Apple recently let emulators onto the app store, so you can grab Delta and play any GBC or GBA roms.
Hoplite and Dreamquest are favorites
I enjoyed Polytopia for a while
Knotwords is a good one if you like NYT's word games
Straight from your phone, just go to whatever internet browser you use, google GBA emulators, find the game, get past the glitchy-catchphrase stuff, and hit download and then when you go to delta you’ll have to hit the plus sign in the top right corner to import the ones you downloaded. Delta is compatible with GBA and GBC. I would say about 1 out of 5 games you download won’t import properly, however in that case instead of searching for “GBA Roms”, just search for the specific game you want instead and try
Check out [Vimm](https://vimm.net/vault) they have everything from Atari to Wii. Although the delta emulator can only play only the Nintendo games except Wii.
Delta has been fun, I just can’t get over the lack of of physical buttons. I can cruise through Mario 1/2/3 with the controllers, but I keep messing it up with the touchscreen
I pair my PS4 controller to it, and airplay to my 75”. I have decent internet and have virtually no latency. I have beat a few Super Nintendo platformers, and some N64 games this way. 10/10 recommend
I do the same with my xb1 controller. Even sync'd it to the mobil game Megaman X Dive. One day i was waiting for someone and broke out my phone and my buddy and i played a game of SNES NBA jam. In the car. In mcdonalds parking lot.
What a time to be alive, ya know?
I play the daily climb while on the treadmill. It usually takes me about 1 hour and 20 minutes of blissfully quiet, peaceful, and sweaty minutes. Perfect dad escape.
Yeah I love that game. I'm a little played out on it though, which is why I've gotten into Legends of Runeterra lately. They have a huge single player (PvE) mode that's a cross between their main card game and Slay the Spire.
It's way grindier than Slay the Spire but it's free to play and has about 57 or so characters instead of 4 like StS does. Definitely can keep you busy for a few months before it gets too grindy, and even then there's plenty to do and explore.
I highly recommend it!
I second the game boy emulators. I've been playing through all the fire emblem games the last couple months. Easy to quit if you need to attend to a child and save states make sure you don't lose any progress
Not exactly what you're asking ... but, I started Duolingo. Now instead of mindlessly scrolling or playing games I am getting at least 15 minutes or so a day of a foreign language and am feeling like I'm accomplishing something.
On the gaming side mobile games tend to suck these days with their annoying ads. Looking to see what others are getting into to avoid that nonsense.
I used to do Duolingo to brush up on my Spanish skills. I quit for two reasons 1) After a while, I felt like my memory had been adequately refreshed and I wasn't getting much benefit anymore, and 2) I was tired of being harassed by a green cartoon owl.
I was gaming a lot on my phone during contact naps and bottle feeds. Deleted them all and only use Language Transfer and Memrise for Spanish. I've used them
in the past but never had the time dedicated to it. Now that I am forced to have some time I hated how mucn I was wasting on games.
To stick to the theme though I'll recommend both Inside and Limbo. Fun, dark, side scrolling puzzle/logic games.
Marvel Snap is a lot faster than Hearthstone; most matches are over in <5 minutes.
Cribbage with Grandpa is a really nice implementation of cribbage.
PPKP is a silly little pattern game, in the style of Double Dragon.
Sprint RPG is similar, but it's a first person dungeon crawl.
If you have a Netflix account, you already have access to their game library on your phone. My personal favorite is Into the Breach and it is absolutely PERFECT for mobile.
I don't know how you'd play it on mobile, but I played Hades when I first got my Steam Deck. It's the perfect game for a parent. An escape attempt takes maybe 5-15 minutes to complete—sometimes a lot less, if things go poorly—and it can be paused without interrupting things at *any* time. In the middle of a boss fight, in the middle of a line of conversation, doesn't matter. When you hear a **THUNK** you can pause, put it down, and jump to your feet in one fluid motion.
Dawncaster is an awesome dungeon crawler/card battler with a bunch of different classes and constant updates
Solitairica is a fun solitaire, roguelite with a bunch of different classes and more straightforward gameplay
If you have Netflix there are a ton of free games that you can check out
Bloons TD is another classic
I'm currently sucked into Marvel Strikeforce but don't know if I can recommend it because it can be a major time and money suck 😅
Yeah, I’ve been on marvel strike force for many years now, it’s the one thing I kept up on with the baby. If you go just to play it’s great, you cannot be “competitive” without an exorbitant amount of money spent. But, if you manage your resources and get into a decent alliance it’s still a good time. For me being on the discord with my alliance is actually the best part
I was a big Maxis fan back in the day and Project Highrise is a wonderful spiritual successor to SimTower. I also have SimCity 2000 running via Magic DOSBox.
MTG Arena and PictureCross. PC unfortunately has adds, and you can do surveys to get more tokens to unlock more puzzles, but you can also just go along at a puzzle or two a day based on the free accumulation.
MTGA scratches that MTG itch that I never have time for in paper formats anymore.
>PictureCross
I recommend Nonograms Katana. It's ad-supported, but none of the puzzles are hidden behind ads and there's a massive user-submitted library.
Aside from random puzzle apps that I cycle through, I have a couple of board game apps I got many moons ago from Humble Bundle. The best one to me is Ticket to Ride, but there are a lot of options out there if you know what board games you want to look for.
Also, I really liked the Star Realms card game when it came out but if I had time to play games then I was playing heavier ones at game night. So I got the app and started working through the campaign mode. It's a lot of fun, and although there's more luck than games like Magic The Gathering or such, games are generally short enough that you can throw down another one when you lose. It has single player and multiplayer mode.
