Submitted 4 months ago by PlzGivHugs@sh.itjust.works to games@lemmy.world
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.
Grim Quest and Grim Tides. Two games by the same person. I haven’t played Grim tides yet, but it’s also free. Grim Quest is not a particularly large game, but I’ve still managed to play it over many years. I did a full run of each difficulty one by one. There is a bit to learn before it feels easy and casual, but it does get there. To be fair, I try to play it without dying. If I let myself die, it would be alot more casual even from the start. Dying is not heavily penalized on default settings, but you can alternately choose to play hardcore. Otherwise dying usually just means you gained less money for that run, and didn’t make the game any harder. The game only gets harder when you successfully clear a dungeon. You can also just exit the unfinished dungeon without dying and keep most of what you have acquired so far on that run, minus a small fee for quitting the dungeon.
Exiled Kingdoms, its an older isometric 2D adventure RPG. Kinda feels like it would have been made 30 years ago for pc, but it was made relatively recently for phones. I don’t think there was any micro transactions. It may have had an initial purchase price, not sure. That’s usually what I look for in a phone game. The traditional model of buying a game and then just playing a game. No gross mobile game stuff.
Friends and dragons. It’s a bit like easy chess with d&d style classes and species. It has transactions, but you can easily do well for free. I’ve been free playing for years (though I did throw them $10 around year 2 because of how much entertainment I got from it)
First one coming to mind for me is Pillar Hop. Very simple, chill, and just had ads iirc (I block them, but I’m pretty sure it does, anyway.)
I play chess, mahjong on mobile.
Emulating a Nintendo DS and looking for stylus only games is my recommendation. Games like Kirby Canvas Curse, Kirby Mass Attack, and Warioware Touched are fun.
Antimatter Dimensions
Star command, anomaly, world of goo, EDGE, knight of pen and paper…
These are some good ones I got from humble bundle over the years but many are quite dated so not sure if they’re still around. No BS microtranactions
World of Goo!
I was trying to remember that when I saw the question
I don’t like mobile gaming but oh my god that’s such a well designed game
Apparently a sequel for World of Goo is coming.
Knight of Pen and Paper 2 collects data. Idk about 1.
Never played 2. I got it on humble bundle aeons ago
Gardenscapes is the original match 3 and build a mansion and is still my favorite. There are micro transactions to get additional power ups, but the fact that they are constantly updating with new seasonal events and you never run out of levels
the original match 3
SameGame and Bejeweled would like a word.
You didn’t build a garden in bejeweled. I said original match 3 and build. I was playing bejeweled on a flip phone. Didn’t know about shariki.
2048 but a version from F-Droid: f-droid.org/…/org.secuso.privacyfriendly2048/
Potion Permit is about $7, but pretty fun. If you got $10 to spare, Ex Astris is a jrpg that’s pretty good.
I played a cool one called Pirate solitaire, very charming
Oh n0 and Oh h1
Out of the Dark is alright.
Walk master
You can get a port of space cadet pinball from GitHub!
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.
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
Sparklite, I don’t know what it looks like purchases-wise, it was free with gamepass and had no in-app purchases when acquired that way. It’s probably one of the newest games I’ll post about. New enough that it was possible to get it with gamepass, lol. The game sort of has a modern retro zelda feel. I don’t think it’s a particularly long game, but it’s certainly enjoyable and pretty casual. I think if it has transactions, reading other reviews it might be like a “purchase the rest of the game” style thing. So basically a free demo that you can then choose if you like the game enough to pay.
royal match has no ads at all, its pretty fun just gotta ignore the microtransactions which is pretty easy to do at least compared to other games
I tried playing this but I just suck at it. At higher levels I just get stuck at the same stage for a super long time.
Cosmic Combo, an iOS port of Johan Peitz’ PICO-8 game Cosmic Collapse, is good.
Nikki@lemmy.world 4 months ago
bloons td6 is a nice cozy game, one of my faves
bmeffer@lemmy.world 4 months ago
If you play it through Netflix, there are no micro transactions.
Nikki@lemmy.world 4 months ago
the micro transactions are completely optional in the first place really, the currency is super easy to earn by just playing