This is such a random question, but I’m feeling heckin’ nebby: what is your favorite game on your phone or tablet? What game do you turn to when you’re waiting in line, or looking to relax a bit?
Amanda: I have a few that I play regularly: Gardenscapes (G:Play | iOS), a match 3 game where you earn stars to renovate a garden, and Fairway Solitaire (G:Play | iOS), which is an addicting card game that has daily challenges.
From time to time, I’ll grab a romance phone game like The Arcana (G:Play | iOS) or Mystic Messenger (G:Play | iOS) , but I go through pockets with those.
I usually play in bed at night.
Sarah: What do you like about Gardenscapes or Fairway?
Amanda: The first I’ve been playing for years now and the “customizable” options on how you want to decorate your garden is really what keeps me playing. I like having choices!
Fairway is a bit more mindless but because I’m a perfectionist, I insist on getting 3 stars on every level and that’s a nice challenge.
Sarah: So it’s like a challenge and a bit of brain candy at the same time? I get that.
Amanda: And with Mystic Messenger, most of the game is played through “texts” and you choose responses. My first “romance” was with an actor named Zen:
Amanda: The game takes place through text messages, emails, and calls with various characters. The way you answer a text from the choices they give you can either increase or decrease your standing with said character.
In this particular scenario, Zen has been cast in a new role and the script was written by a romance author. There’s a ton of replay-ability given the huge cast of characters you can romance.
Sarah: What about you, Carrie?
Carrie: I do have a tarot deck on my phone – it’s Shadowscapes tarot which is gorgeous, and the app is very good (G:Play | iOS).
Sarah: So it’s like dealing a digital tarot deck? That’s so cool!
Carrie: Yes, there are a lot of deck possibilities too!
Sarah: That’s very cool.
As for me, I have two games on my phone that I play daily.
The first, and I must issue a warning that I might nerd out most heavily here, is Dragons: Rise of Berk (G:Play | iOS) which is connected to the DreamWorks How to Train Your Dragon franchise.
I’ve been playing Rise of Berk since the second movie came out in 2014. You have your own Island of Berk, and there are character quests, different challenges at different levels, and rare dragons to find and bring back to the island to hatch. The graphics are also really beautiful:
As a storytelling vehicle, it’s kind of fascinating. The movies, of which there are three, have one specific canon that doesn’t really acknowledge much of what happened in the eight seasons of the television shows (Dragons: Riders of Berk, Dragons: Defenders of Berk, and Dragons: Race to the Edge). But all of the lore from the television series and the movies is included in the games, with characters, dragons, and story quests overlapping a good bit, too. It’s like an entire third canon.
The game also hasn’t reconciled with the story of the third movie, The Hidden World, which released this year. I won’t spoil it if you haven’t seen it (but I’m like a quivering gelatin mold of unexpressed discussion about this movie so unless you want a massive nerd-sposion, do not engage. I’ve definitely passed ‘My family is tired of hearing about it’ stages). I’m curious to see how the game story navigates the movie story, or if it does so at all.
I like Rise of Berk because it’s got a myriad of different puzzles and quests, and I find it very soothing to play. I do think there are too many currencies, though.
The other game I recently added with MUCH trepidation is Stardew Valley (G:Play | iOS). Chronophage alert! I knew this was going to devour my time, and I happily installed it anyway. I have an Android phone, so I had to wait longer for that version, but when it released, I jumped on it.
There are two features about the phone version that I love. I can zoom out to see an entire area and see if there’s anything I want to forage (Forage Skills FTW!). And, my favorite: when I approach an item that I can do something with, the game automatically switches to the correct tool. Walk up to some wood, tap it: axe. Turn around and tap a boulder: pickaxe. I like this very much!
I do have to be careful, though, because one day in Stardew Valley turns into a whole season and poof! I’ve lost a few hours of my day happily farming blueberries. With Rise of Berk, I can dip in and out and usually play before bed, gathering resources and leveling up different dragons. With Stardew Valley, I give myself a set amount of time to go play, but I really enjoy both games.
