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Mobile gaming is kind of a tricky topic on a forum full of folks who are used to playing games of high production quality and size, but I spend a lot of time away from home and sometimes my droid phone is all I've got for entertainment; so I've looked into grabbing some quality titles to offset that.

While mobile gaming is largely littered with low-level lifeless titles, there are some quality offerings that I'd like to share for anyone looking around for something to play. Keep in mind that I'm an android user and don't know much about how Apple handles things at the moment.

Fire Emblem Heroes: Yes, yes, it's a game and a lot of people aren't into that, and for good reason. These games can take a significant investment of money, or time if you're not fortunate enough to be in a financial situation to drop $500 to get a character you want. However, speaking as a purely Free-to-play user of the game (not a dollar spent since release date), I am in an excellent position character wise, because the game is incredibly generous in dishing out the summoning currency, and the game itself is actually great fun. It's like a more simplistic version of main-series Fire Emblem gameplay, but with a surprising level of complexity, depth, and strategy to it. I recommend this to anyone who likes turn-based games, and I also encourage you to power through the initial low-level start. With how long the game has been around, and with all the chapters open to new players, you'll be rolling in orbs (and hopefully, a bunch of 5* characters) in no time.

XCOM: Enemy Within: So this is technically a mobile phone port of a PC/PS3/360 game, but for what it is, it's extraordinarily well made and uncompromising of the tactical depth of the original while sacrificing only graphical quality (because obviously a dedicated gaming machine has higher processing power than a mobile phone). It's seriously the entirety of one of the most treasured tactical games released to-date made mobile, no loss in gameplay or feature. I highly recommend this to anyone, turn-based inclination or no. It can be a little pricey compared to most mobile games ($10 USD), but the price of entry is quite worth it for a game most people paid $60 for.

Shadowrun Returns/Shadowrun: Dragonfall Another port of a PC game, Shadowrun is a tactical turn-based RPG (you're starting to see a theme in my gaming tastes) where you play an elusive criminal of your own creation in a dark cyberpunk world. While the original Shadowrun Returns is a great offering on its own, the Shadowrun: Dragonfall expansion exceed the original in every way and is absolutely the cream of the crop concerning the two offerings. With a deep story rivaling many novels and great customization and combat, this one's a steal for only $3 or so.

Knights of Pen & Paper: A good, simplistic RPG that makes up for its lack of mechanical depth with clever, self-referential humor and dialogue that is sure to capture the hearts of nerds like me who like tabletop games. May be a pain to acquire because it's linked with Amazon's app store, but give it a go if you've got the spare change. The sequel is also quite good.

Neko Atsume: Collect cats. No, really, that's it. Get it, you'll love it.

Game Dev Story: Among the many, many cookie-cutter KairoSoft games, this little simulation game is so freakishly addicting that I purposefully avoid this company's titles because I just have too much real-life stuff to do. It's simple, fun, and great if you're a freak for progression like me.

Knights of the Old Republic: It's quite literally one of the most beloved RPGs in the industry on your phone for like $10. This is a no-brainer if you've never played the game.

Triple Town: Sort of a math-puzzle game like 2048 where you have to combine three-of-a-kind blocks on a board until you run out of space. Super simple, super laid-back, great game to improve at, and very arcade-like.

Those are my recommendations; have you guys played anything of note that I missed?

Pixel Dungeon: It's a really simple to play rogue-like, and a lot of fun. You start by choosing either Warrior, Thief, Mage, or Huntress (each has their own special features) and then fight your way through 26 levels of dungeon. If you die, you have to start all over again and the dungeon looks different than it did before. So it's partly thanks to skill and partly thanks to luck that you win. It was free when I got it for my Samsung, but it looks like it costs money on Apple.

I have surprisingly gotten into these lately!

What I have on the phone so far is

Legend of Grimrock: It's probably the best type of game that could have seen a mobile-side port, I am seriously impressed at how well it runs! I hope LoG2 sees a port as well

Don't Starve: Works fine so far, battery hog, but that's alright. I heard some people say the controls bother them, but I haven't had that issue yet. Still, it's another game that made sense to port, and I'm glad Klei did it!

Other than these, I have Poker Night at the Inventory 2 (VERY FUN!), Chess, checkers, and Mahjong. I like them simple sometimes.



Minecraft: The controls take A LOT of work to get used too, the keyboard and mouse spoiled me. That said, it is fun making houses on your phones, while having witches sneak up behind you, hit you with two poison potions, flail in anger and desperation for survival, and...Well...Die.

Exiled Kingdoms: Not a bad RPG to play, it's still being made, but for a mobile game it is damn good so far! Still, hitting an area of the map where another area should be, but isn't, is distracting.

Interesting post. And the games are interesting. I will try to play them. Thanks.

Mobile games are very addictive. Started to spend a lot of time, and play under almost any conditions. So I decided not to play at all on mobile)