15 Phone Games To Try The Next Time You're Bored

Get ready for these games to defeat long lines, public transit commutes, and afternoons with no plans.

1. Stardew Valley, one of my personal favorite games. If you've never accidentally spent six hours farming, fishing, and mining in this game, we can't be friends.

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Okay, okay, we can be friends, but trust me: you need to play this game. I've been obsessed with both the PC and Switch versions, and the mobile game has everything I love from both, just in a more portable form.

Available for $4.99 from their site, iOS, and Android.

2. Candy Crush Soda, an update on the classic that you'll love if you've finished all the levels of original Candy Crush or if you're just getting into it for the first time.

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Much like the original Candy Crush, Candy Crush Soda is a classic match three game, but this version has a ton more levels, new and interesting powerups, and a bunch of puzzles that'll keep you occupied on long commutes, in waiting rooms, or while Hulu plays the same four commercials over and over.

Available for free from their site, iOS, or Android.

3. Mario Kart Tour so you can play the iconic racing game on the go, and battle against your friends for ultimate racing supremacy.

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Not only can you race as all your favorite characters (Princess Peach for life!) but you can race against your friends and players across the world, both in real time, and in a cup that stretches across the week and lets you win some awesome rewards.

Available for free from their site, iOS, and Android.

4. Disney Emoji Blitz, which lets you match your favorite Disney characters and then use them as emojis once you've earned them. Your texts are gonna be incredible.

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They're always adding new characters and levels, so you'll never run out of cuteness to explore. Disney fanatics rejoice!

Available for free from their site, iOS, and Android.

5. Homescapes, the perfect combination of a match-three game and a design game. What could be better?

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Match-three games can get a little repetitive, but Homescapes spices it up by letting each level help you unlock renovations, decorations, and more for a mansion that you get to design.

Available for free from their site, iOS, and Android.

6. Good Pizza, Great Pizza, a cooking game that gets challenging without upping the difficulty level to Constant Panic.

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You build pizzas to satisfy your customers, but the difficulty comes from more toppings and better accuracy, not impossible speed challenges. Plus, there are so many cute and interesting customers to meet.

Available for free from their site, iOS, and Android.

7. Pokémon Go, because it's still my favorite way to keep myself occupied on a walk.

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Yes, there are still people who play Pokémon Go! We exist! You can still catch Pokémon in the wild, battle other trainers and Team Rocket, and raid for legendaries — they're adding new Pokémon to the game basically every day!

Available for free from their site, iOS, and Android.

8. Gorogoa, one of the single prettiest games I've ever played. It's like 50% art, 50% puzzle game.

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The gameplay is deceptively simple: You just move the different tiles around. But they all have interactive elements or transparent pieces that can interact with the other tiles, creating portals, magical new worlds, and more.

Get it for $2.49 from their site and Android, or $4.99 from iOS.

9. Stranger Things: The Game because season four may not be coming out until next year, but there's never enough time to get hype for it.

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This game is a total time warp back to the '80s, done in classic 8-bit style. You can run, jump, and battle demogorgons to your heart's content.

Available for free from iOS and Android.

10. Two Dots, possibly the most soothing matching game to ever exist. Whip this out whenever your brain needs a little bit of a break.

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It's super beautifully designed, and the puzzles are stimulating enough to keep you occupied, but not so frustrating that you'll want to give up. It's basically the best of all possible worlds.

Available for free from their site, iOS, and Android.

11. 2048, a number combining game (no math required!) that's way trickier than it has any right to be.

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Just combine the tiles until you reach 2048! What could be simpler? Ask me that again when you have two 1024s on the opposite sides of the screen and only one open space. This is one of those games that you'll want to immediately restart as soon as you lose, which is the mark of a good one, IMO.

Available for free from their site, iOS, and Android.

12. Sims Mobile, so you can keep your favorite computer game with you at all times. We truly are living in the future.

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You can do basically anything from the desktop version in this game: create a Sim, play with fashions, design their house, and direct how they live their lives. Plus, you can even hang out with other players' Sims!

Available for free from their site, iOS, and Android.

13. Roller Coaster Tycoon Touch for a nostalgia-packed throwback to a childhood favorite — but updated with tons of new options for your phone.

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Not only can you build your own theme park (and make little digital riders puke with your rides' awesomeness), you can also draw completely custom coasters right on your phone. My 9-year-old self is screaming!

Available for free from their site, iOS, and Android.

14. Alto's Adventure, a snowboarding game with the most stunning graphics. It's part game, part art, all fun.

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You literally can't run out of levels, so you're sure to always have something to pick up if you run into a dull moment. Plus, you can do snowboard tricks and also rescue llamas, which is the best combination possible.

Available for free from their site and Android, or for $4.99 from iOS.

15. Pocket City, so you can soothe your frustration with train delays or bus shortages in your real city by building and maintaining a perfect one.

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A huge bonus of this game is that it has absolutely no microtransactions. So you pay the $2.99 up front and then you never have to deal with running out of lives or levels and paying the $0.99 ever again.

Available for $2.99 from their site, iOS, and Android.

When you've successfully taken over a Pokémon gym from the yellow team on your way to work:

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