You would be amazed at the crossover between the Play Stores best apps and PC, given how antithetical the two platforms can seem. PC's processing and graphical capabilities coupled with complex physical controls seems to come from a different planet to your new and improved gaming phone. Mobile development has gained such power and popularity that their inclusion on other platforms was inevitable, from refined experiences like Downwell to the many many quality Vampire Survivors clones that take over your life for brief periods of time. We'd like to share our favorite Android games that have made the leap to PC, for their peerless dedication, graphical quality, and immense popularity among Android and PC gamers alike.
1 Punch Club
This 2D brawler follows an 80s Rocky-movie-style aspiring martial artist, except there are no training montages; you have to bulk the old-fashioned way. Punch Club's gameplay offers RPG life sim mechanics such as eating healthy and regular exercise to train your character as a martial artist. The brawls take place in various pixel art streets and arenas that look great on Android and even better on PC. The combat presents a serviceable and punishing 2D brawler, utilizing your equipped special moves to gain an edge in combat. The RPG gameplay grants a unique mundanity to the idea of street fighting. The game converts the less exciting aspects of this kind of story, like money, diet, and employment, into engaging gameplay. If intense RPG gameplay is up your street, Punch Club (on Steam) is a solid contender to keep you happy, provided you never get tired of 80s pop culture references.
2 Downwell
Downwell is an energetic rogue-lite that sports an Undertale-esque black and white pallet and immediately throws you down a well. Players are tasked with descending at all costs, blasting rocks and enemies to bits with unorthodox, but highly effective gun shoes. The gameplay is simple in the best way; your guns explode downwards with satisfying percussion and brutal efficiency. Plus, everything beneath you probably deserves it. As you descend, you'll find side caves containing random upgrades, from health improvements to increased firepower, after which it's back into the fray. Downwell (on Steam) focuses on gameplay engagement rather than narrative, ensuring that moving down feels inherently satisfying, which enhances the game's destructive charm. The random upgrade system provides significant replay value, and the PC version allows for tighter controls for your runs. Put all this together, and you get an experience that definitely goes down well nicely.
3 Vampire Survivors
Vampire Survivors pioneered an insanely addictive gameplay loop that combines idle bullet hell gameplay with rogue-like elements. Move around and expand your destructive capabilities to combat the constantly increasing enemy threat. Graphically, the game is charming in a low-res kind of way and the enemies are fun to blow away even without the creative upgrades. The difficulty does ramp up quickly, swapping out weaker enemies for tougher ones, which can end your runs quickly. But it's so easy to fire Vampire Survivors back up again that losing barely hurts at all. Plus, different maps and regular updates keep things fresh. For a game that received so little fan fair upon release, Vampire Survivors is too good to pass up.
4 Dead Cells
A long-standing rouge-like success story, Dead Cells presents Metroivania-style explorative gameplay with the added spice of punishing combat and permadeath. The game is crushingly difficult, forcing players to take advantage of a slew of deadly weapons and abilities to progress. Explore the procedurally generated maps, locate upgrades, and use them to dominate the enemy ranks in every unique rogue-like run. As seen in our souls-like roundup, tough games need responsive controls to feel fair, and Dead Cells has you covered with razor-sharp inputs and excellent controller support. The game combines intricate visual design with a superior framerate to create beautiful environments that feel great to explore. Given its high-octane combat, pretty visuals, content-rich DLC, and regular updates, Dead Cells lives up to its reputation.
5 Hitman GO: Definitive Edition
Given the Hitman franchise’s reputation for punishing stealth gameplay and gun-toting action, the primary loop of Hitman GO Definitive Edition (on Steam) may surprise you. Players control an Agent 47 miniature on a game board, tasked with taking out every other person on the board. The Monopoly aesthetic is very disarming if one knows the series, but funnily enough, the core elements of classic Hitman gameplay remain unchanged. Since you are supposed to kill without being spotted, you have to be strategic about who you kill first. Your targets are chess pieces that don't move unless prompted, so the task is to plan the best route around the board, picking off the targets one by one. This becomes bizarrely engaging and highlights how fun Hitman gameplay can be when brought back to basics.
6 Riptide: GP Renegade
This is a game that needed to be on PC. Riptide GP Renegade (on Steam) is a third-person jet skiing racer that takes place in an intriguing futuristic setting. The plot is less engaging than the gameplay, unsurprisingly. You'll spend most of your time speeding around city environments and reliving that first time you played on a racing arcade machine. Races have you riding over water and performing tricks for a higher score, with part customization options for maximizing your vehicle's speed, maneuverability, and style. Given the game's frequent sharp turns, the PC upgrade is a huge improvement for the larger screen. The game already looks fantastic on Android, and PC just enhances it. If racing games interest you, Riptide GP Renegade doesn't cut corners.
7 Slay the Spire
Slay the Spire presents new players with a hulking challenge, to climb and defeat hordes of enemies in an ever-adapting roguelike experience. Players build decks of various functions to aid you in combat; choose the build that works for you and ascend the spire. The spire challenges players with sequences of randomly generated tiered combat encounters that test them every step of the way. The combat itself resembles classic menu-centric, turn-based battles which incentivize clever use of the players selected card build to exploit the weaknesses of enemies as they grow steadily stronger; taking advantage of relics found along the way to enhance a build's potency.
