Relia-robot

Honestly, I have played so very few mobile games that feel like they were designed to actually end? Even the ones with pretty clear endings are usually arcade games designed around replayability... hopefully these are up your alley, anyway! All of these are pay-once and at least have an "ending" of some kind.

Gun Rounds is a short-session action roguelike about shooting and being shot. It's technically infinite as a roguelike, but it's really more "can you beat the final boss" and after that the game is pretty much said and done. I had a real blast with it though, it controls well & definitely influenced Bossgame!

Florence is soft and sweet and pretty. It's a nice little slice-of-life story made of small mini-games you can play through in an hour or so, and certainly worth a few bucks! I wouldn't say it changed my life, but it might have gotten me to tear up a bit...

Dicey Dungeons is a turn-based RPG roguelike, with a touch of deckbuilding. It's got fun, mathy combat about building synergies and risky choices, and it has a cute style alongside the most catchy tunes. It's one of those games with a relatively straightforward core system that sprawls out and evolves in dozens of different directions. The game plays out as a series of 30 unique missions that build up to a final super-mission, and it all pays off really well in the end!

Reigns is a quick & silly mock-Tinder game where you play as royalty and swipe left or right to make kingdom-wide decrees. You can execute people you don't like, fall in love, betray the Church, accidentally poison your subjects, learn magic... as long as you maintain the right balance. If you're loved or hated too much, you'll end up dead. I've only played Reigns: Her Majesty, and in that one there is an overarching end goal that you discover slowly during many, many generations of queens getting burned at stake by the pope or whatever.

So here's a few..! Sorry, I really wish I knew more one-and-done mobile games. If anyone else has recommendations, please leave a comment! I want to play some too ✨

i'm following similar rules as above: the games i'm listing will be pay once, and need to end at some point, although i'm willing to be a bit more flexible about this because there's a lot of good mobile games that aren't scummy and deserve your attention. anyways, the list is under the fold because this is gonna be long.

GNOG is an interactive puzzle toybox where you explore these cool boxes (according to the steam page they're monsters?) and figure out how they work so you can uncover their secrets. it's also on steam and ps4, but it's really made for mobile. everything feels very tactile and it feels satisfying to poke and prod at every little part to see how it works. this is probably the game on the list i recommend most so it's gonna be at the very top! it's by ko_op games who also made winding worlds (another good mobile game but it's for apple arcade) and is working on goodbye volcano high.

Snakebird Primer is puzzle game that feels like it falls under that category of puzzle games that games like steven's sausage roll (i think? i haven't actually played it yet) occupies, where you're expected to completely learn the game's rules, and every puzzle gives you a new way to figure out how those rules work. if you finish it and think "wow this game was great but i wish it was more difficult", then you should also check out Snakebird. snakebird was actually the original but primer was released after people complained about snakebird being too difficult lol.

so around the time i was in high school, i saw a bunch of my classmates playing these mobile games where you get a bunch of balls and you shoot them out to bounce around to clear a map or something. Holedown is that but executed basically perfectly. everything about it just oozes charm and i thoroughly recommend it. it actually has an endless mode that you unlock once you've beaten the game, but it's not going to suck you in because the rest of the game is designed around the fact that the game ends.

i had to pick at least one inkle game, and the one i was really feeling right now is 80 Days. every single one of them is exceptional, though, and is really worth checking out. i don't really know how to pitch this game, but if you enjoy reading and making lots of choices then you're getting exactly what you're looking for here.

this is the final pick for this list is the Konami Pixel Puzzle Collection. i literally didn't know this existed until i randomly ran into it last night. it's only for ios and android, and it breaks one of the rules of the list. this game is free and is stuffed with some of the most confusing ads i've ever seen in my life. they only show up in the main menu, and they only advertise for 7 other konami games. it makes literally no sense to me. however, it is a picross game where all the music and pixel art is konami so i see no reason to complain. check it out now!

i actually have many more recs than just these, but i think 5 is good to start with for now, and i kinda need to go back and finish some of these games so i feel better about recommending them, but that's okay! i don't mind this becoming a series 💗 also feel free to recommend more in the comments, because i, too, also want more game recs ✨