Best subway Android apps?

December 26, 2013 7:09 AM

I just recently took the plunge and switched to Android, which has a lot of great/cool apps. Unfortunately, most of the ones I've been trying seem to require internet connection, which is completely useless to me. I want to play games in the subway: if I had internet connection, I'd be on the internet, not playing games. Can anyone recommend some good Android apps that don't need connection?
posted by corb to Technology (11 answers total)

Nethack.
posted by mbatch at 7:52 AM on December 26, 2013

Are these net-enabled games actually using the network, or are they free games that are trying to load advertisiting? Do some of your interesting games have paid equivalents that drop the network requirement?
posted by JoeZydeco at 8:10 AM on December 26, 2013 [1 favorite]

Hillclimb racing (once you unlock the moon level, is basically free money)
rope escape
tiny tower
orbital (ripoff of gimme friction from back in the day)
plants vs zombies
peggle
cut the rope (is free sometimes)
posted by Mr. Big Business at 8:11 AM on December 26, 2013

There's a simple game called "Trap!" that I really like.
I've also been enjoying the decidedly silly but well-designed "Oh, My Goat!"
"Tiny Robots" was my subway game of choice when I lived in NYC, and lately I've been playing "Gyro" a bit, too.
If you like games like Chess or Backgammon, there are definitely versions of these games that do not require a connection.
posted by Dr. Wu at 8:11 AM on December 26, 2013

Dots.
posted by gingerbeer at 8:45 AM on December 26, 2013

Ridiculous Fishing does not require an internet connection, and is quite fun.
posted by dobi at 9:39 AM on December 26, 2013

Is reading ebooks on your phone an option for you? If so, Kindle doesn't need connectivity once loaded with books. There are several free ebook readers as well if you're adept enough to load ebooks onto your phone yourself - one in particular I like is Cool Reader.
posted by de void at 9:47 AM on December 26, 2013

Response by poster: To be clear, I do read ebooks, but already have a Kindle. I mostly need something for when I've run out of books to read and can't immediately download more.
posted by corb at 12:08 PM on December 26, 2013

I play an embarrassing number of games on my phone/tablet. I was able to play all of the following on my tablet with wifi turned off, so don't believe that they require internet for basic functionality. It's worth noting that some of these games have both a free and a paid version, and I have the paid version in almost all cases--free versions may require an internet connection to serve ads.

• Candy Crush (if you've integrated with Facebook, it'll sync when you're online again)
• Plants vs Zombies (tower defense with plants and zombies)
• Jelly Defense (tower defense with adorable blobby aliens)
• Bloons TD5 (tower defense with monkeys and balloons)
• Kingdom Rush (tower defense with fantasy monsters and "medieval" styled stuff)
• Ticket to Ride (based on the board game. Without an internet connection, you play against the computer, which isn't especially competitive, but still fun.)
• Triple Town (weirdly compelling, difficult to explain. I have yet to meet someone who doesn't like it, though.)
• 7 Little Words (word game, where you get a list of definitions and a pile of letter groups and have to assemble words that match the definition)
• Contre Jour (physics-based adventure game, pretty)
• Sherlock (deductive reasoning game)
• Enjoy Sudoku (requires internet to download puzzles, then is playable offline)
• Shortyz Crosswords (requires internet to download puzzles, then is playable offline)
• Oscura (gorgeous and compelling adventure game)
• Dots (match colored dots to get points)
• Flow Free and Flow Free Bridges (puzzle games)
• Greedy Spiders (puzzle game)
• Lil Kingdom (tower building game that I find weirdly compelling)
• Super Hexagon (I have no idea how to explain this.)
• Osmos (atmospheric and so, so so pretty.)
• Quell and Quell Reflect (puzzle games)
• Night Sky (physics-based adventure game, pretty)
• Zen Bound (puzzle game, I guess?)
• Abduction charming game where you bounce from platform to platform to save animals)
• Doodle Fit (puzzle game)
• Dropwords (find the word game)
• Pudding Monsters (puzzle game)

posted by MeghanC at 4:06 PM on December 26, 2013 [4 favorites]

Adding to the extensive list above (cuz there'd be doubles otherwise)... and with the same, they work and then sync later. If something varies, I've added notes.

- Androminion - Android version of Dominion card game
- All the Coin (and Cookie) Dozer series by Game Circus LLC - Coin Dozer, Coin Dozer Seasons, Coin Dozer Halloween, Coin Dozer World Tour, Cookie Dozer, Cookie Dozer Thanksgiving
- Paplinko, which is also by Game Circus. It's likely their other games are playable offline, also.
- All (I think) games by Kairosoft - I like Game Dev Story myself, it's oddly addicting. Shorter trial versions of many are available.
- Landgrabbers by Nevosoft - Possibly many of their other games. Many appear to be ports of their PC games.
- Rebuild - zombies cross with what, sim? Love it.
- Cubistry - think 3D mahjong
posted by stormyteal at 4:56 PM on December 26, 2013 [1 favorite]

If you get a Feedly account GReader will cache all the articles for you so you can catch up on RSS feeds with no signal (including cached destination pages rather than just the cut off feed article). I use it a lot when travelling.
posted by jaduncan at 7:31 AM on December 27, 2013