I recently read a line of a Mary Oliver poem, “Wild Geese:”
You only have to let the soft animal of your body
love what it loves.
Well, apparently the soft animal of my body loves dragons and virtual 8-bit farming, so we’re all pretty happy over here.
What about you? What games on your phone and tablet do you love most? Why do you like them?
Chess. I just learned and I’m trying to improve by getting a lot of practice.
Gardenscapes and the mansion-decorating counterpart, Homescapes. I’m at the point, though, where almost every improvement requires 4 points (or multiple sets of 2-3), and they’ve greatly overestimated my enjoyment of the match game versus the restoration story. It might go smoother if I threw money at it, but that’s not feasible, so I’m probably nearing my stopping point.
I haven’t played I Love Hue in a while, but that was a very soothing color-arranging exercise. (I got to the hexagon levels, and that shape violates the soothing contract.)
I played Starview Valley on PS4 and cosign the timesuck. I was more interested in building my empire of void mayonnaise than buying friends, so I failed most of those milestones. I’m a struggling farmer/miner/fisher/forager who works 6 a.m. to midnight every day and you want a daily DIAMOND to be my friend? Girl, bye. I focused all my attention on the pathetic drunk and got the blue curly-tailed chickens for my trouble.
My friend got me hooked on a dress-up game called Love Nikki. They don’t provide us with all the clothes and accessories, we actually have to collect it through various ways such as a drop from a story chapter, special events or crafting. This is what sets this game apart from the Flash-based dress-up games we used to play back in high school. There’s always something happening to keep the game fresh and exciting. The art is beautiful, and there’s actually a storyline!!
Skin tones of POC with matching make-ups are, unfortunately, very, very, very limited. But the Love Nikki community remind the Chinese developers regularly that we want more POC skin and make-up options.
It’s totally possible to be a free player and enjoy all the game has to offer. I played this game as a free player for six months before I caved in and spent real money on virtual clothes.
I’m ashamed to say that this game is so addicting that I have stopped reading romance novels almost all together. I don’t know what to do with my big TBR pile.
Pokemon go is my go to game at the moment. It’s mindless and my work team plays it. We bond over it and that gives me a nice community aspect.
I didn’t know stardew valley was on Android! So many people have recommended that game to me. But it was only available to play on consoles/PC. So I didn’t get into it. Now I can! *Disappears into timesink black hole*
I own Stardew Valley for Mac and I love it love it love it! Like Ren, I pursued the drunk for his fancy chickens. I also used mods to make fishing much easier and to turn all the Community Center bundles into single pieces of wood. Saving the town is a snap that way!
The app I keep coming back to is Choice of Games, which features a variety of text-based adventure games in various genres. Most of the games allow you to play as a queer character, and many feature romantic subplots. I’m working on their new pulp fantasy, Pon Para and the Southern Labyrinth, and I’m enjoying it so far. I also recommend Napoleonic naval adventure Choice of Broadsides, courtly intrigue fantasy Choice of Romance (you’re Ann Boleyn, but you can shoot fireballs), Shakespearean romp A Midsummer Night’s Choice, sci-fi Choice of Robots, pro-wrestling adventure Slammed!, high school fantasy/mystery Psy High, kid-friendly episodic mystery Sixth Grade Detective, and Napoleonic alt-history The Eagle’s Heir. I hope you enjoy these games and others!
Simon’s Cat – Crunch Time. It’s a match 3 with Simon Tofield’s artwork. You match cat food pieces and the kitties eat them. Free on Android, I have been enjoying it without spending any real money.
Gardenscapes is very pretty and relaxing, I got to level 500 or so before getting tired of it.
