Latest entries - 3 May 2025:

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Introduction

I recently realized there are still, to this day, some actual “hidden gems” in the Play Store. Not the fake ones everyone talks about which, in a way or another, often have a catch or aren’t very “hidden”. I mean free games with no ads or IAPs of any kind that are fun to play.

So I was thinking maybe it’s time to compile a list of them. Please suggest the ones you’ve found and enjoyed!

Edit: I'm now including free games (no piracy) from other sources beside the Play Store (which will be specified within brackets), such as GitHub or F-droid. If they're also FOSS, like all F-droid games, they'll have this green checkmark ✅️. For the games that have both F-droid and Play Store versions, the green checkmark is for the F-droid version.

I won’t try them all as I did with my premium games list, because you could simply download and try them for yourself without spending a dime. I’ll simply list them.

‼️Also, please do checkout MiniReview - Game Reviews for more free games that match the following criteria (use the “Browse” tab and select the correct filters). The same app for iOS - App Store - is here.‼️

I’ve saved this post so to keep it updated over time, for my own reference and for your benefit. So feel free to save it and check out new entries every so often.

Entry Criteria
  1. FREE
  2. NO ADS
  3. STRICTLY NO IAPs (except donation buttons, but I’ll have to check first)
  4. NO PIRACY
  5. it has to be a legit, full game you’ve played and liked. No demos, no emulators (everyone knows RetroArch anyways)
  6. no entire repositories. You can recommend them in the comments if you really want, but this list is for games you’d like to recommend
  7. if it’s a Play Store game, it should be compatible with the latest Android version at the time of entry
  8. must include a link to the game, especially if from sources outside the Play Store. Not direct-download links, just links to the page
  9. sketchy sources won’t be considered. Play Store, GitHub, and F-droid are welcome

[If you want to recommend paid games, without ads or predatory microtransactions, here is the list for you.]

THE LIST

 

Legend

✅️ - FOSS (Free and Open-Source Software). Listed on top in their respective categories

☕️ - includes option to donate, with or without minimal cosmetics only

[Game title] - delisted

 

Shooter

 

Stealth

 

Platformer

 

Rhythm

 

Arcade

 

RPG

 

Roguelike dungeon crawler

 

Deck builder

 

Adventure

 

Puzzle

 

Tower defense

 

Strategy

 

Management

 

Racing

 

Simulation

 

Casual

 

Visual novel

 

Educational

 

Delisted or outdated

 

Happy gaming ;)

ps: please let me know if there’s any wrong information about the games included in this list (especially regarding the ones with free donations) so that I’ll fix the post, if necessary.

  • ByteMeEnglish
    1•5 months ago

    Hey, thank you for this great list! Do you think you could maybe add a small description for every game?

    • char_statsOPEnglish
      4•5 months ago

      Hey, thank you for this great list!

      You’re welcome :)

      Do you think you could maybe add a small description for every game?

      Sorry, I won’t do that. I think it’s easy enough to click on the links and check all the info on the Store, with pictures and description. Furthermore, I did not play all these games as they’re user recommendations, so it’d be too much work for little benefit.

  • murmeladeEnglish
    2•5 months ago

    Nice list, will be checking out some of these as I’ve only been playing Sudoku lately. Thank you!

    • char_statsOPEnglish
      4•5 months ago

      Yup! It’s there in the list and a great collection :)

      • @[email protected]English
        1•4 months ago

        Thanks for adding this! I had this installed a while ago but when I got a new phone I couldn’t remember what it was called and couldn’t find it. I clicked on this post specifically to see if it was on here, and was happy to find these games again!

        • char_statsOPEnglish
          2•4 months ago

          That’s awesome! Also one of the reasons why I started these lists, to not forget games myself XD

  • @[email protected]English
    2•5 months ago

    Glad to see you here! I hope this helps getting traction towards a critical mass on Lemmy!

    • char_statsOPEnglish
      2•5 months ago

      Hey! I hope so too, but I’m sure Reddit itself will do most of the legwork for us haha! They’re going the way of the Xitter.

      And BTW thank you for reminding me Lemmy existed and I should have gotten on it long ago!

      • Rikudou_SageEnglish
        1•3 months ago

        Thank you! Just FYI, you’re linking directly to a specific release, it would be better to either link to the main repo, or to the https://github.com/RikudouSage/KidMemoryGame/releases/latest link which automatically redirects to the latest release (which is probably what happened here - you copied the URL after redirect).

