The 50 best iPhone games, ever

Even if you’re a dedicated console or PC gamer, chances are you’ve downloaded a mobile game to stay entertained while on the go.

Mobile gaming has come a long way since the days of Snake on a Nokia phone. Apple’s App Store had more than 350,000 games to choose from as of Q1 2018, according to Statista. But which ones are the best?

We asked the PCMag staff for their favorite iPhone games of all time. The list includes both free and paid titles, and each one remains in the App Store, ready to download. Try a few you’ve never played before, and leave your suggestions in the comments.

Released in 2015, Alto’s Adventure is a side-scrolling endless runner snowboarding game where you tap the screen to make jumps and perform tricks. Along your journey you will complete goals, earn points, and collect coins that can be used to upgrade your equipment and abilities. What really makes Alto’s Adventure stand out is the game’s art style and atmosphere. A sequel called Alto’s Odyssey was released in 2018.

Price: $4.99 

Image: SHANNON CONNELLAN/MASHABLE

Nintendo brought its social simulation series Animal Crossing to mobile with 2017’s Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp. This installment of the series allows you to build your own campsite while also making friends with other players, completing requests, and building new items.

Price: Free

Bastion is an action role-playing game that sends players out into a post-apocalyptic fantasy world to collect shards of rock to power a structure known as the Bastion. The game stands out for its immersive story, voiceover narration, breathtaking graphics, and unique soundtrack.

Price: $4.99

This real-time strategy game puts you in control of a tribe of people as you build your strength, expand your territory, fight your enemies, and ultimately build an empire. The Battle of Polytopia allows you to play on your own, against a friend, or through online multiplayer.

Price: Free

Praised for its simplistic gameplay and minimalistic art design, Blek is a puzzle game that allows the player to input touch-screen gestures and create patterns to complete each level. Released in 2013, the game proved to be a simple, yet popular addition to the iPhone’s stable of games.

Price: $2.99

The popular German board game Carcassonne goes digital in this turn-based strategy video game. Players place down random tiles and claim pieces of land as their own in order to accumulate points. The game makes it easier to keep track of points and allows players to tweak traditional rules. It is even new-player friendly with a built-in step-by-step tutorial.

Price: $9.99

At first, Clash Royale resembles a fairly traditional tower rush game, but in actuality, it combines collectible cards, tower defense, and online multiplayer to create a truly unique gaming experience. Since its worldwide release in 2016, Clash Royale has been nominated for many different awards and is now a popular international eSport.

Price: Free

Crashlands debuted in 2016 as an adventure-crafting RPG adventure with a wild plot to follow. Stranded on an uncivilized planet, you must fight monsters, create resources, and fulfill quests while trying to stay alive. The game was released on both mobile and PC, but the phone version was far better received.

Price: $6.99

Crossy Road presents itself as something of an endless version of Frogger, where the player controls a character as they attempt to cross a series of busy streets. The game draws upon many of the most popular games in the app store to create a fun gaming experience with a beautiful pixelated art style. The game has since incorporated many different characters and cultural references over the years.

Price: Free

Image: Desert golfing/itunes

If you like hours of endless golfing in the middle of the desert, you’ll love the 2014 arthouse game Desert Golfing. Courses are randomized and the movement of the ball is not as reliable as other golf games because everything takes place on sand. The game has been praised for its simplicity, great visuals, and difficult levels.

Price: $1.99

A primarily text-based adventure game, Device 6 takes players through interactive puzzles and story elements in order to help the main character escape an island. The game has been praised for its unique style of storytelling, strong prose, and sound effects.

Price: $3.99

Final Fantasy XV proved to be a popular enough game that it spawned its own mobile game in 2018 called Final Fantasy XV: Pocket Edition, which is an abridged version of the original. While the game’s plot remains intact, some sidequests and the open world element were removed in order to create a tighter gameplay. The game’s art style was also completely retooled.

Price: Free

Last year, Nintendo brought its popular Fire Emblem series to mobile with Fire Emblem Heroes. This free-to-play tactical role-playing game won over gamers with straightforward gameplay that was easy for new users to adopt. It went on to win multiple Mobile Game of the Year awards and other nominations.

Price: Free

In Florence, players follow the story of Florence Yeoh through 20 chapters of an interactive story filled with minigames. The 2018 game takes about only 30 minutes to get through but has earned rave reviews for its storytelling, character building, and art direction.

Price: $2.99

Fortnite took PC gamers by storm last year with its accessible gameplay, free online connectivity, and quick setup. The game has since expanded to mobile, allowing players to enjoy the same gameplay they would have if they were on a home console. Be sure to check out our tips once you download.

Price: Free

This narrative-based puzzle game asks you to rearrange the panels of a noir-style comic book in order to ensure the main characters escape their would-be captors. If you love strong visuals, subtle storytelling elements, and great music, this is the game for you.