My very old phone doesn’t allow for a lot of game play. The operating system aged out of Words With Friends last year, but happily I took @Ren Benton’s rec from a while back and downloaded I Love Hue. I think it appeals because I am a quilter/needleworker and it works on color theory, which I always need a little help on. It’s also a little meditative, so I’ll sneak in a prism or two when the work day gets stressful. Also, when you do well, it calls you lovely things like a sunbeam or a unicorn. I always want to be a unicorn
I quit gardenscapes and homescapes the same reasons RenBenton mentioned.(aside: my voice text just named you Renben,which may be stuck in my head forever now). Currently playing a tetris-like game of called at Woody puzzle that is quite addicting. I also had a 2 month span in which I was playing a game called design home. I beg you, do not start playing it. It will ruin your life. One day you will look up and realize that you have spent $70 in a week on non-existent furniture.
This conversation is making me so happy! Thank you for sharing what games you love.
One thing about Stardew Valley that I DO NOT GET: everyone hates receiving Bread as a gift. WHO HATES BREAD?! I ask you. Seriously. If a neighbor gave me bread I’d be thrilled!
I don’t have any games on my phone but I love Stardew Valley, and Shadowhand on my PC.
Shadowhand is set in 18th century England. You play as Lady Cornelia Darkmoor,a notorious highwaywoman at night, using solitaire to duel enemies. You get gold from the games to use for buying new and pretty weapons and armour.
I recently got back into playing Castle Story after a long hiatus. I have spent real money maybe two or three times in the 3-4 years I’ve been playing it, but mostly I play without spending actual money on it and find it very enjoyable that way. You’re the ruler of a queendom in the middle of a magical forest and you have to craft and harvest stuff, but there’s also a storyline. Also, the graphics are really pretty. Oh, and since you regularly run out of energy and have to wait for it to refill, there’s an automatic break built in, which I appreciate.
The other, much more mindless game I play (often while listening to audiobooks) is Dropdom Jewel. Rows of different sized blocks appear from the bottom and you have to move the blocks left or right, so that blocks from the rows above can fill any holes and the completed rows disappear. Each time you move a block, a new row appears at the bottom. If you don’t manage to make rows disappear fast enough and they touch the top, you lose.
Word Search World Traveler, by the same person who does Just 2 Words, Just 2 Words Plus, & Jumble. I also have the Indie Goes Software, Oracle Card Collection app. I’ve also had solitaire & pyramid sokitaire games that were fun.
@Sally glad to know I’m not the only one adores Love Nikki! I like how diamonds(in-game currency) aren’t too hard to acquire. It you have patience and save up you can still get some of the rarer outfits.
Love Nikki is actually the only cell phone game I have at the moment and that is perfectly okay with me.
If you like word puzzles, I have a few recs:
Shorty’s Crosswords – it downloads daily crossword puzzles from the LA Times, Wall Street Journal, USA Today and a few others. Simple, clean, reliable, free. I’ve played it on several android phones for years (since 2012?), worked great on my ancient galaxy 3. @DonnaMarie
Wordscapes is very pretty but the ads got annoying. $2.99 to remove ads might be worth it.
I like word search type games but haven’t found a good one lately. Words on Tour was an addictive one a few years ago.
ToonBlast. TOONBLAST! It has ruined all my free time. I’m on level 1185 and actually downloaded another version on my husband’s phone so I can play when I’m stuck on a hard level for a few days. And I may or may not have dropped his phone into a pot of boiling lasagna noodles in the pursuit of playing. I blame the Ryan Reynolds ads! The game is free to download and there are in-app purchases but I’ve only spent probably $5 over the course of playing to get where I am now.
I love Pocket Camp. It’s the Animal Crossing game from the old Nintendo DS but for your phone. I have a bunch of animal friends and I can put outfits on them and change my clothes. I have a camp area where I can put my furniture. There’s fishing. I can’t even explain why I like it because it doesn’t sound fun at all but I’ve been playing it every day for 1.5 years.
