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The mobile market has done wonders for established board games, emulating their solid gameplay loops and lovable brands on the latest Android gaming phones with ease. The Play Store provides fertile ground for board game apps to thrive, with intuitive design choices and unique ideas, not to mention more reasonable price tags. The Play Store has mobile counterparts for tons of established board games that rival the best games on Android, in addition to some awesome original tabletop titles. AP loves to roll the dice, so we've compiled this roundup of the best board game apps to help you pick the best ones. Dive into these thrilling tests of strategy!
Danganronpa S: Ultimate Summer is here to fulfill your murder mystery cravings
Don your summer camp beachwear to explore Jabberwock Island
Spike Chunsoft's Danganronpa franchise has seen the first three games in the quirky visual novel series released on Android over the last two years. Today, a fourth title arrives, known as Danganronpa S: Ultimate Summer Camp. Unlike the core games, this is an offshoot release developed from the post-game content in Danganronpa V3, offering board-game mechanics in a summer-themed environment, which means there are tons of new swimwear outfits for the game's 60 crossover characters.
Hitman GO's creative director is working on a new digital board game
Isle of Arrows launches this summer on mobile and PC
There's a new game coming from Daniel Lutz, who just so happened to be the creative director of Hitman GO and Lara Croft GO. It's called Isle of Arrows, and it's a strategy board game that offers a similar art style to the GO games. Seeing that Lutz is now operating as an indie developer under the studio name Gridpop, Isle of Arrows will land as an independent release on Android, iOS, and Steam sometime this summer. So if you were a fan of the Square Enix's GO titles, keep your eyes on the upcoming release for Isle of Arrows.
Niantic calls it quits on its Settlers of Catan AR game
Catan – World Explorers set to wind down over the coming months
Back in June 2020, Niantic announced Catan – World Explorers, an augmented reality map exploration game in the same vein as Pokémon GO, the developer's bread and butter. Catan, of course, is a popular board game that's had several digital adaptations published on the Play Store, and it would seem Niantic was chomping at the bit to utilize its AR platform to turn the entire world into a Catan gameboard, but this has not panned out. Thanks to a recent blog post, we now know Niantic plans to sunset Catan – World Explorers on November 18th. Luckily, the game never made it out of testing, and so only those living in the game's soft-launch regions will be affected.
Root is the latest board game adaptation from Dire Wolf Digital, now available on the Play Store
And it's a quality port
Root is a popular adventure board game that has won its fair share of awards and has already amassed three expansions. This is more than likely why Dire Wolf Digital has chosen to digitally adapt the game for the Nintendo Switch, PC, and mobile. So now that the game is available on the Play Store, it's clear this adaptation offers an enjoyable digital tabletop experience, which can be yours for $9.99.
Scythe: Digital Edition is an asymmetric competitive board game from Asmodee Digital
And it's cheaper than the Steam version
Asmodee Digital is best known for bringing many board games to Android thanks to its penchant for creating worthwhile digital ports of physical games. Despite the fact that board games are now more popular than ever, it would seem Asmodee has already worked through its catalog of easily-recognizable titles, such as Ticket to Ride and Carcassonne. This means Scythe: Digital Edition might not have the same name recognition as its forebearers, but it's still a quality release that captures the physical version's asymmetric competitive play.
Niantic announces Catan: World Explorers, the fourth augmented reality game from the studio
Wow, another reskin from Niantic
The Pokémon GO developer Niantic has just announced its fourth game, and yes, it's another augmented reality title. Shocking, I know. Since Niantic has already reskinned its original AR game Ingress with a Pokémon theme and a Harry Potter theme, the studio has now set its sights on the popular board game Catan, in cooperation with Asmodee. This upcoming title is called Catan: World Explorers, and it's billed as a massively-multiplayer augmented reality game that will "transform the entire Earth into one giant game of Catan," which at least sounds somewhat interesting.
Electronic Arts released an adaption of the classic board game Monopoly for Android back in 2011, but that version was de-listed years ago, presumably due to expiring licenses. A new version of Monopoly for Android and iOS was announced last month, and now you can pre-register for it on the Play Store.
Terraforming Mars is a new strategy board game from Asmodee Digital, now available on the Play Store
Yesterday I covered Asmodee Digital's recent announcement that Terraforming Mars would be officially released on Android today. After a quick look at the Play Store this morning, the game is indeed available for purchase. You can pick it up today for $8.99, and this is a premium release, so there are no in-app purchases or advertisements included. Keep in mind, what you actually receive for $9 is the base board game, so the expansions that exist for the physical version are not included, which means the lack of IAPs may change in the future if these expansions ever make their way to the digital versions of the game.
