So, I sold pretty much all my gaming hardware recently, cause I'm so fed up with the way modern games are. I could go on for ages about how soulless the modern gaming industry is, but I honestly can't be arsed. It's exhausting, and nobody cares.
However, I do have a phone! And I do wanna play some weird little quirky phone games. So what are we enjoying? What are we playing? I downloaded FF: Brave Exvius I think it's called and I'm gonna start that later, and I'm obviously playing Wordle every day.
I haven't played mobile games since...Doodle Jump, so I'm all ears!
Some from the top of my head are Swap Sword, the Hidden My Game by Mom games, Holedown, Spelltower, Typeshift, Canabalt, Ridiculous Fishing, Super Hexagon, Reigns, Pacman 256, Hundreds, and Pancake - the game. I played these on IOS but I assume most are on Android. Apologies for the length of the list, just started listing them off lol
Yugioh Master Duel is quite good if you like Yugioh/want to learn. They are really generous with gems (paid currency) too. I haven't played yugioh in about 15 years, but I easily built a good deck and still have a lot of gems left. The game has changed so much in 15 years, but this did a good job of explaining new mechanics that I was clueless about.
Magic: Arena (if you like MtG), but this is way stingier with giving out its paid currency for free. It's a very good Magic app, but I don't use it a lot, because I'm not going to put money into it.
Final Fantasy 1-5 have Pixel remasters with FF6 incoming. Those are all good.
I quite like Mario Kart World Tour. I have played it way more than any Mario Kart on a Nintendo platform (and I have played those quite a bit).
It depends really on what you are after. I like narrative games, so 80 days is rather excellent. Device 6 is also rather cool, though it's a bit old now.
If you're a soccer fan, play football strike. Its addictive af though. Started playing it a couple of weeks ago and I'm playing like 4+ hrs daily on average.
Being fed up about the soullessness of the modern games industry and jumping straight into the arms of Brave Exvius is a choice. If you're fine with gacha games then Girls Frontline or Arknights are the go to recommendations. Or Genshin I guess.
Otherwise I'll just drop the premiere word games Spelltower and TypeShift to go alongside your daily Wordle habit.
Why not subscribe to one of the very many variations of the NYT's Crossword puzzle?
I'm not super familiar with mobile games, but those that I am familiar with, and those that my students play, don't exactly scream "soulful". I'm sure that plenty exist, but my understanding is that most popular, consumer facing mobile games are more sinister than anything you could imagine, and all are lacking any kind of soul (as I'm typing this yet another indecipherable Korean mobile game is being advertised on the television next to me -- it's a new one every time I stay in a hotel room).
I've been going down an exponential / idle game hole recently, and have been hunting down idle games that are numbers-going-uppers in their purest and most mechanical, mathematical form.
One thing I like about these two games also is that they both seem to be made by one-person dev teams so throwing them a few bucks to get rid of ads (which both have in very minimal amounts) or for whatever weird in game currency feels like you are legit helping a small dev keep the lights on.
The two best I have found are:
Exponential Idle
Literally an exponential formula that you are adding equations to, increasing numbers, layering on theories and computations to try and get the number to go up faster and faster and faster which unlocks more upgrade paths, systems, processes etc and on and on and on. The graph makes satisfying shapes and it really encourages you to re-spec and tinker with the formulas. Note that you don't need to understand the formulas or the math, you simply need to figure out which bits of it make the correct number go higher. It's fantastically number-go-uppery and literally just a math equation. I love it.
NNNNNNNNGGGGGHhhhhhhh oh yeah
I thought at one point I had hit the ceiling when I was trying to get my f(t) which is the main big number past 5000. It took me about a week. Once I hit the 5000 mark and got the last upgrade point, an ENTIRELY NEW SECTION opened up, which is EXACTLY what you want from these kind of games.
Also, there are very few, if any, advertisements. I paid a few bucks to get a 50% boost overall and get rid of any ads and to throw a few bucks to the dev.
Next up is.....
Antimatter Dimensions
I have playing this for about 3 days now, so I am still in the early stages. It's basically a bunch of progress bars that you keep filling up and up and then reset / prestige very regularly. There is something extremely satisfying about that process, and more and more upgrades and unlocks are popping up as I continue on. There is plenty of stuff that I still cannot access, and I have no idea how I am going to access them because the requirements seem impossible. However, as is the way with these games, I am sure there will be some kind of exponential wizardry that will get me there. The game also seems to have a weird and active community that feed text strings to the silly news ticker (I dont even know how they do that).