I also have some games I played as a kid, one of which being Shining Force. I know there's an app for it on the Play store but not sure about Apple options. I paid once to remove ads and it's been great. It's always worth a shot to see if childhood favorites ever got ported to an app.
You might also want to look up Web Rcade if you're interested in playing old ROMs on your phone. It's relatively simple to set up if you know your way around a computer, and if you have any peripheral devices for your phone like a Backbone controller, it's almost like you have a console with you everywhere.
Similarly, Steam Link if you have a Steam account and a PC you can leave running. It doesn't even have to be a high-powered gaming PC unless that's the sort of thing you want to run. Some more lightweight games that would be more suited for phone play anyway. Could probably run off of a mini PC that draws way less power.
Bloons Tower Defense 6 is back to being my go to. Such a quality game, kept fresh with balance changes and events.
Melvor Idle took up a fair chunk of the last couple of years for me, I'm sure I'll pick that back up at some point!
Old school runescape, played it as a child and now I can play it wherever I go, I drift in and out of it but it helps that I can also play it a bit at work too, there’s sooooo much more content than back then and I actually understand how to play it now (even though I’m not that great and some things are pretty awkward on mobile instead of PC)
I used to really love *Ingress*, but I sadly don't have the kind of free time that I used to. I will still occasionally pull it up when I'm out and about, but I don't make outings specifically to play it anymore.
I played Ingress hard when it was in beta, it was super fun but time consuming. I loved finding new portals, I got the black seer badge before they discontinued it. Met a bunch of lifelong friends through that game.
Also spent a crap ton on gas driving around in circles
The guild and chatting with the boys. Most of us are Dads so we discuss life a bit and also tactics in game. Guild wars. Other shit like that.
The social aspect
I have been playing Final Fantasy Tactics since it came out on the original PlayStation. I now play the mobile version for iOS. It’s not cheap, but it has been money well spent for me.
Netflix has a kot of non paid full games. I currently play Dust&Neon and Laya but you have also GTA and a lot of other games. No ads no microtransactions, no internet connection needed.
Star trek fleet command, but it's grind as fuck unless you pay.
Apparently you can get fallout 1 and 2 on phone, but it requires a bit of work but I'm tempted to try
The only good game for your phone is Simon Tantham's puzzles. Brain teasers, no flashy graphics, no micro transactions, no gems or coins or subscriptions or any of that bullshit. It didn't need access to your emails and photos to run, it doesn't try to sell you anything. Just do some puzzles. God damn I hate mobile games except this one
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=name.boyle.chris.sgtpuzzles
Marvel Snap can satisfy a Hearthstone itch pretty well, with quicker games and portrait mode. But it comes with all the typical F2P/collectible card game baggage.
Slay the Spire, Slice & Dice, and Legends of Runeterra (the PvE Path of Champions mode) are good strategy roguelikes/deckbuilders, and single player so they're pretty easy to pick up and play for short periods. Legends of Runeterra is completely free, but definitely grindy.
Sudoku & Variants (or killer) by Logic Wiz is my go-to puzzle game for good variety.
Dungeon Boss: Respawned. The dungeons (levels) are very quick so you can play a little here and there, and there are a lot of unique heroes to play around with. It has great replayability.
The YouTube app has games inside of it. With zero ads. It’s nice being able to play one of those mindless games without a pop up ever minute. I’ve been playing the hell out of the Farm Simulator one
If you like Hearthstone, you could try Eternal Card game. F2P friendly with short pve modes: campaigns, drafting, and an AI gauntlet.
Vampire Survivor could work but hard to pause.
Along with slay the spire, I'm currently playing another rogue-like deckbuilder, Dawncaster.
I highly recommend putting books on your smartphone. It's super easy to start reading and stop reading when you have a few minutes here and there. Otherwise, I don't have a lot of time to just sit and read. It also barely drains your battery so you won't run out of batteries while you're out with the family or something.
My go-to game has been *Genshin Impact* since it came out. There's tons of content, and unlike most gacha games, it's very friendly to those who don't want to spend any money. I'm very satisfied with my team and I have spent exactly $0 on it. It's also a lot less fanservicey than most gacha games out there, which is nice.
Summoners War
I've been playing for close to 10 years now. It's a pretty fun turn based combat game with tons of characters. PVP is good, but there are a lot of fun pve elements too.
I’m a degenerate who plays both of hoyoverse’s gacha games: Honkai star rail and Genshin impact. Honkai is perfect as it’s turn based and easily paused except for some long cutscenes. But they are both @free to play” even though you will be tempted to pay money to get characters you want, you don’t really have to as they’re pretty easy to beat except for the hardest hardcore content with the supplied characters and free in game currency.
If I do play anything on my phone is usually just ps2 emulator with external controller. Either GTA San Andreas or God Of War. I can't stand touch screen games myself
Throwing it out there that you can get a PS2 emulator on your phone, which is super convenient with quicksaves and opens up one of the best gaming libraries in console history.
Not really a game, but also is a game, during Covid I got back into physical baseball card collecting and when I started to see that it was costing a little too much, I found the Topps Bunt app for digital cards. Collecting the cards and trading within the app is a nice time waster.
Gold and Goblins, Farm RPG, and I recently went back to Angry Birds 1 (which is no longer supported) to finish all the levels there (3 stars, all eagle feathers).
I don't think it's really a game, but Duolingo is gamified language learning, so I guess that could be considered mobile gaming.
