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Are there any good casual/low-stress mobile games that aren't filled with microtransactions? For example: easy puzzle games, match-3 games, low-difficulty adventure games, or clicker-style games.

So far, the only good examples I've found are Monument Valley, Suika Game, and (sort of) Vampire Survivors.

I'm personally looking for games that have more progression or variety, but any suggestions are welcome.

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[-] Fedizen@lemmy.world 1 points 3 hours ago

slay the spire has a mobile port

[-] robert@lemm.ee 4 points 5 hours ago

Try searching on https://www.darkpattern.games It seems like a vast collection with reviews aimed at finding and naming healthy and unhealthy games

[-] Mini_Moonpie@sh.itjust.works 2 points 5 hours ago

There are a lot of great suggestions here already, so I will just share Mini Review with you as a discovery tool. I like to use them because they have a lot of filters to help you find a mobile game. For example, here's their list for free, single-player, offline games with no ads or in app purchases, sorted by highest user score. They also have an app for both Android and iOS with the same info and filtering as the site.

[-] UndeadSlayer@sh.itjust.works 3 points 6 hours ago

Some good games I recommend are Alto's Adventure / Odyssey, any bejeweled game, Cell to Singularity, Idle Slayer, Monument Valley, Reigns, Sky Force Reloaded, and Stick Fight Shadow Warrior. Hopefully that's enough!

[-] verity_kindle@sh.itjust.works 1 points 4 hours ago

Reigns is so stressful, do not want! What are you trying to do, I'm spiraling just being reminded!

[-] PlexSheep@infosec.pub 9 points 7 hours ago

My recommendation l is going back to the basics: chess, especially lichess.org

You can choose a mode however you want, and it may or may not be stressful. Multiplayer with friends or random online people, choose a time between 30 seconds for a game and infinity to move.

If you don't want to play right now, you can solve tactical exercises.

[-] Sylvartas@lemmy.world 8 points 8 hours ago

Mindustry is amazing, and free somehow

[-] ICastFist@programming.dev 7 points 8 hours ago

Definitely not casual or low stress, especially as you progress through the planet, but a great game nonetheless

[-] Sylvartas@lemmy.world 3 points 6 hours ago

Whoops, yeah I skimmed over that part

[-] ICastFist@programming.dev 5 points 8 hours ago

You can check out whatever is available on F-Droid. I personally enjoy playing Freebloks once in a while, it's a mobile version of the Blokus boardgame

An alternative is checking out itch.io, searching with the proper tags, like puzzle, might yield decent results for your tastes.

You can also get Cookie Clicker or play the web version

[-] twoface@sh.itjust.works 2 points 7 hours ago

I really like Usagi Shima. There is not much gameplay, but it's a nice game to just relax for a few minutes. Also "Really Bad Chess" is a nice twist on chess. :D

[-] trk@aussie.zone 5 points 8 hours ago

Solitaire, straight out of classic Windows (pre-advertising death throes):

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.potatojam.classic.solitaire.klondike

Hoplite, classic turn based dungeon/puzzle:

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.magmafortress.hoplite

[-] FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 2 points 8 hours ago

Word Cookies. I absolutely love it. You can pay for things, but it is absolutely not necessary and is basically only if you feel the need to use boosts that allow you to cheat your way past the level. I think it costs $2 to go ad-free.

It does give you regular popups asking if you want to buy coins, which I admit is annoying, but they are unnecessary to enjoy the game. There's also endless opportunities to get coins and other boosts for free. I have something like 80,000 coins and dozens of boosts and other than the $2 to go ad-free, I've never given them any money.

You do have to have certain word skills to enjoy it as much as I do. If you're the sort who can crush it at Boggle, it's the game for you.

[-] RalphWolf@lemmy.world 3 points 9 hours ago

Assuming that you have Netflix, open it, scroll to games and open the section. There are tons of great games without any microtransactions or ads. They're overwhelmingly commercial games licensed by Netflix.

[-] TunaLobster@lemmy.world 1 points 9 hours ago

Golf on Mars and Desert Golfing. Super simple. No ads. Its just 2D golf that keeps on going with any gimmicks.

