There’s nothing wrong with those mobile games—I have a few of them on my own phone—but there’s a lot more to mobile gaming than that! In fact, there are plenty of mobile games that were ported over from PC and gaming consoles, with more complex gaming experiences. A lot of those more complex mobile games can be played on normal phones, but they’re better when played on the bigger screen of a tablet. You have more screen space for interface options and more precision when interacting with the game world. And since a lot of these games were ported over from PC and gaming consoles, you’ll find that they—for the most part—aren’t as inundated with microtransactions and other cash-grab mechanics. Ready to dive in? Here are the best tablet games worth checking out and playing on a bigger screen!
11. Desktop Dungeons
Desktop Dungeons is one of the best dungeon crawl roguelikes on mobile devices. Adventure through procedurally-generated one-screen dungeons, looting items, discovering spells, and defeating dungeon bosses to upgrade your Kingdom. Between the 7 races and 20 classes, there’s plenty of replayability with lots of different gameplay styles. And game saves for Desktop Dungeons sync across all devices, so you can stop and continue on any other device.
10. Planescape: Torment
Planescape: Torment is often considered one of the best Western RPGs ever made. Originally released in 1999, the game has been remastered twice: once in 2017 for PC and mobile devices, and again in 2019 for modern gaming consoles. Planescape: Torment is a story-driven adventure without much combat, instead choosing to focus on worldbuilding, characters, and a deep narrative. That makes it an excellent game to play on tablets since it won’t require heavy action or reaction times. Developer Beamdog also provides Enhanced editions of other classic Western RPGs, including Baldur’s Gate and Icewind Dale. If you like Planescape: Torment, both of those are worth checking out as well.
9. The Witness
If you’re familiar with the classic Myst puzzle-adventure games, then you’ve already got a decent idea of what The Witness has in store. The game has you exploring a mysterious open-world island and solving various puzzles throughout. That’s pretty much it. But that’s not a bad thing. The Witness is a smartly designed, beautifully immersive experience that’s rewarding if you have the patience to figure out its puzzles.
8. XCOM: Enemy Within
The original XCOM: Enemy Unknown was already unforgiving in difficulty as a tactical strategy game. The standalone expansion, XCOM: Enemy Within, bumped the challenge up even further. XCOM: Enemy Within combines the base game with additional expansion content and lets you experience it all on your tablet. If you like turn-based tactical strategy games and fending off extraterrestrial invasions, then this is a must-have addition to your tablet.
7. Final Fantasy Tactics: War of the Lions
Most of the classic Final Fantasy games—going as far back as the SNES era—are available to play on tablets, but Final Fantasy Tactics: War of the Lions deserves special mention. The game’s tactical RPG gameplay and lack of overworld exploration make it a joy to play on tablets, and you’ll find the whole experience to be pretty intuitive and natural. Originally released in 1997, Final Fantasy Tactics: War of the Lions is still one of the best tactical RPGs.
6. Dicast: Rules of Chaos
If you like board games, dice games, card games, and PVP games, then you can’t miss Dicast: Rules of Chaos. This underrated mobile game offers one of the best 1v1 experiences that incorporates elements of strategy, skill, and luck in equal measure. As you play, you’ll unlock new heroes, skills, and equipment to play with. All of it lends to your ability to crush opponents and climb the leaderboards to becoming the best Dice Master. And the controls are perfectly designed for tablets!
5. Door Kickers
Door Kickers is a squad-based tactical strategy game where you’re put in the role of a SWAT team leader during tactical interventions. Coordinate your squad, plan their movements, and rescue the hostages before the bad guys can execute them. The combination of tactical and real-time gameplay makes for tense missions, and when you’re done with the campaigns, you can keep playing via the random mission generator. There’s a lot to love about Door Kickers, including how well it plays on tablets!
4. Mini Metro
Looking for the most relaxing real-time strategy/puzzle game ever made? That title belongs to Mini Metro, a game where you play as a subway designer that needs to create an optimized network of subway tracks to make sure passengers get to where they need to go. It always starts off pretty easy, but as you go on, more subway stations pop up—and with only a few subway tracks at your disposal, you’ll have to constantly redesign your subway network in real-time. But if it sounds stressful, don’t worry. It’s not! It’s actually quite zen. It’s easy to fall into a flow state while playing Mini Metro, and losing is no big deal. And the adapted controls make it an excellent game to play on tablet devices.
3. Stardew Valley
Heavily inspired by the Harvest Moon franchise, Stardew Valley represents the ultimate farming simulation RPG, complete with elements of dungeon crawling and romance simulation. Grow crops, customize your farm, get married, build a family! This game is available on pretty much every platform out there, but it works surprisingly well on tablets—and the tablet version is much cheaper than the PC or gaming console versions.
2. Through the Ages
Through the Ages is one of the best board games ever made, and it’s digitally available to play on mobile devices. If you like the depth and complexity of the Civilization series, then you’ll love this one. Through the Ages may not play exactly like Civilization, but it has a lot of the same elements: explore the world, gather and manage resources, expand your civilization, and defeat opposing civilizations (versus AI or others online). There are many paths to victory!
1. Eternium
The action RPG Eternium is one of the highest rated mobile games for both Android tablets and iPads. Its intuitive tap-to-move controls and gesture-to-cast magic system make for a satisfying mobile experience. Between three classes, hundreds of monsters, satisfying story, and endless amount of procedurally-generated levels, there’s a lot of replayability here. And once you download the content, you can even play Eternium offline without any internet access. Read next: The best offline mobile games
