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It was an excellent year to be an Android gamer in 2014. More developers embraced the platform, which meant more games and timelier releases. And the selection gets better by the week. With an array of excellent cheap titles and deeper-dive premium games that justify the added expense. Even the free-to-play market generated some serious winners this year. We’ve pared down our list of favorites to just 15; these are the essentials. They span various genres, styles, and price points, delivering quick-fix fun-focused play experiences. Looking for the year’s most significant and brightest? Load up your phone or tablet with these fantastic games, pronto.
Threes!
If you developed a raging Threes! Obsession this year, know that you’re not alone. This magnificent mobile creation puts a fresh mathematical spin on puzzlers. Challenging you to continue building larger number tiles by sliding and adding together matched pairs on a cramped board. It’s incredibly well designed, totally devious, but hugely rewarding. Swiping in any direction shifts all movable tiles to one spot. So you must consider the entire board’s contents and combination possibilities at once. Not to mention the new tile added with each move. Ignore the lazy imitations like 2048. The real Threes! It is packed with style, charm, and brilliant puzzle play.
Threes! ($3)
The Walking Dead: Season One
Can you believe that Telltale’s captivating The Walking Dead adventure series just hit ay this year? If you don’t game on other platforms, then you indeed can. Luckily, it was well worth the wait. This episodic affair delivers one of the most engaging narrative-driven gaming experiences; the first part is free. Carving its own separate story. From the comic and TV series. The five-episode first season spotlights a survival quest amid the sudden zombie uprising. With your interactions and decisions reverberating throughout. It’s grim and gut-wrenching at times but absolutely worth the gruesome ride. Season two digs even deeper while carrying over your choices, but we’re not about to spoil any of it for you.
Impossible Road
Impossible Road isn’t entirely impossible, it’s incredibly challenging, but you’ll get much better with repeated play. However, it is damn near impossible to stop playing, making it one of the best Android games around. For tense, tough endless action leaderboard score chasing. You’re tasked with rolling a ball down a path, which sounds simple enough, except the randomly generated Road is thin. And the route twists, turn and contorts along the way. But if you fall off the edge or dare to jump. You’ll have a couple seconds to try to get back on the track below before the game ends. It’s an absolute rush, powerfully addictive to boot.
80 Days
Literary classics aren’t often tapped to create riveting modern video games, but 80 Days is a welcome exception. It draws upon Jules Verne’s Around the World in 80 Days. Delivering a work of interactive fiction. That finds you plotting routes, managing resources, and interacting with locals, can help, hinder. Or expand the seeming scale of the world. It’s all very streamlined, letting you play for a few minutes to make solid progress while soaking in the story. And for a game loaded with text, it’s impeccably designed, with a tremendous minimal aesthetic and an intelligent interface. The steampunk bent shakes up the old story, but the text dialogue remains rich and compelling. There are so many branching paths that it tandems multiple play-throughs.
80 Days ($5)
Blek
Blek is deceivingly simple, but it’s really a touchscreen wonder. You’re provided stark white screens with colored dots peppered among black dots. The goal, Draw a squiggly line. Which then continues moving based on the arc of your doodle. And have it clear the colored dots without hitting the black ones or exiting the frame. The result is a creative, engaging trial-and-error experience. Which you’ll try various patterns to find the one that wins out. There’s really nothing quite like Blek, but there should be. Few games pair original user input and challenging gameplay so splendidly.
Kingdom Rush Origins
Daring, distinctive new games are great, but you want something comfortable and impeccably well-executed every so often. Kingdom Rush Origins was one of those games for us this year. It delivered an excellent, engaging tower defense experience, albeit similar to the two entries before it. But why mess with success when you do it better than anyone else on mobile? Origins is ostensibly a prequel, but the premise comes secondary to expert strategic action. The game does a masterful job of providing enough depth to the turret-placing design without feeling overwhelming. It’s another entry well worthy of obsession, so get on with it already.
Kingdom Rush Origins ($2.99)
Smash Hit
Who knew a game about tossing balls at sheets of glass. Would end up being one of the most entertaining ones of the year? Smash Hit looked like the throwaway, graphics-heavy tech demo that you’d spend maybe five minutes with. Still, after hours of play, we happily acknowledge that looks can be deceiving. It really is a simple premise, Smash Hit relies on the forward propulsion of an endless runner. But instead of dodging obstacles, you’re throwing metal balls to break glass panes and little crystals. You’ll keep pushing ahead into more and more attractively designed rooms so long as you have spheres in hand. It’s surprisingly strategic, not to mention a lot of fun.
