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Even if you don't consider it your primary gaming device, so many of us play mobile games--on the bus to school or work, in the bathroom, on the couch while watching TV, or countless other situations. But more than just being a brief time-killer, the best mobile games can keep you up in bed late at night or sitting in a chair for much longer than intended. In determining our choices for the best mobile games of 2024, we had essentially one requirement: It's got to be good to play on mobile. There are plenty of great games that have been ported to mobile but that just don't feel right on a small touchscreen. As such, some of our choices here are multiplatform games you could play elsewhere, but you'll find the mobile experience to be every bit as good--if not better--than playing on a PC or console. Read on to see what you should check out on iOS or Android right now, and then check out our picks for the 10 best games of 2024 and our 2024 Game of the Year.
After Inc.
Available on iOS and Android Plague Inc., the strategy sim that sees players evolve a deadly pathogen with the end goal of infecting the whole world, got a surprise and much-less morbid sequel this year. After Inc. takes place years after a zombie infestation has decimated the world, and it's up to you to rebuild. It's a mix of 4X and strategic gameplay, where you start with nothing and must build up stores of water, food, and building materials by expanding your base and researching new technologies, all while holding back hordes of the remaining undead. While each game starts slowly, it quickly turns into a delicate balancing act of providing for your civilians while also catering to their wants and whims. If they're too unhappy, people start leaving your settlement, and then it can be game over. After Inc. is a great fit for mobile, with clear, colourful UI, and easily viewable menus that show how you're faring at any given moment. Its rounds can last up to 20 minutes or so, making it a perfectly digestible strategy game to play on the go. -- Lucy James
Balatro
Available on iOS and Android For the sake of your free time, I'm sorry to report that Balatro is terrific on mobile devices. The hit poker-roguelike mashup that released on PC and consoles earlier in 2024 was later ported to mobile, and as you might guess given the nature of the game, it works exceedingly well on a touchscreen interface. Given the run-based nature and ability to knock out a single round fairly quickly, Balatro lends itself exceptionally well to on-the-go mobile gaming, easily making it one of the best games you can play on your phone in 2024. If you haven't already experienced Balatro, don't be mistaken by thinking this is simply a roguelike where the gameplay consists of playing poker. That does form the base, but it belies the true depth of the game, which revolves around modifying your deck over the course of a run--adding or removing cards, duplicating them, and changing their suit or rank--to align with the bonuses granted by Joker cards you'll randomly amass. The effect of these Jokers can range greatly and completely upend the normal approach to the value of hands in poker, allowing for a seemingly endless array of approaches that make each run feel unique. It's deeply satisfying to put together what feels like a so-good-it's-broken deck, and equally devastating when a run unexpectedly comes crashing to a halt. "Balatro ticks all the boxes for a roguelite that creates a feedback loop that's difficult to draw yourself away from," Alessandro Barbosa wrote in GameSpot's Balatro review (which covered the PC version). Its fundamentals are incredibly easy to understand, even if you're unfamiliar with poker, but the ways in which it works within the game's boundaries (and often breaks free from them) injects a level of depth to each hand to play that's both challenging and rewarding to continually engage with. It's a game that will melt away time as you hit play on one run after the next, with each defeat never stinging long enough to dissuade the possibility of victory on the next. While a handful of boss antes annoyingly end runs prematurely, they're nowhere near detrimental enough to take away from the immensely satisfying balance that Balatro strikes in every other aspect." -- Chris Pereira
Pokemon TCG Pocket
Available on iOS and Android Despite being a Pokemon fan since 1998--and even "playing" the card game as a child--I had zero idea how to properly play the Pokemon trading card game until Pokemon TCG Pocket released earlier this year. With its step-by-step tutorials and no cost of entry, TCGP allowed me to truly learn the game and battle my friends all without committing to yet another card game eager to drain my bank account (I'm looking at you, Magic the Gathering). On top of that, Pokemon TCGP is a stupendous dopamine hit, offering users the ability to open four booster packs daily, all without spending a dime. If you're eager to earn even more cards, you can also try your hand at the game's Wonder Picks, which allow you to view your friend's most enviable booster pack pulls and attempt to draw one the cards included for yourself, or complete various quests and challenges. Simply put, Pokemon TCGP is a must-download for any Pokemon fan, and the promise of new cards and trading between friends makes us incredibly excited for the mobile game's future. -- Jessica Cogswell
The Rise of the Golden Idol
Available on iOS and Android Given the brilliance of The Case of the Golden Idol, it would've been hard to complain if its sequel were simply more of the same. And while the core aspect of investigating and then filling in Mad Libs-style summaries with your findings remains in place and as hugely satisfying as ever, The Rise of the Golden Idol takes some welcome steps forward in a variety of ways. At a basic level, the interface is improved--so much so that playing on a touchscreen, particularly an iPad or tablet, might be the best way to play the game. The shift to the 1970s setting is well-utilized, offering both a much-different sort of story and modern investigation techniques, such as matching fingerprints. And the addition of end-of-chapter summaries for you to fill in serves as both a fun challenge and an effective means of helping you to keep the ongoing story straight, as the connective tissue between a series of murders becomes increasingly complex. The eureka moments that come through the game are just so damn gratifying that you'll find it hard to not keep pushing ahead after completing each case. "This is a worthy successor to one of 2022's best games, putting a fresh spin on its singular concept with another collection of challenging and inventive puzzles," Richard Wakeling wrote in our The Rise of the Golden Idol review. "With a compelling story tying it all together and smart changes to its interface, Rise of the Golden Idol is everything you could ask for from a sequel; it's an excellent continuation of a singular idea, and there's already more on the way. Armchair sleuths are eating well." -- Chris Pereira
Wuthering Waves
Available on iOS and Android While on its surface, Wuthering Waves may seem like a shameless clone of HoYoverse's Genshin Impact--a game that itself wears its own inspirations on its sleeve--Kuro Games has elevated on that title's formula in meaningful ways that greatly improve the experience in Wuthering Waves. While it retains the fun hack-and-slash gameplay of its inspiration, the game's combat system goes way deeper. It incorporates a fun intro and outro system, where character-switching at the right time increases your potency against enemies, much like in HoYoverse's other title, Zenless Zone Zero, where it's the highlight of that game's combat mechanics. As such, action in Wuthering Waves is both highly active and strategic, which is also strengthened by the game's Echoes--a Persona-like system where the player can equip the skills of various monsters that they've previously taken down to use as their own. As someone who has tried and failed to get into any of the various HoYoverse offerings, Wuthering Waves is the mobile ARPG that has actually stuck, taking some of the best elements of each of that studio's games and packing them into one title. -- Tom Caswell
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