MMMMMmmpphhNNNGgggg thats the stuff
The game apparently has a whole skill tree that I have no idea when or where it is going to unlock, there are a ton of secret achievements, and I think this game might go WAAAAAAYYY deeper than a lot of idle games, just going by the news ticker and the way people talk about it online.
While this game is not a literal math formula like exponential idle, it feels very pure at its heart and like exponential idle, it is not shoving ads in your face like a lot of clicker / idle games tend to do.
If you haven't played mobile games in a while, Desert Golfing and The Room are both on Android and really excellent. I played a bit of Hitman go and enjoyed it, though I'm not sure if it's the best one of the "go" games or not (I didn't play the others)
Honestly though the best mobile games are the NYT crossword/word games. The mini crossword is genuinely awesome as a speedrunning kinda thing, there's a built in timer and everything.
Super Auto Pets is out now on Android, and should be on iOS on Monday. I still love playing this. It's very chill, and you can easily play it without even touching any paid content (right now just a single $5 DLC pack).
I have been playing Dragon Ball Z: Dokkan Battle since it came out. It's on its 7th year, and they just keep making things better and more convenient, and they've kept the same gatcha mechanic for pulls and there's only ONE premium currency. No bullshit, no smoke-and-mirrors, no "get six gems to get one ingot, use ingots to get summon tickets, use summon tick-", just stones. That's it. It's a gatcha game, through and through, but if you're a fan of Dragon Ball/ Z/GT/Super, it's still a very fun, very low input game. I've basically been using it as a fidget cube for the last 7 years.
Modern Mania Wrestling is the most fun I've ever had with a wrestling GM mobile game. Automated matches, and you can't determine the winner/loser ironically, but the art and style is delightful.
It depends really on what you are after. I like narrative games, so 80 days is rather excellent. Device 6 is also rather cool, though it's a bit old now.
80 Days is one of my favorite mobile games of all time. A simple, elegant, proc-gen visual novel with a lot of built-in challenge, and a TON of variety. Can't recommend enough, if narrative is what you're after.
The notion of abandoning “soulless modern games” to try and find something on mobile is Very Funny.
Kind of with this as well.
Maybe check out the indies before writing off the whole industry. Cause I gotta say: I'm sick of the bullshit of AAA dev as well, especially since companies are basically just using the fact that the industry is still largely unregulated to just fully lie to consumers in preview footage (really feels like it started with the zero consequences for Aliens: Colonial Marines), so there's little point in getting hype for something that might just be smoke and mirrors.
On the other hand, games like Ravenous Devils, Weird West, Darkest Dungeon 2, Into the Breach, Inscryption, Cook Serve Delicious 3, and Neon White are already bringing it in terms of weird, wonderful experiences on console (and on mobile, in some cases).
Hell, I'm even more okay with OmegaForce using weird paid crap in their Dynasty/Samurai Warriors games if it's funding amazing projects like "Fire Emblem Three Hopes," "Persona 5: Strikers," and "Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity."
AAA might be a carnival con game, but it really feels like the elusive B-game has returned with a vengeance. And to be fair: a few of what I listed here IS on mobile.
Arknights. It's the only game on my phone any more, and I still play it daily. Fantastic art, an incredible amount of story and lore, and very free to play friendly. It's tower defense but your towers are unique individuals and you create a team from your collection of operators. It's amazing, and everyone should try it.
@efesell: Haha so true! There are so many amazing games on steam these days, i could go forever like Spelunky 2, into the breach, hades, Rimworld, Underrails, Battle Brothers... I could go forever.
The trick is to avoid soulless so called AAA games, "smaller" games are actualy more complicated and deeper than EA/Ubisoft etc. crap.
I play since Commodore 64 and feel like there is no better time to play videogames:)
@efesell: Haha so true! There are so many amazing games on steam these days, i could go forever like Spelunky 2, into the breach, hades, Rimworld, Underrails, Battle Brothers... I could go forever.
The trick is to avoid soulless so called AAA games, "smaller" games are actualy more complicated and deeper than EA/Ubisoft etc. crap.
I play since Commodore 64 and feel like there is no better time to play videogames:)
I think OP simply burned out on video games.
Probably this. I was playing games since the early 90s, and I just got burnt out. I haven't played a game outside of Pokemon GO now for a year, and my partner and I are already looking into buying a second hand PS4 Pro, becuase of PS Plus
Might as well throw some recommendations my way, if not allow me to fully hijack this thread, since I haven't had an Android tablet since the Google Nexus 7 (though I've been using Android phones since the first gen Moto G), and I'm pretty set on getting a Galaxy Tab S6 Lite 2022/Refresh, so, keep those specs in mind. And don't give me any hardware recommendations, please. My decisions will only lead to your frustration.
