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Are there any good casual/low-stress mobile games that aren't filled with microtransactions?

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.

nyctre ,

I’m enjoying isle of arrows right now. Tower defense but instead of having a set map and same towers you get to draw cards and have to make do with what you get. Some cards give you pathing for the mobs, other expand the buildable area, others give you towers. Simple and fun. Game pauses between waves so you can take as long as you want to prepare.

AceFuzzLord ,

I don’t think there’s any meta progression as far as I’m aware, but I find Shattered Pixel Dungeon (available on both android and ios) to be a low stress enough game. I suck at it, so I’ve never gotten much further than the first boss fight, but the game is about running through randomly generated dungeons, going down floor by floor as one of 4 different characters.

Niiru ,

Slice and dice

ShareMySims , (edited )

Sky: Children of the Light

You get to run/fly/swim/dive around and explore several mostly chill realms, helping out “spirits” and collecting light (one kind for currency, another to increase flying ability), and optionally interacting and cooperating with friendly randoms from around the world. There is a story to it which I won’t spoil, but there is always more to do even after playing through it.

There are zero ads.

There are some optional transactions, but they aren’t pushed constantly (there are changing “seasons”, and you can buy a pass for each one which will give you access to special cosmetics and the in game currency to buy them with, but there is plenty to collect without it).

Seasons also repeat (not exactly as they were, but the spirits from them return and their items become available again) so if you missed something the first time around because you didn’t have enough in game currency, or you took a break from the game, you’ll get another chance at it (I also think items that were initially only available with the pass you buy for real money, later become available for in game currency).

Keeping that in mind, you can grind as much or as little as you like, and there is also a limit to how much currency you can collect a day, so there’s only so much grinding you can do if you are so inclined. If you’re not that bothered about buying all the items, you can take a really relaxed approach and just play through the tasks and explore at your own pace (even learn how to play an instrument lol).

The first time I played it a few years back, I didn’t really “get” the game, or think to look up any information about it, so was just randomly flying around and getting confused and frustrated when things were a little less chill at points, so I quit. But a few months ago I decided to give it a second chance and having actually taken the time to understand what is going on in the game, this time around I’m enjoying it a lot more.

Tarquinn2049 ,

If you are comfortable with games that are not technically classified as freeware yet, but functionally, they probably should be… then emulation of older consoles is a great way to go too. While they are certainly not “legal”, I don’t think anyone playing them has ever gotten in trouble. Only the people that try to make money off of it find that the console companies are motivated enough to shut them down. Otherwise, it doesn’t feel super risky to just play stuff. Just stick with games that are impossible to pay for if you want to be completely safe. There was a ton of good games on 16 and 32 bit consoles that you literally couldn’t pay for now if you tried. And even as new as gamecube is getting pretty hard to possibly pay money for.

Newer stuff, I only feel ok emulating what I actually own. But as time goes on, newer and newer stuff becomes the new old stuff. A pretty wide variety of console emulators for android are in a good place now.

I do recommend a controller though if you go this route. Ideally one of the ones that also holds your phone for you. Either by making it into a switch/steamdeck kind of shape, or the ones that hold the phone above an xbox style controller. Both are good.

ipkpjersi ,

This is exactly what I’ve been doing recently. These older games are basically old enough to be considered abandonware/technologically obsolete.

If I can’t obtain it legally then I find it hard to be upset about obtaining it through other ways.

AlligatorBlizzard ,

Gubbins is a fun word game, it’s a one time purchase and apparently part of the profits go to charity due to Hank Green investing in it in a creative way.

aramis87 ,

I'm seconding Simon Tatham's puzzle collection, Nonograms Katana, and Stardew Valley, all of which are in regular rotation and fill different niches in my soul.

milicent_bystandr ,

Came here to say Simon Tatham’s puzzles.

I also like, from f-droid, Tower Jumper, and from Play, hillclimb racing.

  • seen much praise of mindustry here on Lemmy, but not got into it myself
  • rabbit escape is like lemmings/pingus
  • I like go, but play casual. CrazyStone on Play works well for me. It’s doing something with the internet on startup, probably benign model updates, but I block its internet access.
  • I also remember Doom and Destiny being very fun and fairly casual. The free version is not too bad on ads. The second one I never got far in - felt like it was constant ads interrupting gameplay
Batman ,
@Batman@sopuli.xyz avatar

Imagzle. There are “buy more levels” but there are plenty on the main one. It gives a picture, more or less, abstractly related to something. Art, movie, book, many random things

DudeDudenson ,

Man mobile gaming is such utter crap in general, I hope the handheld gaming PC trend picks up and people start developing actual competing games for Android instead of micro transaction filled pay to win pieces of shit games

rockerface ,

The really good games I have played on mobile are mostly indie roguelike ports from PC, like Slay the Spire, Dead Cells or 20 Minutes Till Dawn. Or something more classic like solitaire, minesweeper or crosswords/nonograms/sudoku puzzles

ramirezmike ,

The problem isn’t that no one is making good games, it’s just that the mobile market is dominated by too many large companies intent on keeping it the way it is and enough of the consumers are ok with that.

CountVon ,
@CountVon@sh.itjust.works avatar

I’m not sure it fits 100% with what you’re looking for, but I’ll take chance and recommend Slice & Dice (Google Play, Apple App Store). Free demo, no ads, single in-app purchase to unlock the full version. This game is easily the best value-for-dollar mobile game I’ve ever purchased.

bionicjoey ,

If you have a Netflix account, you can get Bloons TD6 for free on Android. It’s fun and the microtransactions are completely unnecessary and hidden away. Beware it’s a battery hog though

Also, if you like puzzles, look up the various variant sudoku apps from Studio Goya, particularly the one called “Cracking the Cryptic”

MeatsOfRage ,

https://lemmy.world/pictrs/image/c3cc1073-c8ea-477b-b7f2-44ba20d5f329.png

Holedown

You just aim a ball and clear blobs before they reach the top. No timer. I usually play this with my screen split to YouTube.

CheeseBread ,

This isn’t exactly what you asked, but I highly recommend emulation. I have had ePSXe downloaded on every phone I’ve had for the past ten years to play PS1 games. There are so many good titles, all of them free, playable offline. You might like Intelligent Qube Mr. Driller Devil Dice for puzzles. I love playing final fantasy, legend of dragoon, suikoden, Spyro, crash bandicoot. I don’t care about graphics, but I am a sucker for playing through a story.

whotookkarl ,
@whotookkarl@lemmy.world avatar

ScummVM is my emulator of choice, like ePSXe it runs on phones and opens it up to a bunch of classics

DudeDudenson ,

Gba games on my phone were the shit in my late teens

dom ,

Grand prix story and game dev tycoon.

Both good games, low stress, clear progression

Tarquinn2049 ,

Magic DosBox, not a game. But in combination with www.old-games.com , it’s a pretty good selection of all the old games made for Dos back in the wild west of indie games back before they were even called that. There are, of course, also old commercial games that have transitioned to freeware now too. Should be able to find lots of awesome games there. Moraff adventure games are particularly interesting. Bit of a steep learning curve, but great to come back to now and then. The site has reviews of every game and sorts them into categories. It can be a little overwhelming just due to the sheer number of available games, but take it slow, and work your way through. It’s worth the time investment to find gems.

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