Best mobile games of 2019: "You Love to Play"

1. PUBG Mobile

PlayerUnknown Battlegrounds (PUBG) for mobile is a free survival shooter that lets you experience what it's like to be dropped on an island with 99 other players to see who will ultimately survive. But what's great about the mobile version of this extremely popular game on PCs is that it seems to run even better on a smartphone. In other words, this is one heck of a port. 

Just like the original, you'll parachute in, loot buildings to gear up, and do your best to survive all the way to the end. You can go it solo, or create a squad of up to four players if you want to try out a team effort. Be careful though, this game is incredibly addicting. 

2.battlelands

Want to get your battle royale gaming fix without all the complexity? Battlelands Royale is the game for you. Pick your drop point on the island map beforehand, then parachute in to find weapons and shields. You also can chase down weapon drops for more advanced weapons like rocket launchers. From there, you can hide out in buildings and shrubbery as you lay in wait for opponents to step into your path.

What's particularly great about this simple dual-stick survival shooter is that a game rarely lasts more than 10 minutes. This free game is fun on its own, but you can also use in-app purchases to buy new skins and it even has a Battle Pass (a la Fortnite) you can buy to earn cosmetic items as you play.

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3. Riptide GP: Renegade

Riptide GP: Renegade is one of those games that seems like it would be impossible on mobile, the graphics are just so jaw-droppingly gorgeous. A jetski-style racing video, it sees you, a disgraced former champion, competing against other racers, performing stunts and defeating bosses for a chance to reclaim your former glory. It's built on the developer's own engine, and honestly plays like a dream.

4. Superbrothers: Sword & Sworcery EP

Superbrothers: Sword & Sworcery EP first launched on 24 March 2011, and it still stands out today as one of the highest points of mobile gaming. It's a strange, beautiful, sad, experimental adventure game about a warrior on a mysterious quest. Its pixellated art style, gorgeous soundtrack and unique gameplay mechanics spawned a thousand imitators, but nothing has ever come close to the wonder of Superbrothers: Sword & Sworcery EP.

5.Hearthstone

The mobile format is perfect for digitizing card games, and if you're looking for the best collectible card game experience, you can't go past Hearthstone, produced with all the polish and shine Blizzard can muster. 

The game is based on World of Warcraft, and each of the nine classes has a deck based on its WoW equivalent, which allows for a variety of play styles. There are also meaty options for both single-player and competitive multiplayer, and it's perfect whether you want a quick play or something more in-depth. In short, it's extremely versatile and you can play it however you like. It's hard to imagine a more perfect digital CCG experience.

6.Plague, Inc.

This game marked the first time in my life I found myself saying, "Heck yeah, necrosis!" It's a fantastic concept for a game. You control an epidemic, and your aim is to spread it throughout the world and kill everyone before humanity can develop a cure. 

You have a variety of tools at your disposal to mutate your virus: the ability to add symptoms, including fatal ones; methods of communicability, including animal-borne, airborne and body fluids; and resistances. Each of these can be built up in trees that interconnect, making your virus strong. And, as your virus spreads, you gain DNA points that you can spend on more abilities. It's tremendously exciting, especially when your virus grows strong enough to mutate on its own, as you race against the development of a cure.

Destroying all humans has never been so much fun.

7.Dandara

Dandara is a platformer that has you flinging yourself from surface to surface as you explore a vast world. It's a multiplatform title you can also get on consoles, which probably explains why it's quite a bit pricier than most games for your phone.

If you can get past the price, though, Dandara has a giant world to explore with cool-looking graphics, tons of mystical creatures and an excellent soundtrack as you try to save the world of Salt. Platformer gaming fans should definitely pick this one up or watch for price drops in the future, because it's a great game to have on your phone.

8.Beholder

Beholder deserves a place of honour alongside brilliant dystopian titles such as Replica, Papers, Please and This War of Mine. As landlord over a block of apartments in a totalitarian state, you oversee the tenants -- quite literally your job is to spy on them for the government. You can choose to play by the government's rules or covertly help the people under your care, but at great risk. Every action has consequences, with high stakes and multiple endings to unlock.

9.The Room: Old Sins

The room is a steampunk inspired puzzle game that may just creep you out. Fireproof's The Room series is, everyone can agree, one of the most spectacular puzzle series ever produced on any platform. Now that Old Sins is out, I can confidently say that they have been growing in both scope and complexity as the series progresses. The basic format remains the same throughout: Solve a series of puzzle objects to progress onto the next puzzle and the next small piece of the story.

Like the other games in the series, Old Sins hit that brilliant, elusive spot between mentally challenging and satisfying. In this one, you search the Waldegrave Manor for an elusive artifact after an engineer suddenly goes missing. You'll look in a creepy dollhouse, the attic and more that just may give you the chills.

All games are gorgeously tactile, beautifully designed down to the finest detail. I recommend full immersion: a dark room, a pair of headphones and no other distractions.

10.ARK Survival Evolved

This one is quite a bit more involved than some of the other games here, but it's a great survival game that challenges you to start with nothing, then slowly uncover the secrets of a land inhabited by dinosaurs. 

You'll learn how to build a fire for warmth, how to hunt for food and eventually craft weapons and clothing to increase your chances of survival. A deep, tiered crafting system lets you work your way up to better clothing and weapons, and you can build more advanced structures to try to stay alive amidst dangers from the elements, dinosaurs and more.

11. The End of the World

This is sort of a unique selection in that the gaming elements of The End of the World are not why we're adding it to this list. In fact, you can play through the entire game in one sitting. Instead, this addition is really more of an interactive art piece that explores the pain of loss and shows how games can be a great way to dissect even the most serious of narratives.

Set in Newcastle, England, you assume the role of a sad man whose world has been turned upside down by the loss of the love of his life. Simple controls let you explore the beautifully designed (albeit small) world.  

It was free when we downloaded it, but it appears the developers are changing the price frequently. At the time this was published, the game cost $1, £1 or AU$1.50.