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Over the last several years, competition between major carriers in the US have finally allowed for consumers to sign up for unlimited data plans for smartphones again. Users who need the additional data can rely on the plans offered directly from their carriers, instead of having to worry about their carriers charging overage fees that end in an unexpectedly expensive bill at the end of the month. While we appreciate the additional data plans offered by the country’s top mobile carriers, they still retain two major problems. First, they’re rather expensive and still carry throttling that can, unfortunately, limit your internet usage speeds if you cross over a certain percentile of data used nationwide. Second, and perhaps more importantly, all the data in the world can’t fix areas where you lose out on cellular or WiFi connectivity.
While our massive appetite for mobile data is continuing to grow all the time, not everyone has the luxury of an unlimited data plan or a WiFi network available to play on. Whether you’re on a long flight, taking the subway to work, or simply can’t access your network from your current location, you might want to be on the lookout for some excellent mobile games you can play while on the run, Whether on your commute, traveling to a faraway vacation, or bored while waiting in line at your local coffee shop, these games for both iOS and Android offer something a little special for players looking to waste their time away.
From casual gaming experiences to something with a bit more depth to sink your teeth into, this list of the thirty-five best mobile games available without an internet connection is sure to satisfy your thirst for a rewarding single-player offline experience.
We’re all probably familiar with the Angry Birds game series, originally released for iOS back in 2009. The game was popular enough to launch an entire series of merchandise, spin-off games, television shorts, and even two animated films. Strangely, despite the licensed spin-offs and full-on console launches of the original game, Angry Birds didn’t see a complete sequel released until 2015, with Angry Birds 2 function as a direct continuation of the original game. Though the game functions quite similarly to the original Angry Birds game from last decade, the series has been revitalized here with new mechanics and reworked controls that make the game feel better than ever.
As with the original Angry Birds and most of its assorted spin-offs, you play the game by launching small birds at your target, a series of platforms built holding pigs up that you need to demolish. Using a slingshot, you shoot your birds—each with their own special powers—at the base, allowing you to crush the pigs in as few turns as you can without losing lives. Angry Birds 2 changes a few things about this strategy.
First, the biggest change involves how you fire the birds, to begin with. Instead of each bird being offered in a very specific order on every single level, you gain a deck of the birds, allowing you to shoot the birds in whatever order you’d like to crush your enemy pigs. You can raise your score and fill your “Destruct-O-Meter” to gain access to new special cards within the level and do ultimate damage to your opponents.
The biggest and most negative change comes within lives. You have five lives that are used to take out the pigs. If you run out of cards and there are still pigs remaining, you’ll have to use a life. Once you’re out of lives, you’ll need to do one of three things to replenish: use gems (which are purchased for actual cash with an in-app purchase), watch a 30-second advertisement, or wait 30 minutes for each of the five lives.
Overall, it’s a really poor way to implement ads and in-app purchases into the game, but the changes in gameplay are so great here that it’s difficult to recommend an older Angry Birds game over this one anyway. Do note you’ll need an internet connection the first time you launch the game to download additional data. After that, you can rely on offline play entirely.
We won’t lie to you: Gameloft’s Asphalt series, dating back to 2004 with an entry on the original Nintendo DS, is largely a clone of Burnout, the popular 2000s high-speed racing game. Since Asphalt 4, the games have made the move to Android and iOS, and largely have found themselves to be critically and commercially successful. The most-recent main entry in the series, Asphalt 9, is a few years old now, but it’s also one of the best racing games we’ve seen on either mobile platform, and if you’re into Burnout-styled games, it’s definitely worth checking out.
Like most mobile racing games on phones and tablets, Asphalt 9 has several different driving schemes and techniques you can use to drive your car through races and courses, completing missions and other achievements.
Tilt to steer (the default mode for most racing games, which involves using your device’s accelerometer), tilt with icons, on-screen controls, and tap to steer are all options, though we found the on-screen controls and the tap to steer options to be the most reliable for steering quickly and accurately. Unlike a game like Real Racing 3, Asphalt feels far more arcade-styled, with fast-paced destruction always right around the corner. You can collect nitro to boost your car, and you can use that nitro to burst through other cars, destroying the competition in the process.
As a free-to-play game, it should come as no surprise to readers familiar with this sort of pricing structure that buying cars in Asphalt 8 can get pretty expensive. The game has in-app purchases up to $99.99 on both Android and iOS, both for cars and credit packs for buying accessories and other optional stuff. In-game cash can be earned through racing, but as the game gets higher in terms of levels and difficulty, you’ll find yourself earning less and less cash for faster and more powerful cars. The grinding for cars can get pretty intense, but there’s no car that can’t be gained through some in-game dedication—even if the system itself is a little too grindy for our tastings. Still, Asphalt 9 looks great, even after four years of aging, and we can’t help but recommend the game to other users that might be interested in some offline racing.
