Mobile gaming ruled 2022. Several high-profile titles have tens of millions of downloads and active players. Find and reward the best this time of year. Most games on the list are free, as usual. They’ve improved, yet some people don’t like them. Some keepers from 2022. Best 2022 Android games. Honorable mentions follow the main list. Let’s find out more about 15 Best Games Released For Android In 2022.
This post covered around 200 games, with many more left off. This story ends on December 10, 2022. Since we hadn’t tested it, games released on or around that day were excluded from this list.
Except for the final three games, our games of the year, this list is alphabetical. Enjoy reading.
15 Best Games Released For Android In 2022
- Catalyst Black
- Deemo II
- Diablo Immortal
- Dislyte
- Disney Mirrorverse
- One Hand Clapping
- Papers, Please
- Path to Nowhere
- Quadline
- Rotaeno
- Tower of Fantasy
- Vikingard
- Second runner up: The Past Within
- Runner up: Streets of Rage 4
- Game of the year: Apex Legends Mobile
Catalyst Black
Vainglory creator Super Evil Megacorp created the third-person battleground shooter Catalyst Black. Its innovative game types, including Hydra, pit players against one other and a boss. The gameplay is enjoyable. You shoot and kill people. It’s mostly online PvP, so you’ll fight people.
Despite fixing first-year issues, the game is still problematic. Most complaints are about game crashes during infusion and general crashes. Still, Google Play named it the best of the year.
Deemo II
Free with in-app purchases
Rayark developed the rhythm game Deemo II. The game mixes rhythm and narration in a unique way. Deemo II has 30 songs and 120 DLC packs. Better graphics, physics, and content than the initial release.
It doesn’t work well on older devices. To avoid hiccups, you need something modern and moderate. Deemo II, one of two great rhythm games released this year, surprises us.
Diablo Immortal
Diablo Immortal premiered with controversy. As the game ages and expands, it will cost more to raise your character to max level. The game is great, but completionists and RPG fans are disappointed.
After creating a character, you explore an open world with lore, NPCs, and Diablo references. The mechanics and advancement are good. Crafting is a bit complicated, but you get used to it. Diablo Immortal may be a top mobile RPG if Blizzard stopped microtransactions.
Dislyte
Mobile gacha RPG Dislyte. The principle is standard: call heroes, form a team, fight evil guys, and advance the story. Combat is common. Character moves cause a lot of harm. This gacha mixes fantasy with current settings, unlike most. Modern music is lovely.
The title is fine. It only suffers from an oversaturated genre where developers try innovative mechanics and concepts to distinguish out. Gacha aficionados should like Dislyte’s version.
Disney Mirrorverse
Disney Mirrorverse is another combat-focused smartphone RPG. Though not an action RPG, the increased movement makes it feel faster than most mobile RPGs. Disney heroes and villains populate the game. It’s well-executed and easy for novices and veteran RPG enthusiasts.
The game is fine overall. Disney Mirrorverse, like Dislyte, is in a competitive genre. The developer has kept everything stable despite some minor problems.
One Hand Clapping
Voice-activated puzzle game One Hand Clapping. We love innovative mechanics, thus this game made our best-of-the-year list. Singing or humming into their phones lets players solve puzzles, play mechanics, and move around. Moving an elevator up requires a high pitch.
Since it requires vocal interaction, it’s not a public game. One Hand Clapping has a nice graphic style, solid execution, and no errors throughout testing. HandyGames also developed Titan Quest and SpongeBob: Battle for Bikini Bottom, two games that reached our best-of-the-year lists.
Papers, Please
Papers, Please simulate border immigration inspection. You monitor immigrants to your imaginary nation. By checking passports, and denying those with inconsistencies, you do that. Mistakes can lead to station terror attacks and other issues.
Processing people’s pay and mistakes cost. Losing all relatives finishes the game. As you play, the method becomes more sophisticated and the player must memorize more. Late-game stress is fun.
