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?
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!
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.
I’m enjoying Diablo Immortal when I’m not at my PC to play Diablo IV. Interloper is also good if you like space combat. Terraria can be fun, too. Vampire: The Masquerade - Night Road is also a good one if you like text-based RPGs.
I’ve spent nothing on Immortal (Diablo IV was expensive enough), but I’m still in the campaign. I don’t plan to play it seriously or dive too deep into the endgame. I just wanted a good ARPG on my phone and Immortal, despite the monetization disaster, is a good game at its core.
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.
It’s a bit niche, but I like Japanese mahjong (not the tile matching thing, the actual game) and have gotten hours out of an app called Kemono Mahjong. Cheap, onetime purchase w/no micro transactions and you can play against adjustable AI offline or online with others. It has plenty of guidance for new players.
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!
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From video gaming to card games and stuff in between, if it’s gaming you can probably discuss it here!
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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!
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.
Dokkan battle, but keeping my attention is a overstatement. I mostly just sign in and do my daily missions.
I just downloaded Tightrope Theatre - and it is pretty awesome rn. A classic platformer challenge, it has a hundred levels and is enjoyable
Most of the Kairosoft games.
Since I have a Netflix sub, the Three Kingdoms version of Reigns has been pretty fun.
On Android there’s a 2D clone of Civ V.
The Apple Arcade program is nice. I recently download the TMNT game from there and it is pretty fun.
I’m enjoying Diablo Immortal when I’m not at my PC to play Diablo IV. Interloper is also good if you like space combat. Terraria can be fun, too. Vampire: The Masquerade - Night Road is also a good one if you like text-based RPGs.
How much money do you typically spend in Diablo, and how far did you get?
I’ve spent nothing on Immortal (Diablo IV was expensive enough), but I’m still in the campaign. I don’t plan to play it seriously or dive too deep into the endgame. I just wanted a good ARPG on my phone and Immortal, despite the monetization disaster, is a good game at its core.
Shattered Pixel Dungeon is fun. And hard.
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.
Diablo impartial was fun for a few hours before you realised you needed to have a whale sized wallet to actually participate in any real content.
It’s a bit niche, but I like Japanese mahjong (not the tile matching thing, the actual game) and have gotten hours out of an app called Kemono Mahjong. Cheap, onetime purchase w/no micro transactions and you can play against adjustable AI offline or online with others. It has plenty of guidance for new players.
I do not play a lot of mobile games, but when i do, it is Marvel Snap.
I also do not usually play card games, but this one is very very easy to learn and pick up, and quite addictive once the flow starts going.
exactly the same for me and some of those variant arts are on fire.
Kittengame
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.