Top Ten Mobile Games of May 2023

With the Spring coming to a close, summer is on the way with some new and hot mobile games. Each of the mobile games on this list have certain strengths that make them shine out amongst the rest. Though not every game can be someone’s favorite, you cannot argue that there is not a game for everyone as new releases offer new opportunities for players worldwide.

#10 Sort Ball: Brain Age

Sort Ball: Brain Age is a simple puzzle game where you arrange all the balls inside of several tubes. The goal of the game is to have all the matching colors within one tube within a certain time. At the end of each match, the game calculates your brain to evaluate just how good your memory, thinking, coordination, and concentration is. The best score to get is the brain age of thirteen that states that you are function at you highest level of concentration; the longer it take you to figure out a puzzle, the older your brain age gets. In addition, the game gives you items like hints, gems, and rewinds whenever you complete a level, but has a caveat of lowering your brain age if you use any of them. The in-game shop allows you to personalize you tube toppers and unlock different ball colors to heighten your gaming experience. Sort Ball: Brain Age has over three thousand levels that all range from difficult levels of difficulty, so it is a great way to pass the time. The game is available on Google Play and the App Store.

#9 Lord of the Rings: Heroes of Middle-Earth

Being a part of one of the most influential franchises, “Lord of the Rings”, Electronic Arts knew that they had big shoes to fill when launching Lord of the Rings: Heroes of Middle-Earth. The game begins with an opening cinematic of a premonition about the upcoming  dangers approaching Middle-Earth that transitions into a tutorial. It is a turned based, roleplaying game where you start with two attack buttons and one special attack with the objective of clearing waves of enemies in order to obtain currency and hero fragments to assemble new playable characters that all have special perks associated with them. Each stage uses energy to activate and players use their teams of five to complete Light, Dark, or Guild Campaigns in either normal mode or hard mode. Lord of the Rings: Heroes of Middle-Earth has an amazing orchestral soundtrack accompanied by a stylize, painterly aesthetic that presents big name “Lord of the Rings” characters as cartoonish caricatures of their movie and novel counterparts. The game is available on Google Play and the App Store.

#8 Nono Crossing

Nono Crossing puts a new twist on Sudoku. Players are given a grid with numbers of the left-hand and top borders. The number indicate how many spaces can be filled with blocks for each corresponding row and column. As certain spaces are filled in, other spots will get crossed out to indicate that nothing is allowed to go into those spaces. The goal of the game is to orientate the block on the grid properly in order to reveal a piece of pixel art for each. Nono Crossing uses energy to advance to each level and uses its adorable, blobby characters to act as guides for each of the puzzles. The game is available on Google Play and the App Store.

#7 Super Cat Tales: PAWS

This side-scrolling platforming features great pixel art and animations for this day in age. Super Cat Tales: PAWS draws inspiration from others in its line up, but adds an extra layer of difficulty to the formula by not having a jump button. The game only has two buttons: a left arrow and a right arrow on either side of the screen. The player uses the arrows to move around the stage, but they also have different functions. The cats run when one of the arrows are double-tapped; when they encounter holes or cliffs, the characters automatically jump which makes the player have to use perfect timing when using the mechanic. In addition, the cats have the ability to automatically walk up walls and wall jump by pressing the opposite direction while climbing the walls. The cats in Super Cat Tales: PAWS all have certain quirks that give them the ability to traverse areas in a level where others cannot. For example, Rose has the ability to squeeze through narrow passage ways. As you progress through the levels, you uncover clues about each of the characters while unlocking new kitty-cats to add to your roster. The game is available on Google Play and the App Store.

#6 Poosh XL

Developed by Adamvision, Poosh XL is a one button arcade game where the goal of the player is to bounce a ball upwards while avoiding obstacles. The game features a Survival and Challenge Mode that have different rules between the two. Survival mode is simply just trying to get the ball as high as you can in the level before you get hit. The main objective of that mode is to beat the last high score. Challenge Mode operates a bit differently by giving the player tasks to accomplish each level. Furthermore, as the player progresses upward in the level of Survival Mode, the obstacles get increasingly more rapid and complex. The objective of each challenge is to test how the player stands up against much more difficult types of obstacles than those that appear in survival. Not only does Challenge Mode make the the players think alternatively when approaching a level, but it inadvertently prepares them for similar obstacles in survival that stumped them before. Poosh XL currently has twelve challenge levels, but the creator, Adam Nickerson, does have plans of expanding in the future. It is a good endless runner puzzle game that tests hand and eye coordination. The game is available on Google Play, Steam, and the App Store.

