Please recommend offline iOS games

September 4, 2021 8:35 AM

I'm heading somewhere without cell service. Please recommend offline iOS games. Bonus points for being ad-free and in-app-purchase-free
posted by spork to Computers & Internet (17 answers total)

Pixel Dungeon is possibly the best game ever made for mobile (caveat: roguelike). Totally free and totally ad free.
posted by Literaryhero at 8:39 AM on September 4, 2021 [2 favorites]

I will always recommend King of Dragon Pass, and its sequel, Six Ages. They are delightful and worth the price. No spoilers :)
posted by Alensin at 8:45 AM on September 4, 2021 [1 favorite]

100 Balls. One of those fill the cup timing games. Loads a banner ad when online but when I'm in airplane mode the banner ads disappear.
posted by JoeZydeco at 9:21 AM on September 4, 2021

There's quite a lot of them but, like many things, to each their own. Did you have any criteria for narrowing the field?
A few that I personally like

• Good Sodoku. Yes it has a daily challenge that requires internet access but also a vast library of offline boards
• Grimvalor a side scrolling slash 'em up thats pretty polished
• Oddmar a side scrolling adventure game that is also pretty nice
• President a "asshole" (card game) implementation that's pretty playable by yourself
• Mini Metro an interesting puzzle game
• If you have an Apple Arcade subscription I'd also recommend
  • Tint a very different puzzle game
  • WHAT THE GOLF? which is *cough* absurdly interesting and fun

posted by mce at 9:26 AM on September 4, 2021

Inkle games! Sorcery! series, 80 Days, Heaven's Vault. I think HV is iPad-only, though, in case that makes a difference.
posted by curious nu at 9:33 AM on September 4, 2021 [1 favorite]

Alto's Adventure, I think.
posted by wenestvedt at 9:37 AM on September 4, 2021 [1 favorite]

Shattered Pixel Dungeon is now available on iOS and is an awesome improvement over the original Pixel Dungeon. It costs $5 but no ads or fees after that.

Battle of Polytopia is a great game. There are a few one-time in-app purchases but the game is still excellent without them.

What type of games do you like? If you throw out some genres or examples of what you like, you might get more specific suggestions.
posted by beandip at 10:56 AM on September 4, 2021 [1 favorite]

I’m not sure what kind of games you like, but my favourite game, Twenty, has a very good free app with no ads. You can preview it in-browser at the link.

I played the free browser version for ages, then downloaded the app and paid the $3 for the extra versions (I like Zen mode best). It was worth it.
posted by hurdy gurdy girl at 11:09 AM on September 4, 2021 [3 favorites]

The two games I always come back to on my iPhone are Alto's (Adventure, Odyssey and Lost City) and Drop7.
posted by ddaavviidd at 11:22 AM on September 4, 2021 [1 favorite]

No specific recommendations beyond the ones here, but this question comes up frequently on Reddit's r/iosgaming, and you don't have to sign up to browse.
posted by lhauser at 11:53 AM on September 4, 2021 [1 favorite]

I really like I Love Hue Too.
posted by leahwrenn at 2:02 PM on September 4, 2021 [1 favorite]

The Room series are some of my faves. Broad strokes, they're kind of a myst-likes but make good use of the touch interface (and iirc in rare instances the gyroscope) and the in-game hint system is well done (it's progressive in that there are different levels of hints and I never found myself needing to reach for something outside the hints to figure out how to proceed).
posted by juv3nal at 3:24 PM on September 4, 2021 [2 favorites]

Oh maybe skip the first one. I seem to remember that it maybe came as a free download then needed an internet connection to validate that you'd bought the in-app purchase to unlock it? This isn't a problem with the later ones which iirc you can just buy right off the bat.
posted by juv3nal at 3:26 PM on September 4, 2021

If you enjoy tower defense, the Kingdom Rush games are great fun, and have lots of replay value to boot. I recently finished the last of them and am now going back through on a higher difficulty level... just as much fun as they were the first time!
posted by cellar door at 3:49 PM on September 4, 2021

(They do have in-app purchases, but you absolutely don't need them. I haven't purchased any of those.)
posted by cellar door at 3:50 PM on September 4, 2021

Oh maybe skip the first one. I seem to remember that it maybe came as a free download then needed an internet connection to validate that you'd bought the in-app purchase to unlock it?

They released a teaser version of the first The Room game, from which you could get the entire game, but you can also just buy the entire first game separately.
posted by Thorzdad at 4:39 AM on September 5, 2021 [1 favorite]

Stardew Valley, although it hasn't gotten the latest game update yet, is a good calming game and there will be a lot to do if you haven't played it.

I prefer the iOS interface to any of the other platforms (console, PC).

Other games I like are Layton's Mystery Journey and Crib With Grandpa.
posted by that girl at 10:58 PM on September 5, 2021