:

  • Mindustry
  • Slay the Spire

I play Genshin Impact. It's an extremely good game. The downside is the predatory gacha, but the characters are far from essential and there's no competition.

I second Genshin Impact, it's a great game I've been playing for I think 3 years now. Graphics are beautiful if your phone can handle it. I've been buying the monthly card (8AUD) for a year now and I never buy crystals; I find that's an affordable way to support the developers and satisfy my need for new characters.

Unlike other free games there's no annoying popups or exclamations marks to push spending on you too so that's great.

I grew up in Asia so I'm used to gacha games, but I understand western gamers might have a problem with it. If you have a gambling addiction or FOMO then this is maybe not a good rec.

It's tough to find one that hooks you in but not all mobile games are bad..right I'm playing harry Potter magic awakened and it has me hooked

There’s a free game on iOS called Builderment. It’s basically Factorio without the hostile mobs. An automation game with unlimited resources so you can solely focus on optimization. I have over 500 hours in my current world.

It has a ton of IAP. Are those required to play the game, or can you actually play it without needing to get any of them?

Totally playable, no purchases required.

The gems are only if you want to progress quicker down the research tree by “buying” the tech and unlock the structures faster. But, it’s not required, you can progress normally by producing the required items and sending them to the research lab.

You can also earn “free” gems by watching an ad. Once you have enough gems, you can plant a gem tree (that costs gems) that will produce unlimited gems albeit at a slower rate.

Almost all mobile games and apps are bad. Google Play accepts pretty much anything and is filled with trash

A huge amount of them are.

That said there are a number of games from the flash era that are still great.

There's a lot of good tower defense games. Bloons and kingdom rush I like personally.

Then there's ports like Minecraft, Stardew valley, Terraria

Templar Battleforce is solid.

Most mobile games are toss though, yes. Free mobile games, doubly so.

I'm a big fan of BuriedBornes. Great little old school rpg to pick up and play. Lots of in depth mechanics and replayability.

If you try to search the Windows Store, you’ll also get a whole bunch of terrible mobile-esque games. I think the issue is having a “Game Store” integrated into a device, that cannot morally turn away games of any kind or enforce their own prioritization. iOS pretty much needs to allow any kind of app to stay fair.

If we could have a third party App Store on phones kind of like Steam, I think perhaps they could set a bar of quality that allows genuine, meaningful $10 games to be sold there. But, that’s a sizable barrier for entry when most tinkerers that would install a store like Steam are on Windows PCs.

i think its a low barrier to entry which means the app stores are flooded with crap. i'd probably suggest avoiding mobile exclusive games by default

Some of the only mobile games I play regularly are Unciv, Mindustry and funnily enough Wild Rift.

If you want to play mobile games but don't want to wade through the shit to find the good ones, I recommend getting Google Play Pass, it's mostly premium games (and a few standard ones with ads removed). It makes it easier to find the good games cause you just look at the play pass games. I stopped playing mobile games for years until recently when I got this. There's some classics on it too so it's been nice revisiting some games I used to play on my iPod Touch as a kid.

Commenting in here so I can try out some of the games listed because I have found very, very few games that weren't totally trash - either shit quality or an endless begging for money.

The very few that I do enjoy are Word Feud, The Kingdom Rush series, Flow Free, Block Puzzle and only a few other ones.

Wordfeud is awesome! I had to uninstall it for a while because of the addiction, but I'll be back...

It legit is a great game - had it faithfully installed for years and had many games going on at once and then one day I just had to uninstall it. I hit the limit of the number of times I had to come up with words like Qi or Ki and then on the flip side having opponents that would endlessly cheat.

oh my gosh.... your comment totally confused me until I looked up Wordfeud. I was thinking of Wordhero! Have you tried that one? Think of it as MMO Boggle. 🙃 Wordfeud is great too though--I definitely played that too, just mixed up the two in my head.

