Games

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.

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.

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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

Yes.

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

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

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).

snake.io is a great little game

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. 😮‍💨

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.

• Stranger things 1984
• Hitman Go
• Lara Croft Go

Microsoft Solitaire isn't awful.

The other games it advertises though...

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.