The holidays are about being with family, but that doesn’t mean you can’t play while you’re at home with them. Mobile games are the perfect things to take with you while traveling wherever you go, as they are experiences that you can always have with you and release at a moment’s notice.
In honor of the upcoming break, I’ve put together a list of the top four games that I plan to take with me on my travels. All of these choices have their particular use cases, but they can be played in just about any situation, even if you’re going somewhere where there isn’t a good data connection or Wi-Fi.
Out of the loop
Out of the loop is a great party game for 3-9 players with a really simple concept. All players are informed about a particular keyword based on a category (e.g. animal, household item, etc.), except for one player who is literally left out of the loop. Then, players are asked to ask each other specific questions, and the person who doesn’t know what the word is has to hope they don’t get caught.
This game is a great choice for Christmas games if you want to get your whole family involved. The instructions for each stage of the game are clearly written on each screen and the concept is so simple that everyone immediately understands how to play. As a bonus, the game just released multiple category packs, so even though this is an old favorite, there’s some good reason to drop it again.
Night in the woods
Sometimes, a return to a home or place from your childhood can lead you to confront changes large and small in your absence or stir up old feelings and memories that you’re not sure how to deal with given who you are now. This could make playing something like this Night in the woods a comfort, since it’s a play directly about this kind of hometown return.
I can’t promise that the revelations from your vacation travels will be as entertaining as those in this game, but it might be helpful to have a crafty companion to your experiences in your pocket. Even if it doesn’t help (or you don’t need it), Night in the woods it’s still simply a great game.
Vampire survivors
If Vampire survivors has fallen off your radar since it launched for free on mobile devices a couple of years ago, you’re in for a treat. Since then, the game has added 5 paid DLC expansions and other free content, the likes of which have essentially transformed the base game into a completely new experience.
This is a perfect pickup if you want something exciting to play even if it’s not particularly challenging to control while relaxing on the couch on Christmas morning or half-listening to a Christmas movie you’ve seen 1,000 times before.
Lost to the swords
If you’re always looking for a new mobile game, I still can’t get enoughLost to the swordseven after playing it for review. It’s simply a brilliant little deck builder that is perfectly suited to mobile devices.
Just in case something like thatVampire survivors It seems like it requires a little too much attention, don’t worry, Lost to the swords it’s turn-based, has a great ability to display all the information you need at any given time, and a cancel button. This is a game you can play in pretty much any situation and at any time, and I mostly plan to do exactly that during my vacation.