Ask Lemmy

Stardew valley.

If you're into deck building give "Dominion" a go. The base game is free (which is absolutely playable) and a good way to get into the swing of the game. The AI is a cheating bastard through, so either play it on "easy" or play with some friends. It's SERIOUSLY addictive.

There's a free mobile game called sky that I'd highly recommend, it's extremely calming but also very well made.

I mean... not sure if it counts as mobile but the entire history of console gaming up to few years ago works on emulators, so that's a VAST choice. Sure you might dislike 99.99% but if there is even 0.01% you enjoy, that's hundreds of games if not more!

Check https://search.f-droid.org/?q=emulator and consider a BT controller.

Shattered Pixel Dungeon

WorldBox

Mindustry

Unciv

Stardew Valley, Shattered Pixel Dungeon, Luanti with VoxelLibre, Mojo Launcher, Unciv, Lemuroid to play console games like Crash Bandicoot or Super Mario Bros, Geometry Dash (not the Lite version, that has ads), 2048, Vector Pinball, 1010! Klooni

Balatro and peglin

The mobile version of Papers Please is exquisite. I highly recommend reading the developer's documentary of it: https://dukope.com/devlogs/papers-please/mobile/

there are a couple, a lot of them are ports of PC Rogue-like Games.

alphabetically, these are the ones installed on my phone that I actually play.

Balatro Bloons TD 6 Luck be a Landlord Mindustry Mini Metro / Mini Motorways Monument Valley 1+2 Peglin Shapez Super Auto Pets Turmoil

Into the Breach
You'll just need to find a patched .APK to play without a Netflix account.

One thing I don't see people mentioning is that Netflix has a bunch of good games for "free" if you already subscribe.

I honestly think Hayday is one of the best free farm games, It does have paid currency but it's not forced on you. You can watch optional Ads for a few daily random items but these are not forced, you're the one who has to click the ticket near the mail box.

Supercell make some of the best games that aren't fully scummy.

Atomas was mentioned in another comment; I can vouch for it as well.

A Dark Room is a fun (if not somewhat short) text-based game.

Bonza and Smash Hit are good for passing the time.

Vector Classic and Shadow Fight 2 (Special Edition) used to be my favorites as a teen, though I otherwise wouldn't recommend Nekki games since they're full of ads and dark patterns.

On Android Nonograms katana for picross

Lichess.org for chess

Scummvm for retro adventure games, tons of other retro console and handheld emulators on the Google store and f droid.

I used to use alphacross for crosswords but last time I installed it I couldn't get the puzzle feeds I used anymore. I tried forkyz but it's hard to find active, compatible feeds.

And for general free as in gratis entertainment Libby depending where you are, archive.org, and librivox for books and audiobooks

For paid games agent a, baldur's gate 1-2

Monument valley

A while ago, I came across a curated list of no-BS games for Android and iOS.

BS consists of ads or barriers to progress that can't be removed with a one-time payment. It has user ratings, and the highly-rated games are nearly certain to be good examples of their category.

Look for old games, that were released a long time ago before the “predation” was so required.

Osmos and World of Goo come to mind. Monument Valley 1 was a more popular, recent one in that vein.

Other than that, the FOSS and emulation recommendations here are great.

I Love Hue

It's a casual color puzzle game. Relaxing and minimally intrusive

Chess.

Hasn't gotten an update in awhile but the community is thriving.

Backpack brawl

Atomas (Playstore)

Shattered Pixel Dungeon (Playstore) (GitHub)

Slice & Dice (Playstore)

Vector Pinball (Playstore) (GitHub)

Didn't see it here yet, but Dawncaster is a really good roguelite deck builder that was actually designed around a phone UI so doesn't feel clunky.

Mindustry: an automation tower defense game

Shattered pixel dungeon: a classic Roguelike dungeon crawler

Slay the spire: a deck builder Roguelike. Probably one of the most popular in the whole Roguelike genre

Peglin: a lot like slay the spire, but plinko instead of cards

I had a lot of fun with Cat Quest. Monument Valley is pretty good too. Go series based on famous video games are also fun puzzles. Start with Hitman Go, then Lara Croft Go, then I lost interes at Deus Ex Go, I don't know if they made more.

I found Gorogoa pretty interesting.