So, some info to work with:
I'm already familiar with Pokemon Go, the Asphalt games, Yu-Gi-Oh! Dual Links and Master Duel, Genshin Impact, Honkai Impact 3rd, Tower of Fantasy, that mobile game that's based on a hentai Action Taimanin, Dead Trigger 1 and 2, Dissidia Final Fantasy 00, Need for Speed: Most Wanted 2012, and UNO, so I can only add one more waifu/husbando collection simulator to the list.
I'm not really interested in emulating older consoles and handhelds these days, especially since I still have a working 2DS XL and an OLED Vita.
If what you want to mention also exists on Steam, let me know. My 2080 Ti isn't e-waste yet.
iPads aren't an option due to their lack of expandable storage - I don't have a NAS (yet), so loading my legally purchased and ripped DVDs and Blu-rays onto a 1TB SD card makes more sense to me than being subbed to 10 different streaming services, especially in situations where the Wi-Fi isn't working and I don't want to burn though my monthly mobile data limit, which is only 4GBs a month.
No more shooters. Mouse and keyboard has spoiled me since 2015.
The more console-like a game is, the more that controller support becomes a mandatory feature.
GeForce Now isn't an option since I already gave Nvidia $1,200 in 2019, but Game Pass is a consideration, so let me know how the performance is with 5 GHz Wi-Fi.
And bonus points if someone can get Senran Kagura New Link running in English.
Welcome to the forum! I totally get what you mean about the modern gaming industry. Sometimes it's refreshing to take a break from big titles and explore the world of quirky phone games. If you're into RPGs, you might enjoy trying out Divine Fire, on your phone.
I'm currently only playing Clash though. It has a shorter learning curve than the other ones and it's easy to get into. I would just recommend not paying up a single buck for it because I've heard problems with Supercell's (the dev) customer support. I'd say play as long as you don't feel like playing. Also you get free stuff in-game for just playing the game which is nice.
Anything made by Trese Brothers. Their games are also on Steam. They make basically Warhammer 40K inspired really richly designed strategy games. The lore is actually really unique and fleshed out.
Their game Star Traders is basically a Rogue Trader Sim where you captain a starship and a whole sandbox is generated for you. A lot of it procedural but there is a through line script tied to certain factions and points in the timeline as the years advance (Basically you only age while you're planetside since you're freaky gravity drive bends time around you making you effectively immortal. Kind of cool as factions live and die and their star traders are all essentially ancient.) You can be trader, a bounty hunter, explorer, spy, diplomat, prisoner transport, solider, you name it! Really cool, something for everyone. Updated all the time. There are branching storylines and there is enough there for people interested in role-playing and not just min-max space adventuring.
Their other game Templar Battleforce is set in the same universe much earlier in the timeline. You create your own character, one of the Templar's from Star Traders. Think Space Marines with more honor and less creepy Undead Psychic Space Emporer God as you fight this universes version of whats essentially Tyranids. Story is pretty good, its not super in depth but whats there sets the stage for a really well designed top down turn based squad shooter with some Xcom like progression for the Templars you pick up along the way. The encounters are varied and its a lot of fun. The free Demo is the first 5 or so missions and lets you customize and level up and really gives you a good feel. These are basically AA level games in terms of depth with the budget aesthetics of two brothers with a lot of passion but art isnt their forte. The UI are functional and TIGHT. I have no complains with how these games are designed, they're not even ugly, they just arent eye catching or flashy visually. Thats really the only knock.
I've been enjoying layas horizon on mobile through netflix. Fantastic use of touch controls. It feels like the flying suit mechanics of riders Republic with the vibe of Oli Oli World. Worth checking if you already have a subscription
Genshin Impact is easily one of the best mobile games you can play right now. It's Anime based, so if you're someone who doesn't like Anime, because you want to be one of the "cool kids", then it might not be for you. But if you're open minded enough to not care about such things, then you'll have a good time. And don't listen to the naysayers who claim you have to spend a lot of money to progress in the game. This is not true at all. You can fully play the game without spending a dime if you have the patience to do so like most good FTP games.
When it comes to quality games, I don't have a specific idea, but games like Stumble guys, PUBG and Mortal Kombat are the one that provide me with quality time and enjoyment.
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