8 Levelhead
If you're in the mood for a funny, high-pace puzzle platformer, Levelhead (on Steam) fits the bill. Players must deliver packages as a testing exercise for a robot prototype designed for a galaxy-wide postal service. Movement and combat mechanics are appealingly smooth and elegant, bouncing on enemy heads Mario-style while exploring colorful alien worlds. The puzzle mechanics centralize around your package, using it to weigh down switches and as a platform, and even attack enemies. Hope there's nothing fragile in there. The game also features an in-depth level creator and editor, allowing players to publish their own levels and play others, in addition to a tower mode that provides a greater challenge. If you're looking for something to fill the Super Meat Boy hole in your life, Levelhead delivers.
9 ScourgeBringer
One of the many many great Metroidvania games on the Play Store, ScourgeBringer is a neat little title that marries the genre's traditional explorative gameplay with a rogue-like twist. The player takes the role of the ScourgeBringer (on Steam), a hero investigating the interior of a relic that has fallen to earth. You'll be exploring the different biomes and cutting through enemies. Combat makes use of aggressive and stylish sword combos while making use of gunplay. The best of both worlds. The rogue-like elements conflict slightly with the Metroidvania-level design, encouraging the player to blast through to the end. Health is lost easily and recovering it is infrequent to discourage in-depth exploration. But if Blasphemous won you over with its punishing gameplay, ScourgeBringer will scratch that same itch.
10 Out There: Omega
If you’ve ever played FTL: Faster than Light, Out There: Omega (on Steam) will feel very familiar. The gameplay, end goal, and tone are more or less the same. You are lost in space and need to travel across the galaxy, mining fuel and other resources to survive. The biggest difference between the two is the graphic quality. Out There: Omega presents stunning backdrop art for the various planets you explore and the beauty of deep space. The defining mechanic of Out There: Omega is the role-playing aspect. Every run is random, and events can play out differently every time. While this game is perfect for mobile, given its simplicity, the PC port allows a more laid-back experience. For a low-fi resource management experience and atmospheric test of judgment, Out There: Omega is a no-brainer.
11 Genshin Impact
Genshin Impact (on Steam) is an open-world fantasy JRPG with gameplay straight out of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. The story of Genshin Impact is, once again, hugely important. The protagonist wakes up in the world and is tasked with saving their twin. But like Zelda: Breath of the Wild, the main quest is powerless in the face of screwing around in the over world. The game world, Teyvat, is huge and stunning, packed to the brim with puzzles and collectibles to reward curiosity and exploration. Combat is a real-time system centralized on switching between four different characters, each with its own attack elements against a sumptuous buffet of enemies. These elements can interact with each other if used in conjunction, encouraging experimentation. If you want a beautiful and engaging world to explore, give Genshin Impact a try. You know what they say, you can never explore too many open worlds.
12 Summoners War: Chronicles
Summoners War: Chronicles is a real-time combat MMO that places you into the fantasy world of Rahil as an official guard to the king. Your character is a summoner, and options in a battle are determined by two things, your stat-based avatar and the summon creatures you bring with you. Think Pokémon but without the honor system. There is also a greater emphasis on exploration; you are free to roam around the gorgeous open world, where you can explore dungeons, engage in raids with friends, or compete against friends in PVP arena battles. While it may not be for everyone, the combat is intuitive, the monster designs are creative, the cutscenes are cool in that hard-to-pin-down JRPG way, and the open world is vibrant and content-rich enough to add a ton of replay value.
13 Star Wars: Knights of the old republic
Star Wars: Knights of the old republic is now available on Android devices, and it retains all its features and quirks from PC; the famous Bioware Star Wars RPG hasn't been scaled down at all! Players are immersed in a constantly changing narrative within the Star Wars universe, with a story that adapts according to whatever allegiance they choose to favor. You have access to a ton of force powers to turn the tide of combat in your favor, and full customization options for your character and lightsaber. Star Wars: Knights of the old republic feels like a straight port of the original, with the added benefit of nifty touch controls well suited to the mobile platform.
14 Dungeon of the Endless
A fun little twist on the tower defense gameplay from Playdigious, Dungeon of the Endless is a top-down rogue-like based around exploring a series of dungeons with an ever-changing party of characters, each with specific and unique abilities. Use the resources gathered along the way to open more rooms until you find the way out. The catch is, enemies are constantly swarming you, and you must protect the party as well as your crashed ship; taking advantage of your character's constantly strengthening abilities. The gameplay loop is surprisingly deep, and there's a great deal to learn about the defense mechanics and how to set your team up properly.
15 Tower of Fantasy
Tower of Fantasy is an anime open-world MMORPG extravaganza with a focus on exploration and stylish real-time combat. The story takes you into the far future, where eEarth'sresources have dwindled, and mankind's only hope for survival is migration to the newly discovered alien world of Aida, which just so happens to be our expansive open world. Since the comparison is inevitable, yes, third-person real-time brawls with a focus on both close-quarters combat and ranged attacks will feel familiar if you've tried out Genshin Impact. But the game distinguishes itself enough in practice to maintain credulity. Tower of Fantasy has at least 100 hours worth of gameplay value in filling that out alone, and the range of customization is impressive overall but shines particularly in the weapon and combat variety, which can be mixed and matched with ease. It's a pretty hefty download that takes a hot minute to get into, but Tower of Fantasy is an exemplary entry in the open-world genre and earns its reputation well.
A new era of mobile gaming evolution is available on PC
It's no secret that some Android phone users prefer physical controls to touchscreen interfaces; hence the success of powerful Android gaming controllers. PC offers complex and precise controls and an open-source flair that's very appealing to some. But mobile gaming has its own unique flair, the limitations of technology forced developers to get creative and give life to some unforgettable experiences, from your favorite platformers to the most successful anime games; and that innovation shines through on PC. Take a look at these versatile apps, and tell us your favorites below.