TechJunkie Expert Recommendations
There is an endless amount of games on the App Store, with new games launching everyday. Unfortunately, not all of these games are very identifiable in terms of whether or not an Internet connection is required. You often can’t find out until you download the game and it prompts you to connect to a wireless network! That makes it difficult to find games that are ideal for burning time during air travel, or for something to take your mind off of things during your lunch hour, or even something to simply play at home, where an Internet connection sometimes isn’t possible due to location.
So how do you find games for iOS and iPhone that don’t require an Internet connection, let alone games that are well made in terms of overall quality? We’ll tell you right now — the process is difficult if you’re simply rummaging through the App Store, which is why we’ve constructed this list for you. We’ve made it extremely easy for you — we’re highlighting all of the best games that don’t require an Internet connection below, and it’s as simple as hitting the “Download It Now” button to get started with some of them yourself!
And so, without further ado, here are out favorite no WiFi games for iOS! Let’s dive right in.
Compatible With
Knights of Pen & Paper 2 is one of the most unique games on iOS. It’s a role-playing game that pulls many of its elements and themes from the traditional tabletop-style role play. The game is all based offline, so you can pick up and play almost anywhere in the world.
The combat system is one of the most unique that you’ll see on iOS today. It uses basic tabletop mechanics — essentially a random number generator — to help determine specific damage your attacks and spells do. It actually takes the tabletop theme to the next level, where you actually have a game master and all of your party members sitting at a table as your journey throughout the world, defeating all sorts of monsters and beasts.
The game has a lot of elements from traditional role-playing games as well. There’s an in-game economy, where you can buy items, armour, and weaponry. There’s a crafting system as well, allowing you to make your own armour, too. On top of that, the unique system will allow you to merge two pieces of armour or weaponry together to make them better than before.
If you like tabletop gameplay, role-playing games, and the retro, 8-bit style, Knights of Pen & Paper 2 is the game for you.
Compatible With
Knights of Pen & Paper 2 can be pretty involved, so if you need something to simply get your mind off of things with simple gameplay, you’ll love what Crossy Road has to offer. If you’ve ever played Frogger before, you’ll get what Crossy Road is all about almost immediately. Crossy Road is the modern version of Frogger, where you play as an animal who has to wade through traffic and obstacles to get to the other side.
You actually start out as a chicken, and have to obtain levels or points to be able to “purchase” or unlock new animals that you can play. That’s where the name Crossy Road comes from, a play on the old “why did the chicken cross the road?” joke.
Ultimately, Crossy Road is a blast from the past that brings you a modern arcade-style game that doesn’t have a huge time investment. It can be played offline, and you can always choose your difficulty to add some more competitive play to the game. Players who want to go online can compete in an online leaderboard.
Compatible With
Evoland might be the most unique role-playing game that you’ll ever come across. It doesn’t have the traditional good versus evil, save the princess or humanity type story. No, Evoland is a completely original story. It has a good versus evil ending, but the journey actually takes you through the history of role-playing games.
What do we mean by that? Evoland is literally a play off the word “evolution”, thus taking you from when role-playing games first started — in their 8-bit, retro form — to what a modern style game might look like today. That said, you start out as a little sprite in a big world, and as you navigate around and discover chests, you start adding new mechanics and graphics to that world.
When you first start out, you’ll walk around a limited world discovering those chests. Some of those chests will give your character new abilities, whereas other chests will advance or level up the game itself with new effects and mechanics. For example, you might find a “Sound FX” chest, which adds footsteps and other sounds to the world of Evoland. Another chest might upgrade your camera movements, and others might bring the world into 3D graphics, up from the 8-bit style that you started out at.
When it comes down to it, Evoland is essentially a crash course in video game history. If you’re wanting to know what games were like first-hand way back when, Evoland will let you experience the journey for yourself. It’s a whole lot more fun than reading about the history of games, or going out and searching for copies of older games that don’t work on newer systems anymore. Evoland used to cost $5, but since the game has aged, it’s a meager $0.99 for anyone that wants that crash course in game history.