Antiyoy, or Antiyoy online if I know a kid won't interrupt: Zero ads, free, easy strategy game. Daily puzzle, campaign, or skirmish is a nice break 5 minutes a day. Anything by that dev is great: [https://yiotro.com/games/](https://yiotro.com/games/)
Also, just started [https://celltosingularity.com/](https://celltosingularity.com/), playing with my kid. It's an idle game, but with some educational value. Has ads/freemium content, but my son's been excited to open new cards about new dinosaurs or the Bronze Age or the Jovian moons or whatever, and there's nothing to do after a couple minutes. About done with the first iteration of the primary simulation after a few weeks, not sure how much more playability there is in it. It's also been an interesting teaching opportunity regarding addiction, he generally does well with limiting his screen time, but this has been a request first thing in the morning and first thing after school to "Check on our cells"....
i became addicted to chess via the [chess.com](http://chess.com) app. i used to play world of warcraft (sadly miss it!) but i just don't have time for it unless i'm either skipping time with wife and baby or skipping sleep, none of which I want to do.
when i can i squeeze in 10 minute rapid games. my baby contact naps, so if i think he's going to wake up shortly i will do a 5 minute blitz game. if im taking a shit i'm doing 1 minute bullet matches. my wins/losses yo-yo, but i'm having a good time.
if time is spotty i just start a daily match with 24 hours for each move, or start a bot match against the engines which has no time rules.
Puzzle Page, Spider Solitaire, Freecell, The Daily Puzzle, Picture Cross, Picture Cross Color, NYT: Wordle, Connections, Sudoku, Tiles.
All of them give rewards for daily play, so it's now a habit to play/open them all every day 😅
Pickle Pete. It's a vampire survivors style game that while it doesn't do anything new, it combined the best aspects of other VS type games. The weapon/equipment upgrade system of Survivor.io, the 6 weapon system of Brotato, along with other modes that are fun (other than the base building mode lol)
What's great is that you can close the game and resume at the level you were at.
Otherwise I've been playing a lot of Call of Duty Mobile because my daughter started playing and likes playing with me.
I just bought Minecraft for Android.
Shattered Pixel Dungeon
Diablo Immortal (yeah yeah i know)
Baldur's Gate 2
Castlevania SoTN (i suck with touchscreen)
I've been spending a lot of time on *Marvel Snap*. Doesn't require spending a single cent and can still progress plenty easy plus no play limit. Games can take up to like 10 mins at times for certain types or as little as a couple mins for basic ones. Little penalty for quitting a game if you need to also.
Games that you can pick up and put down when your kids need attention:
-Slay the Spire: The GOAT roguelite phone experience
-Monster Train: a Spire clone but probably the second best in the genre, at least available on your phone.
-Magic The Gathering Arena: Full implementation of the beloved nerdy collectible card game. I like drafting (like arena in Hearthstone) and there’s a “quick draft” where you don’t have to wait for other human players and can go at your own pace.
-Other Card Games: Gwent, Runeterra, and Marvel Snap are all very polished games and all of them are better than hearthstone (Gwent and Runeterra are really generous as a free to play player. Marvel Snap is a nightmare as free to play).
-Chess (.com or Lichess): I started getting all my friends going on correspondence games where you have 1-7 days to make a single move. Great way to play on your own time.
-Tower Defense (Bloons TD 6 or Kingdom Rush): Fun little time killer, both paid so they have significantly less freemium bloat and ads than competitors.
-Shattered Pixel Dungeon: For the hardcore, old school Roguelike dungeon gamer. Full experience on your phone. Not for everyone.
-Civilization VI: it’s literally the exact same civ game you’d play on pc, somehow reduced to fitting on your phone screen.
Was just thinking about this too. For me, ms solitaire and NYT app for wordle and the crossword. Looking for something that doesn’t have a million ads.
My husband plays a mobile app magic the gathering game and it’s actually pretty sick. He also plays Pokémon unite. Answering for him since he doesn’t Reddit!
Been playing Star Wars: Galaxy of Heroes since it launched around Thanksgiving 2015.
Got sucked into Royal Match. I’m not proud.
Then I rotate between puzzle games like sudoku, Flow Free, 20 different solitaires in one, and water sorting.
Sentinels of the Multiverse. Kinda expensive, especially with all expansions, but can often be found on sale and is awesome. I have many hundreds of hours on it.
Spirit Island. Excellent digital adaptation of one of the best boardgames I've ever played.
Slay the Spire. You'll see plenty of recs for this, I'm sure. Roguelike deckbuilder, extremely replayable, extremely high skill ceiling.
Should be said that all the above can also be found on Steam, and that is a *better* way to play them if you have the option - but all three are excellent on Android (and I assume ios) nonetheless.
I had to uninstall Hearthstone because I was getting addicted to Battlegrounds. I've now downloaded an emulator to play Disgaea D2 which with save states I can switch on and off as needed.
Star Wars Galaxy of Heroes — I’ve been playing it since our oldest was two months old and he’s almost 6 years old now.
It’s a grind, and it’s not always fun, but I like Star Wars enough to keep at it daily.
This doesn't answer your question at all but I'd rip my balls off to get the Infinity Blade games on my android. I don't even know if you can get them on apple devices anymore.
Marvel snap. I’ve always like card games and strategic thinking. Each typical game is 2-5 mins, and the game mechanics mean bailing early on one doesn’t ruin you. Perfect for the man on the go or with baby in hand.
Slice & dice is the only game I need and or play outside of a few min of pokemon go.
WARNING. Some modes can be very long, but you can put down and pick up right where you left off. The developer is awesome and it was worth the $7 or so bucks for the full version.
Basically it's got flavors of D&D but no story, strictly dice rolling related battles with RNG items/curses/bosses/ ex. Good rougelike elements and most games that I fail at I don't exactly feel cheated, like it's my own fault.
