With a Little Help From My Friends
The quarantine has halted any and every sort of movement, and social distancing means we can’t just sit around with a group of friends. Times are hard and, with little to do, many of us have resorted to mobile gaming. At such a time, when everyone misses their friends immensely and is surviving on video calls, playing multiplayer mobile games with friends has become a bona fide remedy for social distancing. This list is a unique, one-of-a-kind compilation of the 10 best mobile games that have been forgotten, are not known about or are highly underrated. It’s carefully curated with an attempt to bear in mind everyone’s current situation, mood and vibe.
NBA Jam
Apart from being the perfect fix for all basketball junkies, it is also a treat for those who have been playing NBA Jam since the time of Nintendo’s old consoles. EA’s seminal series induces immense nostalgia as you come across classic players and experience the OG campaign mode – just how it used to be. The game has multiple options to connect with other players. With the option to play with Google’s Android TV, the game immediately gets a whole lot better.
One reason why NBA Jam is so uber popular is because of its life-like and dynamic graphics. Everyone’s favorite feature being your player jumping in the air and attempting to do a slam dunk. These slam dunks are usually very high and deliberately extra dramatic. The role of the defense is to block your dunk, of course, and that is one point at which the game becomes extremely interesting.
Available on Google Play
Volley Hangout
Who doesn’t like volleyball? While most other sports require at least some special equipment, volleyball is one of the simplest sports. Most of us have played at least once with our families at the beach. Offered by GameVille Studio, Volley Hangout is a visually stunning game with an amazing soundtrack. Easy to pick up, it is a good fit for people of all ages and gaming abilities.
At first sight, the game appears rather too simple to be exciting. But how often have simple games turned out to be legendary? Played against friends, Volley Hangout gets you so hooked to it that it becomes difficult to let go of your phone.
Available on Amazon App Store
Ludo Star
Ludo Star is a multi-player game that presents nothing less than a roller coaster of emotions. Highly unpredictable and packed with thrills, Gameberry Lab’s board game takes you on a journey in which no one knows what the next minute is going to look like. Every player gets four tokens and the aim is to race all four from their home to the end goal with their die rolls. The exciting part is that you can kill other players’ tokens by landing on them, making it increasingly difficult for everyone to make it to the finish line.
Originally a classic Indian board game, Gameberry Labs did an amazing job. The digital version features clean, smooth graphics, interesting game sounds, a simple and straightforward UI with minimized visual noise and tons of rewards to make sure the experience doesn’t get boring. After every few games, you unlock a new cool die and everyday you open a treasure chest that’s brimming with gold and gems. Ludo Star’s best feature is that you can play it against friends or team up with them against other players online.
Available on Google Play
Uno
Uno like Ludo is another childhood favorite that has, all thanks to developer Mattel163, found its way onto mobile, and it is nothing less than a treat. The Android app is an interesting experience for anyone who wishes to play Uno virtually. Digital Uno gives you the option to chat with your friends while you play and that makes it pretty engaging. You can also communicate through audio or standard emojis that are built into the app. All in all, thanks to all of these features, it feels as if you’re physically sitting around and playing with your friends.
Available on Google Play
Scrabble GO
At a challenging time like this, Scopely’s Scrabble GO has served as a great intellectual outlet. Most of us are too lazy to play a game that utilizes too many brain cells but at the same time feel bad about trying to hit stones with a bird all day. Scrabble GO is the ideal game that’s somewhere in the middle. It requires some level of intellect, enhances vocabulary and gives you the feeling that you’re not wasting your quarantine. Combine this with the social element of playing with friends and it takes to a whole new level. In order to make things easy for you, there is a practice mode that allows you to play against a bot named Zoey, who is terrible at the game. This gives you the chance to get better at the game before you start playing with friends.
Available on Google Play
Tic Tac Toe
Tic Tac Toe really needs no introduction. We have all been playing this since childhood. Titicolab’s virtual version sports beautiful graphics and easy controls. It includes 21+ difficulty levels, thus providing a little variety and increased complexity. The game is made interesting by 15+ board modes.. There’s also an achievement list and a leader board that makes the game much more elaborate than playing with pen and paper. More so than any of the titles on this list, Tic Tac Toe Friends is an ideal tool to connect with the little ones in your life.
Available on Google Play
Chess
Chess is one of those strategy board games that is known for being a game for intellectuals and has always had this special status attached to it. If you have never played, it requires a fair amount of brains and strategy. Fortunately, the Android app version offered by CanaryDroid allows you to begin by practicing in casual mode and then slowly advance to pro level. With a total of 10 levels and six stunning themes for boards and backgrounds, the game tries its best to not come off as dry. It also offers tips, performance stats and an undo function to make the game interesting. With the option to play with friends, digital chess serves as the perfect pastime for your locked down days, enhancing your strategic skills while keeping things interesting and competitive.
Available on Google Play
QuizUp
QuizUp is one of those Android multiplayer games that trended a lot when it came out in 2013, but then people gradually forgot about it. 2020, however, is the perfect year to reinstall this mobile game to play it with friends. Glu’s trivia game is a part of this list to simply remind you all of the ultimate blessing QuizUp was. The title offers over a million of topics to choose from, the option to play with friends, make your own quiz and connect with anyone from around the world. It is fun and addictive, not to mention good for your brain cells. To keep it interesting, you get awarded new badges every few days depending on your performance. Go remind your friends about this app and give it another shot.
Available on Google Play
Psych!
Warner Brothers’ Psych! doesn’t involve a race or competition of any sort. It’s a game that’s all about you and your friends. And what better time to play such a game than during a quarantine. After you and you your friends join a game, you’re all prompted with the same question about one of your friends. Your job is to answer it in the most hilarious way possible. After everyone in the group is done answering, all the responses show up on the screen. Everyone votes for which answer they find the funniest and the person with the most votes wins. Psych! does a brilliant job of providing you with a daily dose of entertainment. It also fills the gap that’s currently been built between you and your friends.
Available on Google Play
Exploding Kittens
Exploding Kittens on Android is the virtual version of the multiplayer card game about cute kittens and goats but also explosions and lasers. It has aesthetically pleasing graphics all illustrated by The Oatmeal, one of the best comic artists around. The aim of the game is to avoid the Exploding Kitten cards, because as soon as you draw one, you die. Things become interesting with the Defuse card which undoes Exploding Kitten cards. The app version of the game allows you to play with friends and strangers on the internet as well, which makes everything so much more interesting.
Available on Google Play
Hearts
Try out one of the most played card games of all time, on your mobile device! Hearts is an online and mobile card game where players try to score the lowest number of points possible over the course of several rounds.The strategic game involves players swapping cards, attempting to avoid high valued ones like the Queen of spades (worth 13 points).
Try playing onthe mobile version of Hearts.land
Yahtzee
The classic dice game is the perfect online multiplayer game. The game involves players rolling five dice and trying to score points by completing various combinations. Players roll the dice up to three times and can choose which dice to keep after each roll. The combinations that score points include ones, twos, threes, fours, fives, and sixes, three of a kind, four of a kind, abd the coveted yahtzee! (five of a kind)
Available on Google Play and also available online.
This link is added for consistency but not needed if the publisher does not want it.
Enjoy Hardcore Droid’s list of the 10 best mobile games to play with friends? Check out some of our other lists like Five Android Games Like Mass Effect or Best Android RPGs of All Time.
