In the last few weeks, Apple Arcade and Google Play Pass have offered excellent value bundles to mobile gamers. Since I have an Android, and since it appears to be a bit less curated than Apple Arcade, let’s focus on Google Play Pass. If you don’t want to dig through the filler to find the gems yourself, here are 20+ of the best Google Play Pass Games (as of October 28th, 2019) to make the most of your subscription. By the way, these are presented alphabetically, not in order of preference or anything.
The Battle of Polytopia
We’re big fans of The Battle of Polytopia here at My Dpad, and we’ve written about it before plenty of times. It’s one of my favorite mobile strategy games because it’s basically Civilization shrunken down to something more suitable for mobile gaming. As you can see, it’s really nice to look at, but don’t mistake that for a lack of depth. It’s always free, but with Play Pass you can play with all of the tribes, which you otherwise would have to pay for or unlock.
Download The Battle of Polytopia for free for Android with Google Play Pass
Card Crawl/Card Thief
Card Crawl and Card Thief are from the same developer, so I figured I’d talk about them together. Both games are based around solitaire-like mechanics, which you’ll use for dungeon crawling gameplay in Card Crawl and for stealth gameplay in Card Thief. Since card-based controls are particularly suited to mobile gaming, either of these games is a great choice for Play Pass subscribers (and since they’re both free with the subscription, you don’t even have to choose).
Download Card Crawl for free for Android with Google Play Pass
Download Card Thief for free for Android with Google Play Pass
Game Dev Tycoon
Time to get meta. If you want to play a game that will have you designing your own games, Game Dev Tycoon is the best option out there. I had this game on Steam before it released on mobile, and yet I still bought it for Android. It makes me very happy that Play Pass subscribers get to play it for so cheap, and I would recommend it to anyone who likes simulation games. As a bonus, it’s also a nostalgic tour through gaming history as it goes through all the different console generations we experienced growing up.
Download Game Dev Tycoon for free for Android with Google Play Pass
LIMBO
LIMBO, a dark and eerie 2D puzzle platformer, is one of the most beloved indie games of the last decade. It received near critical acclaim when it came out, with most of the criticism being directed at its relatively high price tag considering its length. Well, that’s obviously not an issue if you’re playing the game with Google Play Pass. In case you needed any more reason to try it out, its follow-up, Inside, was shouted out by Hideo Kojima as his favorite game of the last five years.
Download LIMBO for free for Android with Google Play Pass
Lumino City
Next up is Lumino City, which is another mobile game that shows just how good a 2D platformer can look. If you want to play Little Big Planet or a 2D version of Tearaway on your smartphone, Lumino City is probably as close as you’re going to get. At first glance, you might expect it to be a shorter experience, but it’s actually surprisingly long for this type of game, clocking in at about 5 hours.
Download Lumino City for free for Android with Google Play Pass
Mini Metro
Mini Metro has got to be one of the most popular puzzle games for mobile phones, and even though its $0.99 price tag is extremely reasonable, it may have kept some people from trying it out. Since it’s free for Google Play Pass subscribers, there’s no better time than now to finally try it for yourself. If you’re looking for a mobile simulation game that lets you design subway systems for various real-world cities, Mini Metro is a must-play.
Download Mini Metro for free for Android with Google Play Pass
Pastry Paradise
As we wrote about recently, Pastry Paradise with Google Play Pass is the closest thing to a premium Candy Crush clone that won’t constantly tempt you to spend money. Since Play Pass wipes out the need for paying for in-app purchases, you can get sweet match 3 action without any restrictions at all with Pastry Paradise. Most importantly, it’s just a fun game to play, meaning it might be your best bet to wean yourself off of match 3 games with more predatory monetization.
Download Pastry Paradise for free for Android with Google Play Pass
Pocket City
When people think of greedy mobile game monetization schemes, they might be most likely to think of games like Clash of Clans. To the uninitiated, games like Clash of Clans might seem like cool simulation games they can build their dream city in. However, the stark reality sets in quick as soon as you see how all the timer-based gameplay is based on getting you to spend money.
Pocket City is the complete opposite of this, as it is a premium city builder for your phone with no monetization nonsense. It has guided missions as well as sandbox modes that let you build to your heart’s content. It’s well worth the $5 it usually costs, so it’s a no-brainer for people who already have Play Pass.
