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Top 5 mobile games of 2019: Dave's picks of the year

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Top 5 mobile games of 2019: Dave's picks of the year

"Dave is undoubtedly the best of us and makes the best decisions" - Pocket Gamer Staff

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2019 has been a shockingly good year for mobile games, to be quite frank. Yeah, there were plenty of duff ones, as usual, but there are also dozens of high-quality free-to-play releases, loads of pretty premium games, and then there's Apple Arcade, possibly one of the best bargains to have ever graced mobile gaming as a whole. Seriously, it just has that many good games, and this list could've been comprised of Apple Arcade games exclusively.

But this is a very personal list, and more than anything, this is the list of games I just couldn't stop playing well after I'd published articles for each of them. For one reason or another, these games just kept me playing, and I was ecstatic to find a game that I just wanted to keep returning to.

So without further ado, here are my personal top five mobile games from 2019.

Call of Duty: Mobile
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No one tell Cameron Bald, okay?

The fact is, Call of Duty: Mobile is the kind of mobile game I've always wanted, and wasn't sure we'd ever get. It feels like the perfect accompaniment to the console Call of Duty games, offering a similar, bite-sized Call of Duty experience for when you're on the go. And it works great.

With a full set of classic maps returning, regular updates, a full battle royale mode, a new zombies mode, and more, it is possibly one of the most content-complete Call of Duty games of all time, despite being on a mobile device and releasing free-to-play. It is truly, honestly, pretty astounding that they can offer all of this.

Sure, it has a battle pass and does ask for microtransaction spending every now and then, but you can completely ignore it and have a great experience. I played this far more than I had to, and I recommend it to mobile gaming cynics.

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Mini Motorways

Available on: iOS + Steam + Apple Arcade
Genre: Simulation
Find out more about Mini Motorways
Mini Motorways
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Mini Motorways starts off easy, and ramps up fast. As a result, when you're inexperienced, you'll blink and fail. When you're experienced, you'll meticulously plan out your early moves, and have all your plans fall apart as the game expands quickly. Typical, really.

Mini Motorways tasks you with simply building roads between homes and buildings, which quickly expands from a few roadways to a massive, complicated cityscape as more buildings move in, and there are more cars on the road. It's still perhaps a little too strict in the way you can build for my liking, but it's undeniably a fun and engaging experience that I couldn't put down for hours.

The Elder Scrolls: Blades

Publisher: Bethesda Softworks
Available on: iOS + Android
Genre: Action, RPG
Find out more about The Elder Scrolls: Blades
The Elder Scrolls: Blades
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The Elder Scrolls: Blades is still in early access, and despite how much I played it at launch, it very nearly didn't make it on to this list. But a recent update has changed that. Now you will find yourself swimming in experience and gear as you explore through a variety of brand new environments and quests, and yes, it's pretty good now.

As far as action dungeon exploring experiences go on mobile devices, this is one of the most interesting ones. It offers 3D environments, and has a now vastly improved combat system, an endless dungeon, loads of quests, and even an interesting PVP mode. This is a dungeon crawler well worth playing.

Pokémon Masters

Publisher: DeNA Co.,Ltd.
Available on: iOS + Android
Genre: RPG, Strategy
Find out more about Pokémon Masters EX
Pokémon Masters EX
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I know, okay? I do know. Gacha games are the devil. That is absolutely true. But I really like Pokémon, okay? For some reason, Pokémon Master, despite an incredibly trivial battle system, had it's claws in me. I felt the urge to make my Pokémon sync-pairs as strong as possible, and overcome every challenge. The issue is that I hit the paywall, where any progress is gated behind either money or a ridiculous amount of grinding.

Before I hit that wall though, I was having fun, and all of the gem reimbursements from bugs and such since launch have helped me collect and enjoy my time with the game. This game is far from perfect, but DeNA are already working hard to improve it, and I can't help but admit that my collect-em-up instincts kicked in when playing Pokémon Masters.

Mario Kart Tour

Publisher: Nintendo
Available on: iOS + Android
Genre: Racing
Find out more about Mario Kart Tour
Mario Kart Tour
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This is the same as Pokémon Masters, really. I knew it wasn't the best game, but I kept playing. I wanted more upgrades, more karts, more characters, more drivers, and more high scores. I don't know why, I just did, and I played certain tracks in Mario Kart Tour for literally over an hour at a time while trying to get high scores and achieve five stars on every track. I was obsessed for a short while.

If you enjoy chasing high scores in a familiar, Nintendo-tinged environment, then Mario Kart Tour is actually great, and I loved playing it earlier this year. I stopped playing though, because the paid Gold Pass subscription isn't worthwhile, despite making the game far more bearable. This isn't meant to sound like a complaint, because I played this game for countless hours - and if you want some fairly harmless free-to-play fun, you might enjoy it just as much as I did.

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Dave Aubrey
Dave Aubrey
Dave is the Guides Editor at Pocket Gamer. Specialises in Nintendo, complains about them for a living.