I haven’t had a lot of time to do much console gaming lately but I still would love to have a “go to” mobile game that I can whip out and progress a few levels or grind a few items or knock out a battle or match or two.
Interested to know what games have grabbed you and held your attention lately?
I can’t recommend Stardew Valley enough. It’s $5, but so absolutely worth it. Especially since there are no mtx, and is still getting updates, albeit a bit behind the PC version. One of the best uses of $5 on the app store imo
Genshin Impact and Honkai Star Rails.
Genshin Impact successfully had my attention for over five hundred days. It’s a regularly updated game that can be played entirely F2P, and I love that concept. Anyone who claims that you have to whale to get good at the game is wrong. You just have to play the game and ignore that some Youtubers and Twitch Streamers seem to believe that fake big numbers are the only way to improve in that game. In reality, I’ve watched streamers ignore that, and instead opt to play with their favorite romantic pairing or favorite character because they just enjoy the game more that way.
Honkai Star Rails seems to be a similar concept, however it faces a dilemma where it is a turn-based game and as a result the battle mechanics, so far, have to be more carefully considered. For example, I run a defense-healer-single attack-AOE attack team. So far, I tend to die if I don’t do that. The gameplay is more simplistic than Genshin Impact, but the battles are stronger and tend to take longer. Bright side: because it was recently launched you get a bunch of free pulls! Yeah!
Honestly I found Genshin to be a very refreshing open world rpg. It’s pretty easy, low stress, and if you don’t buy into the streamer hype, very accessible cheap game.
The music is fantastic, and the world is beautiful. Cross platform also makes it a breeze to switch between my phone and ps5
I havent played Genshin but from what i have heard, Star Rail(from the same developer) is even better(though very different gameplay). Tighter story telling, amazing music(timed with in game actions) and a lot of quality of life features that dont exist in Genshin.
I put about 20+ hours into Monster Train on the PC/Steam Deck late last year and ended up picking it up again on iOS. It has me hooked all over again.
If you’ve enjoyed games like Slay the Spire in the past for deckbuilding rougelikes, it’s perfect to hammer out a battle pretty quickly. The main difference is each level is like playing three battles of Slay The Spire since there are three “lanes” that the enemies move through. It has enough depth and replayability that you can go for quite some time before burning out.
Plus, you can add googly eyes to every character/minion in the game and I can’t not play with that option turned on.
Chess/Lichess. Just a suggestion: There’s some apps and sites that have premium features, but: Lichess has all the features for free, no ads, is open-source and great UI. :)
I’ve heard of Lichess and have seen it recommended several times around here! I just downloaded it. I wish I was a better chess-player…I tend to do the same things over and over again and struggle with really “progressing” beyond basic moves/openers…I always end up getting crushed pretty early on.
There’s a puzzle mode that I would check out. Using that to practise helps you to improve your perception.
Chess is a lot about learning. I would recommend looking at some strong or unusual openings. You can also try to play against the AI at level 2-3. It can be relatively unforgiving, but also isn’t too hard and can get you a few moments of success and happiness. :)
Chess YouTubers like Eric Rosen and Chess vibes are nice. GothamChess is also popular.
Lastly, if you play online, create an account and use it. If you play anonymous you’ll likely meet a cheater and also your ELO won’t be adjusted. Playing in an ELO that suits you helps you to find opponents who aren’t gonna make for a one-sided game.
Old School RuneScape
I just got back into OSRS. I played it like crazy when I was a kid and was looking for something to kill time at work. I don’t know what it is but it is satisfying to watch those numbers slowly go up!
The mobile app is definitely what turned me back onto OSRS. I wish I had more time, because the gameplay is like comfort food to me.
For whatever reason, RuneScape never grabbed me like it did a lot of people in my high school generation. Glad to know it’s still thriving, though!
Basically if i’m playing on my iPad it’s probably Slay the Spire. (Works on phone too, but i find it rather small).
Shattered Pixel Dungeon is fun. And hard.
Mindustry is my go-to when I need to kill time offline. Cross compatible with pc android and iPhone on LAN I think, I haven’t played multi-player in a long time. You could transfer save files as well. Originally a lite Factorio, last I played they added a new planet with different mechanics.
Arknights (shout out to my kbin mag !arknights@kbin.social). It’s a fun lil tower defense that you can easily pull out and grind some materials. Keep in mind that it is a gacha game, so there’s definitely aggressive monetization, but it’s definitely on the F2P-friendly side in terms of gacha.
Old School Runescape. One of the best games ever made imo
I’ve been enjoying the idle game Egg Inc. It is a fairly enjoyable and free to play “numbers go up” type game. They don’t force ads on the players, but they are encouraged. For the past few updates they have been removing little bits of the free to play friendly features, and increased prices on some of the premium stuff, but it’s still a decent way to toss an hour or two into a day.
I don’t think I’ve played anything but Marvel Snap since it came out. It’s a turn based Marvel card battler, that also scratches the Hearthstone itch I get. Highly recommend!
How much money do you spend in it to keep it interesting?
It’s true that you could potentially spend a lot on in-app purchases, so I have a personal strategy. As long as I’m getting entertainment and value from the game, I’ll purchase the battle pass each season, which costs around $9 USD. This lets me to unlock a bunch of additional content by playing. I avoid the “deals” and “sales” they offer to prevent being continuously charged small amounts.
Thanks! That sounds tolerable.
The Apple Arcade program is nice. I recently download the TMNT game from there and it is pretty fun.
Does Apple Arcade count? If so I’ve been playing Agent Intercept
of course! Any recommendations there?
Grindstone is the best (and on Arcade (no in-app purchases)) - I finished all the levels long ago (but they may have added new ones) — just the daily competition (The Daily Grind) is a lot of mileage for a long time player. I spend easily an hour a day grinding - it’s the best!
Letterpress, since the launch of the iPhone, is still the best word game around if you ask me.
So simple, and yet so complex. A little bit of stratego in terms of holding real estate, but a vocabulary challenge at it’s core.
For word games I really like the app version of Paperback. Originally a boadgame but the app is great too for those of us who like deckbuilders as well as word games.
I like the followup Hardback even more but haven’t played the app version of that yet.