[-] Defectus@lemmy.world 3 points 11 hours ago
[-] Einridi@lemmy.world 3 points 11 hours ago

I have clocked a lot of hours in Slice & Dice both on mobile and on PC well worth the 8 bucks even though I've paid it three times now I think. Honorable mention to Suika(Watermelon game) about 3 bucks on the Play store.

[-] ginko@lemmy.world 3 points 12 hours ago

You should download Mini Review

It is a currated version of the Play Store with many filters including paid/free, IAP, genres, ...

The reviews are very thorough and always include a paragraph about the "presatoriness" of IAP if any

[-] Excrubulent@slrpnk.net 5 points 14 hours ago* (last edited 4 hours ago)

A Dance of Fire and Ice is an incredible rhythm game that you buy once and that's it. I think there's an expansion pack but it's a single purchase. Whether that's your idea of "casual" really depends on what you like. You can always play chill low difficulty levels when you need to zone out, and high difficulty levels when you want a challenge. It can get stupidly hard.

You can try a demo online at that link. It told me webgl wasn't supported on mobile, but it worked pretty well for me just now on firefox, even if it was a bit laggy. It should work fine on PC.

I pirated it on PC after my kids told me about it and ended up buying it three times on Steam and twice on mobile. It's just that good. I've built a custom digital drum to play it and I'm now making a custom MIDI controller, so we'll see if that does better when connected to the game.

The game works as well on mobile, if not better because the touchscreen is so responsive.

[-] lapping6596@lemmy.world 5 points 15 hours ago

Blooms TD 6 - fun tower defense game with solid progression and everything can be earned by playing what I think is a reasonable amount.

[-] PlexSheep@infosec.pub 2 points 7 hours ago

BTD5 too. This is a very good recommendation.

[-] morphballganon@lemmy.world 3 points 14 hours ago

I used to play Unblock Me. Made it maybe 1000 levels in various difficulties before stopping.

[-] FitzNuggly@lemmy.world 2 points 13 hours ago

Royal Match and Royal Kingdom are both add free and free to play. You can buy stuff, but you dont need to

[-] Plagiatus@lemmy.world 15 points 22 hours ago

I liked egg inc for a while, if you're looking for clicker type games.

Other than that I can recommend

  • Stardew Valley
  • Peglin
  • Sudoku
  • Nanograms
  • Dungeon Village 1 & 2

Multiple of these are paid, but I'm 100% on board with paying a small amount for an app rather than paying a multiple of that for in-game Battlepasses and whatevers.

It annoys me a lot to say this, but Netflix has some excellent games in their roster. So if you have a Netflix subscription, check those out. I personally very much enjoyed

  • Storyteller
  • Into the Breach

But they also have ports of some very good PC games like Spiritfarer, Terra Nil or World of Goo.

[-] verity_kindle@sh.itjust.works 1 points 4 hours ago

Any little casual simulators by Kairosoft, the pay to play "full versions" are pretty cheap. Manage a lil apartment building, manage a tiny sushi restaurant, manage a little Japanese village. 8 bit style, very soothing. The free versions are quite limited in scope and cut you off from further progression after a few levels, but no microtransaction reminders, either. The mention of "Dungeon Village" reminded me, is that Kairosoft?

[-] Plagiatus@lemmy.world 1 points 2 hours ago

It is indeed

[-] sag@lemm.ee 3 points 13 hours ago

Peglin is available for Mobile?? Adios

[-] A_Very_Big_Fan@lemmy.world 9 points 22 hours ago* (last edited 21 hours ago)

If you like the older Pokemon games and can get the ROMs on your phone, PokeMMO is really cool. It's an emulator that turns the first 5 generations of games into an MMO where you can take the same character across each region.

There's a handful of changes to the base game, but most are small: Berry farming is changed, there's an Exp Share for EVs now, Sweet Scent is used to summon a 1v5 against wild Pokemon... There's character customization... There's some QoL stuff like shiny encounters having a sound effect and adding a confirmation box so you don't accidentally flee, and the stats page for your Pokemon is way more detailed.

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this post was submitted on 30 Jun 2024
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