Looking for 2-player android games that reproduce the board-game feeling

April 5, 2013 4:55 AM

A favourite evening activity for my wife and I is playing board games. I've been thinking for a while now that a lot of the things that are fun about board games ought to translate very well to tablet games. So I'm looking for suggestions for Android games that fit a few criteria:

- fun for two players
- will happily run on an ASUS transformer tablet
- allow two people to play on the same device (i.e. we only have one Android tablet! though we do have two android phones, if there are any games that fit the criteria....)

and that contain some of the elements that we find appealing about board games:

- strong themes (history, spaceships, pirates, etc. etc.) that allow for a little bit of roleplaying
- plenty of player interaction
- don't involve quick reaction / reflexes (i.e. probably turn-based or similar)

Here's what we are not looking for:

- first person shooters
- long, involved military strategy wargames
- driving/racing games

Obvious good candidates are android versions of board games, but please don't limit answers to these - I am sure that there are great categories of games that I've not thought of. For example, I'm reasonably sure that we would enjoy playing an RPG dungeon-explorey kind of game, but I have no idea which ones would be suitable.

Paid games are fine.

For readers familiar with euro-style board games, our current favourites are Agricola/Race for the Galaxy/Carcasonne/Morels/Catan.

posted by primer_dimer to Computers & Internet (8 answers total)

Ticket to ride.
posted by empath at 5:53 AM on April 5, 2013

Response by poster: Ticket to ride

I forgot to mention; that is also a board game that we like - didn't know there was an android version, thanks!
posted by primer_dimer at 6:04 AM on April 5, 2013

The board game Small World (from the makers of Ticket To Ride) meets most of your criteria, I think. Right now there is only an iPad version, but there is a Kickstarter campaign ending soon for a version that will be released on Android.
posted by Roommate at 6:09 AM on April 5, 2013

As far as I know there isn't an Android version of Ticket To Ride unfortunately. Quote from the devs:

I’m sorry to give Android fans the bad news: Don’t hold your breath for an Android port of Ticket to Ride. “I don’t have anything against Android. The thing that’s frustrating is that every time we announce a new game or a new version on a new platform, the first thing people ask is when we’re going to have an Android version,” Hautemont said. “The problem is what they’re really asking isn’t when we’re going to have an Android version, but when they’re going to have an Android version for their specific device. That’s a very different question.” Hautemont joked that Google created a platform so open that it’s barely a platform anymore. The physical versions of Ticket to Ride are a specific size, and it takes a non-trivial amount of work to make that game fit well on digital devices with comparatively small screens. The good news is that with the iOS platform you need only aim for two screen sizes to hit 100 percent of all devices. Things are not nearly as simple when you look at Android as a whole. “When you take [a game] to a platform that has dozens of different form factors, screen ratios, and so on, the work is not quite as simple. The question for us, it’s not that I don’t like Android… the question is how could we do that in a way that is satisfactory, and that’s when things start falling apart.” Everyone wants a version of Ticket to Ride that plays at least as well as the iPhone or iPad version, and they want it to run perfectly on their own phone or tablet, running their own version of Android. Trying to deliver the quality Days of Wonder is known for across all the variables of Android is simply cost prohibitive, and Hautemont has no interest in lazy ports. Besides, there’s also the issue of customers paying for the game.

Everlands is a nice boardgame-esque game with simple rules and a cute theme.
posted by EndsOfInvention at 6:40 AM on April 5, 2013

Response by poster: Thanks for the suggestions; one quick clarification and then I will butt out: I am not necessarily looking for android versions of boardgames but rather android games (of any format) that might tick the same boxes.
posted by primer_dimer at 7:15 AM on April 5, 2013

Ticket to Ride is definitely not on Android yet, and sadly most of the major board games are behind iOS as far as releasing app versions of the game.

Elder Signs is probably the best port of a board game to Android.

Also, Hey, That's My Fish! is awesome.

As mentioned earlier, Carcassonne also has a great implementation on Android.
posted by Midnight Rambler at 7:18 AM on April 5, 2013 [2 favorites]

Neuroshima Hex is an excellent lightweight strategy hex game. Excellently done.

Also seconding Elder Signs. Fantastic.
posted by CrystalDave at 10:10 AM on April 5, 2013

Blockish is an open source Android app based on a popular board game. It supports AI players, not sure off the top of my head if it does Duo.
posted by pwnguin at 4:47 PM on April 6, 2013