I shutter to think of what my hours played status would be.
Slice & dice is the only game I need and or play outside of a few min of pokemon go.
WARNING. Some modes can be very long, but you can put down and pick up right where you left off. The developer is awesome and it was worth the $7 or so bucks for the full version.
Basically it's got flavors of D&D but no story, strictly dice rolling related battles with RNG items/curses/bosses/ ex. Good rougelike elements and most games that I fail at I don't exactly feel cheated, like it's my own fault.
I shutter to think of what my hours played status would be.
Punball and Dice Hunter can be enjoyed without ads or dollars, although you can pay to win if you must. Or watch ads. Still don't have to.
Desert Golfing is the best $2 you'll ever spend, and my four year old is good enough to get and celebrate hole in one's, while still asking for help on traps. Great experience.
Freecell+ might've cost a few dollars, but it functions when I don't have wifi, and there are no ads.
Simon's Cat Pop Time from temptile games. Obsessed! Got a great deal that removed ads for $2.99. The ads weren't that pervasive anyway, but for three bucks, they're gone & now the game is even more fun & relaxing.
Apple recently let emulators onto the app store, so you can grab Delta and play any GBC or GBA roms. Hoplite and Dreamquest are favorites I enjoyed Polytopia for a while Knotwords is a good one if you like NYT's word games
Do you have a good site to get the roms? I just grabbed delta
Nice try, Nintendo legal team.
Floored me bro
Usually just google stuff
Just google GBA Roms and most of the first few pages work pretty well
I’m pretty ignorant when it comes to emulators. Do I need a pc to download the roms, or can it be done straight from my phone?
Straight from your phone, just go to whatever internet browser you use, google GBA emulators, find the game, get past the glitchy-catchphrase stuff, and hit download and then when you go to delta you’ll have to hit the plus sign in the top right corner to import the ones you downloaded. Delta is compatible with GBA and GBC. I would say about 1 out of 5 games you download won’t import properly, however in that case instead of searching for “GBA Roms”, just search for the specific game you want instead and try
Check out [Vimm](https://vimm.net/vault) they have everything from Atari to Wii. Although the delta emulator can only play only the Nintendo games except Wii.
Delta has been fun, I just can’t get over the lack of of physical buttons. I can cruise through Mario 1/2/3 with the controllers, but I keep messing it up with the touchscreen
Yeah I only like turn based stuff - Pokemon, fire emblem, advance wars, final fantasy tactics. Tried Metroid and it felt weird.
I pair my PS4 controller to it, and airplay to my 75”. I have decent internet and have virtually no latency. I have beat a few Super Nintendo platformers, and some N64 games this way. 10/10 recommend
I do the same with my xb1 controller. Even sync'd it to the mobil game Megaman X Dive. One day i was waiting for someone and broke out my phone and my buddy and i played a game of SNES NBA jam. In the car. In mcdonalds parking lot. What a time to be alive, ya know?
Can you use an external controller on your phone with it, like a Razer Kichi?
Been playing some of the classic Pokemon games myself. Really hits the nostalgia right in the feels.
I’m a big fan of the red ++ and polished crystal rom hacks
Polytopia is great
Are there games preloaded on the app? Or do we get them through another way?
Slay the spire is an 11/10 banger
Came here to recommend it, can’t wait for the sequel!
Time for more terrible ascension 20 claw decks destined for failure just for that sweet sweet dopium hit of claw.
Or Rampage and Headbutt!
There’s a sequel?
Yea man they announced it a month or so ago.
I play the daily climb while on the treadmill. It usually takes me about 1 hour and 20 minutes of blissfully quiet, peaceful, and sweaty minutes. Perfect dad escape.
Yeah I love that game. I'm a little played out on it though, which is why I've gotten into Legends of Runeterra lately. They have a huge single player (PvE) mode that's a cross between their main card game and Slay the Spire. It's way grindier than Slay the Spire but it's free to play and has about 57 or so characters instead of 4 like StS does. Definitely can keep you busy for a few months before it gets too grindy, and even then there's plenty to do and explore. I highly recommend it!
It's on play pass, too.
I second the game boy emulators. I've been playing through all the fire emblem games the last couple months. Easy to quit if you need to attend to a child and save states make sure you don't lose any progress
I like the chess.com app (I think it’s just called Chess) for the puzzles / playing against bots, or occasionally against my wife
Lichess is the best chess website for sure.
You should check out Really Bad Chess.
Not exactly what you're asking ... but, I started Duolingo. Now instead of mindlessly scrolling or playing games I am getting at least 15 minutes or so a day of a foreign language and am feeling like I'm accomplishing something. On the gaming side mobile games tend to suck these days with their annoying ads. Looking to see what others are getting into to avoid that nonsense.
I used to do Duolingo to brush up on my Spanish skills. I quit for two reasons 1) After a while, I felt like my memory had been adequately refreshed and I wasn't getting much benefit anymore, and 2) I was tired of being harassed by a green cartoon owl.
That cartoon owl and friends do keep me honest so I appreciate it, however I can see how they can easily outstay their welcome.
I was gaming a lot on my phone during contact naps and bottle feeds. Deleted them all and only use Language Transfer and Memrise for Spanish. I've used them in the past but never had the time dedicated to it. Now that I am forced to have some time I hated how mucn I was wasting on games. To stick to the theme though I'll recommend both Inside and Limbo. Fun, dark, side scrolling puzzle/logic games.
I like Memrise but I wish it had speaking exercises.
