The 5 Best Mobile Games to Wile Away Hour After Hour Playing in 2020

There are some seriously cool and competitive titles you can download now for iOS or Android.

COURTESY

Believe it or not, if you own a smartphone and have even touched Candy Crush, you're a video game player. Contrary to what Reddit threads say about "dirty casuals" who dabble in mobile games for fun, you stand with us, a perfect and fully formed Gamer™. Welcome to the club.

Sure, there are few gaming markets that are as controversial when it comes to microtransactions and over-saturation than the mobile gaming market. But that issue aside, you can find quite a lot of stellar downloads for your handy palm pilot in the App Store and on Google Play. These titles range from free, to flat rate, to, yes, a few with microtransactional systems that ask you to pay for stuff in-game, which is not always a terrible model. And now more than ever, you probably need a reason to take your mind off the world.

If you're stuck in place, looking to do something other than read horror stories online, or itching for a distraction during a commute, here are 15 of the best mobile games that you can play in 2020, from retro titles to new releases.

Mini Motorways + Mini Metro

$0.99

I’ve lost so many hours and gained so much gray hair playing these two games, both from Dinosaur Polo Club. They cast you as a road or metro manager trying to help people of a city get from point A to point B. The visuals are gorgeous, and the short-spurt gameplay is addictive for your own commutes. The best part of this game is the total absence of microtransactions, meaning you can play as much as you want for as long as you want. (Mini Motorways is included in Apple Arcade.)

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Mario Kart Tour

Free to Play

Nintendo has made some missteps with mobile gaming, and while Mario Kart Tour got some flak for microtransactions, it's honestly not as bad as all that. Mario Kart Tour is an absolute blast to play, and it now even features online multiplayer so you can race your friends—especially those friends who love casual gaming but don't invest in consoles. While it may not come close to the quality of  Mario Kart 8 Deluxe on Switch, it's still a lot of that relationship-ruining Mario Kart fun that we love to see. The game is free to play, and can remain free to play unless you opt to buy gems to purchase characters from random pipes. While this loot box system is inherently flawed, the game does a solid job of reigning in the odds. It's nowhere near the most offensive microtransaction system we’ve seen.

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Exit the Gungeon

Free with Apple Arcade

The sequel to the stellar Enter the Gungeon, Exit the Gungeon hails from the unparalleled indie publisher Devolver Digital. It is a self-proclaimed “Bullet Hell Dungeon Climber,” meaning it features an array of shooting and slashing, with tons of loot and fast-paced progression. I’ve played the hell out of this series on consoles, and now to have it anytime on my phone is a dream come true. Exit the Gungeon is currently only on Steam, Switch, and Apple Arcade, but chances are it’ll grace Android and Google Play in the near future.

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Hatoful Boyfriend

$4.99

Hatoful Boyfriend is a pigeon dating simulator in which you can fail at love and die, and really feel like shit about it. It is also from the aforementioned Devolver. If the whole "pigeon dating simulator" thing didn't sell you, I’m not exactly sure what will, but it has phenomenal writing and works as sort of a puzzle game, challenging you to unlock all the different endings. It’s hilarious and does not take itself seriously in the slightest—ideal for picking up and putting back down when you need a good laugh.

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GET: GOOGLE PLAY

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