Adventure games are among the most unique of any games. They don’t fit into any one category or genre and often times they’ll fit into several genres at once. The only real prerequisite for a game to be an adventure game is that it must take you on an adventure. That describes most games. However, adventure isn’t a genre defined by a mechanic like RPGs, first person shooters, or sandbox games. Thus, an adventure game could be anything. We listened to reader comments for years after writing this one so we’re hoping we found some decent games that will take you on a fictional adventure. If you’re ready for a list of games that will do just that, here are our picks for the best adventure games on Android!
80 Days
Price: $5.99
80 Days is one of the better adventure games for Android. You play as Phileas Fogg’s assistant, Passepartout, and you attempt circumnavigate the globe in just 80 days. You can take airships, submarines, trains, and even mechanical camels. Players must manage Phileas’ vitals as you travel around the world or risk losing the game. The game plays at a rapid pace and you literally adventure all around the world. In addition, you also race other players to see who gets there first. It’s a one of a kind type of game and well worth its price tag.
Another Eden
Price: Free to play
Another Eden is a JRPG from 2019. It features the same writer and composer as Chrono Trigger and there are many callbacks to the popular game. Another Eden doesn’t play like your normal mobile RPG. It doesn’t use a mission-style story progression and there are virtually no menus. Players go on an adventure through multiple points. There are some gacha elements as well as some non-story missions to complete, but they all take place as side quests in the game structure. This feels like those JRPGs in the late 1990’s and early 2000’s. It’s a rare freemium game that is just fantastic to play.
Crashlands
Price: $4.99
Crashland is already among the best adventure games from 2016. You play as a space trucker named Flux. The game starts with you crashing onto an alien planet. Your job is to retrieve your cargo, build yourself a base, fight bad guys, and save the world. It has a lot of game elements, including crafting, combat, RPG-style character leveling, and you can even tame creatures to fight for your side. It’s a deep game with a ton of content that you can play on both mobile and PC. It’s 4.8 rating on Google Play is accurate.
Evoland 2
Price: $7.99
Evoland 2 is easily one of the best adventure games in recent memory. It transcends genres by including a whole bunch of them. That includes 2D RPG, 3D fighter, trading card, hack-and-slash, and many others. The game basically progresses through the various eras of gaming and each new mechanic also brings a new graphical style as well. Its unique game play keeps you guessing and it’s an enjoyable overall experience. We recommend playing with a physical controller for best results, though. The game is also perpetually on sale so you can most likely pick it up for less than its $7.99 asking price.
Grand Mountain Adventure
Price: Free / $5.49
Grand Mountain Adventure is one of the newer adventure games on the list. This is a skiing game with racing and exploration elements. Players ride the lift to various tracks. You then ski the tracks and try to beat the time requirement. However, you can also just ski around and see the sights. There are also hidden areas, five mountains (in the premium version), online leaderboards, and you can even do tricks when you hit big air. The game’s controls and perspective are a little weird at first, but not overly difficult. The graphics are also gorgeous and the game play is smooth. You get the first mountain for free and you can buy the premium version to unlock the rest.
Layton series
Price: $9.99-$15.99 each
The Professor Layton franchise is a series of puzzle-adventure games. They all launched originally on the Nintendo 3DS but now have mobile ports. The games are a bit pricey, but are good overall. You explore various ruins and locations as Layton along with Luke. There are various puzzles to solve, a narrative to enjoy, and various relics to collect. It’s a fairly straightforward gaming experience and it doesn’t take long to learn the controls. This series sold 17 million copies when it was on regular and handheld consoles and if there were any justice, it’d get another 17 million on mobile. Plus, these are cheaper on Android than they are on Amazon.
Monument Valley 1 and 2
Price: $3.99-$4.99 each + $1.99 for DLC
Monument Valley 1 and 2 are two of the most popular puzzle-adventure games available. You move levels around because each level is the puzzle. Players are treated to optical illusions, a vague but fun story, and a consistent experience through two games. The first game includes the standard story with a DLC ($1.99). The second game is currently$4.99. The only gripe we have is the length of the game. These games are a little short. They’re still very much great games, but those who don’t like short games may be frustrated with these.