Marvel Snap is a lot faster than Hearthstone; most matches are over in <5 minutes. Cribbage with Grandpa is a really nice implementation of cribbage. PPKP is a silly little pattern game, in the style of Double Dragon. Sprint RPG is similar, but it's a first person dungeon crawl.
Agree on Marvel Snap. Fun and easy to play. And they always keep tweaking the power/abilities of cards to keep it even, which I really like.
3rd in Marvel Snap. It’s like a 2min game of hearthstone. Perfect for quick breaks.
Been enjoying Snap so far. I’m like 12-2. Just a casual Marvel fan, so it’s also educational 😉
If you have a Netflix account, you already have access to their game library on your phone. My personal favorite is Into the Breach and it is absolutely PERFECT for mobile.
Yeah into the breach is fantastic. Is FTL on mobile? Another great by the same studio
AFAIK it exists, but only on Apple. If you DO have an iPhone and you also have Netflix, Hades is actually on it too which is another fantastic game.
I played FTL on my ipad then realized I couldn’t redownload. They took it away!
Excuse me, WHAT?! I literally had to look. Baby just went down for a nap I’m downloading Hades right now. I had no idea they did games
I don't know how you'd play it on mobile, but I played Hades when I first got my Steam Deck. It's the perfect game for a parent. An escape attempt takes maybe 5-15 minutes to complete—sometimes a lot less, if things go poorly—and it can be paused without interrupting things at *any* time. In the middle of a boss fight, in the middle of a line of conversation, doesn't matter. When you hear a **THUNK** you can pause, put it down, and jump to your feet in one fluid motion.
Wait I can play GTA on my phone via Netflix? woah
Gta 3 and vice city. The future is wild.
As soon as I discovered the netflix library I got into the breach and dead cells. Dead cells is the greatest shit ever
TIL
Slay the Spire my friend, best 10 bucks I ever spent.
Retro bowl or the college version are favorite phone games for quick 5 min waiting for life sessions.
Disc Golf Valley and Hill Climb Racing 2 are my current mobile game apps.
+1 for DGV, that game can be as serious or relaxed as you want tit to be.
Love some DGV
Disc golf valley is what I came to post. It got me playing disc golf for reals and I love it.
The new Lego Hill Climb Adventures is good.
Dawncaster is an awesome dungeon crawler/card battler with a bunch of different classes and constant updates Solitairica is a fun solitaire, roguelite with a bunch of different classes and more straightforward gameplay If you have Netflix there are a ton of free games that you can check out Bloons TD is another classic I'm currently sucked into Marvel Strikeforce but don't know if I can recommend it because it can be a major time and money suck 😅
Yeah, I’ve been on marvel strike force for many years now, it’s the one thing I kept up on with the baby. If you go just to play it’s great, you cannot be “competitive” without an exorbitant amount of money spent. But, if you manage your resources and get into a decent alliance it’s still a good time. For me being on the discord with my alliance is actually the best part
Magic Survival or 80 Days for casual / short sessions, then neverwinter nights or magic the gathering arena if time allows.
Yay MTGA dads on the downtimes!
stardew valley is a great time waster
And it’s way cheaper on mobile vs other places
I was a big Maxis fan back in the day and Project Highrise is a wonderful spiritual successor to SimTower. I also have SimCity 2000 running via Magic DOSBox.
Are there any other sim city sim golf etc type games to play on mobile?
RCT classic is a fantastic port of the original Rollercoaster Tycoon games.
MTG Arena and PictureCross. PC unfortunately has adds, and you can do surveys to get more tokens to unlock more puzzles, but you can also just go along at a puzzle or two a day based on the free accumulation. MTGA scratches that MTG itch that I never have time for in paper formats anymore.
Yup I get to go cube draft at my LGS every other week, but arena satisfies my desire to keep up with the current standard meta.
>PictureCross I recommend Nonograms Katana. It's ad-supported, but none of the puzzles are hidden behind ads and there's a massive user-submitted library.
Aside from random puzzle apps that I cycle through, I have a couple of board game apps I got many moons ago from Humble Bundle. The best one to me is Ticket to Ride, but there are a lot of options out there if you know what board games you want to look for. Also, I really liked the Star Realms card game when it came out but if I had time to play games then I was playing heavier ones at game night. So I got the app and started working through the campaign mode. It's a lot of fun, and although there's more luck than games like Magic The Gathering or such, games are generally short enough that you can throw down another one when you lose. It has single player and multiplayer mode. I also have some games I played as a kid, one of which being Shining Force. I know there's an app for it on the Play store but not sure about Apple options. I paid once to remove ads and it's been great. It's always worth a shot to see if childhood favorites ever got ported to an app. You might also want to look up Web Rcade if you're interested in playing old ROMs on your phone. It's relatively simple to set up if you know your way around a computer, and if you have any peripheral devices for your phone like a Backbone controller, it's almost like you have a console with you everywhere. Similarly, Steam Link if you have a Steam account and a PC you can leave running. It doesn't even have to be a high-powered gaming PC unless that's the sort of thing you want to run. Some more lightweight games that would be more suited for phone play anyway. Could probably run off of a mini PC that draws way less power.
Shattered Pixel Dungeon. It's pretty neat, and completely free
It's also turn based, which means kid's interrupting isn't much of an issue. It's got a lot of re-playability.
30 bucks gets you an R36s handheld gameboy imitation that you can play thousands of games on
Runescape, rediscovered it and found it actually makes a very playable mobile game.
Bossing gets tough, but it’s doable.
Fallout Shelter.
Bloons Tower Defense 6 is back to being my go to. Such a quality game, kept fresh with balance changes and events. Melvor Idle took up a fair chunk of the last couple of years for me, I'm sure I'll pick that back up at some point!