        Additionally, if I may ask, I’m in the middle of renaming the app to Memory Match for Kids, could you please name it such? In a day or so it should pass the Google review and it will be official.

        • char_statsOPEnglish
          1•3 months ago

          you copied the URL after redirect

          Whoops that’s correct. I’ll fix it with main repo link, thanks

    • char_statsOPEnglish
      1•4 months ago

      Underhand seems to be outdated

      What does it say? It looks good on my end, with Android 14.

      Can I suggest Drill Down

      Yes, I’ll add this as it’s also FOSS. Thank you!

      If you have other suggestions, next time please also provide a link to the game. This one has been delisted fron the Play Store so I found it on itch.io

        • char_statsOPEnglish
          1•4 months ago

          Says it’s made for an older version of android, and won’t let me download

          That’s odd, but also it isn’t the first time someone tells me that a game is outdated while seeming to be fine on my end. May I ask what device and Android version you use?

          Thanks for reporting this by the way!

            • char_statsOPEnglish
              2•4 months ago

              Thanks. It seems like the message you see might be due, while misleading, to the device hardware rather than it’s OS version. At least that’s what came up as one of the possible reasons after a web search.

              One more reason to keep “outdated” games still on the list, as they might work for someone!

  • @[email protected]English
    24•5 months ago

    Anything on F-Droid should fit your criteria, but here is what I have installed:

    • char_statsOPEnglish
      12•5 months ago

      That is great! I should probably start adding FOSS games from F-droid.

      • @[email protected]English
        14•5 months ago

        And careful throwing around terms like “100% Free” around here, considering most of the titles in your list are not free open source software in the “libre” sense that Lemmy users tend to expect more than Reddit users do.

        • char_statsOPEnglish
          3•5 months ago

          Yes, thanks. I removed the 100% in the title. That was to distinguish the games in this list from the “free-to-play” games, which are free to download but then have predatory monetization through microtransactions, or ads.

          Personally, I can see the difference between saying “free” and “FOSS” so I thought it should be alright. But thanks for the feedback!

          I might start listing real FOS games recommended by the users, but I’m not sure whether I should add a dedicated section within this list, or build a new list from scratch for FOS games alone.

    • char_statsOPEnglish
      4•5 months ago

      Ye I’m all for one-time paid games! I’ll drop my premium games list here tomorrow

  • @[email protected]English
    7•5 months ago

    Guaguin is a sudoku-like puzzle game that I enjoy a ton. Instead of the usual 9-block square, this has random shapes with a number and a math operator on them. The goal is to have no repeating digits on rows/columns, and each block needs its mathematical problem to be solved. For example a block labeled 20x needs to filled so that all the numbers inside of it multiply to 20.

    Play Store

    F-Droid

    • char_statsOPEnglish
      1•5 months ago

      Excellent recommendation! I’ll add it to the list, thank you.

    • @[email protected]English
      1•5 months ago

      Seconded, I’ve spent a good amount with this and enjoyed the different numbering systems (e.g. binary, hex) to tickle my brain

  • Davel23
    14•5 months ago

    Welcome to Lemmy! Love the post and I look forward to more, just one small suggestion. The title reads a little bit spamlike, I almost dismissed the post as some sort of ad.

    • char_statsOPEnglish
      6•5 months ago

      Lol! You’re right, actually. But it’s accurate, to the point and, I suppose, easy to find for users.

      What would you suggest instead? Maybe removing the “100%”?

      • @[email protected]English
        3•5 months ago

        I think changing it to something like “List of my favorite 100% Free Games - no ads, no IAPs” should suffice. To me, that comes off as having a more genuine/personal feel

        • char_statsOPEnglish
          2•5 months ago

          Thanks for the suggestion. I can’t really say that because, as mentioned in my post, I haven’t played all those games. This is a list of games recommended by the users that I simply put together for everyone to easily browse.

          I changed the title a bit and I’ll see if I can further improve it! Cheers!

    • char_statsOPEnglish
      2•5 months ago

      Thanks! OpenTyrian is obsolete, unfortunately. I will add OpenTTD.

    • char_statsOPEnglish
      1•5 months ago

      I think it’s paid on the Play Store and called Achikaps Pro?