Playing games on your phone can be a great way to kill time, relax, or just take your mind off the world for a while. But it is so much better when you have friends to play against. Here are the 15 best apps to play with your friends and bring out your competitive edge! All games are available on iOS and Android.
1. Quiz Up – Free
Quiz Up is a one or two-player trivia game for almost any topic on the planet! Quiz Up has topics ranging from Harry Potter characters, to the American War of Independence, and everything in between. Quiz Up allows you build up your score on each individual topic and lets you see where you are ranked for that topic in your home country or across the globe. You have the option to play solo, against friends or match with people via online play, so you are never short of an opponent. Each quiz is only 6 questions long, you are given up to 10 seconds to answer the question with more points awarded for the speed of your answer. This can hype up the pressure when playing against someone with similar knowledge of a topic, giving the advantage to the player who can think and react quickest! A must have for any trivia fans
2. Heads Up – Free
Yes, it’s the game that Ellen loves to play on her chat show. Although the idea might seem simple, it is one that can provide hours and hours of entertainment. All you have to do is hold the phone to your head and the other players have to describe the person or word on your head until you guess correctly (then tilt the phone down) or pass to the next word (tilt the phone up). With 18 different decks to choose from (Celebrities, Animals, Accents, Movies, and more) you will find a deck for everyone! The best features is that the app can video during gameplay so you can watch back what your friends were doing when giving you clues! Watching the recording back can sometimes end up being even funnier than the game itself!
3. Evil Apples – Free
Are you always the one responsible for bringing the cards to the party? After you play this game, you’ll never use a deck again. If you love playing Cards Against Humanity, you’ll get a kick out of Evil Apples. It is basically the virtual version of the raunchy party game, coined as “fithy and hilarious” by its creators. You’ll start out by finding a group of people to play with, whether they are nearby players located through your GPS or your friends that you virtually invite over text or social media. Everyone has a hand of digital cards with answers on them that are used to fill in the blanks. Each round, a sentence or question will be presented, which is when each player will use one of their cards to come up with the funniest answer. The designated judge for that round will select the card that they find the most hilarious, and the owner of the card wins that round. Evil Apples was ranked #1 in Word & Card Games in the USA, so you’ll be sure to have a great time with friends, whether it’s in person or not. (Just keep the game away from little ones!)
4. Snap Games – Free
Snap Games is a gaming platform that Snapchat rolled out where you can challenge your Snapchat friends to different games like Bitmoji Party and Tiny Royale. In total, there will be six Snap Games released:
There are six titles available with Snap Games: Alphabear Hustle, Bitmoji Party, C.A.T.S. Drift Race, Snake Squad, Tiny Royale, and Zombie Rescue Squad.
While it’s a brand-new platform, users of Snapchat are loving the ability to communicate with friends in a whole new way. Plus, what’s not to love about seeing your adorable Bitmoji dance around with your other Bitmoji friends?
5. Worms 2: Armageddon – $4.99
Everybody loves Worms, who doesn’t? This particular iteration of the classic turn-based artillery game doesn’t stray far from the formula that made Worms a classic in the first place. The basic premise is still move, shoot, and try not to die at the hands of your enemies (or your own). What they have added here is a massive arsenal of weapons, over 40 in fact, which can take time to master (but there is a fantastic single player campaign for that). Though you have the option to play online, the game is still at its best when playing together with a group of friends; the added weaponry only serves to enhance the number of different tactics you can adopt. Watching your friend’s last worm slide slowly towards his death, while your friend groans in agony, hasn’t got old. And while that is still funny, Worms will remain a classic.
6. Osmos HD – $3.99
IGN named it the #1 mobile game, it was named editor’s choice by Google, Wired, Macworld, IGN, and GameTunnel, and it was named Most Innovative Game by Pocket Gamer. The list of accolades that this app has notched up is enough reason alone to pay the $3.99 to experience (although a free demo exists for those of you not convinced yet). You swim about this beautifully animated 3D world absorbing smaller organisms and growing until you are the largest mote in the arena. Although it may sound simplistic, it is totally immersive and addictive, and yet still relaxing (probably in part due to the award winning electronic soundtrack). The multi-player mode is fantastic, offering local and online multiplayer, the game builds slowly with players tentatively trying to grow themselves until a moment to strike arrives, at which point at tense and exciting chase takes place. The game is designed to have a symmetrical arena so as not to favour one side, and the slow climactic build of the game becomes rather addictive. The multiplayer facet just adds another layer to an already incredibly designed game.
7. 8 Ball Pool – Free
The classic games are always the best, aren’t they? 8 Ball Pool is a mobile version of the game you play in your friend’s basement. Join the “world’s biggest online pool game” with your friends by inviting them directly through iMessage if you’ve got an iPhone, or through the 8 Ball Pool app on your device. You have the freedom to choose a one-on-one game of pool or particiapte in eight-player tournaments. In addition to bragging rights, you’re playing for “Pool Coins,” the app’s version of currency that allows you to enter matches that are exclusively for the highest-ranking players as well as buy gear at the Pool Shop.
