this post was submitted on 27 Sep 2025
304 points (99.4% liked)

Ask Lemmy

35318 readers
5239 users here now

A Fediverse community for open-ended, thought provoking questions


Rules: (interactive)


1) Be nice and; have funDoxxing, trolling, sealioning, racism, and toxicity are not welcomed in AskLemmy. Remember what your mother said: if you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all. In addition, the site-wide Lemmy.world terms of service also apply here. Please familiarize yourself with them


2) All posts must end with a '?'This is sort of like Jeopardy. Please phrase all post titles in the form of a proper question ending with ?


3) No spamPlease do not flood the community with nonsense. Actual suspected spammers will be banned on site. No astroturfing.


4) NSFW is okay, within reasonJust remember to tag posts with either a content warning or a [NSFW] tag. Overtly sexual posts are not allowed, please direct them to either !asklemmyafterdark@lemmy.world or !asklemmynsfw@lemmynsfw.com. NSFW comments should be restricted to posts tagged [NSFW].


5) This is not a support community.
It is not a place for 'how do I?', type questions. If you have any questions regarding the site itself or would like to report a community, please direct them to Lemmy.world Support or email info@lemmy.world. For other questions check our partnered communities list, or use the search function.


6) No US Politics.
Please don't post about current US Politics. If you need to do this, try !politicaldiscussion@lemmy.world or !askusa@discuss.online


Reminder: The terms of service apply here too.

Partnered Communities:

Tech Support

No Stupid Questions

You Should Know

Reddit

Jokes

Ask Ouija


Logo design credit goes to: tubbadu


founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
 

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?

(page 2) 50 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] bomberesque@lemmy.world 5 points 1 month ago

Hoplite - hex dungeon puzzle Spelltower - word puzzle X-COM (on a bigger screen)

[–] Hadriscus@jlai.lu 5 points 1 month ago

Walkscape is a step counter and an RPG, it's pretty cool but not exactly a game you spend a lot of time on. You mostly just walk and then check your progress and make a few decisions for your next walk (inventory, equipment, tasks, travels...)

[–] skepller@lemmy.world 5 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

There are actual AAA full games, Feral Games is releasing a lot of their games on Mobile now (Android as example), like Alien: Isolation, XCOM 2, GRID Legends, Several Total War Entries and Tropico.

Hitman Absolution launches now in October 16th.

There are also some from other devs, like Focus' Mudrunner and Square Enix's Life Is Strange.

If you want awesome casual ones, there's Balatro, Isle of Arrows, Keep on Mining (non-slop incremental), Dungeon Clawler, Siege Up! and All Aboard! of the top of my head.

[–] VerilyFemme@lemmy.blahaj.zone 5 points 1 month ago
[–] dangrousperson@feddit.org 5 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

there are a couple, a lot of them are ports of PC Rogue-like Games.

alphabetically, these are the ones installed on my phone that I actually play.

Balatro

Bloons TD 6

Luck be a Landlord

Mindustry

Mini Metro / Mini Motorways

Monument Valley 1+2

Peglin

Shapez

Super Auto Pets

Turmoil

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] utopiah@lemmy.world 5 points 1 month ago (3 children)

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.

load more comments (3 replies)
[–] jbk@discuss.tchncs.de 4 points 1 month ago

Flow free is pretty cool

[–] YiddishMcSquidish@lemmy.today 4 points 1 month ago (1 children)

I've been playing old electron engine game like icewind Dale & Baldur's gate. Even Neverwinter nights runs & plays great.

[–] ivanafterall@lemmy.world 3 points 1 month ago (3 children)
load more comments (3 replies)
[–] reksas@sopuli.xyz 4 points 1 month ago

-endless sky is pretty good -hyperrogue is interesting game, also quite good -dungeon crawl stonesoup is good

though i'm not sure if there are any good pure mobile games, as those are for pc too.

[–] Mr_Dr_Oink@lemmy.world 4 points 1 month ago

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.

[–] Spankerton@lemmy.world 4 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Slice and dice, infinitnode

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] AceFuzzLord@lemmy.zip 4 points 1 month ago

For games currently out and available:

• Slay The Spire ( a bit more than just something to pass the time with IMO, but again, it's a direct port from PC )

• SuperTuxKart ( I personally don't like the mobile version over control issues I have, but it's still real fun IMO, if you like good kart racers )

• Feudal Tactics ( definitely a time passer on smaller maps )

• HyperRogue ( trippy non-Euclidean game )

• Shattered Pixel Dungeon ( I suck at it, but it's a fun enough dungeon crawler )

• Mindustry ( PC port is more my style, but fun base defense resource extraction game overall )

For games to come out hopefully soon:

• Maze Mice ( I'm addicted to that game and am half tempted to buy it on mobile when it drops if the dev provides a way to buy an APK for the game instead of going through g••gle play. Think Superhot meets Pac-Man meets roguelite ( rougelike? ) )

[–] OddMinus1@sh.itjust.works 4 points 1 month ago

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.

[–] CileTheSane@lemmy.ca 4 points 1 month ago (4 children)

Into the Breach
You'll just need to find a patched .APK to play without a Netflix account.

load more comments (4 replies)
[–] Texas_Hangover@lemmy.radio 3 points 1 month ago
[–] tal@olio.cafe 3 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

People have done a good job of mentioning the free open-source games that I'd call notable already.

