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
Slice and Dice is a good rogue-like dice builder with no bullshit.
No ads. No DLC - there’s a demo game and full version. And the mechanics are solid with no grindy bits.
Absolutly love this game, great replayability.
I have just discovered Card quest which is taking up a lot of my spare time at the moment.
SLAY THE SPIRE!
Knights of the old Republic has been on there for a while.
Emulators.
Slay the Spire.
There is a curated list of “no-bullshit” mobile games, without microtransactions and all of that horrible stuff: https://nobsgames.stavros.io/
My favorites so far:
- Monument Valley 1+2
- Riptide GP: Renegade
- Badland
- Galaxy on Fire 2 HD
Badland is a banger. Remember playing it as a kid plenty
Monument Valley absolutely ROCKS
Vampire survivors is one of the best time killers. Slay The Spire is also fun.
I’d add Slice and Dice to that list
shattered pixel dungeom
This ! No ads, no in app purchase, only fun !
I have played it on and off for years. Once I get into a run, i play it out, but otherwise it’s easy to put down, forget about for a while. Great entertainment without the addiction
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.
Games with roguelike metaprogression:
- Vampire Survivors: Practically an idle game. All you do in this is control your hero’s movement around a sea of monsters and your hero automatically attacks them. Surprisingly fun and strategically deep. Battery killer
- Slay the Spire: card collecting strategy game
- Bloons TD 6 (requires Netflix): Pop Bloons with monkeys. Battery killer
- Into the Breach (requires Netflix): isometric strategy game from the same devs as FTL: Faster Than Light. Big emphasis on using near-perfect information to solve tactical fights like they are puzzles.
Puzzle games:
- Any of the variant Sudoku apps from “Studio Goya” on the Play store. These are the official apps of the Cracking the Cryptic YouTube channel. Handcrafted puzzles tend to have a very interesting solution path that requires you to develop logic skills.
- The Room. Play as Tommy Wiseau as he uncovers an Eldritch mystery by opening puzzle boxes. Very satisfying animations, neat story
- Cultist Simulator. Honestly idk what to call this one but “puzzle game” kind of fits. This is a really fun game but requires a while to get a hang of. In fact the fun of the game is learning the game mechanics, since nothing is explained except through cryptic hints and riddles. The writing is incredible but you will probably lose a lot as you get the hang of it.
Other stuff:
- Eternal Card Game: I’ll be honest, I haven’t played this in ages, but I remember it being a better MTG clone than MTG arena. The mechanics are almost the exact same feeling as MTG, but more adapted to the digital medium. Has some pay-to-win mechanics and microtransactions but honestly the pricing felt pretty fair to me and it’s not super in-your-face with it.
- RCT Classic: Rollercoaster Tycoon 2 mobile port. It’s not as good as OpenRCT, but it’s still a lot of fun.
- OpenTTD: Transport tycoon deluxe mobile port.
- Papers Please: Glory to Arstotzka!
- Townscaper: not really a game as much as an arts and crafts kit. You get a tile-based map and wherever you click it fills in a tile. Depending on how you fill in those tiles, they look like different little buildings, gardens, etc. really cute game with no stakes.
- Mindustry: minimalist Factorio clone. Controls can be challenging on mobile but it’s still fun
Great list but idk why you put “Requires Netflix.” None of these require Netflix.
into the breach on ios requires an active netflix account to launch the game, i just tried it
Why? That’s such a stupid move
It’s published by netflix
Maybe it’s not the case anymore. Bloons and Into the Breach were ported through Netflix’s game publishing thing. Maybe they opened it up at some point.
Bloons may have been ported to netflix, but the Bloons games release native on tons of platforms.
Probably not what you’re looking for but this is my favorite time-waster.
https://abagames.github.io/crisp-game-lib-11-games/?pakupaku
If you like roguelike card builders, Dawncaster is great
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.
Decidedly not arcade, but I absolutely love Shattered Pixel Dungeon as a phone timekiller.
This and solitaire are the only games I would install on my phone.
Shattered Pixel Dungeon. If you like Roguelikes.
Steepest learning curve of any game I’ve played. So damn rewarding though.
Chess (on Lichess, either browser or app)
Got time? Practice openings or play online.
No time? Play 1 minute games online.
Inconsistent time (have to go any moment) or just casual? Practice puzzles.
