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I just got a tablet a couple weeks ago (late adopter, I know). This has sparked my interest in mobile games as a way to encourage me to use the thing and justify the purchase. Unfortunately, aside from browsing Play Store's "Top Free" games, I've found it strangely difficult to find decent games that aren't geared toward children 10 and under. So, what is everyone's favorite mobile games?

Here are my favorites, in order.
1) Clash of Clans - By far my favorite game. Been playing it A LOT since January. Since it's a worldwide multiplayer strategy game (time ticks by, even if you're not playing), there is a lot of psychological and strategic thinking that you can put into it (or not for younger players). The fact that you can hop on for ~5 minutes or less (to attack/re-arm traps/donate troops/collect resources) and put it back down, coupled with seemingly endless upgrade-ability makes this a game I can see myself playing for a long long time.
(Clan = To Victory, Username = DPete27 if anyone wan'ts to join)

2) Fruit Ninja - Pretty sure everyone has heard of this one. Slice fruit...end of story. Fruit Ninja gets my vote over Fruit Slice (which I've also played) because of the unlock-able content and the multiplayer mode. This is more of an occasional pick-up game.

3) Deer Hunter 2014 - Pretty decent hunting game with good graphics. Moderate play-ability. I got just into Region 6 and stopped because it was taking too long to earn enough money for weapon upgrades. Fun while it lasted (little over a month?)

4) Unblock Me - Get the red block out of the puzzle. Played a very similar game at my grandparent's when I was a kid. Exercises your brain.

5) Candy Crush (aka Bejeweled) - My wife loves this game...It's okay. For me it's more of an occasional pick-up game to pass the time if I have nothing else to do. It just seems like a lot of the outcome is based on luck, not so much on skill.

I think a good game needs to exercise your brain and/or always leave something for you to work toward (upgrades/unlockables/etc). Otherwise, people will just play it for a short time and toss it.

Bloons Tower Defense 4 and 5. Great game. Addicting, but easy enough to walk away from. And you don't have to spend cash to beat it (like many games).

Right now, it's the touch-based version of Final Fantasy VI. It's been completely redone from an art, translation, and interface standpoint, but it's the same game with the same balance, great story and amazing music. Yeah it's $15 but it feels like a brand new game.

Otherwise, I'm into 2048 and Solitaire City, which is the very best mobile Solitaire game you can buy. There's a free version to try out.

Shameless plug: I worked on this game.

Globlins: A fairly unique and funky sci fi puzzle game. Really love the art style and music. Easy at first but can be quite challenging. Free on Android.

Any Square Enix game tends to be expensive so I cannot recommend Final Fantasy (sorry derFunkenstein)
If you like Candy Crush also try Farm Heroes also by King (variation on Candy Crush that works well)

Dungeon Keeper is good and implemented well. Things are changing often so it feels like a beta but the polish is there to say it is a done game.

Keep your eye out on the Humble Bundles http://www.humblebundle.com they tend to do a lot of mobile bundles though none are on right now.

Plants vs Zombies (1 and 2) always work well on tablets.

I'll be watching for more suggestions since I recently got myself a Galaxy Tab Pro and have moved from the iFruit to Android.

Real Racing 3
Bloons TD
Galaxy on Fire 2 HD
Eufloria HD
Great Big War Game
Robotek
Radiant Defense
Autumn Dynasty

There are others I've got from Humble Bundles.

I have all the humble bundles, so I really never buy any games, I just pick things from the HB app and install.

Eufloria is nice.

Dungeon Keeper is OK, but emphasizes the grindy parts to goad you into buying "gems".

Clash of Clans is my primary digital crack at the moment. Look up clan "mangun" and I am "Forge". Ph33r mah dragons.

Oh, I play a rather fun F2P card game called Solforge on Steam. The Android version should be coming out of closed beta Soon(tm).

How's the pvp as a newbie in Clash of Clans? Do you lose a lot if you get ransacked by stronger players?

Yes and no. Higher levels take smaller percentages of your stored resources, so there's not a lot of incentive to bash seal cubs. On the other hand, if someone higher level hits you, you tend to eat it pretty hard. The matchmaker really keeps things fairly level. The new wars are a little different, my clan just got clubbed by a bunch of guys really out of our league.

Entertainingly, there's a fairly significant number of upper levels looking to throw battles. When you have high numbers of trophies, you get a bigger bonus when raiding, but it also matches you against other high levels.

I became bored of Angry Birds fast enough.