Compatible With
Fallout. It’s the role-playing series that gamers have loved for years now. And now, with Fallout Shelter, gamers now have a mobile Fallout game that they can enjoy while on the go. Fallout Shelter actually pulls in a lot of different mechanics from a lot of different games. The goal is to essentially build out your Shelter, assigning different roles to the residents living in your Vault.
Roles will be assigned for the good of the Vault, so that it flourishes and grows; however, it’s much more complex than just that. Fallout Shelter actually brings in some elements from The Sims, requiring you to keep your residents happy and comfortable. You’ll have to make sure they have food, water, and are entertained. With these areas filled, your vault dwellers will help create energy for your Vault, and assist in making it flourish.
While your residents work for you, you can spend your time expanding your vault. You can buy more land for it, and then you can expand it with different rooms that you can assign new residents to. You’ll need to properly make and distribute these rooms, so that you have a proper balance to keep the increasing basic needs of the Vault well maintained, and then rooms to help the Vault flourish with amenities.
Vault dwellers actually have their own skill sets. You can assign roles based on their skill sets, allowing them to do their job at maximum efficiency, ultimately producing more for the vault.
The game is free to play, and can be played offline; however, there’s a lot of micro-transactions that you can buy — some that cost as much as $99.99. This can help you advance through the game, but you certainly do not need micro-transactions to play. Overall, it’s a smooth offline game that plays really well on iOS and iPhone. There’s some really awesome Cloud engineering here as well, allowing you to play on the iPhone, and then pick up where you left off on the iPad and vice versa.
Compatible With
Minecraft: Pocket Edition is up next. If you haven’t heard of Minecraft before, you’ve likely been living under a rock! It’s the hit sandbox game that has sold millions upon millions of copies, and now it’s available on mobile. If you’re ready to get creative, this game is only as limited as your imagination! You can use blocks and different types of materials to build vast cities, spaceships, miles of roller coasters, kingdoms, recreations of statues, recreations of symbols and structures from movies, and so much more. We’ve only scratched the surface on what you can create in Minecraft. Like we said, the game is only as limiting as your imagination.
There are some role-playing aspects to Minecraft as well. In addition to collecting resources and “surviving”, you have a crafting system that not only allows you to create furniture and items for your creations, but also armour and weapons to survive out in the world. Upgrade your weapons and armor enough, and you’ll be able to head into the end game part of Minecraft — The Nether. You’ll journey through this perilous wasteland akin to Hell, and then head into another world: The End. This is where you’ll fight the “end game” boss, and essentially “beat” the little story that Minecraft has to it.
However, the game goes on forever. Build to your heart’s content. Save, come back weeks later if you want, and continue where you left off. It’s a great way to get your mind off things, even when there’s no Internet around.
Compatible With
Platformers are an extremely popular genre on mobile devices; however, Limbo takes a pretty unique approach, giving you difficult puzzles to solve, beautiful graphics to see, and it even takes on and incorporates some role-playing story elements.
The game takes place on what is known as “the edge of hell”, otherwise known as Limbo. You play as a boy, looking for his lost sister. The game takes on a dark, film noire approach in order to set a certain mood. It’s actually able to emit a lot of feeling and emotion using this method of visuals, which is part of why the game has gone viral, and has been ported to every platform possible.
Like we mentioned, this one is a platformer, so you’ll be making complicated jumps, using ropes to get you to the other side, traversing dangerous platforms, and avoiding traps that are intended to kill you. You’ll have to avoid certain death from the game’s monsters as well.
Now, this game generally isn’t one that you want to be playing in public. The game might look fairly safe and casual; however, when you die, there’s a lot of gore. However, while these can get pretty gruesome, you can turn them off in the game’s settings.
Compatible With
LIMBO by PlayDead Games was a huge success, and as a result, was ported to every platform imaginable. Now, the developer is back with a new hit. Called INSIDE, the game is often referred to as a metaphor. Reviewers and critics say that it’s a metaphor to our “blind adherence of authority”, which puts them game in a really interesting philosophical position. However, the game is loads of fun as well. It has some insane encounters, as well as complex and difficult puzzles to be solved.
