Articles by Rachel Mogan

Challenging, satisfying puzzles against a relaxing backdrop — who could ask for more?

We’re taking a break from all the crazy new games the kids are playing these days and throwing it back to some classic mobile puzzling. If you go back far enough, you’ll find that Tetris was the first mobile game ever created, so it’s not a stretch to say that puzzlers are the birthplace of mobile gaming. Of course, things have come a long way since then, but every now and then you just want to play a simple game that holds all of its magic in its core concept: the puzzles. Two Eyes – Nonogram does exactly that, bringing a popular type of puzzle, nonograms, effortlessly into the mobile space.

This gem executes its ideas with finesse and even adds a little fluff into the margins with a touching story. Two Eyes – Nonogram can get its hooks into you very quickly, simply by virtue of how fun the puzzles are. This is a contender for one of the best puzzle games on Android, without a doubt.

Nonog…

Gaming is simply better with a controller in your hands.

Gaming on Android typically requires you to settle for using touchscreen controls. However, some gracious game developers take the time and effort to add support for Bluetooth gamepads — and we love them for it. Since so few games provide this feature, we’ve taken the time to test as many as we could. Here is our list of the best games that let you play with the best Bluetooth controller in your hands.

We’d also recommend getting a Style Ring or PopSocket, which can help prop your phone up at a good angle for gaming.

You might recognize some of these games from the best Android games roundup, and for good reason. But you’re here for the best games with controller support, after all, so here I present to you the best you can find on the Play Store.

The games

BombSquad
Brawlhalla
Bridge Constructor Portal
Call of Duty Mobile
Castlevania: Symphony of the Night
Dandara
Dead Cells
Doom & Doom II
Evoland 2
Fortnite
GRI…

Get lost in these big worlds on a small screen.

Role-playing games are wonderful, story-driven experiences that complement the mobile gaming experience nicely. Despite the relatively tiny mobile screens we’re used to (yes, 5.7 inches is still small by gaming standards), RPGs allow us to get lost in fanciful worlds for a while. In the case of some games, especially those ported over from PC, that “while” could be 20, 30 hours, or even more! This makes the best RPGs worth their price in the Google Play Store.

Unfortunately, like most game genres, there are some mobile duds. We’ve hand-picked the best of the best to save you the trouble of digging.

If you’re looking for more than just RPGs, be sure to check out our roundup of the best Android games out there!

The games

Adventure Quest 3D
AnimA
Another Eden: The Cat Beyond Time and Space
Arcane Quest 3
Baldur’s Gate and Baldur’s Gate II: Shadows of Amn
The Banner Saga
Battle Chasers: Nightwar
Chrono Trigger
Crashlands
Eternium
…

GET ENERGIZED! Literally. It’s a game mechanic.

October has officially ended and I suppose it’s finally time to exit the haunted forest and venture back out into the wide world of non-spooky mobile games. I’ve been sitting on this one for a little while now, so I’m very excited to get to talk about Nova Island this week.

Fast-paced and absolutely gorgeous, Nova Island will whisk you away to a colorful world of deck building and 1v1 card battling. It can be challenging to bring new ideas into the card gaming space, especially up against titanic competitors like Slay the Spire, but Nova Island makes a noble effort to breathe some fresh air into the genre with its stunning graphics, peppy soundtrack, and unique mechanics. This one’s going on the list of best card games for sure.

The first things that most players will notice about Nova Island are its lovely graphics and art direction. The UI has a sleek, simple interface and the characters and cards are, frankly, adorable. Almost…

I, too, would do absolutely bonkers things to rescue a kitty.

Well folks, we lucked out this month with FIVE whole Fridays, which means we get one last spooky game to close out October. Choosing this week’s game was tough—we’ve already covered some serious bangers, so finding a worthy final entry was no small task. Thankfully, a friend introduced me to Fran Bow, which might edge out Oxenfree in the pure horror department.

For the purposes of this review, we’ll be touching on story beats included in the game’s first chapter, but these are foundational pieces that won’t spoil the game for you. The story is the biggest reason to play the game, so the less I’m able to say about it, the better. To lay some groundwork, Fran Bow is a point-and-click adventure game following the tragic and terrible tale of—you guessed it—the unfortunate Fran Bow.

