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
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
I've never bothered to set up an emulator on my phone but it's a great idea, any recommendations in particular?
GameBoy Advance games work really well IMO, they're designed for small screens and lengthening aspect ratios leave tons of space for virtual buttons.
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:
Yeah this is my goto time killer on the phone or tablet if I’m traveling. No need for an Internet connection so great on a plane.
Best value for money if you like deckbuilders and rogue likes. Fantastic game. The second one is coming out next year!
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
Games with roguelike metaprogression:
Puzzle games:
Other stuff:
into the breach on ios requires an active netflix account to launch the game, i just tried it
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.
Last I checked, I thought you could still purchase BTD6 without needing netfl*x through the play store. Has that changed?
Also, glory to glorious Arstotzka.
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.
Probably not what you're looking for but this is my favorite time-waster.
https://abagames.github.io/crisp-game-lib-11-games/?pakupaku
One (well, two) of my all-time favorites. Both in terms of gameplay/puzzle design, and minimalist graphics that are still interesting to look at.
Decidedly not arcade, but I absolutely love Shattered Pixel Dungeon as a phone timekiller.
If you're into Pokemon and have access to the GBA/DS ROMs, PokeMMO is a great emulator that adds online MMO features to the first 5 generations of Pokemon. You can take one character across all 5 regions, and there's tons of QoL features.
That sounds awesome. I always wished to be able to visit other regions in my pokemon games. It's one of the reasons why I enjoyed soulsilver so much
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.
Free if you have a Netflix subscription: https://www.reddit.com/r/IntoTheBreach/comments/w2y3ep/into_the_breach_is_now_available_on_ios_and/
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.