It may sound weird, but it’s really a game that everyone has to experience. Where this game really shines is in its graphical style. It takes on a lot of similarities from LIMBO, still featuring that “dark” theme, but there’s more color than just the film noire approach. The game is immaculately designed, and should be something that everyone plays through at least once. You can play the first portion of the game for free, but then can buy the rest of the content with an in-app purchase.
Compatible With
LIMBO and INSIDE are excellent 2D platformers with beautiful graphics, but the game Monument Valley takes things to a whole new level. It has an extremely unique art style, but also incorporates characteristics from platformers in a complex game all based around escape room style puzzles.
The puzzles don’t just have an escape room style to them, but they use extensive amounts of geometry and perspective to make the puzzles extremely complex. They start out easy, but increase in complexity as you progress through the story. And yes, there is a pretty decent story to this game — you play as essentially a higher power who has to guide the princess through difficult and harsh environments. You’ll clear the path for her, and get her to the end of each puzzle.
It’s not a super engaging story per say, as much of the appeal of this game comes down to the graphical style and unique sounds. It plays on those two areas of human sensory very well, which is what makes the game so magical. The game isn’t very long, so it’s definitely worth adding this one to your list of must play games!
Compatible With
Continuing our theme so far of complex and interesting puzzle games, we have Unblock Me next. This is another complex puzzle game that can be played without a WiFi connection. Unblock Me is essentially your sliding puzzle game — you have a bunch of wooden blocks that are blocking the red block that you need to get through to the end of each puzzle.
Puzzles start out pretty easy, but they do get more complex over time. You essentially, in each puzzle, have to figure out how to adjust all of the blocks that you can get you red block through to the end. It requires some serious logical thinking, and depending on the difficulty of the puzzle, you could spend hours on just one. The game has hints that help you decipher challenges you can’t get past, though you only have a limited amount for free. You can purchase “hint packs” to help you along if you want to invest real money in the game.
And don’t worry about ever running out of content. Unblock Me actually features over 16,000 different and unique puzzles. You’ll have plenty of content to keep you busy for months to come, especially with new puzzles being added regularly. The free version of the game does have ads, which can get extremely annoying, thus our three star rating.
Compatible With
If you’ve ever played a game from BioWare before, you know just how thorough, exciting, and immersive their games can be. What you might not know is that an old classic was developed by BioWare — Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic. It was a huge success during its time period, and now, its back, available on mobile platforms.
Taking place thousands of years before the Star Wars series starts, you play as a Republic soldier in what is essentially considered an open world for the game’s time period. There are lots of neat elements to this role-playing game. For example, you can quest, complete missions, and interact with the world. Based on your decision making during these three different scenarios, your character will actually begin to lean on the Light or Dark side of The Force, which then also affects your interactions with other non-player characters, the storyline, and even your own skills and abilities.
The game might not be praised for its graphical style, but even years ago when this game originally launched, it was still heralded as one of the best in terms of immersive story telling and excellent gameplay. It’s worth giving a shot, even today. It might’ve been developed for the keyboard and mouse, but the port actually has some excellent touch controls that make the game easy to play. There’s even controller support in the event that you want to hook up a Bluetooth controller.
Compatible With
The classic Plants vs. Zombies is back in Plants vs. Zombies 2 for iOS! In this action strategy game, you’ll have to place and upgrade plants to defend your home or garden from an onslaught of zombies that continuously increase in difficulty. There are hundreds of unique plants that you can place, including the unique Peashooter or the the Sunflower. These can be upgraded over time, and can even be given “Plant Food” to unleash their fullest abilities.
“Seed packs” can be used to give your plants power up attacks, better defenses, quicker planting time, and even give them new abilities. Upgrading your plants strategically means you’ll be able to fend off even the most fierce zombies invading your lawn!
Plants vs. Zombies 2 actually has over 300 levels that you can beat spread out through over 11 worlds (think ancient Egypt or even future sci-fi world) and plenty of other unique environments.
