Hidden Gem Android Games: The Best Android Games You Never Heard Of

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Many have heard of the likes of Candy Crush and RAID: Shadow Legends. These games have become staples of the mobile gaming industry. We hear about them constantly, to the point we may be tired of hearing about them. Since you’re reading this, you’re no doubt more interested in the best hidden gem Android games you’ve never heard of.

If you’re like me, you are on the hunt for those hidden gems. You want to be the one informing others of the games they’re missing out on. You want to be the one who’s already beaten the games people are talking about months from now. Fear not my loyal gamer, below are fifteen of the best hidden gem Android games you’ve never heard of in no particular order because they’re all great.

15. End of the Universe

End of the Universe will sneak up on you and keep you coming back for more. With superior graphics to other titles of the same ilk, it is certainly one of the best hidden gem Android games you’ve never heard of. It’s a fast-paced shooter forcing you to think on your feet as you choose the best weapons and moves for the task at hand. As you progress through the game, you’re offered more and more variety in your decisions leading to massive replayability. Moreover, there are hundreds of enemies to take down ensuring you never get bored. This one will cost you, but it’s a price worth paying, and you’ll be able to tell all your friends about this one as it currently sits with just over 100 downloads.

14. Table Top Racing: World Tour

Ported over from the Switch, Table Top Racing: World Tour is a fast-paced racer where every track rests atop a table. See what they did there? Unlike other racing games, this one will lead you past a plethora of items you can find on said table as you give it all you got to snag the checkered flag. With nine different game modes, Table Top Racing: World Tour will keep you entertained for quite some time and costs less than you might expect.

13. Overlive

We wrote about this one a while back, and it holds up nicely. Overlive is a mixture of survival, and old school adventure RPG. Although text heavy, it will make you obsessed. Centered around killing zombies, Overlive offers enough variety to set it apart from all the other zombie destroyers you may have come across. With only 180 days to escape the city, you will travel through various locations and encounter a host of incidents while trying to escape. What makes this game top-tier is the writing. The storytelling will hook you before you realize you’ve spent hours taking down the undead in an effort to escape. The graphics are strong and help ease the pain of its lesser RPG mechanics. This is one you won’t want to pass up.

12. Joe Dever’s Lone Wolf

Those of us at a certain age are all too familiar with choose-you-own-adventure novels. They were the cream of the crop in the 90s. Those who seek some nostalgia or wish to take on a retro-modern adventure should check out Joe Dever’s Lone Wolf. The feel of the game reminds me of a Dungeons & Dragons homebrew adventure. Players choose their own path to acquire loot and progress through the story. Moreover, the real-time battles offer a smooth experience with more depth than most popular titles. At only $2.99, Lone Wolf will have you doing just the opposite. Instead of being a, well, lone wolf, you’ll be racing to tell everyone who will listen about it.

11. Nomads of the Fallen Star

Fans of turn-based RPGs will want to check out Nomads of the Fallen Star. It’s a unique title unlike anything you’ve played before. The premise sees players leading a cast of heroes through a hostile planet teeming with colonies of survivors, each trying to take over after their ships crashed. As you travel the map, you can take on a variety of roles and jobs, from mercenaries to messengers to plain old merchants. Its open-world allows you to choose your own path. You can open up a can of whupass as a mercenary yourself, make stacks on stacks as a merchant or pursue the main quest to lead everyone to safety. The graphics may not be AAA, but the gameplay and open-world will keep you coming back for more.

10. The Shadow Sun

Having worked on the Baldur’s Gate and Neverwinter Nights series, the developers of The Shadow Sun deliver the type of quality gamers expect. An open-world RPG that may be smaller than most games of its kind, The Shadow Sun delivers in a big way. With plausible real-time combat, and engaging fantasy story and depth to its character customization, this game will fill your heart with all the RPG elements you know and love. Most of all, it is a title that will make you the go-to gamer in your circle for hidden gems that can’t be missed.

9. Bear with Me

This episodic, noir point-and-click adventure may not have the highest rating on Google Play, but it is an atmospheric jaunt that will have your heart racing. Full of dark interrogations, thick sarcasm and puzzles that will twist your brain into knots, Bear with Me offers enough gameplay (plus a prequel) that you’ll be engaged for quite some time. What hooked me most was the game’s soundtrack. The music perfectly suits the aesthetic of this black and white mystery and creates a world perfectly suited for sleuthing. Collect clues to solve a mystery which unravels piece by piece and leads to something bigger than you might expect.

