So, you have got a long flight coming up and you’re wondering how you’re going to cope with the boredom. Yeah, you can download something on Netflix for your plane journey, but you’ve already seen everything worth watching. No, games are what you need.
If you can get lost in a virtual world or two those long hours up in the air will simply pass you by. If you find a game you really love, you may even find yourself wanting more flight time once wheels are down.
Let’s have a look then at some of the best free mobile games you can play while on a long-haul flight. We’ll be looking at mobile games you can play offline here. Some games will have online elements but none of the games featured here need an internet connection.
This is part two of our mobile games for planes series. Part one looks at paid games.
Best free mobile games to play on a long flight
Badland
Not all expansive games with huge worlds to explore, impressive gameplay dynamics, and immersive narratives cost money. We’re starting off the free list with Badland to prove that just isn’t true. If you don’t mind dealing with ads now and then, you can get a lot for free these days.
Badland is a side-scrolling platformer that sees you exploring a dark and eerie forest as a cute little fuzzball. The game has an incredible 100 levels, all filled with devilish traps to keep you occupied as you’re flying through the sky. The game has won a plethora of awards on mobile and is so well thought of it has also been converted for consoles and Windows PC. Download this one now. You won’t regret it.
Unblock Me
If you love puzzles, you’ll love this list as we have three excellent puzzle games for you. Unblock Me is the first and it is a marvel in its simplicity. You start with a square filled with rectangular wooden blocks of varying sizes. One of the blocks is red and there is a gap on the side of the square that the red block can fit through. The aim of the game is to move all of the blocks around until you unblock a path for the red block to get to the gap so it can escape the square.
Unblock Me is simple enough and the early levels are easy enough, but the more you progress the harder it’ll get. You could spend hours moving those little blocks around, which is all good when you’re still a long way from wherever you’re flying.
Pocket Morties
Who knew that the foul-mouthed hit animated TV show “Rick and Morty” would make an excellent Pokémon style RPG video game? It all makes sense though when you think about it. The infinite realities of the Adult Swim cartoon tie in nicely with the seemingly endless amount of Pokémon we’ve been introduced to across the many Pokémon video game titles. Substitute the Pokémon for the infinitely variable Morty and you’re good to go and try and catch ’em all.
The result is a massive game world, spanning multiple dimensions, that will take a long time to explore. The game also has some interesting battle mechanics as you bump up against other versions of Rick Sanchez and pitch your Morties against theirs. If you’re an RPG, “Rick and Morty,” or Pokémon fan you should have this game on your phone the next time you board a plane.
Flow Free
You don’t need a big game world to lose yourself for hours in a game. The best video games are built on simple mechanics. Many don’t even need to be video games at all. They could be puzzles on paper or choose your own adventure stories like you used to find in books back in the day. Flow Free is one of the former, a simple puzzle game that will both frustrate and delight you.
The premise is simple. You have a number of colored dots on your screen and you need to connect each to its corresponding dot; yellow to yellow, red to red etc. You can’t cross lines and you must use every square on the board to complete the level. Sound easy? Give it a go then, and we’ll see you on the other side.
Fallout Shelter
Fallout Shelter is set in the same world as Fallout, the hit post-apocalyptic RPG from Bethesda. The game plays as a resource management sim as you try to build a suitable shelter to protect your vault dwellers from the horrors that exist out in the post-apocalyptic wasteland.
Send your survivors to study or exercise so they get smarter or stronger. Send them out into the wasteland to retrieve weapons and special gear. And brace yourself! An attack on your shelter could come at any time!
When you’re on land and traveling to work, the gameplay dynamics could feel a little frustrating as you wait for your dwellers to complete the tasks you’ve set them, but up in the air you won’t feel so hurried. You can take your time on this one and get to know the people who are living in your sanctuary. As ever with Bethesda games, Fallout Shelter has a vein of dark humor running through it, suitably adjusted to a world destroyed.
Pictoword
Pictoword marks the third puzzle game in our list of free offline mobile games you can play on long flights. In essence, this is the simplest game of our list but that doesn’t mean it won’t have you hooked as you’re cruising at 35,000 feet.
Pictoword has plenty of puzzles for you to sink your teeth into at many different levels. You can play alone or with whoever sits next to you on the plane, covering topics including famous celebrities, brands, superheroes, and movies and TV shows.
Really Bad Chess
The last game in our series is a simple idea that has been done very well. Chess has been around for centuries and represents a common battle between two perfectly matched forces. Strategy and cunning are what helps you win a chess game. If your opponent has keener wits than you, you’ll swiftly be put to the sword as their pieces swamp your side of the board and ultimately murder your king.
Really Bad Chess mixes up the classic chess formula by making the two opposing forces uneven. What if the game swapped out a couple of your pawns for queens or knights for rooks? When playing against the computer the game swaps out your pieces based on your perceived ability from the past games you’ve played. The result is two chess games never being the same, but also an ingenious way to keep you interested as you play games of chess that get harder and harder the more you play.
Wrapping up
What’s your favorite game to play on long plane rides or car rides? Did it make our list? Let us know in the comments below!
