Looking for recommendations for any Android games that you enjoy which can be played completely offline without a data connection of any sort.
These used to be super common once upon a time, but these days it seems every single game I try just doesn't function if you are totally out of service area.
Would appreciate any tips! Thanks in advance.
EDIT: Some great suggestions in here! That will keep them busy a while. Thanks so much everyone.
You are absolutely correct! Only downside is it kind of sucks trying to control with onscreen controller. I suppose I'd better learn to share my bluetooth gamepad ;p
This is when Nintendo ds games and searching out games that had only stylus controls comes in handy. Stuff like Kirby Mass Attack or Warioware feel like native games. If you got a Samsung with a Spen then that's a dream combo.
Got an 8BitDo controller off Amazon, you can get a little clip for it that holds your phone. Best $20 ever. Kinda heavy to be gaming on the go but in bed it's great
Seconding SPD. Of all Android games, I think I've wasted the biggest part of my life on that one. An extremely well balanced and fair roguelike, even if that sounds contradictory.
My goto for offline gaming is usually emulation, typically pokemon. But I can also recommend the Bart Bonte puzzle games, Vampire Survivor and Shattered Pixel Dungeon.
I used a wireless Xbox controller always, it was great!
There are onscreen controls available, but I wasn't interested in getting used to playing that way. But people play CoD (etc) with touch controls so, it must work fine probably? For them.
I got it and it was okay, but not something I ended up staying with. When it comes to ports stuff like Starview Valley or turn based stuff is things I've felt more comfortable to play.
Or Nintendo DS games that could be played entirely with a Stylus and using an emulator like MelonDS.
If you like American football, big recommend for Retro Bowl - as the name suggests, it's an old-school arcade/NES style game heavily inspired by Tecmo Bowl. Plays really well on mobile, and has a small premium charge to permanently unlock some nice extra features (e.g. roster customisation).
I'm completely addicted (I'm in season 90 or so); it's my go-to when I've just got a few minutes for a game. I think it's one of the best games on mobile.
Found an old archive so I'm going to ad to the thread myself:
Alto's Adventure and Alto's Odyssey both definitely work offline, but I'm not sure about them trying to serve you advertisements.
I also used to have a considerable library of emulated games on my phone and would use a bluetooth gamepad. I should probably go back down this road I think! I'd imagine emulation has come a long way since I was mucking around with it.
Doesn't work on my phone (made for an older version of android) but it looks like the game "set", and googling that I found this: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.nelis.set (haven't tried it yet but it has the tag "offline" so looks good)
On this topic I wish there was a definitive place to find Android games that have controller support. No microtransactions..
I will have to download and try again first and then 90% of the time it doesn't meet my criteria for playable.
Been playing off and on for a while, it's just SimCity. No ads, no watered down mechanics, no timers, just build cities, manage budgets and traffic and exports and... It's SimCity
Yeah but I'm all over the adblocking front at home. This is specifically for when we travel waaay out of civilisation but my kids still want to play some games. Pretty annoying that most of them don't work at all.
Not interested in packing the starlink dish for this purpose, I go out there to disconnect, that's kind of the goal.
Pixel Dungeon or Shattered Pixel. They're roguelike dungeon explorers. The latter is a continuation of the former, which hasn't been developed for some years now.
Troll Patrol. The base game is with ads but can be upgraded cheaply to a pro version with no ads. It's an excellent match-3 rogue-lite RPG. I was playing it for the last two months. Similar to You must build a boat, for example. The developer also closed his subreddit because of recent API changes. He's a good guy, You can show him some love and buy his game.
Can recommend Oxenfree and Kentucky Route Zero. They are tied to a Netflix subscription on mobile though (on the other hand, if you already have Netflix, they’re free).
Besides that, Monument Valley 1 and 2 are amazing games. And The Room series is also very entertaining.
I also would recommend Broken age and Life is Strange but they seem to not be on the Google Play Store anymore…
Star Traders: Frontiers. Be a space trucker/pirate/merc. Singleplayer offline space turn-based RPG Pay once only but frequent free updates. No bullshit P2W, gacha, timers etc etc.
The Layton games - the DS games have been ported to Android and totally slap. As someone who never had a DS, I'm enjoying this era of the games coming to Android and being playable here.
Rusted Warfare is a great RTS. It has offline and online server hosting (never seen that on mobile before). It feels like I'm playing an RTS on GameRanger.
My go-to for like 5 years has been StudyGE. It's just a Geography game, but for the rare ocassions where I have nothing else to do and I don't have Internet in my phone I go to it.
There's also the trivia game Dilemo, though that is in Spanish and I think it might have some ads, it's just that it serves them so infrequently that I'm not even sure if I hallucinated them. Like I think it only serves ads when you have been playing it for long-ass sessions, and I usually only play for a few minutes, so.
If you like managing games, like manage a fantasy town, or manage a gaming development software house, or an airport, or a restaurant, or a SPA, then I'd suggest Kairosoft. Their games are the last bastion of old school pixel graphics offline games with no DLC whatsoever.
Have you tried looking on itch.io? I recently got a few games from there (some are hosted on the play store but not all)
Only bad thing about browsing is that 80% of the games seem to be dating sims or visual novels (which is fine if you're looking for that, but annoying if you're not)
Edit: infidhells seems really fun, but haven't had time to play much, to use all the gameplay features it's worth playing with the sound on (though it has accessibility options for playing without audio).
Just saw your other comment about traveling, my go to game is Pirates Outlaws, cost a bit money but is offline ad free and very fun. I put a lot of flight hours with it
Can recommend Oxenfree and Kentucky Route Zero. They are tied to a Netflix subscription on mobile though (on the other hand, if you already have Netflix, they’re free).
Besides that, Monument Valley 1 and 2 are amazing games. And The Room series is also very entertaining.
I also would recommend Broken age and Life is Strange but they seem to not be on the Google Play Store anymore…
Strange, I'm not sure why. Maybe it's just a bug? If you open the reviews section on the Play Store page for the game, and check the "Show reviews for: This device model" checkbox, do you see any reviews from other Pixel 5 users there?
my go to is frequently Puzzles. it is a bunch of classic puzzles rolled into one, and i'll just go through my favorites on a loop. on a second hand, if you like rogue-likes, Hyperrogue and Shattered Pixel Dungeon are both fun free and offline.