I just want to kill some time, I like simple arcade style games that aren’t using scummy corporate sales tactics to get me to play every day
Puzzler / slight programming vibe: BaBa is you
Super Auto Pets is one I like
There are plenty of puzzle-style ones like Sagadoku/Blockudoku, Minesweeper, etc.
I’ve rather enjoyed 20 Minutes Till Dawn
I’ve only played it on PC but I like this quite a bit as well
Shattered Pixel Dungeon. If you like Roguelikes.
Steepest learning curve of any game I’ve played. So damn rewarding though.
I hate this game so much. I played 3 times yesterday.
That’s OK, you can also play it if you hate Roguelikes.
Vampire survivors is one of the best time killers. Slay The Spire is also fun.
I’d add Slice and Dice to that list
I’m on iOS and actually pay for Apple Arcade. It’s been worth it. I don’t bother looking anywhere else for mobile games anymore.
I’ve been playing half life using xash3D for this very reason. People are on multiplayer all the time, counter strike has players too. I’m really hoping to find people playing team fortress sometime.
Kingdom Rush has been fun and not needy. (The first one?)
Ive tried the second and it’s good too. Pretty fun tower defense and no need to buy anything or watch ads.
Lichess. It’s also completely free.
Lichess! To waste time, but to feel smart about it.
I love it though
Slice & Dice is the best game I’ve ever gotten on my phone, I bought it over Thanksgiving in 2021 and haven’t stopped playing it since. It’s similar to deck builders, but dice based.
It’s $7 on mobile, but has a good free to try demo. So you can see if you like it for free. It’s also available on Steam and itch.io
The game is still in active development, but the dev only releases updates every 1-1.5 years. The updates are absolutely massive though and add a ton of content.
Just passing by to say that with a little fiddling, you can get Morrowind running on your phone, touch screen controls and all if you don’t have a gamepad.
For some ungodly reason CA also ported Rome and Medieval 2 Total War - these are certainly not the best UIs ever, but it’s pretty hilarious to see how far you can push the hardware.
AM2R a.k.a. Another Metroid 2 Remake It’s a fan game of the 2nd Metroid game, and is considered one of the best of the series, even though it’s not an official release. It’s more like Super Metroid than the Gameboy title is. You’ll have to search around a bit due to Nintendo’s D&C, but it’s not hard to find (the internet archive has recent versions).
Minecraft It’s a good port, but probably best played with a gamepad &| tablet.
Portal Knights A minecraft-like voxel game with more satisfying progression and combat, but less creative freedom. Plays well on newish devices, epsecially with lower-quality settings.
Terraria It’s a great game all-around, but harder to play on mobile than PC.
Emulation This goes without saying if you like retro gaming. The best emulators I’ve found are the .emu apps by Robert Broglia. They can be bought from the play store, or obtained for free at his Github page. If you like original Playstation games, get the Duckstation emulator (produced by another dev.).
Board game adaptations tend to be good. Everdell and bottom of the ninth for preference.
If you like roguelike card builders, Dawncaster is great
Dawncaster is excellent. I was amazed at how deep the game is for a mobile deck builder.
It also uses an expansion based monetization rather than micro transactions and the expansions absolutely aren’t necessary to get a lot of enjoyment out of the game.
I really liked Dawncaster but then I didn’t play it for awhile and when I came back it had changed significantly and all the builds that I used to win with consistently no longer worked out. Honestly it’s probably more balanced now than before but I haven’t spent enough time with it to get good again.
Honestly I’m just bad at it so I rarely finish a run regardless. But it’s fun at least, and I bought the expansions mostly to encourage the business model.
You Must Build a Boat and Triple Town are simple but excellent. Slay the Spire is incredible - can’t recommend it enough.