Download Pocket City for free for Android with Google Play Pass
Reigns/Reigns: Her Majesty/Reigns: Game of Thrones
Imagine if Tinder wasn’t a dating app, but a choose-your-own adventure game. That’s pretty much Reigns in a nutshell. In the original game, you get to play as the king of the land, making decisions that will affect your kingdom’s money and morale, among other things. You get to play out each reign until you die or are overthrown by your people, and then you get to play as the next king. The mechanics are dead simple, but it’s great fun. Reigns: Her Majesty lets you play as the queen instead of the king, while the Game of Thrones version is self-explanatory.
Download Reigns for free for Android with Google Play Pass
Download Reigns: Her Majesty for free for Android with Google Play Pass
Download Reigns: Game of Thrones for free for Android with Google Play Pass
The Sorcery! Series
Staying on the topic of choose-your-own adventure games, if you want something a bit more complicated than Reigns, you can’t get much better than the Sorcery! series. Each of these games is a complete digital gamebook filled with a wide variety of mechanics. For example, you can waste quite a bit of time just gambling in prison instead of following the main story. The best part, though, is that you can carry your progress along from game to game! Since each of these is typically $6, the fact that all four of them are available on Play Pass makes the series one of the subscription service’s best value.
Download Sorcery! 1 for free for Android with Google Play Pass
Download Sorcery! 2 for free for Android with Google Play Pass
Download Sorcery! 3 for free for Android with Google Play Pass
Download Sorcery! 4 for free for Android with Google Play Pass
Space Marshals
For the tactical thinkers out there, Space Marshals is a great top-down shooter built for mobile phones. Like LIMBO, some of the only criticism leveled at it involved its length for its price, so it pretty much has no downsides for people who can play it through Google Play Pass without paying anything on top of their subscription. If you want a Borderlands-like, looter shooter experience that was actually designed for smartphones, Space Marshals is your best bet.
Download Space Marshals for free for Android with Google Play Pass
Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic
If you want an astoundingly deep RPG experience you can spend hours and hours with at a time, there’s no better choice for mobile gamers than Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic. It was absolutely beloved when it came out over 15 years ago, and there have only been so many RPGs that have surpassed it since. The fact that you can play it on your phone still boggles my mind, and the fact that you can play it for free if you’re a Play Pass subscriber makes it one of the most obvious recommendations on this list.
Download Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic for free for Android with Google Play Pass
Stardew Valley
Speaking of games you can sink large chunks of your life into, Stardew Valley was born out of one man’s dream to carry on the spirit of the old Harvest Moon games, and he has succeeded in every way. The main difference between the mobile port and the other versions is that there’s no multiplayer, which is a bit of a bummer. However, if you’re planning on playing alone, the mobile version is 100% viable. If you’re ready to spend your video game life farming in a small village and trying to find the love of your life, Stardew Valley is the best way to achieve your dreams.
Download Stardew Valley for free for Android with Google Play Pass
Terraria
Terraria is yet another game that can suck away weeks of your life at a time, but instead of farming and mining from a 2D top down perspective, you’ll be doing so from a 2D sidescrolling perspective. Stardew Valley and Terraria also differ in that Stardew Valley is more focused on a routine village life, while Terraria is more focused on adventure and survival (not to mention the fact that Terraria had freeform, minecraft-like building, which Stardew Valley does not). Anyways, Terraris is more suited for smartphone gaming than a lot of mobile ports, and anyone with a Play Pass subscription who has somehow never experienced it should absolutely give it a try.
Download Terraria for free for Android with Google Play Pass
Thimbleweed Park
Finally, for the old school point-and-click adventurers, there’s Thimbleweed Park. It’s kind of like an unlicensed take on Maniac Mansion through the lens of Twin Peaks and The X-Files. In other words, it’s not for everyone, but based on those influences it should be pretty obvious whether or not it’s for you. Despite their long history, point-and-click adventures almost seem like they were designed for smartphones, so Thimbleweed Park is a great game that should be on any adventure gamer’s phone.
Download Thimbleweed Park for free for Android with Google Play Pass
At the end of the day, any of these games should make you feel like you’re getting more than your money’s worth from Google Play Pass, so just go ahead and jump into whichever one got your interest first. As Google adds more games to the service, we’ll try to keep this list fresh and updated, so make sure to check back. Thanks for reading, and happy playing!
