Looking for games for my friend. She’s mostly looking for a casual timewaster for a bit of enjoyable escapism. She historically liked some of the “merge games” where it’s about merging icons on a grid, and a couple of the more traditional idle games but its so hard to find any without summy practices like dark patterns and abusive monitization.

So, what are some good casual mobile games? Ideally, the sort of thing your grandma could enjoy, but without the scummy practices that are widespread.

Edit: I’m looking for more “pure” casual games, rather than ones that are primarily puzzle or arcade games. Something more akin to Cookie Clicker, those old shovelware hidden object games, or Bejeweled’s zen mode rather than Tetris or Brickbreaker.

  • tooks@lemmy.world
    3·
    1 day ago

    I’ve been mildly addicted to Threes for nearly 13 years now. It’s my go-to when having to wait for anything, which is especially handy when you’re as impatient as I am (getting old). Also keeps me from doom scrolling. Just best score chasing, run based, number matching goodness.

      • Druid@lemmy.zipEnglish
        2·
        2 days ago

        Monster Train 1 has been for sure. Works pretty well and switching between the levels of the train is fine too. Some text can be a little small depending on your phone screen size

  • lad@programming.devEnglish
    2·
    2 days ago

    Not exactly on topic, but depending on the phone hardware, GameNative may allow to run PC games. I think, it’s worth mentioning because hardware becomes more performant, and emulation support improves over time, and I didn’t expect to be able to play something from Steam on my phone, and yet recently I started doing just that (in my case it’s Slay the Princess, the game is great, but doesn’t fit the bill of what you’re looking for)

  • wraekscadu@vargar.org
    8·
    2 days ago

    Unciv is a pretty cool game! It’s basically FOSS civ 5 that can be played on mobile. Huge timewaster haha

  • bitofarambler@crazypeople.onlineEnglish
    12·
    2 days ago

    Walkscape is a fun mobile analog to runescape where xp in a dozen skills is gained by real-world steps.

    It’s still being built and expanded but its alpha stage is very playable and besides the skills has exploration, challenges, items, apparel, pets and a lot of fun stuff going for it, all while being a casual, healthy game.

    Looks like signups are open now.

  • ThePowerOfGeek@lemmy.worldEnglish
    10·
    2 days ago

    On Android, there’s a good collection called Offline Games that has a lot of decent ‘grandma friendly’ mini games inside it.

      • pinball_wizard@lemmy.zip
        5·
        2 days ago

        Yes. Always Simon Tatham’s Puzzle Collection.

        It’s freaking fantastic. Anyone sleeping on it needs to check it out.

        It runs on just about anything, too, including some eReaders.

  • Suck_on_my_Presence@lemmy.world
    1·
    2 days ago

    Simon Tantham’s puzzles

    Löve Solitaire

    Hole Down

    Gridland is less casual, but I enjoy it. Turn off the music at first opportunity tho.

    Vector Pinball

  • Zathras@lemmy.zip
    8·
    2 days ago

    Zen Koi - You are a koi (fish). You eat, grow, breed, ascend to your final dragon form. Collect different combinations of fish colors and patterns. Very chill, soothing music.

    • PlzGibHugs@piefed.caOPEnglish
      3·
      2 days ago

      Unfortunately, I’m looking for more “pure” casual games, rather than ones that are primarily puzzle or arcade games. Something more akin to Cookie Clicker or Bejeweled’s zen mode rather than Tetris or Brickbreaker. F-Droid doesn’t seem to really have much like that.

      • pinball_wizard@lemmy.zip
        6·
        2 days ago

        There’s less, but still some great ones.

        Since you asked for non-predatory games, I still recommend spending some time searching F-Droid. It’s the only place I find most non-predatory mobile games.

        On f-droid, I would try out:

        • Burger Party
        • Breakout 71
        • Duck Run
        • Gurgle (Wordle)
        • Gridle (Wordle variant)
        • Luanti
        • SuperTuxKart

        And on Google Play or Aurora, check out (paid, but nice if they haven’t enshitified yet):

        • Mini Motor X
        • You Must Build A Boat
        • Ridiculous Fishing
  • Godort@lemmy.ca
    6·
    2 days ago

    I have probably clocked hundreds of hours into Gauguin. It’s a sudoku-esque puzzle game about filling numbers in a grid. It keeps my quick math sharp.

    Also, it might be a bit on the intense side of casual, but Balatro is probably the best mobile game ever made.

  • Townlately@feddit.nl
    4·
    2 days ago

    Android: Merge Sweets, Cooking Adventure, Eatventure, Burger Shop (1 and 2), Hidden Through Time, Screw Jam Puzzle

    I have been able to play all of these without watching ads or spending money.

    • aramis87@fedia.io
      1·
      2 days ago

      I used to play the web version of Bee Sort. Unfortunately, I got stuck on level 371 and the web version doesn’t have the option to skip a level. Does the app version have that option?

      • lichengeese@lemmy.zip
        1·
        2 days ago

        I play on web too, so I couldn’t say. I am on level 509, and my chief complaint is actually that the difficulty does not seem to scale up beyond level 100 or so. I wonder if they’ve adjusted things since you got stuck?