I was obsessed with Animal Crossing Pocket Camp since the day it came out, and only in the last couple months has its grip on me loosened.
I like a game called Battle of Polytopia. It’s like a simplified version of Civilization.
I’ve been looking for new game to play while listening to podcasts, so I can’t wait to try Dropdom and other suggestions. Thanks for the discussion!
80 Days! It’s a text-based adventure game, based on Around the World in Eighty Days (duh) by Jules Verne. It’s alt-history, with a dash of steampunk and features many awesome characters, lots of whom are women and/or POC. It takes a sharply anti-colonialist approach too; which I thought I’d mention for everyone who’s somewhat reluctant because of the source material. While I love Verne’s novel (it’s a childhood favourite), it is kinda difficult to revisit, for various reasons. Not so with the game.
I must have gone around the world more than 30 times, and I still discover new things with every new play-through. Although graphics and sound are rather minimalistic, the text manages to create a unique atmosphere for every place you can visit.
I second I Love Hue. It’s super relaxing.
I also really love Solitairica, which is kind of like Fairway Solitaire, with the actual card movement, but instead you are battling creatures to get to the Emperor of Stuck and defeat him. There are four different types of energy and you play with a deck of cards that is focused on one or two of those types and each energy type has different types of powers. It’s also not free to play, but I think it’s like three or four dollars and I’ve definitely gotten my time out of it. I’ve even bought the extra decks, which are another dollar.
I also love Teeny Titans, although I’m not a fan of Teen Titans GO. It’s kind of Pokemon-ish, where you collect figurines and can level them up and battle other people along a storyline. It’s like four dollars as well. I’ve been trying to get games that are complete experiences and aren’t free to play after a frisstrating experience with Avengers Academy.
My games are mostly Match 3 – where you match the pieces to get pass the level, so I have Cookie Cats which features cats who sit on a wall and monitor your progress! If you have to collect certain colours of cookies for each cat, one will point to his mouth if you are not collecting his colour! Another will yawn and look bored! A third will file her nails! The humour really appeals. Have been playing for a couple of years now and the only money I have spent is to get rid of the ads – 0.99. There are also lots of opportunities to play mini games to get more coins and boosters.
Also by the same developer I have Bee Brilliant Blast and Cookie Cats Blast which is Match 3 but in cube form. And their new one Lilys Garden which is a garden development game, really enjoying the storyline which has humour, a mystery and a little romance! The graphics are lovely.
Then the old standby, Words with Friends – in the vain attempt to keep my brain cell hopping. Great sense of a achievement when I win a game!
I recently added both Stardew Valley & Love Nikki onto my phone. The way they implemented skin tones into LN is problematic, but I’m not sure yet how much it bothers me.
Stardew has sucked up all my time. All. And I can’t even figure out how to fish. Everything else is pretty ok, but I absolutely suck at fishing on the android.
If you like board games, Pandemic on the phone is very much like Pandemic in real life (except you don’t have to check in with your friends and come to a compromise, you can just move the medic to Hong Kong already instead of spending 15 minutes debating which is the right move. Also, less shuffling and putting cubes back in the right baggies).
And for math people – Euclidea will remind you of how to logic things.
My favorites are Word Brain, Trivia Crack, and Solitaire. I also play Words with Mom (okay it’s Friends, but I only play my mom!).
@Escapeologist–if you are looking for word search games, have you tried Word Brain? I LOVE it! Also, Wordament. I used to be on a huge Wordament kick but I think it’s been replaced by Word Brain (which might actually be one word, if you are searching for it).
My go-to games:
I have a good non-free backgammon from AI Factory on my phone and tablet.
I have solitaire and spider solitaire from Mobilityware. Both good with minimal ads.
Cubistry, now called Istry, a 3D matching game with different skins.
Bejeweled Classic. I like it. I can’t think while playing with it, so playing it is limited to when I can focus on it without interruption.