I don't play most mobile games, because most are commercial, and I'm not willing to get a Google account and associate it with my phone. I think that Google has enough information about me.

However, there are a number of commercial games that exist for both the PC and for Android, stuff like Bloons TD 6. Unless you have a PC, I'd probably take a glance there, since if a game is good-enough, unless it's deeply tied to a touch interface, I'd expect it to have a PC port.

goes to find a list of Steam games with mobile ports

https://store.steampowered.com/curator/44803552-Mobile-Ports/

Some games on there that I know and think are good


though I haven't played the mobile versions, and can't speak as to port quality:

  • Stardew Valley. I'm not a huge fan of this type of game

lots of drudge tasks


but I think that it was well-made, and lots of people like it.

  • Balatro. Already mentioned here.

  • Hades. Action roguelite. Might want a controller for this; I don't know how well this would translate to a touch interface.

  • Terraria. I don't know how well this would work without a mouse.

  • Bloons TD 6. I already mentioned this.

  • Subnautica. Dunno how well this translates to not having a mouse, and the game is 3D-heavy, so I dunno what tradeoffs someone is gonna make to get it running on a phone, but it's pretty neat.

  • Vampire Survivors. I'd guess that this is probably playable with a touch interface, though probably best with a controller.

  • Slay the Spire.

  • Dead Cells. This might want a controller.

  • Papers, Please

  • Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. I would definitely want a controller for this.

  • Spiritfarer. Didn't really click with me, but popular, and if you're looking for an adventure game...

  • Little Inferno. Older puzzle game that I enjoyed, and I don't usually do puzzle games.

I'd also mention:

Cataclysm: Dark Days Ahead (if you want Android; there isn't a current iOS version) is a good free and open-source game on the PC with an extremely steep learning curve. It is a very deep open-world roguelike. However, it is seriously tied to a keyboard interface. I have played the Android version, and while I think that the porter did do a better job than I expected making it playable on Android, it's clearly not optimized for a touch interface, and it is very CPU-hungry, so can run slower than the original does on PC.

[–] unknown@piefed.social 3 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

Puzzle Heros rpg - this is a turn based match 3 game with diagonals and a time limit to match as many tiles as you can, this powers up your colour coded heros and you use them to defeat/harvest food based enemies to stock your food stalls. Stalls make money, money levels up heros, etc.

It's a 'reskin', albeit a very minorly changed one, of Match Quest, and the art/design is all really well done in an old school 8bit pixel style, with some really beautifully done layered scenery.

It gets a bit grindy and will take forever if you want to win every hero and level them all up to max, but as a casual game to dip into a few times a day to collect profits and loot old levels, and then spend twenty minutes or so playing levels, it's very fun.

I also recommend Flappy Dragon. It's a resin of the bird game, I think, idk I never played that one. The physics is fun and well thought out for each dragon and the dragons all have really nice designs.

Oh and it's probably been mentioned a ton on this thread already but Simon Tatham's Puzzles is a fantastic app full of puzzles that can be played offline.

[–] Surp@lemmy.world 3 points 1 month ago

Old school RuneScape

[–] blarghly@lemmy.world 3 points 1 month ago (1 children)

NYT Games app. Realistically its just advertising to get you to buy an NYT subscription. The Mini and Wordle are good for killing a few minutes each day.

[–] __nobodynowhere@sh.itjust.works 4 points 1 month ago

Isn't the mini behind a paywall now?

[–] besmtt@lemmy.world 3 points 1 month ago
[–] riquisimo@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 points 1 month ago

Breakout 71. I could play for 30 seconds or 15 minutes. No ads, lots to unlock. Really like this one.

https://f-droid.org/packages/me.lecaro.breakout

Others have Mentioned Shattered Pixel Dungeon. Love that one too.

[–] halfwayserious@lemmy.world 3 points 1 month ago
  • Into the Breach (Netflix subscription)
  • Shogun Showdown (Crunchyroll subscription)
  • Balatro
  • Slice & Dice
[–] theherk@lemmy.world 3 points 1 month ago

I found Gorogoa pretty interesting.

[–] thespcicifcocean@lemmy.world 3 points 1 month ago

baba is you is pretty good.

[–] noretus@sopuli.xyz 3 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

Alto's Adventure. One of those simple is powerful games. Though it can get really frustrating as there definitely are situations where the game just decides that actually, you're done.

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] CountVon@sh.itjust.works 3 points 1 month ago

Most of the mobile games I play have been mentioned by others, but I'll give a shout to one I haven't seen in the thread: Dungeons of Dreadrock. A fun puzzle game with a good amount of content. Free with ads, or ad-free with a onetime purchase; no MTX. Doesn't offer the same replayability as something like Shattered Pixel Dungeon, but I was happy with what I got.

[–] FarrellPerks@feddit.uk 3 points 1 month ago

Backpack Battles

Very fun strategic game, there are MTX in the game, but they're not necessary to play in the slightest.

I have bought a few things to support the Devs though.

load more comments
view more: ‹ prev next ›