I got my first smartphone in 2009. It was a HTC Magic which was pretty damn fancy back then. Alas, a car door killed it, and since I was stupid enough to buy insurance, I got a really shitty mobile as replacement. Then recently I lost that one in a train, and now I finally got to try a present-day phone, a Huawei P9 lite mini. So I'm currently exploring my new toy, trying to find working software and such. I pretty much feel like I just stepped into the future!

So I'm currently pretty hyped about anything mobile-like. Since GoG supposedly likened Opus Magnum to a mobile game and decided not to distribute it, there was a bit of talk about mobile ports on GOG. Inspired by this, I tried doing a search for GOG games with mobile versions:

Waking Mars
This War of Mine
Octodad: Dadliest Catch
Braveland
Broken Age
Her Story
Downwell
Costume Quest
Reigns
Crashlands
Super Hexagon
Machinarium
Hatoful Boyfriend
botanicula
Desktop Dungeons
Beholder
Ironclad Tactics
Kingdom: New Lands
Kingdom Rush
Oh...Sir! The Insult Simulator
Card City Nights
Rogue Wizards
Gorogoa
Spore
Battlevoid: Harbinger
1979 Revolution: Black Friday
Space Rangers: Quest
Anomaly: Warzone Earth
80 Days
Republique
Triple Town
Spacechem

There are probably lots more. I'm not totally sure which games are ported from mobile to PC or vice versa.

Personally, I'm against any mobile ports on GOG. The games might be good, but in any case, I much rather play them on the platform they were originally designed for. I wish that GOG at least would include the .apk file with the purchase.

Mobile game has a reputation for being freemium crapware, loaded with ads and in-app purchase. And yes, they are exactly that. Some decent mobile games exist, but not many. And it doesn't help that Google Play won't let you disable ads/IAP crap in your search. Way back, I tried to find the Best totally FREE Games for Android. The sad conclusion was that there simply wasn't much.

I think its a shame that the mobile medium has this tradition for spawning really lousy games. The input options and format really offer possibilities to explore territories that is plain impossible with PC or consoles. Pokemon Go was totally unlike what we normally consider a computer game to be.

I just got a phone too so this thread is relevant to my interests.

Underhand is short but entirely free (and ad-free) in the Google Play store. This. It has gotten worse since my last phone in 2011, I can't even buy a decent DRM-infected game, it's all in-app purchases these days.

I mean like what the fuck is this, it's a $20 mobile game with in-app purchases.

Since recently I have a small (probably weak) Android tablet, which would theoretically make me more interested in mobile games, but I haven't really found anything I'd be dying to play on it.

I thought Lara Croft GO would be a good title for that, but it's actually kind of sluggish on my tablet, and truth be told, I thought it would be best played on a mobile device with swipe controls, but then, surprisingly, I found that playing the PC version with gamepad felt much more comfortable.

Looking at your list though, I recognize quite a few games I liked. But I played the PC versions.

The games I play most on mobile are all free and open source. I don't generally play anything that take more than a few minutes per game on my phone.

Shortyz
Solitaire
Vector Pinball
Frozen Bubble

Speaking of GOG games, I just got Star Vikings Forever in a GooglePlay deal (~$0.15), and it works ok. It feels like a fun little mobile game. Also on GOG.

Galaga Wars is pretty sweet, like Pac-Man 256. Those games do have ads, but you can disable them with a 1.99 purchase (which is not for disabling the ads, but actually getting some new ships in Galaga or a different skin for Pac-Man).

Also, Nintendo games seem to be good. Super Mario Run is pretty awesome and you can play the first 4 levels for free, plus the Remix Mode and the multiplayer (not real time), but it does cost 10 bucks to unlock every level. Fire Emblem and Animal Crossing are not available in my country but those seem to be pretty good, are free to play but not need to buy anything and do not have any ads. Nintendo does require almost constant internet connection though...

I believe Smartphones are the "handhelds" for the mainstream mobile gamer, leaving handheld consoles as a "pro-gamer", just like Desktop PCs and Laptops vs a Tablet.

pixel dungeon is sick and it's free with no adds and micro transactions. been rocking that for years and still cant beat it.... lol

I can only confidently recommend one(not free) mobile game. Dungeons of Chaos. I'd also say Lords of Midnight, but it didn't start out as a mobile game, obviously.

I played several, didn't like any of them. I just don't like to play on my phone, I think.

Shattered Pixel Dungeon is my recommendation to anybody looking for a good mobile game. It's a really good turn-based graphical roguelike, and it's free (the IAPs are essentially just a donation to the developer).

imo i dont like playing games on mobile anymore as there arent anymore good games and these days everything is in app purchasing now even for paid apps and the free good games are now being pay to play so yeah

Just saw this thread and I was going to say the games in your post but you beat me to it ;)

On topic, my take on mobile games is very negative. I have NO games on my mobile phone and it's unlikely I ever will barring a card game or something. I'm sure there are good games on the platform but with the abundance of freemium crapware, loaded with ads and IAPs, I just don't care enough to find them.

Also, while I probably shouldn't say this but I also assocciate mobile gaming with idiots and I've met several people who support that theory. Mobile gamers are the ones more likely to be doing stupid things like walking on the street while playing a mobile game into on coming traffic. At my old university, there was a girl who was walking along a lake playing on her phone, she fell in, couldn't swim and drowned. They're also more likely to say stupid things like "Why are you paying for a PC game? Mobile games are free" and "Playing games on PC is old fashioned, get with the times". I even had one person say "You just don't like mobile games cos you're no good at them". So yeah, for me it's not just the games themselves but the people too.

I don't understand how anyone can tolerate staring at the small screen of a phone and playing games, not to mention how awful touch controls are, I have an ipad I couldn't tolerate games on it so I can only imagine the horror of something much smaller.

Aren't current day screens much larger than GameBoy GameBoy Advance screens? It's not that much of an issue.
Also, that's why you play games with basic controls. Like turn based rogue likes, puzzles, adventure games. I can't imagine playing a platformer on mobile, even though they are quite popular.