A generic Yachtzee that I don’t like because when they added more ads, it ruined the play space. (I will take recommendations for a substitute)
I also have a subscription to the NYTimes games. My uncle and I are hooked on Spelling Bee (a word unscrambler-type) which used to run in the paper only once a week, but now there’s an online version that runs 7 days a week…. We are hooked on that. One of us will start it (depending upon who woke up in the middle of the night) then we will both add to it during the day. Answers show up the next day, but the online version will tell you if the word is an actual word in the NYTimes dictionary. Very worth the money.
A small note: I’ve discovered that if I want to fall asleep playing a game, it has to be regular solitaire. If I play a game that makes me think or against the computer, I don’t fall asleep as easily. So no backgammon or Istry or Bejeweled or Spelling Bee (which we’ve usually found all the words by bedtime)
My games are: Two Dots (puzzle game w/ lot of interesting mechanics)
Pokemon Go
Heartwild Solitare (vaguely romance-themed solitaire game)
The Arcana (Dating game w/ tarot themed story, the three main romancables are done, and they’re working on rolling out the next three)
Dragonvale (basically you run a dragon zoo, it’s a lot)
I also really enjoy the Room series of games (nothing to do with the movie don’t worry), the first game The Room Pocket is surprisingly quick and yet fun and the writers/designers have put a lot of work into building the world as the games have gone on
I wish I hadn’t looked at this thread, as I’d just gotten to a place where all of my games are familiar enough that I’m less obsessive about them.
I’m on iOS and don’t know about other availability.
For I Love Hue fans, maybe look at KAMI 2 – not the same gameplay, but you’re trying to turn pretty patterns into a single color, and there are lots of user-contributed patterns when you’re through with the original content.
My favorite word game is Alphabear 2 – gradually exposing the board and making words from the tiles. It costs “honey” to play a round and honey only builds up through time, not paying for it, so there’s a limit to how much time you can kill on a session.
An oldie: Slay is a favorite hex-based strategy game, with a very simple mechanic and lots of maps to try.
Another oldie: Let’s Create! Pottery lets you do just that, and has lots of elements to include and pretty things you can create.
I’m pretty addicted to Hidden City. It’s an incredible time suck but I like solving the puzzles.
Pokémon go and mousehunt, both of which I am happily addicted to and improve my life :). I have been to lots of new parks and met lots of new people.
So for my iPad (I just updated to a new phone with more space-things may migrate!) I LOVE Simpsons Tapped out. I’ve been playing it off and on for over 5 years now. Although I don’t care as much about the day to day ‘maintenance’, they usually have quests for every holiday or quasi holiday to roll around, which unlocks special characters or buildings.
At night when I can’t fall asleep, I play Word Shaker, which is a lovely word search game. I play in the untimed mode, so I can’t actually shake the tiles, but it still works well for me. It’s enough thinking to prevent stress thoughts, but not so much thinking that I won’t be tired.
I’m such a nerd I’ve played most of the games described above (many on PC rather than phone). My current go-to android games are, in order of preference: (1) Design Home; (2) Empires & Puzzles (match 3); West, and Guns of Glory (both wargames).
Gardenscapes on my computer though I really miss the search and find part that used to be on the older versions, but match 3 is relaxing for me. Though I’m at the point where they don’t have levels for me so I’m earning keys.
Pokemon Go on my phone, there are some major players at my work which has helped me do more with it. And I play it every day, its a nice way to chart my walking.
Star Wars Galaxy of Heroes which is a combo fighting and collecting game. So far I haven’t become bored for frustrated with it though there are some points where its annoying to be far but not far enough. I’m not really good at the numbers of all that you need to be the best but I like having my favorite characters.
At one point, I was really into Neko Atsume but then I got to the point of not getting as much from it as before. So I took it off my phone.
That How to Dragon Game looks really cool. I love that world but haven’t seen the newest movie yet or watched the latest tv series. I kind of don’t want it to be over.