Wordhero

Never heard of that one. If I want to get back into scrabble/boggle-like games I might give it a shot. I've been on a tower attack (whatever the Kingdom Rush type of games are called) kick for a while now but then I'll get sick of those and then want to swtich to something else again.

I enjoy these games on iOS:

-Hearthstone (play it daily)

-Rodent Rush (puzzle game like chips challenge)

-Papers Please (difficult to explain, just have to try it)

-RCT Classic (need I say more)

-Old School RuneScape (easy to level up while in a waiting room or plane)

-Ghost Trick (timetravel puzzle game where you’re dead)

Let me introduce you to: Arknights. It's an anime-themed tower defense game, which is unfortunately a gacha but it's generous and well-balanced enough that if you don't want to you don't need to pay a cent, and this is speaking as an F2P player. And don't get me started onnthe story, which is amazing (though the first few chapters are a little dull).

I have rarely encountered a game made specifically for the mobile market to be good. There are some ports of, what I call, real games that work well on a phone. There are some open source versions of things that exist on PC that give the same experience on a phone (like OpenTTD being a nice "rip off" of roller coaster tycoon).

There are only two made for mobile games I can even really give praise to: Galaxy on Fire 2. It's as good as those kinds of quick play arcadey space games can be without going full on Elite or Star Citizen. Perfect for a phone. The other was Synapse and I don't even think you can find it anymore. It was, at the time, the only turn-based tactical game like Firaxis' X-Com games. But since both of the newer XCOM games are officially on the phone, it's not a genre devoid of good stuff.

Half the time I hear about a mobile game getting popular or is touted in these kinds of questions threads, it's something like Clash of Clans. Just crap that lets you play for like 15 minutes every 24 hours unless you start shelling out money. 😮‍💨

like OpenTTD being a nice “rip off” of roller coaster tycoon

Sorry not sure if I'm reading that correctly, but how is OpenTTD a rip off of Roller Coster Tycoon, it's based on Transport tycoon a game made by the same developer as Roller Coaster Tycoon, released before Roller Coster Tycoon.

The best mobile games tend to be ports. Stick Ranger is a good example.

You can have my Word Cookies when you pry it from my cold, dead hands.

Egg Inc. was alright but mostly yes.

Wait what? I understand the addictiveness and I spent probably a year of my life making eggs, but egg inc is just an above average idle game. It's problematic by it's very definition.

Right but the quality of the game is actually great in comparison to most of the advert-spamming half-baked garbage out there.

The game concept is middling though, I agree.

Yeah I agree it's better than most idlers out there it's true. Having said that, herpes is better than most STIs out there too, I definitely wasted a fair bit of time on idlers but every one eventually feels like a chore where you only keep playing because of the sunk cost fallacy.

Just my opinion obviously, and wtf do I know to be fair, we all enjoy different things at the end of the day I just wouldn't ever recommend a idler personally.

Get yourself GeForce now and a Bluetooth controller, you'll never go back to Android games.

Not exactly the same as what you suggested but I just tried using Steam Link with a Bluetooth controller and it worked surprisingly well. I'm wondering if I could get this working when outside my house using a private VPN server, sort of like my own home version of GeForce now

1 more...

Gamepass ultimate has the same thing, you can play games on their cloud servers, some are natively controlled, but for the good ones you need a controller.

My wife wanted to spend more time together, got the 8BitDo controller that holds my phone and I play games while she watches her stories. Works well.

1 more...

My controversial opinion is that candy crush is actually brilliant, yeah they want you to buy gold but it's more fun not to. The same goes for a lot of advert funded / in app purchase games - they're fantastic mobile games if you ignore the money option.

Morrowind ports and similar aren't great mobile games, they're great games but candy crush I can pull out my pocket when I'm waiting for a bus and get totally drawn into a few rounds. Airport control is another example, draw lines to direct landing planes and avoid a crash - super simple and repetitive but its complexity grows, cut the rope likewise is a true game in my definition because you learn skills and develop your personal ability beyond just learning game mechanics. They're engaging and enjoyable with a complexity ramp and nice easy to understand ui and graphics - they're everything a mobile game should be.