Platformers have a bit of a messy history on iOS and Android devices. Early platformers on mobile games focused on using virtual buttons and D-pads for controls, creating a trend of poorly-controlled games where the mechanisms for controlling these characters just didn’t translate well to mobile devices.
That said, platformers over the past few years have learned their lessons the hard way, revitalizing the entire genre on mobile devices with new control schemes and new ways to make the platformers work. Badland is one of those games, originally released in 2013 for iOS and Android before eventually making its way to Windows and home consoles in the years that followed. The game famously won Apple’s Game of the Year award in 2013, and it’s easy to see why.
In Badland, you play as Clony, a small black creature that makes its way around the world through flying with physics-based gameplay. The entire world is trippy, coated in silhouettes and patterns, making it appear dystopic and beautiful all at once. Badland controls through a one-touch based gesture, pressing down on the screen to raise your character(s) and releasing to release them, as you guide your way through a world filled with destructive elements, rotating gears, and dangerous obstacles. You can gain power-ups along the way, allowing your character to shrink, grow, speed up, and so much more, making navigation a lot easier throughout the game.
What really seals the deal with Badland, however, is the gorgeous visual and aural design elements. Seriously, this game is absolutely downright gorgeous, with some incredible 2D animation that, despite being four years old, still looks great on iOS and Android.
The game clocks in at $3.99 on iOS and free with ads on Android, though the ads in our experience were pretty unbearable enough to make us jump for the $3.99 in-app purchase for the full ad-free game. If you’ve already played through the first Badland, you’ll want to check out Badland 2, also available on iOS for $3.99 and Android for free with ads.
Originally developed by Bioware in the late 1990s and early 2000s, Baldur’s Gate: Enhanced Edition and its sequel are both excellent additions to any RPG lover’s catalog of titles and games on your portable phone or tablet. If you’re new to the series—as many people will be—here’s what you need to know.
Baldur’s Gate is based on the rules and guidelines of Dungeons and Dragons 2nd edition (then still called Advanced Dungeons and Dragons), first published in 1989. This means your gameplay is largely going to feel like an extended single-player campaign of D&D, so if you aren’t a fan of the rules of tabletop roleplaying, you might not want to dive right straight into Baldur’s Gate. For everyone else, let’s take a look.
In Baldur’s Gate on iOS and Android, you’ll find the entire system has been rebuilt from the ground up to better support gestures and tapping-based menus. The first Baldur’s Gate isn’t quite as well-built as the sequel that followed a year later on mobile devices, but the way the plot’s laid out, you’ll want to play the first one before you head into the second.
There’s a bit of an extreme learning curve here, if we’re being honest, especially if you aren’t familiar with the more rigid rules of 2nd edition Dungeons and Dragons when compared to something like 5th edition. You’ll also have to learn all about real-time gameplay and pausing if you want to get any good at Baldur’s Gate. The plot is straight out of fantasy-based Dungeons and Dragons campaigns as well, so if you aren’t into fantasy—with all the trappings and cliches that come included with that genre—this game’s plot might not be the biggest interest for you.
Overall, while some parts of Baldur’s Gate’s control scheme were certainly lost in translation, this is still one of the all-time great RPGs right on your iPad or Android tablet. This game series was what put Bioware on the map before making Knights of the Old Republic and Mass Effect, and if you enjoy old-school D&D, you’ll enjoy your time with the game. Just make sure you can deal with the finicky interface before putting down your $9.99 for the game on iOS or Android.
Even if you haven’t played Crossy Road in your life, you’ve probably played its spiritual predecessor Frogger. Whether in the arcades or on old Windows 95 machines in your home, Frogger’s been a go-to game for millions of players, and Crossy Road is absolutely the successor of that genre in nearly every way, all the while maintaining what made Frogger so compelling to begin with. Instead of levels and scores to compete with, Crossy Road takes its Frogger inspiration and combines it with the endless-runner games we’ve seen grow in popularity on mobile platforms, including the likes of Temple Run and Jetpack Joyride.
The basic premise of Crossy Road is simple: you control a chicken crossing the road (get it?), using taps of your finger on your phone’s device. The road is, unsurprisingly, filled with dozens of moving cars, SUVs, and semi-trucks. Frogger players will notice aspects of that game popping up in large portions, including river-and-log sections and faster cars later in the game.
You always start back from the beginning of the level, as with any other similar endless runner game. The visuals match the style of something like Minecraft, with a focus on blocky 3D graphics that represent retro aesthetics while maintaining that modern arcade feel. As you tap your way across the screen, the entire game gets more and more difficult, with the option to unlock more than 200 new characters and additions.
