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Terra Nil is a fascinating reverse city-builder, out now on Android
Return life to wastelands in this ecological adventure
Terra Nil, a "reverse city builder" where you'll transform a barren wasteland into lush environments, is now on the Play Store as part of Netflix Games. While Terra Nil may not offer the staying power of bigger titles, it's easily one of the most interesting strategy games to land on Android in recent months, and it's definitely worth checking out.
Settlement Survival brings its popular city-building gameplay to mobile, but it's a rocky start
A potentially great port marred by sloppy execution
Settlement Survival, the popular low-poly city-builder, is out now on Android. Initially released on PC in 2022 after a year in Early Access, the game draws heavy inspiration from the indie hit Banished while adding enough personality to make it a unique offering. However, the mobile port of Settlement Survival feels like a rushed and unfinished experience, out now on Android and iOS.
Sandbox games are all about exploration, providing players with large and content-rich environments as well as extensive means for letting their imagination run wild. This can manifest in huge open worlds full of stuff to explore as well as smaller crafted environments that bring a ton of variance, all mechanics that make up some of the best Android games around. This is why we rounded up some of our favorite games within the sandbox genre. Everything from huge and beautiful worlds that take advantage of the best Android tablets to smaller story-rich games that fit comfortably in your own pocket awaits you in the roundup below.
Townscaper is a charming city-builder and one of the best sandbox games on Android
An excellent port for Android that shouldn't be missed
Townscaper is a well-reviewed indie city-building sandbox game that's been available on PC and consoles since August, and this week it has made its way to mobile. The developer describes it as an experimental passion project, and I'd have to say that lines up with my experience. This isn't a traditional game, there are no goals, but it is a delightful sandbox where you can build gorgeous Mediterranean-style towns and cities by simply tapping on your screen. It's so easy a child could do it. Ultimately, this part of the appeal, that anyone can pick up and play Townscaper, which suits on-the-go mobile play perfectly.
Indie darling Townscaper is a gorgeous city-builder making the jump from Steam to Android
Arriving in October, and you can pre-register right now
Raw Fury released a trailer in March that made it clear that it would be bringing the indie city-builder Townscaper to mobile sometime after the Nintendo Switch release, and today the game has popped up on the Google Play Store for pre-registration. While we still don't have a specific release date, a community trailer released at the end of August revealed the game would arrive on mobile sometime in October, which is only a month away. Clearly, Raw Fury is ramping up for the mobile release of Townscaper with today's pre-registration listing, which means this sandbox city-builder should launch on the platform sooner rather than later.
Since April, we've known that the popular MMORPG RuneScape would arrive on Android this summer, and Jagex even announced at the beginning of this month that the game would arrive on June 17th. Well, the developer has stayed true to its word, and so RuneScape is finally available on the Google Play Store. This release has been a long time coming, seeing the Jagex originally announced the mobile version of RuneScape back in 2018. Sadly it would seem the wait wasn't worth it as the game is struggling with a host of issues where its Play Store rating has dropped from 4.9 all the way down to 2.6. Ouch.
Terraria update Journey's End comes to Android with new content and fixes
The mobile version of Terraria is now on v1.4
Terraria is an open-world sandbox survival game that arrived on PC back in 2011, which was then ported to Android in 2013. Since 2013 the game has often languished on mobile thanks to a lack of updates and controller support. Luckily both of these issues have been rectified in the last year or so, which is why Terraria just received the Journey's End update (v1.4) on the Play Store.
Nexon's Durango: Wild Lands mashes together a bunch of different genres, so think of it as an open-world survival game that you can easily play with friends that also contains collection mechanics much like the Monster Hunter series, and it all exists in a free-roam sandbox. So in true mobile-gaming fashion, Durango: Wild Lands is an amalgamation of quite a few popular genres wrapped into an easily accessible multiplayer package, and as of today it's available worldwide on the Google Play Store.
Portal Knights is an adorable looking 3D sandbox action-RPG developed by Keen Games and published by 505 Games. It was initially released on PC and consoles back in May of this year and has only recently been ported to Android and published on the Play Store. Its design is obviously very reminiscent of Minecraft, but it differentiates itself by including a few RPG character classes, a wide range of random instanced events, and plenty of epic boss battles.
Ever wanted to try your hand at escaping from prison? Well, Team 17 has you covered. The makers of the popular Worms series released their sandbox prison escape game The Escapists on Android today. It's a pixel-based affair where you will try your hand at organizing a plethora of different escapes, all under the nose of the ever present guards.
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 bi-weekly roundups, and don't want to wade through a whole day's worth of news just to get their pixelated fix. Today we have a unique roguelike, a zen garden game, two takes on Snake, a surprising military sim, a simple racer, and the sequel to The Sandbox. Without further ado:
You might have heard of Stair Dismount, the oddly addictive game of throwing a dummy off very tall objects. It's ridiculously popular, and now the developer has released a new take on this sort of gameplay called Turbo Dismount. Instead of just nudging the dummy off something tall, you sit it in a vehicle and hit the gas.
We've already cruised through Liberty City and significantly lowered property values in Vice City, now it's time for a west coast vacation in San Andreas. The third Grand Theft Auto game of the PlayStation 2 era just landed on the Play Store in its blocky, polygonal, sandbox glory, and you can pick it up for a cool $6.99. No in-app purchases, no time-outs, just good old-fashioned Rockstar madness.
If you haven't played Gangstar Rio, it's basically Gameloft's attempt to recreate a popular existing franchise. That describes about 95% of Gameloft's app library (I'll stop teasing them when they start having ideas of their own), but in this case, it's a riff on Grand Theft Auto, Saints Row, and the rest of the open-world crime genre. The sequel, Gangstar Vegas, was just published in the Play Store. Seven bucks gets you a bigger, better crime simulator, assuming your device is compatible and you've got a whopping 2.5GB of free space.
, Pixowl has launched their iOS hit The Sandbox on the Play Store. It's a free download for anything running Android 2.3 or later. Not to be confused with the open world sandbox genre (Grand Theft Auto and the like), this game is an almost literal sandbox. You're an apprentice deity, with the goal of combining elements into different pixelated constructions. Then go Old Testament and blow it up. Anyone who's ever built a domino tower just to knock it down will understand the appeal here.
If you ever spent hours on the Etch-a-Sketch and thought that what it could really use was a dual-core processor, check out the video below. It's The Sandbox, an iOS hit game that's headed for Android soon. Well, "game" may not be the right word - it's more of a simplistic art/animation/music engine that happens to be played like a game. You take on the role of "apprentice deity" and get to play with the classical elements, completing simple missions or moving freestyle on the face of the waters.
If you've got fond memories of speeding through "don't call it Miami" Vice City to the sounds of a drugged-up Scottish hair band bickering in the back of your limousine, good news: you'll soon be able to take the experience with you. Grand Theft Auto developer Rockstar has announced that as part of the 10th anniversary celebration for GTA: Vice City, they'll be releasing mobile versions for both Android and iOS later this year. Vice City's release will come about a year after the mobile version of the original crime sandbox, Grand Theft Auto III.
[New Game] Gameloft Releases Gangstar Rio: City Of Saints, Scratch Your Sandbox Violence Itch For $7
No, it's not a gangster game starring the birds from that one CGI movie. Gangster Rio: City Of Saints is Gameloft's latest addition to its collection of "games that are sort of similar to bigger game franchises you know, but aren't terrible ripoffs either." Gangstar's latest sandbox takes place in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil and offers the player all manner of weaponry and missions to satisfy their id.