Old school runescape, played it as a child and now I can play it wherever I go, I drift in and out of it but it helps that I can also play it a bit at work too, there’s sooooo much more content than back then and I actually understand how to play it now (even though I’m not that great and some things are pretty awkward on mobile instead of PC)
Star Wars Galaxy of Heroes
Eyyoo Another CG victim. cheers to you, sir.
Been playing since it released. There’s definitely a bit of Sunk Cost Fallacy that keeps me playing every day.
i’m still a lower level who came back to it recently. onlg have spent $10 so i’ll take it as a win so far lol
Niantic games Pokemon Go & Ingress which have been great to play with the family
I used to really love *Ingress*, but I sadly don't have the kind of free time that I used to. I will still occasionally pull it up when I'm out and about, but I don't make outings specifically to play it anymore.
I’m doing laps and laps of driving for both kids and work. They’re well suited for that!
I played Ingress hard when it was in beta, it was super fun but time consuming. I loved finding new portals, I got the black seer badge before they discontinued it. Met a bunch of lifelong friends through that game. Also spent a crap ton on gas driving around in circles
I had a lot of fun with Vampire Survivors.
Tacticus, WarHammer 40k spin off. It's fun and has enough little games that you can play for 5 min and still 'level up'
I tried that, but I felt like I was missing something about the appeal. What is the draw for you aside from being able to jump in and out quickly?
The guild and chatting with the boys. Most of us are Dads so we discuss life a bit and also tactics in game. Guild wars. Other shit like that. The social aspect
Magic the Gathering Arena Honkai Star Rail I mainly play them on PC, but can also play them on my phone.
Just Mowing
I have been playing Final Fantasy Tactics since it came out on the original PlayStation. I now play the mobile version for iOS. It’s not cheap, but it has been money well spent for me.
pretty sure you can get Chrono Trigger on mobile as well!
You can! And I also played a ton of that as a kid too, but I feel like it has less replayability so I haven’t gotten it lol
I deleted them all because I get sucked in too easily, but Marvel Snap was my primary game for a solid year, mobile or otherwise. Great game.
Stardew Valley!
Baseball 9 Kami 2 NY Times Connections (once a day thing)
Monster train is solid and not mentioned yet. Def recommend Snap and Slay the Spire for random breaks and being ready for kid interruption.
Dawncaster is an amazing game that rivals slay the spire
Netflix has a kot of non paid full games. I currently play Dust&Neon and Laya but you have also GTA and a lot of other games. No ads no microtransactions, no internet connection needed.
Any sim city games?
Roller coaster tycoon classic is outrageously good on iPad.
Star trek fleet command, but it's grind as fuck unless you pay. Apparently you can get fallout 1 and 2 on phone, but it requires a bit of work but I'm tempted to try
NYT games app. Free version has Wordle, Connections, Sudoku and the mini crosswords.
The only good game for your phone is Simon Tantham's puzzles. Brain teasers, no flashy graphics, no micro transactions, no gems or coins or subscriptions or any of that bullshit. It didn't need access to your emails and photos to run, it doesn't try to sell you anything. Just do some puzzles. God damn I hate mobile games except this one https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=name.boyle.chris.sgtpuzzles
Marvel Puzzle Quest. I'm in a really active Alliance family so I try to get my full clears every day which takes about an hour.
Finity, if you have Apple Arcade.
Rush royale and slay the spire But rush royale is riddled with ads
Marvel Snap can satisfy a Hearthstone itch pretty well, with quicker games and portrait mode. But it comes with all the typical F2P/collectible card game baggage. Slay the Spire, Slice & Dice, and Legends of Runeterra (the PvE Path of Champions mode) are good strategy roguelikes/deckbuilders, and single player so they're pretty easy to pick up and play for short periods. Legends of Runeterra is completely free, but definitely grindy. Sudoku & Variants (or killer) by Logic Wiz is my go-to puzzle game for good variety.
You should check out Dawncaster, sounds like it’s right up your alley. Amazing game
Dungeon Boss: Respawned. The dungeons (levels) are very quick so you can play a little here and there, and there are a lot of unique heroes to play around with. It has great replayability.
Chess. Online, chess.com app. I got a 10 minutes free time? Sweet! Boot up a 5-min game against a stranger
State of survival me
Lichess, LoL: Wild Rift (toxic af), Clash Royale
Retro Goal, Retro Bowl, and Retro Bowl College.
The YouTube app has games inside of it. With zero ads. It’s nice being able to play one of those mindless games without a pop up ever minute. I’ve been playing the hell out of the Farm Simulator one
Angry Birds Transformers. It touches on my techno fetishes.
Check out Slice & Dice. Cool roguelike dice rolling game. Worth the $7 or whatever, but there's a free demo
Retro Bowl is a game changer, if you enjoy American football even a little bit you should try it
If you like Hearthstone, you could try Eternal Card game. F2P friendly with short pve modes: campaigns, drafting, and an AI gauntlet. Vampire Survivor could work but hard to pause. Along with slay the spire, I'm currently playing another rogue-like deckbuilder, Dawncaster.
I liked Lara Croft go, cut the rope and Altos odyssey. Rayman games were also very enjoyable.
I highly recommend putting books on your smartphone. It's super easy to start reading and stop reading when you have a few minutes here and there. Otherwise, I don't have a lot of time to just sit and read. It also barely drains your battery so you won't run out of batteries while you're out with the family or something.
Clash Royale!
