What with the news of top-tier game developers pulling their games from the iOS9 app store, the Android mobile platform is looking better and better these days. While iPhone and iPad users still usually get their hands on mobile games first, Apple’s primacy in mobile gaming is on the decline, and Android users are now spoiled for choice when it comes to games.
Android hardware is getting really great, too, and the games you can play on your mobile device now actually rival last-gen console releases in terms of graphics fidelity and gameplay complexity.
The best news is that tons of great mobile games are available for free, and while the “free to play” monetization model is often used unscrupulously, many great developers have found ways to implement monetization without being horribly annoying.
We’ve collected ten of this year’s best good-looking, free Android games for you here, as well as links to their Google Play store pages. What are you waiting for? Your next bus ride or trip to the bathroom could be a real adventure.
Store link: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.fincon.angelstone&hl=en
A hack ‘n slash RPG that wears its Diablo III influence on its sleeve, Angel Stone gives you three character classes – Berserker, Gunslinger, and Shadow Mage – with whom to venture forth and administer severe forms of corporal punishment onto zombies, skeletons, demons, and other grimdark monsters.
Yes, there are microtransactions in the form of purchasable elite gear, but you can ignore them as you fight through 60 missions of beautifully-rendered demon hunting.
Store link: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.ankama.tactilwar&hl=en
Don’t let the cutesy graphics fool you: Tactile Wars wraps a kiloton of tactical depth into a real-time strategy game by way of the paint mechanics of Splatoon and The Wonderful 101’s group control scheme.
You control a group of paintball-shooting soldiers, directing them around maps to take control points from your enemy. You’ll take over maps, attack other players, and build up your own defenses as the game goes on.
The crucial part is drawing formations on the ground, which can give your troops the advantage. It seems pretty simple at first, but the game gets pretty demanding as you progress. It’s also paced just right for mobile – quick missions that you can finish in time to hop off the bus or train.
Store page: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.NRG.PathToLuma
One of the more unique and meditative games on this list, Path to Luma lands you on a tiny planetoid in the style of Super Mario Galaxy. However, here you’ll need to explore each tiny world by rotating it with your finger and guiding your character about, trying to rid each planet of corruption and pollution.
Sure, it sounds a bit hippy-dippy, but the game is rock-solid and drop-dead gorgeous. There’s a lovely ambient soundtrack as well, making this a perfect game to chill out and relax with during a quick study or work break.
Store page: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.tenbirds.ire
We understand how hacky it is at this point to compare games to Dark Souls, but come on. This is the Dark Souls of mobile gaming. Ire: Blood Memory isn’t trying to hide its influences, either: developer TenBirds has said they were inspired by Demon’s Souls, Dark Souls, and Monster Hunter – and as influences go, you can do a lot worse.
A mobile game for hardcore players, Ire: Blood Memory features the rewardingly difficult-to-master combat of Monster Hunter, as well as the player invasion system from Souls. It’s not about mashing the attack button, but learning how to use and time each weapon and spell.
While it works fairly well with touchscreen controls, Ire also supports Android controllers. This might be the game that makes you consider picking one up.
Store page: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.squareenix.relicrun
Like most successful mobile genres, the Temple Run style has been done to death, resurrected in an unholy free-to-play ritual, and then killed again by the pitchforks and torches of pale imitators. So it’s not surprising to find players pretty burned out on the format.
Fortunately, Square-Enix’s Lara Croft: Relic Run does it right, and even adds some classic Tomb Raider-style innovations into the mix, like wall-running, gymnastics, and the occasional vehicle. What could easily have been a toss-off piece of fan service or marketing is actually a very entertaining and exciting game that may help pass the time we have to wait until Rise of the Tomb Raidercomes out.
Store page: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=it.dtales.sbk15
The official mobile game of the eni FIM Superbike World Championships, SBK15 puts you on one of the world’s fastest road machines. You’ll race around tracks at ludicrous speeds using the big names in motorcycle manufacturing: BMW, Kawasaki, Ducati, and others are all represented in-game.
Sporting fantastic visuals, SBK15 also supports nine different control schemes, so you can burn rubber whichever way suits you best, be it virtual thumbsticks, tilt, or controller. They’ve also added a new time attack mode in this year’s version.