Asmodee Digital published Luckyhammers' digital adaptation of FryxGames' physical board game Terraforming Mars on PC in October of 2018, but thanks to a rough launch the planned mobile release was apparently put on hold. Well, it would appear that Asmodee Digital finally feels confident enough to push out a mobile beta test, which means you can finally pick up the Android version of Terraforming Mars on the Google Play Store for $4.99.
This morning The Pokemon Company updated the Play Store description for its digital board game Pokémon Duel to notify players that the game's service will end on October 31st, 2019. This may come to a few of you as a surprise, but with so many new mobile-oriented Pokémon games on the horizon, I suppose it's time to separate the wheat from the chaff.
Welcome to the latest entry in our Bonus Round series, wherein we tell you all about the new Android games of the day that we couldn't get to during our regular news rounds. Consider this a quick update for the dedicated gamers who can't wait for our weekly roundups, and don't want to wade through a whole day's worth of news just to get their pixelated fix. Today we've got a fantastic retro-inspired platformer, a sequel to a popular minimal puzzler, a unique word game, a colorful platformer that uses a slingshot mechanic for movement, an online-multiplayer board game adaptation, and a Godzilla-themed defense game from Nexon. Without further ado:
Asmodee Digital has released a new entry in the Talisman board game universe that's been specifically designed to offer a solo experience. It's called Talisman: Origins, and the idea behind this release is that it should allow players to explore the history of the Talisman world along with many of the elements that make up the original game's many expansions.
Asmodee Digital offers quite a few mobile adaptations of popular board games on the Google Play Store, and today the studio has released yet another high-profile title on Android and iOS. Zombicide: Tactics & Shotguns is the company's latest release, and it's based off the collaborative board game Zombicide, though it's not a 1:1 translation like many of the studio's titles. Instead, this new single-player release serves as a post-apocalyptic tactical RPG.
Welcome to the latest entry in our Bonus Round series, wherein we tell you all about the new Android games of the day that we couldn't get to during our regular news rounds. Consider this a quick update for the dedicated gamers who can't wait for our weekly roundups, and don't want to wade through a whole day's worth of news just to get their pixelated fix. Today we've got a top-down space shooter, a continuation of a pixel-based psychological horror puzzle game series, a faithful digital adaptation of the physical board game The Castles Of Burgundy, a completely free casual puzzler, a delightful mini-golf game, and a reflection-based puzzle game. Without further ado:
Welcome to the latest entry in our Bonus Round series, wherein we tell you all about the new Android games of the day that we couldn't get to during our regular news rounds. Consider this a quick update for the dedicated gamers who can't wait for our weekly roundups, and don't want to wade through a whole day's worth of news just to get their pixelated fix. Today we've got a premium learning game that mixes math with RPG mechanics, a business simulation that revolves around designing and selling a successful smartphone, a Zelda-like RPG that stars a dog searching for its owner, a pixel-based arcade game with simple tap controls, a casual package delivery game, and a highly-polished digital adaptation of the Evolution board game. Without further ado:
Welcome to the latest entry in our Bonus Round series, wherein we tell you all about the new Android games of the day that we couldn't get to during our regular news rounds. Consider this a quick update for the dedicated gamers who can't wait for our weekly roundups, and don't want to wade through a whole day's worth of news just to get their pixelated fix. Today we've got a unique rhythm game with a sonar theme, a digital adaptation of the board game Legends of Andor, a third-person tower defense game, a gorgeous gacha game similar in style to Nintendo's Fire Emblem Heroes, a pixel-based zombie survival game, and a strategic tank battler from Paradox Interactive. Without further ado:
Welcome to the latest entry in our Bonus Round series, wherein we tell you all about the new Android games of the day that we couldn't get to during our regular news rounds. Consider this a quick update for the dedicated gamers who can't wait for our weekly roundups, and don't want to wade through a whole day's worth of news just to get their pixelated fix. Today we've got a gorgeous narrative adventure, a digital adaptation of a stock market investing board game, an escape the room game, a kawaii-themed casual adventure, an anime-theme gacha game, a MOBA and PvP duel card battler that takes place in the Warhammer universe, and the sequel to Brave Frontier. Without further ado:
Welcome to the latest entry in our Bonus Round series, wherein we tell you all about the new Android games of the day that we couldn't get to during our regular news rounds. Consider this a quick update for the dedicated gamers who can't wait for our weekly roundups, and don't want to wade through a whole day's worth of news just to get their pixelated fix. Today we've got a solid digital adaptation of a card-based board game, a throwback to PS1 era atmospheric puzzlers, a quirky life-simulator survival game, a summer-themed point and click adventure game, a challenging pixel-based arcade game, and an io game with a cute ladybug theme. Without further ado: