Slay the spire, balatro, Ascension, melvor, plague inc, terraforming Mars, unciv, shapez...
this post was submitted on 27 Sep 2025
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Vampire survivor is good too
Mindustry: an automation tower defense game
Shattered pixel dungeon: a classic Roguelike dungeon crawler
Slay the spire: a deck builder Roguelike. Probably one of the most popular in the whole Roguelike genre
Peglin: a lot like slay the spire, but plinko instead of cards
Hoplite
Pixel Dungeon
Tiny Folk
Unciv
Battle for Polytopia
micRogue
Doom & Dentiny
the mobile port of Chrono Trigger
and I strongly recommend the GBA and GameBoy emulators MyBoy! and MyOldboy! for playing those entire libraries on the go
The Room by fireproof games. Probably one of the first actual proper mobile games. Its spawned clones no IAP, no crap. Just fun, hard af puzzles.
Hoplite. Fun little iso turn based roguelike. Vampire Survivors. Reverse bullet-hell roguelike. Has spawned so, so, so many clones.. GTA:Chinatown Wars Have not played this is a very very long time, but i'm sure it still holds up (if its available). Old school (2d birds eye view) gta style.
These are games that work well without a controller, The Room actually would play worse with one. If at all.
Then of course theres emulators and roms and stuff.
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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.
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The Battle of Polytopia is a fantastic turn based strategy that I've spent way too much time playing.
Beholder is also great on mobile. Similar authoritarian setting to Paper's Please, lot's of decisions, consequences and replayability.
I Love Hue is a super relaxing colour puzzle game.
Some great suggestions in here, but I'd also like to mention This War of Mine. You can read all you like about how good and gut-wrenching it is, but I still always need to schedule some light downtime after playing it for a bit.
Endless Sky is wonderful, though the mobile version is a bit clunky (not even an "official" version afaik, but stitched on the ongoing-development FOSS game).
Steamworld Heist is so good on phones and tablets. Zero ads, dark patterns, or scummy behavior.
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.
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Slay the Spire
Didn't see it here yet, but Dawncaster is a really good roguelite deck builder that was actually designed around a phone UI so doesn't feel clunky.
You Must Build a Boat is an RPG/match 3 hybrid with no shady shit. Pay once. Own the game. It's pretty fun.
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.
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
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if you like factory builder type games, try out mindustry or shapez
Hoplite - hex dungeon puzzle Spelltower - word puzzle X-COM (on a bigger screen)
The N64 and earlier emulate really well on mobile. It's a stretch to call those mobile games, but you can have like 1000 titles that take up a grand total of around 20gb.
Controls are pretty wonky in some games - it's hit and miss. Touch screen doesn't pair well with some, especially the N64 titles specifically, but it's usually good enough to be playable.
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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...)
-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.
Into the Breach
You'll just need to find a patched .APK to play without a Netflix account.
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Outside of emulators and other similar apps, there are some games that have decent mobile ports. Some of the good ones I know of are:
Lego Star wars: the Complete Saga, which as far as I can tell, seems mostly identical to at least most of the other versions but it lacks all of the co-op/multiplayer components. I did also see some minor graphical glitches but they didn't effect gameplay.
The 3D remake of Final fantasy 3. It seems identical to the PSP version but it's obviously running at a higher resolution and possibly a higher frame rate as well.
Bloons TD 5, other users have mentioned 6 but 5 is also good too.
HamSandwich, which is not available through the Google Play Store, so you may soon be stuck with the browser version when Google's changes to side loading take effect. Also, I recommend using either a keyboard or a controller, as the touchscreen controls are not that good.
The Enchanted Cave 2, the first one is also pretty good too but 2 has a lot more content and is a much better game all around.
I know that a lot of people have issues with games that have MTX, but I will defend these games if they are actually good and I can play them without feeling like I'm being force to put money in. Here are some of the games I can remember:
Honkai Impact 3rd, I haven't completed the story yet but I've played up to the end of chapter 28 of part 1 and I haven't had to put a single cent into the game. My only issue with this game is that, while the game does have keyboard support and the keyboard controls are decent, it doesn't have controller support for some reason.
Bloons Monkey City, this game is basically just Bloons TD 5 but with a city building mechanic and some online components.
The Walking Zombie 2: Shooter. This ones a bit weird but I've been playing this occasionally. It's a pretty decent FPS that takes at least some inspiration from the Fallout games. It's not a masterpiece by any means but it still seems worth mentioning. I just wish it had keyboard and mouse support.