Top 5 mobile games of 2024: Will’s picks of the year

• So many games reviewed in a year!
• Five have been picked that stood out the most
• Will you take my word or check them out yourself?

It’s been a year that felt short in many places and WAY too long in a few others, but we made it everybody! Here we are at the end of the year and one of the shining lights of hope is that creators and designers are never truly deterred by bad news. If anything, they may be inspired to create games or series about bad news that we can experience in a way that will hopefully make us feel better. And with access to such titles on our respective mobile devices, we can get a dose of that creativity on the go or during a long, endless, draining, wait.

Enough about that though! Throughout this year I’ve had the pleasure to play all sorts of games from the standard to the outstanding. Any titles that weren’t too picky to run on my selective technology gave me a chance to check out many new ideas. Some of the games were so stylish and weird that I gave myself a stern talking-to for not coming up with them first. Still, that just encourages me to come up with even more outlandish ideas while game-making peers will need to do the same when faced with these titles. Time to showcase ‘Pocket Gamer’s GOTY staff opinion, featuring Will Quick (That’s me).’

Hamster Inn

There have been a lot of reasons to turn to cosy games this year and rather than list them, I’m just going to talk about one of the cosiest. It made me feel all warm and fuzzy, though that probably had something to do with the fact that the characters are hamsters. That’s right, Hamster Inn by Hyperbeard Inc. is a non-stop shop for hamster hospitality. The soft art style and colours made this a place you wish was real so you could spend a holiday weekend there.

Of course, it balanced things out by making it a business so that you don’t get too cosy. You’re actually the titular inn’s manager and you need to make sure you run the most efficient inn in the hamsterverse. You have to check in guests, clean rooms, collect tips, provide food, and activities, and keep any troublemakers from harassing your guests. I found myself oddly invested in what was going on and felt relaxed any time things went smoothly.

Floop’s Big House Adventure

If you grew up in the ’90s or just have a penchant for cartoons from that era, then you’ll know that there were a lot of weird shows. There are still weird shows today, but something about ’90s animation was twisted, and rough, but still fun to watch. They’re the kind of thing you’d see on modern-day Adult Swim or in Floop’s Big House Adventure. Courtesy of the delicious Buttery Games, this is a Saturday morning shooter that you won’t insult by playing it on other days of the week. 

It’s an arcade-style shooter and bullet hell where the titular Floop is trying to get all the nasties out of the big house. The nostalgic designs of all the monsters, bosses, and items really took me back as the bullets started flying. I wanted to keep playing just to try out all the weapons and see all the content with half the fun being in the mystery of whatever weirdness you collected. Floop is still out there and there’s room in the big house for more chaos, so jump in!

Yes, Your Grace

Is it okay to say that the concept of monarchy is a novelty nowadays? Well, I’m saying it, but that won’t stop me and many others from exploring monarchies in gaming. There’s so much intrigue and complexity in such a system while still being human. That’s what I felt while playing Yes, Your Grace by Noodlecake. I know this is kind of an odd entry since it was released years before on other platforms, but I played it on mobile first and it was still new to me. The more I played, the more I wondered why it wasn’t released here first.

It’s a combination of point-and-click management and strategy but moves at a very manageable pace. You’re just walking from place to place, making decisions, and then dealing with the consequences of those decisions. People will live and die, wars will be fought, and it will all be on your head, underneath a shiny crown. The way the story progressed and transformed, I never knew what was coming next and if I had already sealed my fate long ago. Still fun, though.

Pizza Hero

What?! Pizza can’t be game, game is made for pizza. That’s the rule, isn’t it? You should know by now that one of the best things about creators and designers is that they always break the rules. Astrohound Studios decided to do this by making the popular consumable pizza, the hero of their adventure. Hence, Pizza Hero, obviously. It’s a bullet hell survivors-like that follows a technologically advanced (and arguably sentient) piece of pizza on a quest to do… something. 

It’s never really explained, but you’ve got a flying pizza with toppings that serve as delicious decorations as well as power-ups and weapons. You’ve also got a noble dog companion and the even more noble goal of rescuing his animal friends. The pixel art will show all the detailed projectiles and wild cast of enemies, bosses, and worlds that actually had me strategizing. You can’t just hope to level up and get all the best toys until you’re untouchable… you have to MOVE AROUND and TARGET SPECIFIC enemies. It was a strange and alien feeling that I enjoyed as one might enjoy a fresh, hot, cheesy pizza.

Kingdom Rush 5: Alliance

Oh no, it’s happened… I’ve become obvious! Anyone who knows even a little about it knows that two things I enjoy are stylized graphics and tower defence. So of course Kingdom Rush 5: Alliance is going to hit all my sweet spots. I’ve been with the series since Ironhide Game Studio released the first Kingdom Rush all those years ago. And here we are, so many years later, and it’s still SO GOOD. The stylized graphics are still there for the towers, heroes, enemies, bosses, environments, and even the UI. 

What’s more, is that you now get to have towers from both the good guys and the bad guys so that you can fight the even badder guys. The challenge is still there, coming through in the enemy variety while you’ve also got those fun little nuggets to discover on different levels. And the sound bites… I’m serious when I say that hearing your little towers and heroes make boisterous proclamations whenever they do something, is just so sweet.