Square Enix’s “Go” series of mobile games have always been great, and Deus Ex Go is the best one yet. Warning, though: it does require an internet connection at all times.Īvailable for iPhone / iPad and Android. There are dozens of troops (represented, as is typical now, by cards) that you can unlock over time, whether or not you pay anything. It’s choosing what troops to play, and when, where some serious strategy comes in. Elixir replenishes over time, which you use to play troops that’ll march ahead and hopefully conquest. Each 3-minute match has pretty much the same setup: two bridges separate your three towers from your opponents. But even without spending a dime, I’ve gotten kind of addicted to Clash Royale. Okay, wait, I know… I loathe free-to-play games that “encourage” you buy in-game currency with in-life money, too. This is not a pick-up-and-play game, but it’s thoroughly rewarding if you’re able to give it the time. A first-person exploration with smart touchscreen-based combat and gorgeous, if at times intense, art style.
Whereas most games on this list can work well for short commutes, Severed is a game that’s worth sitting down and devoting some time to (ie. Satisfaction comes from survival, and if you can make it even just a few weeks before congestion brings everything down, hey, congratulations.Īvailable for iPhone / iPad and Android. Mini Metro is a deceptively simple game of connecting train lines to various shaped nodes so that all the triangle- and square-shaped “people” can get to whatever triangle- stop is closest.
The perfect game for when you hate your city commute and think, “hey, I could probably design this subway system better” (spoiler: you probably can’t).
The game is free and feature-rich, with one-time in-app purchases designed to add complexity after you get the hang of it (which won’t take long).Īvailable for iPhone / iPad and Android.
Turn by turn, you can expand your empire, upgrade various technologies, and if you’re feeling it, conquer your neighbors. The Battle of Polytopia The Battle of Polytopiaīorn Supertribes before a name change earlier this year, Mijiwan’s The Battle of Polytopia is an impressive Civilization-like strategy game that has evolved throughout 2016 with content-rich updates. And though each successive monarchy might seem to following the same cycle, there’s a meta-narrative that spans each lifetime.Īvailable for iPhone / iPad and Android. Should one interest get too powerful or too weak, the reign of one king ends and the next begins. Playing as a king who will all but surely perish within a few rounds, at least at first, each decision is made by swiping left or right, increasing or decreasing the power of each opposing interest (the church, the people, the army, and the bank). It’s weird (re)writing the phrase “Tinder-like fantasy,” but that’s honestly the best way to describe Reigns.
We've also listed our favorite games for iOS and Android from this year. Check out our other picks for iPhones, Android phones, PCs, and Macs. We've rounded up our favorite and most-used apps and utilities for the technology we use every day. Here are a few of our picks to get through the end of 2016 and beyond. If you aren’t already an active mobile gamer, even at this point, you’re missing out on quite a bit of both simple and even deeply involved experiences - and if this holiday, you happened to upgrade your device to the latest and greatest, we’ve got a couple of suggestions. I won’t pretend to know what holidays mean for you, but for most, there’s a singularly shared experience: long flights and being far away from your PlayStation or Xbox.