Smash Hit (Free)
The Banner Saga
If The Walking Dead doesn’t satisfy your itch for grisly, choice-centric fare, then make sure to catch The Banner Saga. It’s more or less set at the end of the world. With the sun no longer moving monsters murdering people en masse. In short, there’s plenty of death and darkness. It sure is gorgeous, however! Down as the mood might be, The Banner Saga is a captivating quest, blending tactical turn-based combat. With caravan management snap decisions that affect the survivors around you. The way the story shifts is based on your choices and makes multiple completions an appealing prospect.
The Banner Saga ($10)
Monument Valley
Ready to tickle your brain a bit? Just check out Monument Valley, a stunning puzzle adventure. That finds you navigating impossible structures en route to a goal in each stage. You’ll walk along walls, step on switches that transform the world in front of you. And sort out the various tricky scenarios in each world. Monument Valley is both lengthy and challenging. Instead, it puts stock in being utterly charming and highly distinctive, and it works. It’s the ultimate short-but-sweet experience on Android. Two hours of blissful powering in an imaginative world, made even better by the optional add-on campaign. Get lost in this fantastic place.
Monument Valley ($4, in-app purchase)
République
A traditional 3D stealth-action game is a frustrating mess on a touch device. Still, République found a way to make it work by tweaking the approach. Rather than command the heroine in her quest to escape a totalitarian school. You’re a hacker in control of the security system, tapping to guide her around guards and other threats. It’s an intelligent approach that works well even on a tiny phone screen. The three current episodes of five planned to explore some fantastic terrain. While building out a world story worth coming back for. République delivers on its promise of console-scale action. Still, it does so in a way that feels comfortable engaging on an Android device of any size.
Retry
Grumble all you want about Rovio’s driving the Angry Birds franchise into the ground. Seriously, go for it. Still, the publisher managed to drop one of the best free Android games of the year. And while it still focuses on soaring through the air, the cartoon birds are luckily nowhere to be found. Instead, Retry is all about guiding a small airplane from runway to runway through tight 2D terrain. The catch, of course, is that your only means of control is tapping and holding the screen. To propel the craft forward. Push too hard. It’ll loop in circles and inevitably crash. Hold off. You’ll dive-bomb into the asphalt. Finding the right balance is tricky, but that’s the whole point; it’ll grab you again.
Retry (Free)
XCOM: Enemy Within
Initially designed for consoles, XCOM: Enemy Unknown’s tactical turn-based combat makes perfect sense for touch devices. The epic sci-fi strategy reboot hit Android earlier this year. And then it was pulled. But that’s okay. The more recent XCOM: Enemy Within includes the content of the earlier release and so much more. Enemy Within was an expansion on other platforms, but here, it’s the entire Enemy package within a single app. And that’s incredible, as the tense action possibility of perma-death really sucks you in and endears you to your squad. The off-the-battlefield strategies add exciting layers to the experience. With online multiplayer action, there’s just an incredible wealth to enjoy here.
XCOM: Enemy Within ($13)
Hitman Go
Hitman Go took a risk and scored big this year. It pulls the hero scenarios from the console to computer series. Which is focused on detailed, open-ended assassination missions, and transports all of that into a turn-based puzzle game. The levels look startling, like real-life dioramas, with imperfect faux-plastic molding. It’s a great touch. The best part is that the approach works; it’s brilliant in its design. You’re still taking out targets, avoiding capture. Still, you move your Agent piece around the board. Using distractions and strategic routes to stay unseen to complete your mission. It’s a very different game than the source material. But it’s a perfect fit for your phone, even if you don’t know Hitman.
Hitman Go ($5)
The Wolf Among Us
If you love story-centric games, but zombies aren’t your thing. Or you need more of Telltale’s adventure magic, don’t miss The Wolf Among Us. It uses the same winning episodic formula as The Walking Dead. Instead, it sets its action within a community of fantasy creatures disguised as humans in New York. Comic book favorite Fables provides the basis, but it’s optional reading to enjoy this gritty, violent tale. Which spans five episodes and factors every little decision you make into the story. It’s stylish and entertaining. And the premise provides plenty of intrigues as you attempt to suss out who is killing these former fairytale characters.
The Wolf Among Us ($15)
Leo’s Fortune
Traditional Super Mario-style platform games are tricky to pull off on phones. So Leo’s Fortune pursues its mobile-friendly path rather than mimicking the classics. The result finds the sweet spot between fun challenges without overwhelming you. With tricky maneuvers or many virtual buttons on the screen. Sliding your thumb sends the fuzzy ball hero gliding along the surfaces. You can jump, float, and slam into the ground. Without enemies patrolling the levels, the goal is to survive each gauntlet of hazards. The controls work splendidly for that design. Add in a slick presentation and an oddball tone. It’s one seriously adorable portable platformer.
Leo’s Fortune ($5)