Games currently installed:

• PVZ and PVZ2
• MiniSquadron
• Galcon
• Shadowgun
• Dragon Fly (Tiny Wings doesn't exist for Android)
• Spaceteam (local multiplayer only, but soooooo worth the effort)
• Voxel Rush
• Candy Crush Saga
• Cannabalt HD (the original endless runner)
• GTA III, for the retro-lolz

Plants vs Zombies 1 is great and has SO MANY bonus games you can unlock. Your time spent farming coins is always rewarded. Hint: you'll need close to 1 million coins total to unlock everything, but it's not super hard once you've gotten everything you need in place. You can get over 100,000 coins a day

PvZ2 "It's About Cash" is very VERY aggravating at first, but I have warmed up to it over the past month or so. It was a sickeningly blatant cash-grab when I first started playing it, but somewhere along the way EA realized how badly that was putting people off. You can be successful without ever spending a dime, but it's worth by a long shot to buy the extra seed slot. I've spent about $15 total on it, much of which is wasted. The only plant I bought that I use regularly is the jalapeno. I've beaten all 100 levels and just play Pinata Parties and occasionally Endless Zones until the next world is released. It lacks the magic of the first as well as the variation (night, pool, rooftop, etc)

Reaper by Hexage. CRAZY fun game. The controls are spot on, and you only pay $5 for a full unlock, which is well worth it. Awesome bathroom game you can pick up, play for 15 or 20 minutes, and never forget what you need to do next when you play again. You eventually reach a point where you become all but invincible, but it takes some time to get there. Hexage promised some new content, but I haven't seen it yet. Still a great game.

Other than that, I haven't found a satisfying shmup for tablets at all. Sector Strike is okay, but repetitive and lacking any real boss battles. Most other are either bullet hell, or cash-for-upgrades, neither of which tickle my fancy.

What you say about PVZ2 is so true. You have to remember that this is EA and everything they do is designed to **** your wallet over.

The original game is far superior in every respect, but despite this the second one is still good fun (now that EA have dialled back the requirement for IAP's).

Hawkwing74 wrote:

How's the pvp as a newbie in Clash of Clans? Do you lose a lot if you get ransacked by stronger players?

To add to what Forge responded. You earn "trophies" for beating other players in attacks. PvP matchmaking uses a +/- 200 trophy range. In general, I've found this range to be pretty ideal. I found that you don't really start getting attacked regularly until you've hit ~800-1000 trophies (roughly 4 weeks of play?) At this point in the game (5 months) I have to carry so much resources for building upgrades, that I get attacked daily (or multiple times/day). Not a bid deal as explained below.

Good thing is that if someone attacks/destroys your village, you don't actually lose those buildings, and you get 12-16 hours of "cool down time" where nobody can attack you. Typically this gives your resource mines the opportunity to make back most/all of what was stolen from you (attacking is all about stealing resources from other players to fund your own upgrades). Additionally, you can usually make back roughly what was stolen from you as loot in your next 1-2 attacks.

Also, the amount of loot available dictates how safe you are from attack. If you have a lot of resources saved up (relative to your trophy level), you will attract stronger players that need to steal larger amounts of resources to break even with their more costly armies. Obviously having a smart/strong village layout will deter lower level people from attacking, since they will know they can't win.

Or, if you have a lot of really expensive upgrades coming up, like I do right now, build a billion barbarians (lowest unit) and attack over and over, sending a single barbarian. Soon your trophy level is super-low. The only people able to find you via matchmaking are the people who don't have a chance at doing any damage. Rinse and repeat till upgrades are done, then thump your new noob friends until trophy count re-normalizes.

Injustice: Gods Among Us
Uken's Dark Galaxy.
Some more tower defense games but they are not worth mentioning.

subway surfer and free flow

I liked Princess Punt when I had my N7.

Stupidly funny 'RPG-light' take on Angry Birds. I'm no AB fan.

A stupid Uken game called Crime Inc. I would quit, but I am strangely addicted to reaching the top ten (peaked at 13).

Looking for Knowledge wrote:

A stupid Uken game called Crime Inc. I would quit, but I am strangely addicted to reaching the top ten (peaked at 13).

Same here, i play Uken's - Dark Galaxy - addicted - I am invasion boss racer - jigar2speed

With Clash of Clans, what determines what % of an enemy's resources you can loot? Everyone I "scout" has hardly any resources, like a few hundred gold.

Hawkwing74 wrote:

Clash of Clans, what determines what % of an enemy's resources you can loot?

Didn't want this to turn into a Clash of Clans thread. But here's the answers to all your questions. See Raids page for the answer to your specific question. You can cycle through many opponents by hitting "Next" to find one that has a decent amount of loot available.

Found a Tom's Guide: 15 Best Android Shooting Games. Some of them look decent (I'm all about F2P): Dead Trigger 2, Respawnables, Dead Effect, Blitz Brigade (like Team Fortress 2), and Sector Strike. I haven't played any of those games. I might give them a try and report back.