I’m looking for Android games that are designed to be played vertically (portrait mode). Could be casual, action, puzzle, roguelike, or anything really. Best if it can be played one-handed.
Paid or not doesn’t matter.
Feel free to exclude the pay-to-win crowd. Still, name 'em if you feel you have an excellent exception.
Here are some FOSS games on Android that can be played on a portrait orientation.
Flang - it’s like chess, but not chess.
BlastOff - endless runner
Chip Defense - it is a tower defence type of game, and is one of my favourites. You should try it.
Thank you. Also for directly linking it. Installed Chip Defense straight away. Am curious. 🙂
Deep rock galactic survivors is on mobile now and it works in both portrait and landscape mode
Goddamn this is knowledge you could have kept to yourself
I’m only just over having balatro on my phone
Thank you so much. I’ve been playing it on pc but haven’t found much time recently. This is perfect for me.
You can also play the PC version on Android with GameNative.
That’s interesting. I might look into it cause the playstore one requires playstore. I don’t have google apps and downloaded the apk. Weird cause most games work fine I have microg too.
It’s an older game, but Downwell is fun. Just a little action/arcade game where you fall down a well and try to get combos by not touching the ground by bouncing off of enemies.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.devolver.downwell_rerelease
Pilgrims. Its a puzzle game, no dialogues but great story. Not FOSS.
https://amanita-design.net/games/pilgrims.html
It’s a paid game, though. I got it for free from Epic Games.
You can play it on any device. On phones, it is played in portrait orientation.
Not exactly an Android exclusive thing, but I like to play GameBoy ROMs vertical so it feels more like a gameboy color.
I just finished Monument Valley 2 and adored it. Short little puzzle game where you kind of mix the background and foreground together to progress. There’s 3 of them.
Nethack runs good in vertical. I use the version called Pathos. Good dungeon crawler.
For casual time wasters, Feudal Tactics and Shattered Pixel Dungeon are good games.
I’ll do ya one better, the Simon Tatham’s puzzle collection. http://chris.boyle.name/projects/android-puzzles/
Downwell is one of the best mobile games of all-time
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.devolver.downwell_rerelease&hl=en_US
Except for the lack of official gamepad support, in before anyone links to that one github with the hardcoded screen coordinates
Surprisingly, mindustry hasn’t been mentioned yet! Great quality, well thought out, addictive combination of tower defence, RTS and factory building.
I got it. What a masterpiece!
Dawncaster is a great deck builder that’s vertical if you are into those!
Great suggestion. Thanks!
Rogue Adventure is great. I recently switched to iOS but I miss playing this game.
Here is one that is quality and engaging if you like a good story:
Once Upon a Galaxy has been my default game since I first played it.
It’s an asynchronous alternating activation autobattler (like Arcane Rush, or Storybook Brawl/Hearthstone Battlegrounds but you play against ghosts). Games take about 10-15 minutes.
It’s largely public domain fantasy themed, but has been expanding into the “legally distinct” cultural references as they add content, basically every captain/unit/treasure is a reference.
The shop mechanic is simplified, there’s no currency, you just get a set of choices, and can pick 1. You get two shops per round by default, lots of ways to get extra.
Asynchronous play means that you face challenging opponents that naturally evolve with the meta game but you can also take time to make thoughtful decisions.
The draft pool for the shop has a large base pool that you add to by selecting a custom sebset from a second large pool as your captain’s deck. The progression is through unlocking cards for each captain’s secondary pool, and unlocking new captains. You can naturally earn all cards through play, most captains are free, new captains are paywalled for a limited time.
Monetization is through 3 paths: cosmetics, acceleration of card unlocks, access to paywalled captains. I haven’t found it to be particularly exploitative or negative feeling.
My only gripe is minor, that it doesn’t have mid-run save/resume, but that is on their road map.
There is essentially no story, if that matters to you.
If it’s not obvious, I’m really enthusiastic about this game. I’m not affiliated/sponsored in any way. Happy to answer any questions.
I will check it out. 🙂 Thanks for the recommendation.