8. Scrabble – Free
I hardly have to explain the concept of scrabble, it’s a game at least somewhat familiar to everybody. What the app does is remove the two most strenuous parts of the physical game, spell/word checking and set-up. The interface is very easy to use and navigate and the game runs rather smoothly. You have several options for multiplayer, playing against a random online opponent, with your friends via Facebook or Origin, or Pass’n’Play where you physically pass the device between yourselves. This is my favourite type of gameplay as it means you only need 1 device between up to 4 players and it allows you to play in a social environment and simply pass the device around the room, allowing for play during parties (friends of mine even play on nights out sometimes).
9. Fast Thumbs – Free
If you were the fastest typer in grade school, it’s your time to shine again. If not, it’s your chance to earn the title once and for all. Fast Thumbs is a speed challenge, testing your ability to type at lightening speed to your favorite lyrics. Calculating your missteps and your triumphs along the way, you can challenge your friends to see who types the lyrics the fastest with the least amount of errors. It may sound simple as can be, but most users get tripped up on periods, commas, and other forms of punctuation. Be on the look out for the occasional emoji, too! Avid users call Fast Thumbs “hectic and pulse-pounding,” but in the best way possible of course. Get your thumbs ready, get set, go!
10. PSYCH! – Free
From the same creators as Heads Up!, PSYCH! is one of the best apps to play with your friends if you are wanting to show off your ability to think on your feet. Encouraging you to “outwit your friends,” PSYCH! offers categories for you to choose from, from movies to scientific facts and pop culture. Whether you are in person with a group of friends at a party, or simply waiting in line at the grocery story, you’ll find yourself addicted to this game. Start by joining a game, either with friends or strangers. In short, the group will be given a trivia question, and everyone has to come up with a fake answer. The task is to come up with the answer that is the most believable, even though it will be false. Then, the group will be shown the false answers, as well as the true one, and they will have to take a guess on which one is true. The player whose false answer is selected the most wins the round.
11. Powerboat Racing 3D – Free
With a combination of fantastic visuals, simple and easy to master controls, and fantastic multiplayer (up to 4 players) gaming, Powerboat Racing 3D is a tough to beat in terms of a multiplayer racing game. You play a professional hydroplane powerboat racer competing against your “Super-Pro” opponents (though their quality varies dependent on your friends’ skills in multiplayer mode), if that doesn’t appeal to your inner child I don’t know what will! The boat handles exactly as you would expect a real boat to handle (Disclaimer – I haven’t actually driven a boat) and you get a real sense of speed and momentum during gameplay. The game offers a number of different types of race including racing, elimination (my personal favourite), survival and sprint and has an extremely helpful tutorial section that helps to train you into a Powerboat “Super-Pro” before your friends arrive to challenge you.
12. King Of Opera – Free
Have you always wanted fame and fortune? Well, now’s your chance to fight for the limelight. King of Opera is an insanely fun app to play with friends, where you are challenged with going up against up to three other people on one device. You are in charge of controlling your tenor with the goal of keeping them performing under the spotlight and preventing them from being bumped off stage. Enjoy exploring six different game modes with your friends to see who will end up King of Opera!
13. Mini Golf Match Up – Free (Ad Free Upgrade Recommended)
Mini-golf is fantastic, either real or virtual, and this game manages to capture the nuances of putt-putt better than any other game. Using a very simple pull back and release style of control (think angry birds), this game is incredibly easy to pick up and play. That combined with the fun cartoon graphics and a catchy little soundtrack makes this game a real winner. One small criticism I would have is that the ads can be quite jarring, the game is much better once you purchase the ad free upgrade (only). You can play online with friends or by matching with random opponents, you can use in game chat and play in several games simultaneously without slowing the game down at all. With a wide range of holes and course to unlock, Mini Golf Match Up will keep you and your friends amused for hours.
14. Flick Kick Field Goal Kickoff – Free
Much like many other games of this genre the basic premise doesn’t change an awful lot; in this case you have to score field goals on a football pitch. The game is easy to begin with but with 360 degree wind conditions of increasing severity, you’ll be hooked trying to make that 50 yard shot in gale force winds. I multiplayer you can choose either precision or sudden death, testing your nerves or your skill, or maybe both! This little game becomes addictive rather quickly, and comes highly recommended for settling scores with sudden death! Example: winner gets the last slice of pizza.
15. Facebook Messenger Games – Free
Although they may be slightly hidden, the different games you can play with Facebook Messenger is incredible. With classics like Basketball, Chess, and Football (Soccer), that can only be accessed by inputting secret codes into Messenger; you’ll feel like a real life hacker when you enter the codes and discover things about Messenger that you never could have imagined….. You can challenge your friends on the other side of the room, or the other side of the world! Check out our Top 10 Facebook Messenger games here.