Price: $3.99

This is one of the weirdest games you’ll play on your iPhone. Getting Over It puts you in control of a character with his legs stuck in a cauldron and a hammer as his only means of movement. You must use the hammer to scale a mountain, but there are no save points, so you can fall backward at any time, undoing all the progress made up to that point. The game also contains voiceover commentary from designer Bennett Foddy.

Price: $4.99

This game was in development for six years, and it shows. Gorogoa is all hand drawn by developer Jason Roberts, who produced a visual masterpiece. There is no text, leaving players to complete puzzles and explore the themes of spirituality and religion all on their own.

Price: $4.99

In 2014, the World of Warcraft franchise got a little bigger when it expanded into mobile gaming with Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft. Hearthstone is a free-to-play, turn-based, collectable card game that borrows from the existing World of Warcraft Trading Card Game. Its popularity has led to the release of numerous expansion packs and even an eSport tournament. Praise has focused on the game’s strategic elements and simplicity to play.

Price: Free

If you want a unique gaming experience, try Her Story. This 2015 release is billed as an interactive movie video game, where you are given pieces of a police interview via live-action performances on a simulated desktop and are asked to figure out the truth.

Price: $3.99

Taking a page from the popular Where’s Waldo book series, Hidden Folks gives players interactive, animated scenes in which they must find specific elements within a busy scene. Players can tap on the hand-drawn art to interact with it as they search for characters, objects, and animals.

Price: $3.99

The Hitman franchise landed on mobile in 2014 as turn-based puzzler Hitman Go. Each level of this game is set up like a board game, where the protagonist must take out his opponents in a style of play that feels a little bit like chess.

Price: $4.99

Following the success of Hitman Go, Lara Croft was also given the mobile treatment in Lara Croft Go, which incorporates different elevations in order to make it feel more like a true Lara Croft game. It paid off, winning Apple’s best iPhone game of 2015.

Price: $4.99

The Infinity Blade franchise debuted in 2010 as the first mobile game to use the Unreal Engine, putting it visually on par with the most advanced console games at the time. The series includes three fighting role-playing titles; Infinity Blade II arrived in 2011 and Infinity Blade III launched in 2013. Players build up their character while going through a series of one-on-one battles, requiring the use of swipes and taps to attack and dodge.

Price: $6.99

Back in 2010, Playdead released the black and white puzzle platformer Limbo, which saw the player take control of a boy looking for his sister through a dark and dystopic world. The game stood out for its challenging puzzles and gruesome depiction of the main character’s demise. Limbo helped elevate the conversation of video games as an art form.

Price: $3.99

The spiritual successor to Limbo, Playdead’s INSIDE is billed as a puzzle-platformer adventure game set in a dark dystopic world of government experimentation and zombie-like creatures, and is noted for its monochromatic, 2.5D graphics.

Price: Free

In Leo’s Fortune, you control a puff ball with a mustache who speaks in a thick Eastern European accent as he attempts to collect coins. The player uses touch-screen gestures to slide, jump, and float Leo through the world. Some puzzle-solving skills are required to move through each stage of the game.

Price: $4.99

What awaits you in Lumino City may be the most innovative gameplay to reach the iPhone to date. It’s a point-and-click adventure, which serves as a sequel to the game Lume, but the art is what sets it apart. All the visuals were built by hand, putting you inside an intricate world of stop motion.

Price: $4.99

Miracle Merchant is a truly unique solitaire-style card game that sees the player serve as the apprentice to a master alchemist. Your job is to use decks of cards to create potions for customers, and it’s all bundled together with a bright and charming drawn art style.

Price: $1.99

In this take on the classic platformer genre, you control a Viking along his quest to secure his place in Valhalla among the greatest warriors in the world. A combination of stunning graphics and a compelling storyline make Oddmar a game to truly get invested in. Will he have to do as he’s told and burn down the forest or can he prove himself another way? Throughout your journey you’ll collect secret items and improve your abilities.

Price: $4.99

This supernatural horror adventure centers around a group of kids who must uncover the truth about a mysterious island. Oxenfree is presented as a 2.5D graphic adventure without cutscenes, where dialogue takes place during gameplay. The game is unique in that there is no way to obtain a game over. Instead, the outcome of the game is based on the decisions the player makes, meaning there are multiple endings to be found.

Price: $4.99

Taking its name from the Pac-Man Level 256 glitch, Pac-Man 256 puts a new spin on an old classic. Pac-Man consumes pellets and power-ups while also avoiding ghosts, just like the original game. However, this time the level is endless and the bottom of the screen contains a glitch that will consume the player. The game also adds new power-ups in order to spice things up.

Price: Free

Papers, Please is a pretty niche simulation game. You control an immigration officer in a dystopian country, and you process papers to determine which people you should allow to cross the border, and who you should turn away. The player is given an ever-increasing list of rules and requirements to check documentation against, and is also forced to make moral decisions that could go against the approved criteria. The game comes with a wide selection of alternate endings based directly on your decisions.