Oddmar
Price: Free / $4.49
Oddmar is a charming adventure-platformer from the same developers of Leo’s Fortune. You play as a struggling Viking who wants to restore his honor. You adventure across the game world in order to do just that. The game has smooth game play, excellent controls, and excellent level design. Plus it hits all of the extras with hardware controller support, Google Play Games cloud saves, and it works offline once you get all of the data downloaded. The game is a bit short at only 24 levels, but each level has a 3-star rating system to encourage replayability. You get a bit of the game for free before you must unlock the rest with a single in-app purchase of $4.49
Old School RuneScape
Price: Free / $10.99 per month / $99.99 per year
Old School RuneScape is one of the most popular MMORPGs on mobile. It uses a free and subscription model instead of freemium like most MMORPGs and some players really appreciate that. In any case, it’s just like old school RuneScape. Players run around, complete quests, trade stuff with one another, and various skills to master. You can play solo or with teams and there is content for both types of play. There is a free to play world. It has less content than its premium counterpart. The premium version adds a bunch of extra stuff. If you want adventure, this game has it in spades.
Pokemon Go
Price: Free to play
Pokemon Go is one of the more ambitious adventure games. You actually go out into the real world and catch Pokemon, fight at Gyms, loot the Poke Stops, and much more. The adventure element is a little more literal in this game than others. It does require you to go places on your own and play the game in those locations. Players wander the open world and catch Pokemon, battle in gyms, battle each other, trade Pokemon, collect various items, and do all kinds of other stuff. The genre is expanding as well and you can play similar games with Minecraft: Earth, Harry Potter: Wizards Unite, and Jurassic World Alive.
The Room: Old Sins
Price: $4.99
Most of The Room games aren’t adventure games. The same can’t be said for the newest game in the series, though. The Room: Old Sins incorporates exploration elements along with its iconic puzzle structure. That gives it an extra dimension that the prior games don’t have. For the uninitiated, The Room is a series of games with gorgeous graphics, complex puzzles, and arcane themes. The latest one, One Sins, also supports Google Play Games achievements, cloud saving, and more. This is going to be one of the best puzzle-adventure games of 2018 for sure.
Rusty Lake (Cube Escape) series
Price: Free / Varies
Cube Escape is a series of mystery-adventure games where you must solve puzzles to find out what’s really going on. It’s also known as the “Rusty Lake story” and it’s actually playable online as a web game as well. The mechanics are fairly simple and each game has you solving a variety of puzzles in order to progress in the story. It’s technically they are escape games which means the majority of the time you’ll be solving puzzles. Still, it’s an excellent series of games. We include it on this list because the Cube Escape series is almost entirely free with no in-app purchases, making it among the best at that price point. There are some premium games by the developers as well that are really good.
Square Enix
Price: Free / Varies
Square Enix can pen one heck of a narrative and its storytelling is among the best in all of gaming. As such, most of their mobile games make for excellent adventure games. Some examples include Adventures of Mana, Secret of Mana, Life is Strange, Final Fantasy: Brave Exvius, various Dragon Quest games, The World Ends With You, Final Fantasy XV: Pocket Edition, and many, many others. The aforementioned games span several genres, including RPG, puzzle, slice of life, and hack-and-slash. For some reason, half of Square Enix’s library is under a different developer name than everything else. We have the one linked up with all of the Final Fantasy games and mobile ports of old RPGs. You may have to search for the Tomb Raider and Life is Strange stuff on Google Play. In any case, Square Enix’s catalog doesn’t have any short games, really, so prepare to strap in and play a while.
The Swords of Ditto
Price: $5.99
The Swords of Ditto is kind of our diamond-in-the-rough pick. It had a rough start with many bugs and complaints. However, most of those are gone now and the game is actually quite good. It plays like a classic adventure game. You explore an over-world along with various dungeons. Players collect loot, slash up bad guys, perform heroic acts, and save the world from the big bad Mormo. It’s a little demanding on older devices, though, so be sure to try it before the refund time to make sure your phone can handle it.
WitchSpring4
Price: $4.99
WitchSpring is an adventure game that should probably be more popular than it is. You play as a Witch who is also the ruler of a whole continent. Players explore the world, meet various characters, and do various things. It’s a surprisingly charming RPG from a developer that is much larger in Korea than it is in other parts of the world. There are actually four games in the series. The first two tell the same story but from different perspectives while the third and fourth games are standalone entrants that you can play without needing to play the others. The games range from $1.99 to $4.99 each and they’re all pretty good.
If we missed any of the best adventure games for Android, tell us about them in the comments! You can also click here to check out our latest Android app and game lists!