I’d Rather Play These Games on a Foldable Phone

Believe it or not, my Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 5 is my favorite way to play games, but that doesn’t make it a perfect gaming device. Some games feel awkward on a foldable phone, while others feel like a perfect match. Here are the genres that I find are the best fit for book-style folding phones.

1 Puzzle Games

Puzzle games feel great on phones in general, but on foldables, they really come alive. Each Monument Valley game, for example, is gorgeous in a timeless way (there is more to graphics than high-resolutions and ray-tracing) and you can really take in the beauty when you’re playing on a larger screen.

These games play just fine on small screens, but a foldable allows you to see more of the world without compromising on the game’s portability in the way a full-blown tablet would.

Assemble With Care is another example of a game that adapts well to both small and large screens. Like Monument Valley, you can play it on anything from an iPhone to an Alienware desktop, and it looks great on both. Yet I find the foldable factor provides the best playing experience.

The same can be said for most puzzle games, whether they’re character-based like Path of Giants and Umiro, or fully abstract games like Linea.

2 Point-and-Click Adventure Games

Point-and-click adventure games had a moment on early home computers in the 80s and 90s, with companies like LucasArts establishing an iconic style. That era ended, but the genre has never fully gone away. Old-fashioned point-and-click adventure games may not transfer all that well to home consoles or most handhelds, but they feel perfect on a foldable phone.

One example is Machinarium, a port that has been available for Android for many years. Before foldable phones, it was much better suited to Android tablets. Now I can carry it with me in my pocket. Amanita Design’s other games Botanicula and Samorost are also great options to carry around with you.

Other titles worth a look include games that emulate the classics, like Thimblewood Park, as well as more stylized modern takes on the genre like Midnight Girl. To those with dark humor, Little Misfortune is another title not to be missed. Kentucky Route Zero is reason enough to subscribe to Netflix for access to mobile games. If you do, check out Oxenfree as well.

3 Narrative Adventure Games

The narrative adventure game genre has become a personal favorite. I absolutely adore the Life Is Strange series, which I discovered through the Android port of the original and now continue to play on my phone via NVIDIA GeForce NOW.

The difference between a narrative adventure and a point-and-click adventure is a rather nuanced one. Both focus on stories, but one places more emphasis on storytelling and dialogue than exploring an environment and solving puzzles.

On Android, I recommend The Wreck, a stylized story you influence primarily through the choices you make during conversations. You don’t control a character, but you do sometimes need to tap on different parts of the screen to look for clues. It’s a visual novel, and if you like it, know that this is a vast genre, though most don’t have anywhere near this degree of high production values.

I don’t have much experience with visual novels, but The Wreck has shown me that a folding phone is an ideal way to experience them.

4 Tower Defense Games

Tower defense is a type of game that involves placing buildings or units that must survive numerous waves of attack from enemies. This genre is ideal on a large phone, where you get the adrenaline of real-time strategy without requiring the quick reflexes of a keyboard and mouse that genuine RTS games require.

When I first started covering Android, tower defense games were among the most popular genres at the time. Fieldrunners 2 was the first game I reviewed professionally back in the day for Android Police. Kingdom Rush, however, was the tower defense game that truly made its way into my heart. The series has continued with numerous sequels to this day, all of which carry on in the spirit of the original.

I wish I could point you toward Iron Marines, which comes from the same developer as Kingdom Rush and is arguably the best real-time strategy game for mobile phones. Unfortunately, as perfect as that game would be on this larger screen, it hasn’t yet been optimized for the Z Fold’s aspect ratio. This means some vital parts of the interface don’t fit on-screen. As I said at the beginning, gaming on a foldable can be rather hit or miss.

5 Card-Based Games

Open the Play Store and you will see all kinds of games that center around cards. There are digital versions of traditional playing card games, such as Solitaire and Poker. If you never got into collecting physical Pokemon cards, you can take part in a digital version via Pokemon TCG Pocket. If Yu-Gi-Oh is more your speed, that’s available in the Play Store as well.

Yet card-based games have become far more varied than mere digital adaptations. You have all kinds of creative games that build tabletop deck-building with exploration and role-playing, as is the case with Slay the Spire. I’ve seen Slay the Spire on PC, and while having a large monitor is nice, there is something inherently satisfying about being able to slide your cards into play. The game is great, and there are any number of similar deck-building roguelite games to play after you’ve had your fill (including a sequel).

Balatro is a card-based game that blends both of these together. It’s a poker-based deck-building game, and it has won nothing but praise and downloads. It’s not an addiction I’ve picked up yet, but based on my time with Slay the Spire, it’s one I understand.

There are many Android games with console-quality graphics that feel great on a foldable. Genshin Impact looks stunning on a larger screen, and YouTubers love to show off Call of Duty Mobile on these devices. But these are games that I would consider merely “good enough” on a foldable, but still preferable on a traditional gaming handheld, console, or PC.

With the genres I’ve listed above, even if you gave me the PC version, I’d still rather play on my foldable phone. The same could be said, really, for most any mobile game that’s easy to on the toilet.