I have spent actual money on a few of these games, not very often but every once in a while.
I really love June’s Journey!! It is a hidden object mystery game with major Ms. Fisher’s Murder Mysteries vibes!! It also has an aspect of the game where you build stuff on the estate to gain points which is super fun if you like designing things.
There are multiple mysteries that you solve by solving the hidden object games so even when you finish one mystery you can keep playing to solve another one!
Wordscape is my favorite game to play on my tablet, because I am a word nerd and have loved word games my whole life. My high schooler said that the game had hit his school hard last month and he told his friends that his mom plays that game and he couldn’t believe how far along I was when he looked at my level.
I second Simon’s Cat Crunch Time. I also like Simon’s Cat Pop Time, which is a sort of bubble popper. For words, I like Word Crossy and Wordalot. I also like Backpacker, which is a travel trivia game that takes you all over the world. I’ve always love Big Fish’s hidden object adventure games. They have a lot of their catalog converted for mobile devices (with greater or lesser success), but they haven’t released anything new in ages. I loved the old versions of Gardenscapes, etc. but haven’t liked them near as much since they switched to the pay for stuff model rather than a one time purchase.
I don’t have a phone but played loved Gardenscapes and Pearl’s Peril on my Laptop for the Landscape Design Elements. Then I discovered Facebook Supercity which I love for the best Urban Planning and Landscape Architecture Build Your Own City stuff.
Mobility Software’s Pyramid Solitaire is very enjoyable
I love love love that Mary Oliver poem.
Escapologist-I downloaded Wordscapes at a conference this weekend on a friend’s recommendation – super addictive and quick but I agree about the ads.
TripleTown and Alphabears from Spryfox are my most often played phone games—low stakes, repetitive and soothing.
Right now here are my obsessions
1) Like so many have mentioned, Gardenscapes is my jam. I like both the challenge of he match-3 and the enjoyment of designing the gardens equally. My favorite thing is to rack up a lot of stars so I can go on a garden spree. I do hate having to waste precious stars on non-garden stuff like “call joe” and “open the letter.” But oh well.
2) Design Home. Ugh. Last year I spent 200.00 on this game so now I make myself only play the daily game or design a room where the prize is something I really want. So very proud I restrained myself from spending any real money this year. I did feel a little validated this year that they gave me 60.00 Amazon gift card for playtesting a new version of the game.
3) Smash Hit. So pretty. Very zen. Satisfies some weird need to smash stuff.
My favorite game to play with my 7yr old is The Mystery of Blackthorn Castle and other puzzle quest games in that line from Syntaxity. These games keep both of us entertained, stump us both, make us think, and are quite satisfying every time we figure out a puzzle which had stumped us.
I mostly stick to short little things to play while in line, etc. I usually do Wordbubbles, Bonza (a sort of word-assembly game), and occasionally Word Mocha. And for mindless but cute fun, Disney/LINE TsumTsums. I used to LOVE Bejeweled Blitz (I think it was a FB app?) but for some reason, the computer now has the wrong version of Flash or something, and I haven’t bothered to figure out the fix, LOL!
For six months or so, my main phone game has been Zen Koi 2. You swim your koi around, eating prey in order to level up your fish. You also breed your fish to try to fill in your collections. It’s easy to play for just a few minutes, or zone out and play while I’m walking around my house to get in steps. [And unlike more complicated games, there aren’t too many times when I unintentionally stop walking to focus on a tricky part.]
Secondary phone game is sudoku.
For about a year and a half my main tablet game is Merge Dragons! where you play levels and have a camp where you can work to make progress. You ‘grow’ your dragons by merging dragons (matching 3 or 5) to get to the next level, same concept for progressing your items.
Secondary tablet game is TD Bloons 6, a tower defense game.
I *am* intrigued by those Ryan Reynolds Toon Blast ads though.. 😉