Gamer Games On The Smartphone

So, I recently gave in and bought a decent enough smart phone. I was wondering if there are any hidden gem games here that us gamers enjoy. (Certainly not into Angry Birds, Temple Run, Flappy Bird etc.). Clash of Clans is decent enough but lacks depth and variety.

What can you guys recommend? Thanks.

I've found myself quite addicted to "Welcome to Dungeon" lately. Pretty fun game with a neat gambling aspect to it that is more involved than just the loot.

If you are into TCGs, SolForge is a lot of fun.

The two The Room games are pretty good, although the second one is pretty complicated. Still haven't finished.

The Hitman Go game is very well done.

Threes, for sure, if you want replayability and quick sessions.

And, hey, Angry Birds is popular for a reason. Dig those games, even if they have gotten heavy-handed with the freemium stuff.

If Bloons and the Final Fantasy Tactics re-release are available on your phone, go for them.

I remember a game called Tilt to Live which was pretty good and I'm pretty sure you can get ghost trick and some phoenix wright games as well.

Wayward Souls is kind of a actiony dungeon crawler that controls like Link to the Past (the devs have an earlier game that is more linear called Mage Gauntlet).

Hoplite is a turn-based dungeon crawler that requires some strategic positioning and picking the right upgrades and using them effectively.

Out There is like FTL, but without combat, and instead you're just trying to get to a destination with your ship while managing mining for metals for upgrades, refueling, refilling your O2 tanks, repairing your hull.

I reluctantly recommend Plants vs. Zombies 2, because apparently fucking EA is never actually going to make a PC version of it. It cribs a lot of stuff from the first game, but a few of the new zombie and plant types are clever. But half the new plants are locked behind a pay wall, and fuck giving that game any money.

10000000 (read it as "ten million", but on the app store just punch in 10000000) is half Puzzle Quest, half endless runner.

Super Hexagon is a really good fast-paced arcadey game with great music.

The Infinity Blade games are basically like Punch-Out but with generic medieval shit where the bad guys all look like their designs were stolen from the Peter Jackson Lord of the Rings movies. It's pretty fun, though.

The Room games are a must. Cant believe I am saying this but the new Angry Birds Transformers is good (not like an Angry Birds game at all), Marvel puzzle quest and Terra Battle (from the famous Mistwaker studios) are very good too. Honorary mention to Star Command too.

Looking for "gamer games" on a phone will lead to disappointment. Your choices are good casual games or the ones with birds in them.

People are recommending Welcome to the Dungeon and The Room. Those are good games on a tablet, but maybe not on a phone. Depends on the size of screen you have (under 5" is maybe too small).

I would play the Kingdom Rush games even if they weren't mobile. They should make a new one of those.

Terra Battle just came out a little over a week ago. Really fun game from Mistwalker.

Don't exist. Is this a trick question? I've yet to find anything on mobile that really scratches my gaming itch, though I did spend a disgusting amount of time playing Jetpack Joyride which has been completely ruined by updates to make it even more cash-grabby. Seriously, you have to play that game steadily for hours to buy even the simplest of upgrades the currency earning rate is so badly skewed. Friends of mine are obsessed with the recently released "Sentinels of the Multiverse", which I also love. At least I love the original, physical version of the game that involves a whole lot of cards and cooperating with friends who are, y'know, sitting in the same room and talking with you and maybe having a beer. I find the electronic version a bit lacking. I think the mobile game I've spent the most time with is some free-ass version of Sudoku, on the toilet.

Has anyone here run the two The Room games on a Nexus 5? If so how do they run?

@briareosph: What kind of smart phone did you buy?

As someone who owns both systems (work phone -android, my phone - iPhone), I find that you are more likely to find a premium game on the App Store. Even though the number of Android Users dwarfs iPhone users, the IOS app store makes over $5 million a day, vs. $1.1 million a day of the Android store. The result of this disparity is that I find more freemium bullshit in the Google Play store and I am not just talking about freemium games either, there are a lot of premium games on IOS that were turned freemium for Google Play.

On IOS my current Hardcore favs are:

• Pixel Boat Rush - It is like Excitebike, only with boats and the Gran Turismo progression system. The game has finely tuned controls that are simple enough for touch, but precise enough to feel hardcore.
• Battleheart Legacy - This is probably the best mobile RPG of all time. Just play it, it's kind of like Diablo.
• Defender Chronicles 2: This is a Tower Defense game, but it has a volume of content that might actually exceed a Disgaea title.
• Wayward Souls - This is kinda like a Rogue-Like version of Secret of Mana, this game is great on a phone but if you pair a controller to your phone, it becomes so much more than that. This game will definitely be in my top-5 games of 2014 list.
• Leo's Fortune - With a PS4 controller paired to your device, you have one of the best 2D platformers of the last decade.
• Coldfire Keep - This game has terrible on-screen controls, but if you hook up a PS4 controller to your device it plays like an awesome 486-era RPG.
• Banner Saga - This RPG is as good as Final Fantasy Tactics but with a better story.
• Goblin Sword - This is a fun Platrformer with decent on-screen controls
• Dragon QUest 8 - Arguably the best PS2 RPG, uprezzed, then released for $15 on IOS. Sweet =)
• Hitman GO - A unique puzzle game that offers a lot of content.
• Monument Valley - It is a puzzle game about traversing an MC Escher inspired world.
• Skulls of the Shogun
• Oceanhorn - The best non-nintendo zelda game of all time (yes, its better than 3d.game heroes).
• Device 6 - I HATED visual novels until I tried this game. Maybe it has to do with the removal of all that Japanese anime bullshit and weird design decisions like spelling the words out one letter at a time like those terrible Ace Attourney games.
• Motorsport Manager - Just what the title says, you are an F1 race team manager.
• Hoplite - A tactical strategy game that is worth your $2
• Boson X - It is a quick arcade-styled high-score game. It has a great art style and I certainly received my moneys worth. Lets just say, it's been a year since I purchased the game and it is still on my device.
• Junk Jack X - It's like a 2D minecraft only I enjoy it more than Terraria
• Asphalt 8 - Yup, it's a freemium title. I add this because if you pair a controller to your device this game becomes the closest a game has come to playing like Burnout 3 since Burnout 3.
• Ridiculous Fishing
• Hundreds
• ARC Squadron - Think Star Fox 64
• THe World Ends With You - Its a directors cut that fixes a lot of the problems of, arguably, the best RPG on the DS.
• Dead Space on IOS - This is most likely the third best Dead Space product.

I could easily add another 500 titles to this list (I have over 5000 games on IOS alone) but this should do for now.

Any kinda sketchy f2p bullshit in that game?

This really should have been the first response in this thread. Knowing whether we're dealing with an Android or Apple device is pretty essential to answering this question properly.

Although, I do find it odd that you referenced the Amazon App Store instead of the Google Play store.

The FTP elements are actually not sketchy. I've been playing the game daily since October 9th, am partially through chapter nine of the campaign, and have yet to actually pay a dime. If you like, you can pay money for stamina, which is required to enter battle (though a point of stamina is recovered every five minutes and it's easy to get a good number of battles in before you absolutely need to recharge) or energy, which is used to buy unique party members at 5 energy per, or if you lose a battle, you can spend 1 energy to continue right where you left off with a party at full health. But so far, I've been getting energy at a fairly decent clip, either through daily log-in bonuses, clearing chapters, or the occasional gift from the developer. You really don't need to spend any money at all to progress. It's FTP, but it's implemented and structured in a manner that's the complete opposite of gross games like Dungeon Keeper Mobile.

@hailinel:Awesome, nice to know. About to download it now. Gracias, amigo!

@spoonman671: My bad, it's first thing in the morning here and I haven't woke up yet. I totally meant the Google Play store and mistyped.

As duder said, the F2P stuff is almost nonexistent, but there is one big (potential) drawback I've found; it's grindy as hell. Your main progression is character levels. and even a ways into the game the leveling up gets real slow. There is also a cool job system (it is created by the FF dude after all) but those new jobs start at level 1, so to make any of those skills helpful (since they're only available at higher levels) you have to grind on those same characters again.

Still, I wouldn't say that's necessarily a bad thing. The combat system is kind of amazing, so I really just play that game to play it. It's kind of like how you'd never call playing Tetris a lot "grinding", because you're just playing to have fun. But as I said above, Terra Battle does lock a lot of the cooler stuff behind super high levels, so just be prepared for that and you should have a blast.

(also, the music is really good!)

To the OP, Cardinal Quest II is a graphical rogue-like (as in a game that actually plays similarly to rogue) but the play sessions are way shorter than a typical one of those. There are a bunch of characters with unique abilities and loot that can be expanded on after each playthrough with currency you acquire, tons of interesting loot that lets you balance your stats, and a really cool magic system for these type of games. Best of all, you can pay for something, I think, but it's not necessary at all. A gem of a game, if you like the genre.

I'd also throw out some love for Injustice mobile. Yeah, it's really simple with basically only 2 moves and 3 special moves that require your meter to fill up, but with all of the characters unique abilities and combinations (and now "gear" up to three items that can make you characters function in interesting ways) it gets really satisfyingly strategic. Also, paying for anything is really not necessary at all. The only downside is I play that on an iPad, so the experience could be really diminished on a smaller screen.

Have fun!

@joshwent:. I had an addiction to Injustice that oddly mirrors Jeffs experience with WWE SuperCard. I don't know if that is actually a recommendation, but I did put in a good thirty or forty hours into that game.

Sorry, forgot to mention that I'm using android 4.4 Kitkat. Thanks.

Humble Bundle has a ton of games for phones (maybe Android only? Not sure). OLO is a fun 2 player game, sort of like shuffle board. I also love the Osmos HD port too, which is kind of a "get bigger than the other things" game.

This may seem stupid but the Batman Aarkham Origins app for IOS was tons of fun for me. I played it for several hours. It has a good flow to it's tap fighting. Got all the power-ups and beat all the missions without spending a dime.