The 10 Best Mobile Games of August 2016

With thousands of games hitting the App Store and Google Play every month, it can be hard to figure out which games are worth your time. Of the typhoon of new releases to sweep through mobile marketplaces in August, we’ve picked the following 10 as the games most deserving if your attention.

Reigns

Kingdom management was beautifully streamlined this month with the release of Reigns, a game of decision making via Tinder-style swipes left and right. It’s charming, clever, and takes a good deal of finesse to make each reign last longer than the one before it.

• Reigns Review (4.5 stars)
• Reigns Tips, Cheats and Strategies

Return to Grisly Manor

The Secret of Grisly Manor was one of the better casual adventure games to grace mobile devices, so it should come as no surprise that its sequel knocked our socks off, too. Just don’t let the title fool you — these games are quirky, not grisly, and the scenes and puzzles that you’ll engage with are downright lovely.

• Return to Grisly Manor Review (4.5 stars)

Satellina Zero

A spin-off from last year’s Satellina, Satellina Zero takes the first game’s appearance and wraps it around a unique endless runner. Make music and switch colors for as long as you can.

• Satellina Zero Review (4.5 stars)

Delicious: Emily’s Message in a Bottle

The latest Delicious: Emily time management game takes us on a journey through Emily’s history. It’s colorful, well-paced time management fun — just like fans have come to expect from the series.

• Delicious: Emily’s Message in a Bottle Review (4.5 stars)

Road Not Taken

SpryFox have made plenty of great mobile games (AlphaBear, Triple Town, Bushido Bear), but when Road Not Taken was released a while back and didn’t come to mobile… well, I suppose we felt a bit left out in the cold. Now it’s finally playable in our pockets, and we couldn’t be happier. This is a strategy / puzzle game that has players on the hunt for children lost in a snowstorm, levitating objects and enemies along the way.

• Road Not Taken Review (4 stars)

Space Marshals 2

Twin stick shooters are great, but they always have so much shooting. What about stealth? And cover? Space Marshals 2, like its predecessor, takes these additional elements into account — and the result is a game with a lot more strategy than most in the twin stick genre.

• Space Marshals 2 Review (4 stars)

Outfolded

Have you ever taken a cube apart, even if only in a mathematics textbook? Outfolded is a game that plays with that idea, asking players to unfold shapes to cover the necessary terrain.

• Outfolded Review (4 stars)

Nightgate

From the creators of Last Voyage comes an experience that lives inside a computer.  Guide your avatar towards things that need to be activated, avoid things that need to be avoided, and become completely entranced by its audio visual journey.

• Nightgate Review (4 stars)

Mr. Robot: 1.51exfiltrati0n

Fans of Mr. Robot and fans of narrative fiction alike were gushing about this one in August. Made in partnership with Telltale Games, this text-based adventure simulates real-world texting as it presents its decision-making to you. They’re going for something truly immersive here, and while we’ve seen this sort of thing done before, I’m not sure if we’ve ever seen it done this well.

• Mr. Robot: 1.51exfiltration Review (4 stars)

Hero Generations

Family life is hard. You’re born, you live, have kids, and probably get ripped apart by demons. Then your kids grow up and get to go through it all themselves. Hero Generations is a strategy game of familial ties. Lineage has never been this neat.

• Hero Generations Review (4 stars)

Jim Squires

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Jim Squires is the Editor-in-Chief of Gamezebo. Everything you see passes his eyes first, so we like to think of him as "the gatekeeper of cool stuff." He likes good games, great writing, and just can't say no to a hamburger. Also, he is not a bear.