8. Dream Machine

Speaking of puzzles to solve, Dream Machine offers a series of optical illusions for players to solve as they escape a “cold, inhumane factory.” What’s most interesting about Dream Machine is that it offers more than just puzzles to solve. Along with bending your mind, the game throws epic boss battles your way to add an extra layer of intrigue to this already engaging brain twister. There is a high level of replayability as well as each level offers the chance to best your own times in pursuit of bragging rights.

7. Where the Shadows Slumber

Where the Shadows Slumber is a hard game to explain in a few words. It’s an atmospheric puzzler where players manipulate shadows and light to reveal pathways to their goal. In a world plunged into darkness, you play as Obe, an old man who’s discovered a mysterious lantern. Any surfaces untouched by light have the ability to be manipulated. This leads you down a path of mystery and intrigue as you seek to find your way through each level. The aesthetic of this game is what makes it so appealing. Unlike many games you’ve seen before, Where the Shadows Slumber will leave you in awe with its puzzles, but more so with the visuals of each and every level.

6. Exiled Kingdoms

An isometric game inspired by some of the most classic adventure RPGs, Exiled Kingdoms allows players to roam freely through its mysterious world. Your choices have consequences and leave you pondering your choices while offering strong replayability. You’ll encounter a slew of characters you can talk to who will provide information you can use to further your quest. However, you’ll be left wondering if you did all you can do to receive the best information possible. Most of all, you will think long and hard about the equipment you bring with you on your adventure. Choose wrong and you’ll be helpless against the hordes of monsters you encounter along the way. The full version is currently available for a steal and provides 146 areas, 97 quests (along with randomly generated quests) and 120 hours of gameplay. You are certainly getting your money’s worth with this one.

5. Alien: Isolation

Yes, this is the game you’re thinking of. The popular survival game based off of the popular movie franchise, Alien: Isolation has been ported to mobile. While a well-known game on consoles, Alien: Isolation has just over ten thousand downloads on mobile. Whether this is due to players getting their fill already or not knowing it’s available on mobile, this one should not be passed up. Take the suspense and thrills with you wherever you go as you do everything in your power to avoid the xenomorph on your way to freedom. Your friends may already know about this one, but I’d bet they don’t know it’s available on Google Play.

4. Noir Syndrome

Noir Syndrome is a procedurally generated detective murder-mystery that offers a different story every time you play. Talk about replayability. An 8-bit adventure where you uncover clues and interrogate suspects to figure out whodunit. This game’s graphics are a shot in the nostalgia arm as it resembles every early Nintendo game I played as a kid. What kept me hooked was the newness of each mystery. While there is some fighting inserted into the mechanics, you must choose wisely when brandishing your piece, otherwise you may miss out on important clues or be the one “sleeping with the fishes.”

3. Legend of Towercraft: TD

This tower-defense action RPG is one of the few free-to-play games on this list, so we’re already off to a good start. Fans of tower-defense games will love the inclusion of the RPG elements as they add some spice to the expected goings on in most tower-defense games. As you take down the monsters inhabiting the world, you will regain control of the areas you clear. Additionally, there are a plethora of items and worlds to discover and engage with. Most of all, you can enter PvP gameplay to test your skills against a slew of other notable foes on the forefront of discovering this hidden gem.

2. Knights of Tartarus

Knights of Tartarus reminds me a lot of another classic Nintendo game. Ever heard of Zelda? Yeah, I thought so. This one offers a similar play style as the aforementioned classic but includes a strong role-playing element. Enter the underworld and take on a series of legendary knights to save the world. It’s one of the few games where you are tasked with befriending monsters rather than slaying them. Your newfound friends will help teach you all you need to know in order to defeat the evil among you and etch your name in infamy.

1. LYNE

A lot of games like to claim they’re easy to pick up but difficult to master. In the case of LYNE, it’s true. This alone makes it one of the best hidden gem Android games you’ve never heard of. Moreover, the depth of difficulty won’t cause you to rage quit. The graphics and overall aesthetic of this game is calming and will drive you to want to continue playing. This game has won tons of awards and rightfully so. However, it still hasn’t found the following it deserves. This provides ample opportunity for you to discover this hidden gem and hook all your friends on it. You can thank me later.