Overall, Crossy Road is a total blast of an arcade-style mobile game, combining the class elements of Frogger with the designs of modern mobile endless runners to make something really special. It might seem like a simple design, but we know players are going to have a blast playing through Crossy Road. It’s an absolute blast to keep on your phone for short playthroughs or for long plane trips.
The game’s had over fifty million downloads since launch, so if you aren’t one of the mobile gamers already hooked on Crossy Road, you’ve got nothing to lose. If you’re looking for something similar, developer Hipster Whale has also created the popular Pac-Man 256, an endless version of Pac-Man, and Disney Crossy Road, taking the original Crossy Road strategy and recreating it with licensed Disney characters.
Mobile games have something of a bad reputation among the so-called “hardcore gamer” market. Typical mobile games are designed with short, repeated playthroughs in mind, often using free to play gaming structures that either limit how much you can play before having to shell out real money to continue (or choosing to wait for your resources to replenish without being able to play the game), or bother you with advertisements between playthroughs that can slow your phone down and really drain the battery.
The problem, of course, is that the majority of popular genres on console and PC—everything from first-person shooters to platformers—have had a mixed history in translating to a mobile platform, which seemingly limits the kind of content you can make and release on Android and iOS and still manage to hit a certain threshold of success. This is why roguelikes are the perfect genre to hit crossover appeal between gamers and casual smartphone owners alike, and Downwell is the ideal game to meet that fate.
Downwell is a direct port from the same game available on Steam, PS4, and Playstation Vita, though the game did originate directly from iOS before arriving on Android and those other platforms. Still, the crossover appeal is obvious when looking at the platforms the game is accessible on. The game even comes from publisher Devolver Digital, known for publishing games like Hotline Miami and Sam & Max on PC and consoles.
However, Downwell isn’t just a roguelike—it’s also an arcade-style shooter, which means it has incredible crossover appeal. With a hard difficulty curve, power-ups, collectibles, and easy to learn controls, Downwell is one of the few games on this list with crossover appeal between the two platforms.
At its core, Downwell is a retro-stylized game that asks you to make your way down a well using nothing but the gun boots equipped on your feet. You can move left and right by tapping on the screen or using on-screen buttons, and your character shoots by using the jump button on your display. Shooting your gun boots allow you to kill enemies, destroy barriers, and hesitate in the air until you run out of ammo.
Landing on the ground replenishes your ammo, and you can continue down the route. It’s a fast-paced game where runs can last anywhere from a few minutes to thirty minutes or more, gathering power-ups through hidden stores, destroying enemies, and doing your best to make it to the bottom of the well. Every level is procedurally-generated, as with most roguelikes, which means you’re always competing against brand new levels and enemies.
Downwell is critically acclaimed for a good reason: it’s a blast, finding the perfect middle-ground between casual mobile title and hardcore gaming experience. At $2.99, the game has no ads or in-app purchases, making it ideal to keep on your phone to play in short bursts.
First launched back in 2013, Duet is an insanely popular game on both iOS and Android, with 50 million downloads on Android alone. The game was critically acclaimed upon release four years ago, and it’s easy to see why. Everything from the presentation, the art design, the music, and the difficult-but-fair gameplay make this an excellent addition to your offline collection of games.
As a challenging game for casual and hardcore gamers alike, Duet is one of the few games on this list destined to thrill, frustrate, and excite players of any capacity. Whether you’re looking for a game that keeps you occupied for a few minutes or a few hours, Duet can fulfill that and so much more—it’s one of the most difficult casual-style games we’ve seen on mobile platforms.
The graphics are simple and beautiful, with most of the gameplay taking place against a dark black background. You control two dots, one red and one blue, which rotate around each other in sync with one another, as you spin them one way and the other to change their location and dodge difficult obstacles and barriers.
If you happen to hit a barrier, your dot explodes in a paint splatter that remains on the level in future retries, creating this beautiful sea of blue, red, black, and white. The game really shines through with its music, though, which resembles cold and distant trip-hop and techno, helping to create the desired atmosphere of energy and fast-paced movement, guiding you through a maze of rotating lines of destruction.
All of this makes for an experience that essentially represents the videogame equivalent of chugging an energy drink: it makes you jittery and a bit stir-crazy. This game oozes personality, but not without some tight gameplay too. Levels are presented in short, easy-to-accomplish goals, but with enough challenge that by the time level three rolls around, you’ll be dying a lot before you move onto the next level.
There are a couple of flaws in Duet, however. First, ad breaks on the Android version (the iOS version is a paid $2.99) are way too long and happen way too often. Every few levels, the game will ask you to upgrade to the paid version of Duet, and if you refuse, a fifteen-to-thirty second, unskippable ad will begin to play. Obviously, we also wish the iOS version had a free tier, but nevertheless, both the Android and iOS versions of the game are more than worth the $2.99 entry fee for an ad-free experience.