Fran is a young girl being held in a mental health facility for treatment after witnessing the aftermath of her parents’ brutal murder…

This is probably why we stopped using analog radios…

One of the things that I love about horror is the heavy use of tropes. Some folks might consider this to be stale or boring, but when done right, you can take a painfully overused trope and still manage to make something fun and new out of it. Oxenfree accomplishes this with aplomb, taking the teen-holiday-weekend-gone-wrong trope and building an unsesttling, and sometimes genuinely scary, experience out of it.

Oxenfree is a mystery adventure game featuring full voice acting, expansive dialogue options, and simple point-and-click controls that just about anyone can pick up and play. This is the best game I’ve played so far this month that fits the spooky season, and it’s definitely going on that list o’ best Android games.

Oxenfree opens with a classic setup: a group of high schoolers take the last ferry to a small island off the coast of their town for a weekend of typical teen shenanigans. It’s already getting dark and t…

It’s the mooost wonderful tiiime of the yeeear…for TERROR!

Maybe you’re already aware of this, but the Google Play Store does not have any category or search options that are specific to the horror genre. This is a tragic shame because there are loads of games that could easily fall into this category, but often get shunted into the adventure or puzzle categories because there seems to be nowhere better for them to go.

Thankfully, through the magic of algorithms, once you find at least one good horror game you can jump down the rabbit hole of “recommended for you” to find other seasonally appropriate experiences. That’s how we come across most quality mobile horror games and it’s how we found a good number of the games on this list. Read on for our top picks for best spooky games to play in October!

Some of these are already on our list of best Android games, or have been previously featured as Android Games of the Week, but we’re willing to bet that at least a couple will be br…

The perfect cure for a rainy day or your morning transit commute.

Not everyone wants to commit hours of their day to playing games on their phones. That’s why casual games exist! These games have proven wildly successful, championed by iconic mobile games such as Angry Birds and Candy Crush Saga. They’re designed to be played on the go and at your own pace — as laid back or competitive as you want.

Most casual games are free, offering in-app purchases and some ads. Some may cost you a dollar or two, but they’re worth it. We’ve collected some of our favorites from the past, along with some newer games that are great to keep on your phone for a little gaming break during your day. It should come as no surprise that you’ll find quite a few of these on our list of best Android games.

The games

AI Factory Limited
Alto’s Odyssey
Among Us
Angry Birds 2
The Battle for Polytopia
Candy Crush Saga
Cats are Cute
Chessplode
Data Wing
The Fishercat
Fishing Life
Fruit Ninja Free
Mini Metr…

For some, card games are the ultimate way to relax. Killing time on your morning commute or unwinding at the end of your day playing cards can now all happen on your phone, which is fantastic. You can play solo games, connect with friends or random online opponents over classic card games, or dive into fantasy card games of every kind.

Here are some of our favorites now available for Android. When you’re all wrapped up here, be sure to check out our best Android games!

The games

Ascension
Card Thief
Evil Apples: You Against Humanity
Exploding Kittens
Gin Rummy
Gwent
Hearthstone
Legends of Runeterra
Magic: the Gathering Arena
Microsoft Solitaire Collection
Reigns: Her Majesty
RWBY: Amity Arena
Shards of Infinity
Shelter Free
Slay the Spire
Star Realms
Uno!
Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Links

Ascension

Ascension is a deck-building game designed by a small team of Magic: The Gathering tournament champions. The game is available as a physical card game, and in this digital version, you c…

Being dead is tough. Getting resurrected is turning out to be even tougher.

We’re smack dab in the middle of October, but not every game has to be overtly spooky or scary to fit the vibes of the season. Sometimes the best way to get your fill of thrills and horror is to be faced with a mountain of existential dread, and that’s exactly what 7Days! is delivering.

7Days! is a text-based adventure game dripping with moral dilemas and impossible decisions. You play as protagonist Kirell, awakening in an interrogation room with no memories after your spirit has crossed the River of Oblivion. Her interrogator is Charon, the ferryman of the dead himself, and he has some questions.

After informing you that you are most certainly dead, Charon launches into a series of questions about Kirell — but not about her past or facts about herself. No, his questions are far more vague. He’s trying to get a sense for who Kirell is at her very core and you, the player, are going to decide that for he…