:brace-cowboy:
My top picks:
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Super Auto Pets: GOATed autobattler feature cute animals that mercilessly KO each other with blunt force trauma. Pausable at a moment's notice. Excellent entertainment when recovering from a bout of simultaneous salmonella and campylobacter. Available on iOS and Android with a free base version (Pet Pack #1 alongside a randomized weekly pack) and two paid expansion packs, costing $5 and $10 respectively.
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Simon Tatham's Puzzles: A collection of 40 singleplayer logic games. Personal favorites include Net (non stressful version of the pipe connecting hacking mini game from Bioshock), Mines (minesweeper but without RNG that forces you to guess), and Untangle (arrange points so their connecting lines don't intersect). Available on iOS and Android for free. No ads.
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SNKRX: Snake with autobattler characteristics and a bumpin soundtrack. $2.99 on Android and iOS . No ads.
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10000000/You Must Build A Boat: A duology of fast paced match 3 games with upgrade progression. Largely the same game, but YMBAB has a little more polish, some additional mechanics, and a prestige/ascension mode. Fun to play through once in a while but lack of variation means it gets stale before long. $2.99 each on iOS and Android(linking to developer page for sake of brevity).
Honorable mention to emulators—thousands of great games across many systems for free! Post your emulator and ROM recommendations too, I guess.
Currently playing Radical Red, a Pokémon Fire Red romhack with Gen VIII Pokémon and mechanics. It gives you all the tools you could want to optimize your team by Celadon City, but makes sure you'll need them. The real game changer for me has been the introduction of a level cap that increases as you beat important trainers, ensuring that you don't overlevel.
shattered pixel dungeon never bought it bc I don't play much on my phone but it was good and easy to pick up and play
The final earth 2 simple city builder with missions and free build, shout-out to cool math games I had no clue it was on there till now
Flow fun puzzle game with a few variations, I actually paid for it bc I use it enough.
Honorable mentions: Bloons TD, Slayer the spire
I reinstall shattered pixel dungeon every three months or so only to delete it after a week because I get frustrated :deeper-sadness:
you left out a key piece of information about Super Auto Pets I cant believe it
There are dinosaurs
:grumpy-lizard:
Melvor Idle - all the brain tickling goodness of runescape's numbers-go-up serotonin drip with none of the "having to play runescape"
As always, I will be hawking polytopia, a light civ builder that is very fun in pass and play.
There's also openCiv wich is based on 5 I think. Ran well on my phone but I suck at civ games
Polytopia is the game I go back to over and over. I've played almost 3k little custom games against the AI. Other than that it's all Pokemon roms on emulators.
I must say that I enjoy Bloons. It's got monkeys and they pop balloons what more do you want HUH!!!?
Uncritical support to Comrade Dart Monkey in his fight against lighter than air imperialism:le-monke:
Excellent entertainment when recovering from a bout of simultaneous salmonella and campylobacter.
+2
Into the breach but with the caveat that you have to have a fucking Netflix sub to play it for God knows why
:what-the-hell:
I loved FTL. I was considering Into the Breach, but why/how the Netflix sub? :why-angel:
It's nuts, apparently Netflix has a stable of distribution rights to games. Into the breach was one of them.
On PC it's normal, but mobile requires an active Netflix account
Damn, I scooped it on switch and didn't need a Netflix acclunt
Square Enix keeps doing this thing where they make killer mobile games but refuse to market them outside of Japan. The most recent is:
Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles. This is a remake of a GameCube game that was also released on console, with all four versions of the game able to play with each other online. There's even a Lite version, which is both a demo and a way to play with a friend who owns the game without having to buy it yourself. It's a simple action RPG where players explore dungeons, level up, fight bosses etc, the real fun is doing these things with friends if you got 'em. The game is a bop.
People have review bombed it on the Play Store for being $30, but the thing is it's a real fucking video game and not a "free" MTX hellscape. Squeenix seems to keep running into this problem with all of their games that don't have MTX, meanwhile their gacha bullshit games crush it because they're more in line with player expectations.
People have review bombed it on the Play Store for being $30, but the thing is it’s a real fucking video game and not a “free” MTX hellscape. Squeenix seems to keep running into this problem with all of their games that don’t have MTX, meanwhile their gacha bullshit games crush it because they’re more in line with player expectations.
:gamer-gulag:
Outside of a couple mistakes (art on the mobile versions of ffvi comes to mind), square-enix has a ton of great games ported to mobile which play better than emulators. The mobile port of final fantasy tactics is the best version I've played, and I've heard that Dragon Quest V on mobile is absolutely the definitive edition at this point in time
If you have an addiction to moba-styled games like I do then Pokemon Unite will scratch the itch. It's free but has some monetization issues but they're mostly related to skins and stuff. Like, the legendary skins are $40 which is insane but if you don't care then it's fine.
On the opposite end: getting those same children on your team is the most frustrating thing imaginable
Cell Lab: Evolution Sandbox is a petri dish sim game that has a lot of challenges to do and can be fun to just let run with some settings that create an interesting environment + radiation for mutations. Its free but I think only on android. It also doesn't shy away from being a nerdy game/simulation which i appreciate.
I think they bought the publishing rights to a few indie games or developers or something as another desperate grasp towards staying relevant.
I really enjoy Altos Adventure/Altos Odyssey for unwinding. They're two infinite runner style games from the same dev. There's some ads but nothing that your adblocker won't take care of, and the music/visuals are really soothing. I often put on a podcast or music while playing.