Compatible With
Many of these games can be a pretty big time investment over time; however, if you’re looking for one that will only take a few minutes of your time, Bejeweled Blitz will be right up your alley. This classic puzzle solver is simple — match up jewels together — whether in horizontal, vertical, or diagonal lines — and watch them explode, giving you all sorts of extra points. You have to match at least three jewels in a row, but match more than three in a row for extra points.
It sounds simple — and it is — but it’s a whole lot of fun because of the beautiful visuals that the game provides. They’re stunning, and more are thrown into the mix as you break rare gems and use other power ups. Matches only take a couple of minutes; however, when you get bored, or can go online, you can take your Bejeweled Blitz skills online and compete against other players for the top spot on the leaderboard (and earn special rewards)!
Compatible With
Tetris Blitz is up next on our countdown, taking on a similar style to Bejeweled Blitz as a “match” style puzzle game that can be played offline. In Tetris, you manipulate and strategically maneuver pieces around to fill a horizontal row — fill the horizontal row without empty space, and that space is cleared and converted to points. Keep manipulating blocks in this way to keep the space clear, because if you don’t, and a block reaches the top of the ceiling, you lose and have to start over. Once you do, start the game over and see if you can break your previous record!
Tetris Blitz is a little different than most variations of Tetris in that the graphics are insanely good. It’s very explosive, and keeps your attention occupied well. Matches are only in two minute increments, so this is nice for those times where you don’t have much time to invest, but still want a couple minutes to take your mind off of a difficult day!
The one “con” to Tetris Blitz is that it is made by Electronic Arts, and unfortunately, the game is full of ads (that can be gotten rid of) and in-app purchases for upgrades and power ups to help you reach the top of the leaderboard.
Compatible With
Asphalt 8: Airborne can be a ton of fun for those looking for an exciting, thrilling, and low time investment game on iOS. It centers all around racing, giving you over 200 different high-performance machines that you can choose from to race. They’re not all unlocked from the start — you’ll have to earn your way to many of them — however, being able to race on the track with familiar brands like Ford and Ferrari are a ton of fun.
Asphalt 8 is fun because you can live your racing dreams in the digital world. Visit all sorts of race tracks around the world with different scenery, and see if you can’t top the leaderboards. The game itself is free, though there are a ton of in-app purchases that can be made; however, you can easily play without them.
Compatible With
If you’re looking for an action adventure game that isn’t super violent, you’ll definitely want to take Badland for a spin on iOS. This game is different than many of the others on our list in that it’s a side scroller with an artistic flare to it — the art is probably the major highlight to this game, featuring beautiful bright colors and a unique art style.
In Badland, you control one of the forest dwellers. The forest itself may appear as if everything is going great. After all, largely because of the art style, it may look like it’s out of a children’s storybook or fairy tale; however, everything isn’t alright. You, the forest dweller, are tasked with finding out what’s gone wrong, and will have to traverse a number of dangerous traps and obstacles to get there.
Badland will actually keep you busy for some time. There are over 100 unique levels in the game, each coming with its own increasingly difficult challenges. There’s actually a versus mode, where you can play with up to four friends on a single device for over 30 supported level. You can also join up in a cooperative mode. Once you finish the game or get bored, you can use the built-in level editor to design your own Badland levels!
Badland does have controller support, which makes things overall easy to control with the more precise movements and all.
Compatible With
Continuing on with games that have beautiful and unique art styles, Alto’s Adventure is an offline action adventure game that shouldn’t be passed up! There’s not necessarily any “evil” to be defeated in this game. You essentially play as Alto and his friends, who are headed out on an endless snowboarding adventure. You and your friends hit the wilderness, snowboarding through beautiful and rough alpines, through villages, ancient woodlands, and other gorgeous landscapes and environments. While there are some various gameplay mechanics that keep this game exciting, the highlight is definitely the beautiful art style.
There are some amazing physics built into the game, as well as dynamic lighting and weather events. You’ll have to brace through thunderstorms, blizzards, fog, rainbows, shooting stars, and more as your snowboard through this challenging terrain. There are actually six unique snowboarders that you can play as, and you’ll have to learn each of their own abilities and attributes to excel as the top snowboarder. \
Alto’s Adventure isn’t free — it’ll set you back $5, but can easily be played without an Internet connection.