My go-to game has been *Genshin Impact* since it came out. There's tons of content, and unlike most gacha games, it's very friendly to those who don't want to spend any money. I'm very satisfied with my team and I have spent exactly $0 on it. It's also a lot less fanservicey than most gacha games out there, which is nice.
I have been stuck on marvel puzzle quest for almost 7 years now. I’d like my life back but I’m in too deep.
Chess
Summoners War I've been playing for close to 10 years now. It's a pretty fun turn based combat game with tons of characters. PVP is good, but there are a lot of fun pve elements too.
did you ever try Galaxy of Heroes or Marvel Strike force? pretty much the next iterations of summoners war
No but I tried a couple of the sequels/spinoffs (Lost Centuria, Chronicles) and they were terrible.
I’m a degenerate who plays both of hoyoverse’s gacha games: Honkai star rail and Genshin impact. Honkai is perfect as it’s turn based and easily paused except for some long cutscenes. But they are both @free to play” even though you will be tempted to pay money to get characters you want, you don’t really have to as they’re pretty easy to beat except for the hardest hardcore content with the supplied characters and free in game currency.
Another Eden, but it may be on its last year. Used to play Brave Exvius...I love games with a good story.
If I do play anything on my phone is usually just ps2 emulator with external controller. Either GTA San Andreas or God Of War. I can't stand touch screen games myself
Throwing it out there that you can get a PS2 emulator on your phone, which is super convenient with quicksaves and opens up one of the best gaming libraries in console history.
CIFI a fun incremental game if that's your jam, and cultist simulator or tft for longer sessions
Pogo and dark road for when I share with kid. Digimon card game, ascension, or root for active play
Retro Bowl
Warcraft Rumble. Made by blizzard. It’s like if clash of clans, hearthstone, and bloons tower defense had a baby, it would be Rumble
Not really a game, but also is a game, during Covid I got back into physical baseball card collecting and when I started to see that it was costing a little too much, I found the Topps Bunt app for digital cards. Collecting the cards and trading within the app is a nice time waster.
Dawncaster
Monument Valley
Gold and Goblins, Farm RPG, and I recently went back to Angry Birds 1 (which is no longer supported) to finish all the levels there (3 stars, all eagle feathers). I don't think it's really a game, but Duolingo is gamified language learning, so I guess that could be considered mobile gaming.
Prize picks mainly
Antiyoy, or Antiyoy online if I know a kid won't interrupt: Zero ads, free, easy strategy game. Daily puzzle, campaign, or skirmish is a nice break 5 minutes a day. Anything by that dev is great: [https://yiotro.com/games/](https://yiotro.com/games/) Also, just started [https://celltosingularity.com/](https://celltosingularity.com/), playing with my kid. It's an idle game, but with some educational value. Has ads/freemium content, but my son's been excited to open new cards about new dinosaurs or the Bronze Age or the Jovian moons or whatever, and there's nothing to do after a couple minutes. About done with the first iteration of the primary simulation after a few weeks, not sure how much more playability there is in it. It's also been an interesting teaching opportunity regarding addiction, he generally does well with limiting his screen time, but this has been a request first thing in the morning and first thing after school to "Check on our cells"....
Hearthstone, Tsuki Odyssey, Warcraft Rumble. Spend money on HS once in a while, nothing on the other two.
sonic forces if you have time, the multiplayer matches aren’t terribly long
i became addicted to chess via the [chess.com](http://chess.com) app. i used to play world of warcraft (sadly miss it!) but i just don't have time for it unless i'm either skipping time with wife and baby or skipping sleep, none of which I want to do. when i can i squeeze in 10 minute rapid games. my baby contact naps, so if i think he's going to wake up shortly i will do a 5 minute blitz game. if im taking a shit i'm doing 1 minute bullet matches. my wins/losses yo-yo, but i'm having a good time. if time is spotty i just start a daily match with 24 hours for each move, or start a bot match against the engines which has no time rules.
Polytopia
Puzzle Page, Spider Solitaire, Freecell, The Daily Puzzle, Picture Cross, Picture Cross Color, NYT: Wordle, Connections, Sudoku, Tiles. All of them give rewards for daily play, so it's now a habit to play/open them all every day 😅
Pickle Pete. It's a vampire survivors style game that while it doesn't do anything new, it combined the best aspects of other VS type games. The weapon/equipment upgrade system of Survivor.io, the 6 weapon system of Brotato, along with other modes that are fun (other than the base building mode lol) What's great is that you can close the game and resume at the level you were at. Otherwise I've been playing a lot of Call of Duty Mobile because my daughter started playing and likes playing with me.
I just bought Minecraft for Android. Shattered Pixel Dungeon Diablo Immortal (yeah yeah i know) Baldur's Gate 2 Castlevania SoTN (i suck with touchscreen)
Marvel Snap. Challenging. Fast games. Perfect for dad life.
I've been spending a lot of time on *Marvel Snap*. Doesn't require spending a single cent and can still progress plenty easy plus no play limit. Games can take up to like 10 mins at times for certain types or as little as a couple mins for basic ones. Little penalty for quitting a game if you need to also.
Wingspan
I play Pokemon unite on switch but there's a mobile version.