Price: $7.99

In this game, the player creates and evolves a pathogen in order to spread a plague throughout the world and eliminate the population. Plague Inc is a strategy-simulation game that incorporates realistic variables in order to give the player a challenge in developing the ultimate viral weapon. You clear objectives as you evolve and adapt the plague to consume the world.

Price: $0.99

Image: SAM HAYSOM/MASHABLE

Nintendo took the next step with its Pokemon franchise in 2016 when Pokemon Go was launched worldwide. The mobile app combined location-based and augmented reality technology to turn the act of catching Pokemon into a social and physically active event. The game continues to receive updates, adding new Pokemon, items, Raid Battles, and other features. Check out our list of tops and tricks to help you become a Pokemon Master.

Price: Free

PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds has been a big hit on the home console and PC gaming market, so it makes sense that mobile would be the next place to expand. Players can now come together in a giant battle royale mode right from their mobile device. PUBG has never been so easy to play.

Price: Free

In Reigns, you are a medieval king who must make decisions on how best to rule over your land. The game is presented as a card game, and you swipe left or right to accept or reject the advice of your advisors. Your decisions have consequences, which affect your standing with the church, military, economy, and people. If these four pillars of society are not kept in balance, your reign will end. A sequel called Reigns: Her Majesty allows you to control a queen, adds more cards, and introduces items.

Price: $2.99

In Ridiculous Fishing, the player catches as many fish as possible before pulling them into the air and shooting them by tapping the screen. Each hit earns the players money, which can be used to purchase new items and upgrades. It won Apple’s iPhone Game of the Year award in 2013.

Price: $2.99

Rymdkapsel uses a minimalistic art style to turn this real-time strategy game into a unique iPhone gaming experience. Players build a space station, manage resources, and defend against attacks while trying to conduct important research. There are special rooms on your base for specific functions, and the game ends if all workers meet their doom.

Price: $3.99

Shadowmatic is a fairly simple game; a player rotates abstract objects in a spotlight until the shadow becomes a recognizable shape. But its detailed and realistic renderings and impressive game mechanics have earned it quite the following.

Price: $3.99

One of the best first-person shooters on the iPhone has to be 2018’s Shadowgun Legends, a sequel to the 2011 Shadowgun. The series focuses on futuristic, elite corporate mercenaries and has spawned several spin-offs and expansions. Shadowgun Legends gives players over 200 campaign missions and a bevy of multiplayer modes to enjoy.

Price: Free

In the cooperative multiplayer Spaceteam, players connect via Wi-Fi and work together to prevent their spaceship from crashing. Because of the frantic style of gameplay, players often find themselves shouting instructions to each other, which in turn increases the level of stress.

Price: Free

Remember this one? Players slide numbered tiles and combine them according to multiples of threes. The game keeps going until there are no more moves, and a final score is counted.

Price: $5.99

Transistor is a sci-fi RPG that revolves around a singer taking possession of a mysterious and powerful sword, and received a lot of attention for its impressive storyline and soundtrack.

Price: $4.99

In Triple Town, players are given tiles on a 6×6 game board and work to match the tiles in groups of threes in order to merge them into one advanced piece. The game keeps going until there are no more moves, and the more advanced the tile, the more points the player gets.

Price: Free

This puzzle adventure game is set during the events of World War I. You control four different characters through various sections of the game, each possessing unique abilities to navigate their levels.

Price: Free

This 3D puzzle game, influenced by the Myst series, puts players on a mysterious and beautiful island, where they must solve puzzles in order to advance further in their journey.

Price: $9.99

XCOM: Enemy Unknown returned an obscure franchise to prominence in 2012. As a turn-based tactical video game, its success led to an expansion game called XCOM: Enemy Within. XCOM 2 and XCOM 2: War of the Chosen have also been released, but it’s always best to start at the beginning. Though Enemy Unknown has been removed from the app store, Enemy Within is still around.

Price: $9.99

Walk Year delivers a truly unsettling gaming experience. It’s based around the Swedish Year Walk from folktale, where participants compete in a series of divinations along a journey in order to receive a glimpse of the future. The game’s initial ending and clues from a secret part of the app can be used to unlock the true ending, and even then it still leaves you wondering what truly happened.

Price: $3.99

Earlier this year, a game called Hole.io was the No. 1 downloadable arcade game on the App Store, and quite a few people—including those here at PCMag—had fun with the simple game. Turns out, however, it was a clone of the upcoming Donut County, Polygon reports. In that game (and Hole.io), you control a hole in the ground to eat up structures around you. The more you suck up, the bigger the hole gets, allowing you to eat bigger and bigger objects. Use the hole to solve puzzles and navigate the game’s story. The real version arrives Aug. 28 and you can pre-order it now.

Price: $4.99

This article originally published at PCMag
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