Compatible With
Alto’s Adventure was a raving success because of fun game mechanics and a beautiful art style. Developer SNOWMAN is continuing with that success with the successor to Alto’s Adventure. Called Alto’s Odyssey, instead of snowboarding, Alto and his friends will be sandboarding across vast landscapes.
A massive highlight of the Alto’s Adventure series is the unique art style. That said, Alto’s Odyssey, despite having many similar mechanics, continues that beautiful art style, but in a completely new environment. Alto and his friends will traverse through windswept dunes, canyons, and even hidden temples on their sandboarding journey. On your journey, you’ll uncover the mysteries and secrets of the desert, and will have to overcome a number of challenges on your way.
This game is a standalone adventure, meaning you don’t have to have played the prior game to enjoy this one. With a beautiful art style and a serene soundtrack, Alto’s Odyssey is a beautiful game that will keep players coming back for more.
Compatible With
Oddmar might be a little known game to most, but with millions of downloads and Apple Design Award Winner in 2018, there’s a lot to be loved here. Like Alto’s Adventure, one of the highlights is the beautiful art style and excellent soundtrack. That keeps players coming back from more than anything else; however, don’t be mistaken, there’s still some excellent gameplay in Oddmar.
This game is through and through a platformer, but it’ll keep players well engaged. You’ll be traversing through beautifully rendered waters, insane environments, and realistic landscapes. There are plenty of surprises in Oddmar, but one thing that players will like the most is the absolutely hilarious dialog.
The premise is pretty simple — you play as Oddmar, a viking who is struggling with the village life. Fellow vikings aren’t accepting of Oddmar, and so, he looks for an opportunity to prove himself to his village, but that comes iwth a number of challenges and difficulties.
The game can be played offline, but you will need to be online when your first download it, as there’s quite a bit of data to bring to your phone or tablet.
Compatible With
Jetpack Joyride is another thrilling side scroller and platformer game. You play as Barry, step into a research laboratory, put on a jetpack, and then traverse through levels, collecting coins and overcoming obstacles along the way. While it is a side scrolling platformer, there will be levels that are a little more unique than others.
For example, when you reach the end of an “act”, you’ll be able to defeat bosses using lasers and missiles in order to continue your journey. You’ll be able to storm the lab in some outlandish mechs and vehicles, really showing your enemies whose boss!
There’s a lot of customization in this game, allowing you to customize your character — Barry — in some of the most ridiculous outfits. There are a couple outfits you’ll have starting out, but others will be collected as you journey through levels, and others can be unlocked through in-app purchases.
Give Jetpack Joyride a try today!
Compatible With
Plague Inc might be the most unique game on our countdown today, putting the player right into high-stress strategy and a realistic simulation. Your goal is to bring destruction to humanity — you start out as a virus who has infected a single patient, and your goal is to get that to spread so that the disease engulfs the entire world.
It’s not as easy as it sounds, though. As you progress, nations (and soon nations with high research power) will be looking for ways to cure the disease. You’ll have to figure out ways to mutate it through different skill points. You can decide on the base of your disease, and then you’ll have to figure out ways to transmit it, what symptoms it is, and even abilities that you can give your disease.
In Plague Inc, it’s you versus the world! The game is easy to play offline, as it doesn’t require any Internet connection — there’s not even a multiplayer mode for trying to reach the top on leaderboards. At $0.99, it’s worth giving a try!
As you can see, there are a lot of excellent offline games for iOS. Many of these can be played both on the iPhone and the iPad. And with Cloud technology today, so long as you’re logged into the same Apple ID, you can start playing a game on your iPhone while you’re out and about, and then pick up where you left off at home on your iPad! There are plenty more games than just these twenty on the market; however, we’re certain that these are some of the best that you can play without a WiFi connection.
What’s your favorite WiFi-free game for iOS?
30 Articles Published
Copyright @2024 TechJunkie
Copyright @2024 TechJunkie
If you don’t see an app that should be here, let us know what it is
Download for IOS