There are some great horror and story games too, especially the Indy ones

Microsoft Solitaire isn't awful.

The other games it advertises though...

Lots of great games, but as already mentioned the FTP are a mess. I subscribe to the Google Play Pass, which give me a pretty good selection of games with no ads or in-app purchases. Helps protect me from the crap out there so its worth it IMO.

I would just like to share Cat Bird with all of you. An excellent mobile first platformer that shows that on screen buttons can work.

I would say that most are subpar. If you are looking for a recommendation then I've been playing Orna (search on the play store) forever now and it's a great time. As hardcore or casual as you like with an overall great community and a developer that is active and engages with us.

Orna's dev is great! Played that for several months myself. Eventually I burnt out, but it was still a good GPS game. It is however the type of game meant to just be played during your commute or the likes. Basically a Pokemon Go alternative. So it is long and grindy by intent. So it won't satisfy anyone that wants to play a "normal" game where you just play for 10-100 action packed hours and you're done.

But for anyone who enjoyed Pokemon Go, you'll enjoy Orna. It's much more in depth, with traditional RPG classes, equipment to collect, dungeons to find, and raids to do with a guild. The combat is mostly fairly simple, but that's exactly what you need for GPS games, since it's meant to be played on the go. It certainly encouraged me to take more walks and that's the big reason I love GPS games.

The dev is like the anti Niantic. I actually gave him money cause I wanted to. There's no need to pay for anything at all and the game doesn't have nearly as much FOMO as Pokemon Go.

100% agree. I've played it since very early in the game when the devil posted it to reddit. The game can be played 100% for free with no downsides. The monitization is really well done no ads at all, no gems or anything like that everything you buy is priced in real currancy so you know exactly what you are paying and 99% of the stuff you can buy is cosmetic. They only items in the shop are easily found in normal play and most were requested by the community as a way to further support the game. Only FOMO is monthly skins, but those all cycle back around next year in addition to the new monthly skins as well as throughout the year with some limited events.

There's an Android app called "minireview" which has tons of reviews of games on Google Play and helps filter out the garbage.

No, you se-

Almost

Yes.

Yes they are.

Stay away from them on the whole, don't even bother discovering games through lists of mobile titles. Disregard any list that shows games that were not made mobile-first as a counter-example, those miss the point of the question.

If you are into racing games, I can recommend these confidently:

  • Rush Rally 3
  • GRID Autosport

Both are quite challenging.

The answer to everyone looking for a new game is Super Snail, I believe full release is Aug 4th? Enjoy!

I have exactly one game on my phone. Bloons Tower Defense 6. Without a doubt a great game!

Been playing Oddmar, a fantastic platformer on iOS.
It’s fun to play on the phone, but getting a controller and playing on the iPad is chef’s kiss

Highly recommend Dawncaster if you like Slay The Spire / deck builders. I think I paid $6 for it and I've probably played 40 hours or so. Just an honest to goodness straight up good game that happens to be on mobile.

No gache/gems/freemium nonsense/etc.

I once had an android port of dune 2,I think it was of questionable legality licence wise.

I don't remember if it was in the store or if I loaded it.

I lost it's source but later another version surfaced, but didn't work as well.

I played through all houses twice each on mobile. Was a great time remembering my 1990's gaming.

Mmm.. I think I have that apk on my phone. Works wonderfully. There's a little button in the top left to purchase tanks but it doesnt work.

Since I didn't see it here.... Banner saga 1,2 &3 are absolutely wonderful.

Time is too precious for wasting it playing subpar games on mobile phones.

For me the best gaming experience is on the PC.

Depends on what you like my friend!

Tap Wizard 2 and Home Quest have been recent favorites in the "idle simulation" space Also Vampire Survivors and Melvor Idle are both on mobile platforms so it is objectively false to call all mobile games bad 😉

Id say League is probably the closest you’re going to get to a “real” game. Reasonable prices. No P2W. And the game is super polished and quality.