Just, please – don’t play this game while riding an actual motorcycle.
Store page: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.bethsoft.falloutshelter&hl=en
Bethesda’s first-ever E3 press event this year turned a lot of heads for a lot of reasons, and even though everyone knew they would be giving us a peek at the upcoming Fallout 4, nobody realized they’d been working up a mobile tie-in game. Fallout Shelter is that game, and it’s now out on Android.
Using the whimsical VaultBoy art style that’s always featured prominently in the Fallout universe, Fallout Shelter is a kind of management game where you build a sprawling underground habitat. As your population grows, you’ll unlock new rooms to use to train your dwellers in each S.P.E.C.I.A.L. stat, which will help them survive when you send them off into the wasteland to scrounge for supplies.
It’s a perfect game to spend a couple minutes with at a time – you’ll open it up, check on your residents, and collect the resources they’ve produced, always with an eye toward expanding. It’s a bit like having digital Sea Monkeys, but with radiation.
Store page: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.rovio.baba&hl=en
We know, we know: since it first hit phones in 2009, Angry Birds has grown to a Minions-esque level of overexposure, and it’s hard to blame anyone who’s gotten sick of them in that time. But under the astronomical popularity and multimedia blitz is a really terrific little mobile game that holds up pretty well.
It’s a bit strange to call this year’s iteration Angry Birds 2, since it’s actually the fifteenth game in Rovio’s hit franchise. But this is the one they’ve dubbed the sequel, and it adds some interesting new twists to the original slingshot-birds-into-pig-fortresses formula. There are new birds to use, with crazy new special abilities, and multi-stage levels that span multiple screens.
And there’s still something insanely satisfying about lining up the perfect shot with the bomb bird. I love that guy.
Store page: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.ea.game.nfs14_row&hl=en
The Need for Speed series has always put a premium on arcade fun over strict adherence to realism, and that approach has produced a lot of very entertaining games over the years. No Limits hews close to this tradition – the idea is to drive very, very fast, with as little regard for the safety of yourself and others as possible.
As you play through the “Underground” story mode, you’ll pick up blueprints you can use to build and upgrade licensed cars – Porsche 911s, Shelby Cobras, tricked-out Subaru WRXs. A paint shop is available as well, and it’s worth it to make your car look pretty, because the game itself is a stunner.
Need for Speed: No Limits also makes a smart decision for a mobile game: Races are short, intense affairs, usually lasting under two minutes. You can hop in and finish a race while you’re boiling an egg.
Store page: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.blizzard.wtcg.hearthstone&hl=en
The product of a Blizzard skunkworks project created by a team of five programmers, Hearthstone has wound up being a massive breakout hit for the company. It’s the reigning collectible card game online now, consistently in the top five games being played on Twitch.tv at any given time.
Hearthstone made the leap from tablets to phone screens earlier this year, and survived the transition with nary a scratch: the phone edition makes a few tweaks to the already mobile-friendly interface, but they’re easy to learn and intuitive, much like the game itself.
Blizzard has released several expansions to the game since it launched, so there are now more than 500 cards to collect and use in battle. Now that it’s playable on your phone, it’s easier than ever to play head-to-head against your friends while you’re hanging out – which makes trash talking way more enjoyable.
Store page: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=jp.konami.pesclubmanager
First things first: PES Club Manager 2015is about managinga soccer club, not being a player (some users have left nasty reviews for this game in the store based on confusion over this issue). What your job is here is to recruit talent, train up your players, and pick out your match strategies from the back room of one of several licensed European and South American teams, using a pool of more than 5,000 licensed players.
You’ll get to see the fruits of your labor pay off (or fail horribly) in fully-rendered, real time 3D matches, and it’ll be up to you to switch up strategies as games play out. Appropriately for “the Beautiful Game,” PES Club Manager 2015has jaw-dropping good looks, rivaling sports games from the last generation of consoles.
Is it time to make the jump to next-gen?
Transformers: Rise of the Dark Spark Trophies and Achievements guide
Obama Pigsaw Revenge Walkthrough Guide
Firefall: How to Fix crashes, patch files error, Graphics issues, Audio issues, SevenZipSharp error Login issues, etc
Fallout 4: How to Build Anywhere in the Commonwealth