Path to Nowhere: Free to play
Like many strategy RPGs, Path to Nowhere features gacha and anime. Like Arknights, you place your characters in the enemy’s path and they fight. Pseudo-tower defense gaming offers variety. Normal else. Summon and level characters to advance the story and reach the finish.
This is mostly decent. Since the game performs as intended, you’ll like or detest it based on preference. The post-apocalyptic environment is amusing and creepy, and the localization is good for a non-English game. Path to Nowhere, like most gachas, suffers from a congested market.
Quad line
Free/$0.99
Minimal puzzle game Quad line. It avoids most mobile game tropes. No tutorial exists. Play until you understand the game. Since the mechanics are simple, that goes quickly. Rotating blocks moves lines around your shape to the puzzle endpoints. Playing makes puzzles harder.
Its $0.99 pricing is good for over 140 levels. Light and dark modes, colorblindness options, and no timers or in-app purchases are other advantages. It’s a charmingly easy game.
Rotaeno
$2.99, in-app purchases
This year’s second rhythm game is Rotaeno. It has great controls, charting, tracks, difficulty scaling, and a story. Rotation distinguishes the game. To hit longer notes, rotate your phone while tapping and swiping the song. That’s rare and only available on smartphones.
Most rhythm games come with music and a plot. Most tracks require DLC. Thankfully, unlocked songs are yours forever. We couldn’t decide between Deemo II and this, so we included both.
Tower of Fantasy
Tower of Fantasy was a major 2022 release. Open-world mobile gacha MMORPG. Fantasy and future sci-fi merge beautifully. In the early to mid-game, combat, social features, and leveling work nicely. The story was weak, but the gameplay was fun and the voice performers were surprised, so we’ll forgive it.
The mobile controls, menu navigation, and upgrade options are our main criticisms. Genshin Impact, which it’s definitely aiming to compete with, inspired some of its mechanics, but that’s fine as Genshin is a great game.
Vikingard
Free-to-play
Vikingard is a base-building and city-management RPG adventure game. In-game activities are plentiful. The tale is secondary to developing farms, breeding creatures, assaulting other players, finding romance, and more. The game has a lot to do, and Netease did a good job of offering gamers enough to keep them busy for a long time.
The game mostly works. Viking appearance and base-building mechanics are good. You rarely fight, so it feels simple. It’s free, but you’ll need to spend money to progress.
Second-runner-up: The Past Within
$2.99
Two-player The Past Within is unique. Players live in the past and future. Help Rose complete her father’s plans by solving puzzles. You play by describing your possessions, surroundings, and abilities. You solve the other player’s puzzle using cues from one player’s screen. It’s one of the few interactive mobile games and has cooperative play like Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes.
It was well-developed. If your buddies don’t want to play, the official Discord server has players. Well-designed puzzles. We enjoy that the game is cheap and free of in-app purchases and ads. Even with a new partner, replayability is low because you know the puzzles after finishing the game.
Runner-up: Streets of Rage 4
$8.99+$2.99
Streets of Rage 4 is a beat-em-up like its predecessors. In this 2D sidescroller, you fight evil people, bosses, and yourself. The console version released a few years ago was ported to mobile. This version has additional moves, better graphics, and smoother gameplay than the originals. If possible, play it with a hardware controller.
Game modes include multiplayer. DLC adds plot, characters, and survival mode. To get everything the game offers, you must pay extra. Streets of Rage 4 seems more like a console than most mobile games this year, despite its high price.
Game of the year: Apex Legends Mobile
Price: Free
As expected, this is Android Authority’s game of the year. Apex Legends Mobile joins Call of Duty Mobile and PUBG Mobile as mobile battle royale shooters. Fortnite is mobile, but not in the Play Store. Each hero has the skills to manage the battlefield. Unlocking most characters is easy. You join 75-player battle royales with 25 three-player teams.
Apex Legends Mobile has great graphics, hardware controller support, and on-screen controls. The smartphone version is also similar. The squad-based hero style makes it more arcade-like than PUBG or Call of Duty. Because it’s simple and fun, mobile gamers will suggest this game for years.
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