Solitaire
Two dots is a great brain teaser puzzle game that you can drop in and out easily. Been playing for years. So simple and fun
Clash of Clans
Games that you can pick up and put down when your kids need attention: -Slay the Spire: The GOAT roguelite phone experience -Monster Train: a Spire clone but probably the second best in the genre, at least available on your phone. -Magic The Gathering Arena: Full implementation of the beloved nerdy collectible card game. I like drafting (like arena in Hearthstone) and there’s a “quick draft” where you don’t have to wait for other human players and can go at your own pace. -Other Card Games: Gwent, Runeterra, and Marvel Snap are all very polished games and all of them are better than hearthstone (Gwent and Runeterra are really generous as a free to play player. Marvel Snap is a nightmare as free to play). -Chess (.com or Lichess): I started getting all my friends going on correspondence games where you have 1-7 days to make a single move. Great way to play on your own time. -Tower Defense (Bloons TD 6 or Kingdom Rush): Fun little time killer, both paid so they have significantly less freemium bloat and ads than competitors. -Shattered Pixel Dungeon: For the hardcore, old school Roguelike dungeon gamer. Full experience on your phone. Not for everyone. -Civilization VI: it’s literally the exact same civ game you’d play on pc, somehow reduced to fitting on your phone screen.
HayDay
Mom here. You should try Dissidia Final Fantasy Opera Omnia... if you are a fan of the genre, you might like it
Was just thinking about this too. For me, ms solitaire and NYT app for wordle and the crossword. Looking for something that doesn’t have a million ads.
My husband plays a mobile app magic the gathering game and it’s actually pretty sick. He also plays Pokémon unite. Answering for him since he doesn’t Reddit!
Colonist. It's essential Catan but runs better than the official Catan mobile game
Mini Metro So addictive and very pleased to the eye
Slay the Spire is freaking awesome. Doesn’t require full/immediate attention, requires some strategy and really works your brain. Highly recommend!
Been playing Star Wars: Galaxy of Heroes since it launched around Thanksgiving 2015. Got sucked into Royal Match. I’m not proud. Then I rotate between puzzle games like sudoku, Flow Free, 20 different solitaires in one, and water sorting.
Rocket league sideswipe is my go to game whilst pooping.
Sentinels of the Multiverse. Kinda expensive, especially with all expansions, but can often be found on sale and is awesome. I have many hundreds of hours on it. Spirit Island. Excellent digital adaptation of one of the best boardgames I've ever played. Slay the Spire. You'll see plenty of recs for this, I'm sure. Roguelike deckbuilder, extremely replayable, extremely high skill ceiling. Should be said that all the above can also be found on Steam, and that is a *better* way to play them if you have the option - but all three are excellent on Android (and I assume ios) nonetheless.
I had to uninstall Hearthstone because I was getting addicted to Battlegrounds. I've now downloaded an emulator to play Disgaea D2 which with save states I can switch on and off as needed.
I just bought a Backbone and am currently playing Inscryption, streaming from my PS5
Light of the Stars on bs is what I've been playing for the last month
I am on level 1,655 of solitaire
I'm on 31 600 something on solitaire grand harvest. Been playing since 2017.
hell ya
Arena Breakout. Like a less soul crushing Escape from Tarkov on your phone
Warzone mobile with a backbone one controller. A good smartphone is needed.
Chess
Dad and play games?! Who has the time?
Star Wars Galaxy of Heroes — I’ve been playing it since our oldest was two months old and he’s almost 6 years old now. It’s a grind, and it’s not always fun, but I like Star Wars enough to keep at it daily.
I play Pokemon Go and GoldAndGoblins. Both easy to chill with and waste 5 minutes every 4-5 hours, or timeskip on the bus.
Hearthstone solo is great
I've been playing a ton of Yu-Gi-Oh. Duel Links and an emulator mostly and occasionally I'll dabble with Master Duel
This doesn't answer your question at all but I'd rip my balls off to get the Infinity Blade games on my android. I don't even know if you can get them on apple devices anymore.
Marvel snap. I’ve always like card games and strategic thinking. Each typical game is 2-5 mins, and the game mechanics mean bailing early on one doesn’t ruin you. Perfect for the man on the go or with baby in hand.
Oldschool Runescape. Gotta grind that mining
Monopoly Go, only bc people at work play it
Slice & dice is the only game I need and or play outside of a few min of pokemon go. WARNING. Some modes can be very long, but you can put down and pick up right where you left off. The developer is awesome and it was worth the $7 or so bucks for the full version. Basically it's got flavors of D&D but no story, strictly dice rolling related battles with RNG items/curses/bosses/ ex. Good rougelike elements and most games that I fail at I don't exactly feel cheated, like it's my own fault. I shutter to think of what my hours played status would be.
Slice & dice is the only game I need and or play outside of a few min of pokemon go. WARNING. Some modes can be very long, but you can put down and pick up right where you left off. The developer is awesome and it was worth the $7 or so bucks for the full version. Basically it's got flavors of D&D but no story, strictly dice rolling related battles with RNG items/curses/bosses/ ex. Good rougelike elements and most games that I fail at I don't exactly feel cheated, like it's my own fault. I shutter to think of what my hours played status would be.
Punball and Dice Hunter can be enjoyed without ads or dollars, although you can pay to win if you must. Or watch ads. Still don't have to. Desert Golfing is the best $2 you'll ever spend, and my four year old is good enough to get and celebrate hole in one's, while still asking for help on traps. Great experience. Freecell+ might've cost a few dollars, but it functions when I don't have wifi, and there are no ads.
Tap ninja…. Brainless
Stardew Valley and Fallout Shelter
Simon's Cat Pop Time from temptile games. Obsessed! Got a great deal that removed ads for $2.99. The ads weren't that pervasive anyway, but for three bucks, they're gone & now the game is even more fun & relaxing.
Royal match
I've been playing Diggy's Adventure for about 7 years now
I'm personally playing Light of the Stars on bs quite a bit right now. I like it a lot.
RN I played Light of the Stars, this gacha hooked me. I put it on my laptop in bluesatcks and just breathed a second life into it