#5 Campfire Cat Cafe

Nothing is more calming than being next to a warm campfire in the woods surrounded by the sounds of nature and some woodland friends. Campfire Cat Cafe follows the story of an adorable cat couple who start up a cafe in the forest. The business booms until the wife leaves to attend university for three years and, in that time, the husband’s poor management skills causes him to run the cafe to the ground. It is up to the player to help the husband bring the cafe back to its former glory before the wife comes back. As guests come in, the player taps icons that indicate what the customer wants in order to serve them and then collects the currency of acorns that each guest leaves behind. As profits increase, you can purchase and upgrade materials to make the cafe more lively. This restaurant simulation game is an easy to pick up game with a cute cartoon aesthetic and a colorful cast of characters. The game is available on Google Play and the App Store.

#4 Captor Clash

This new side-scrolling fighting game pulls the player in with its immersive story. Players aid the mercenary Hsiao across a desert landscape full of criminals to find the Oracle Blueprint. Hsiao wants to use the artifact to retrieve is sister who was kidnapped by the Cat Clan, however, he is not the only one in search of the Oracle Blueprint. Captor Clash uses a joystick for movement, a normal auto-combo button, two hard attack buttons, and one ultimate finisher. You play in groups of three to progress in the game, so that players can increase their experience levels of every character. Along with some decent animation and graphics, Captor Clash has a great soundtrack that emphasizes the intensity of the fights. The game is available on Google Play and the App Store.

#3 Lost Words: Beyond the Pages Mobile

What started as a Google Stadia release in 2010, then became a Nintendo Switch port that has recently received a mobile release. Lost Words: Beyond the Pages is a fun, puzzle, platformer that with a strong emphasis on word play. The players swipe the screen to move left to right while tapping to jump. The objective of the game is to travel the pages of Isabelle’s Journal to uncover her hidden words of make believe while discovering some secrets about her family life. Lost Word: Beyond the Pages has a great cutscenes with a watercolor, children’s book aesthetic present in the parts of the game that are not animated in 3D. The game is available on Google Play, Steam, and the App Store.

#2 Fake Future

It is the year 2125 and Earth needs to be rebuilt after years of revolution and aliens invasions in Fake Future. Players help the protagonist built a Geoport that will act as a base to rebuild civilization. Through gacha pulls, the player collects humanoid robots called “cyberoids” that perform an assortment of laborious tasks across the Geoport while keeping the protagonist company as she is the sole human on the planet Earth. As the civilization grows in size, you will gain new cultivation abilities while discovering fragments of history that detail what happened to earth that caused it to become such a desolate wasteland. Fake Future offers a lot of content to keep players preoccupied for a long time and has interesting characters depicted through the medium of pixel art. The game is available on Google Play, TapTap, and the App Store.

#1 Legend of Keepers Mobile

Legend of Keepers puts a little fun twist in dungeons. You are a new hire of Dungeon Company who is given the job of organizing dungeon rooms to prevent adventurers from taking the treasure. Players set up spell rooms and hide traps within certain ones to lower the adventurers health and confidence as much as possible before they reach the final boss of the area. In addition, the player has to recruit local monsters to help defend the dungeons, meanwhile, maintaining the morale of their employees. If a monster is killed during a dungeon run, then the player can revive them through the Licht Doctor, but the employee will become increasingly burned out the more you do so. It is completely up to the player to send these monsters to the resort called the “Garrison” where they can replenish their morale, so they can return to work. Legend of Keepers is a fun little map making strategy that puts a humorous corporate lens on the popularized concept of dungeon crawlers. The game is available on Google Play, Steam, and the App Store.

Iapri Summerville: I am a Game Art and Design college student aspiring to pursue a career in 3D art. I constantly play mobile games and enjoying reading and creating literature as well.
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