iOS games

September 20, 2023 3:48 AM

I am sick and stuck in a hotel room with decent wifi, an iPhone and an iPad mini. Recommend me games I can download. I have a slight preference for games I can pay for that don’t sell my information or suck money away via in-app play-to-win purchases if those even exist now, other details under the cut.

I don’t like strategy games or number games like Sudoku. Word games are good. Physics-based games like Sushi Cat (if anyone else remembers that) are good. I’ve enjoyed I Love Hue.

While I love the Professor Layton puzzle games from my handheld days, I don’t know if I currently have enough brain for the various Layton extended universe games I see on the App Store.

Maybe hidden object games? I haven’t played any of those in a decade.

Other than that, suggest away. My bored brain thanks you.

posted by telophase to Computers & Internet (15 answers total)

Response by poster: My iPad is new enough that I have 3 free months of Apple Arcade, I just realized, so feel free to rec anything there.
posted by telophase at 3:54 AM on September 20, 2023

I posted this in one of the bee threads last week, but here it is again: I wrote a word game inspired by the NYT Spelling Bee called Spellbound. More background here in projects.

Free, no ads, no data shared/sold with anyone. Works in any browser.

If you prefer an app, just bring up the game, and use the 'Add to Home Screen' feature in your browser. Spellbound is downloaded as an app, and you won't need an internet connection after that. Just play it once before ditching the internet to be sure it has been fully downloaded to your system.

Sorry you're not feeling well. Being sick in a hotel room is no one's idea of fun.
posted by AMyNameIs at 4:17 AM on September 20, 2023 [7 favorites]

Sneaky Sasquatch is my all-time fave on Apple Arcade. There are parts that require brain, but a lot of it doesn't.
posted by unknowncommand at 5:02 AM on September 20, 2023

Moonlighter is a cute and fun action RPG where you also run a shop. It's free if you subscribe to Netflix.

Two dots and Slidey are both "free to play" which is often a shitty model, but they are totally reasonable to play for free and good puzzle games where you engage your brain just a bit but (probably) not in a way that is too strenuous.
posted by SaltySalticid at 5:49 AM on September 20, 2023

Seconding Sneaky Sasquatch! It's got a great sensibility and a nice narrative frame for a bunch of fun mini-games. You start out as a Sasquatch sneaking around and stealing food at a Pacific Northwest campground, and then the game just spirals farther and farther out.

Also I think it might not be your jam based on what you've said you like, but if I were sick in a hotel room I would welcome it as an opportunity to put in some quantity time with Slay the Spire, which is also on Apple Arcade.
posted by implied_otter at 5:55 AM on September 20, 2023

In the word game realm, Apple Arcade has SpellTower+, which I love (if you love it more than you love Apple Arcade, there's also a paid non-Arcade version), wurdweb and Disney SpellStruck, which I like, and Dear Reader, which I was super-into at first but kinda got tired of.

If you like I Love Hue, you might also like stitch. and Patterned.
posted by box at 7:40 AM on September 20, 2023

Another Apple Arcade word game suggestion: Word Laces. You're shown a picture as your clue to a mystery word, and you have two columns of word fragments below it. Draw a lace back and forth between them to string the word together.
posted by ManyLeggedCreature at 7:57 AM on September 20, 2023

Monument Valley brought me to a similar floaty headspace as I Love Hue.
posted by mochapickle at 10:03 AM on September 20, 2023 [1 favorite]

Osmos is a beautiful and meditative physics-based game.
posted by hovey at 11:06 AM on September 20, 2023 [1 favorite]

Hope you feel better soon!

I am low-key addicted to Spellbound and I will share a tip for tired/sick brains: use the Hints (under the Game menu) to see how many words start with various two-letter combinations. If you play in Safari you can keep them open in a separate window and toggle back and forth.
posted by tuesdayschild at 11:49 AM on September 20, 2023 [1 favorite]

When I was horribly sick with COVID, Two Dots was all I can handle. It still was also I could handle during the worst of my grad school years, and was recommended by my ADHD disability counselor who played to cope with the pandemic workload.
posted by yueliang at 12:30 PM on September 20, 2023 [1 favorite]

I really like games by Bart Bonte. He has a bunch of color ones, and sugar, sugar is pretty fun and physics-adjacent.
posted by notjustthefish at 12:58 PM on September 20, 2023 [2 favorites]

If you are a Netflix subscriber, the Netflix ipad app has a suite of games, included in the subscription. This was a surprise to me when I learned of it recently. I'm currently enjoying Townsmen and World of Goo that way.
posted by altolinguistic at 1:39 PM on September 20, 2023

Pocket City 2 is a fun little city sim where you can just build to your heart's content (while managing your budget) or complete cute missions driving around your city. $5 up front but no microtransactions or grinding to unlock.
posted by hydropsyche at 3:29 PM on September 20, 2023

I would spring for Arcade and look for "Simon's Cat - Story Time." It's good, has a story, cute situations. It kept my interest for several months, which is more than I can say for any game in the world not named Microsoft Solitaire Collection. My wife is still playing it now and then, two years later.
posted by lhauser at 4:59 PM on September 20, 2023