Top 5 boardgames on mobile

Since our last round-up of the best boardgames on mobile in January, there have been an awful lot of genuinely strong contenders vying for mobile gamers’ attentions.

It shouldn’t be that way, if logic had any say in the matter. Boardgames are almost exclusively multiplayer-focused and therefore shouldn’t work at all in the largely solitary pursuit that is mobile gaming.

The games on this latest list are all titles that manage to overcome the often lonely experience of mobile gaming by either introducing some very clever AI, bending the rules so that they fit the platform, or simply by adding modes that improve the experience.

There’s also the small, but not insignificant, benefit that they don’t require any setting up and you can’t lose any pieces down the back seat of the car. As a long-suffering owner of at least five travel versions of Scrabble, this makes me warm and fuzzy inside.

It adds an exploration element to proceedings on top of the moreish core trading and building gameplay found in Catan: The First Island.

Don’t be too afraid of jumping into this version if you haven’t played its predecessor though. Seafarers’ fantastic tutorial and clever single-player Campaign makes it not just the best way of learning the game, but also one of the most fleshed-out boardgaming experiences on the mobile platform.

The initial impression from the screenshots of Blokus may make you think this is some kind of confusing Tetris clone, what with all the brightly coloured blocks and familiar-looking shapes.

In actual fact, Blokus is one hell of a competitive and puzzling multi-player game, with a wealth of features, modes, and core gameplay that most likely would start a family feud if I brought it out after Christmas dinner.

The mobile version of the brilliant board game is one of the best out there, with a long challenge mode, a pass-the-handset multiplayer mode for games on the go and some great AI to take up the slack should you not have any friends sitting nearby.

A regular board game brought out at family get-togethers across the globe, Trivial Pursuit combines the thrill of rolling dice with the smug satisfaction of answering a question about the Amazon rainforest that you just wouldn’t have ever needed to know in a real-life situation.

If you don’t have any real-life friends sitting nearby, Master Edition comes with Pursuit mode that turns the title into a strange Trivial Pursuit-styled quiz show.

Although technically not that much different from last year’s edition, Master Edition is still one of the best ways of experiencing the classic trivia-based board game.

There have been so many versions of Risk on mobile and other platforms that you may be forgiven for being a bit Risk-ed out by now.

Glu’s take on the classic wargame is different though, pushing away some of the more annoying aspects like the late-game ‘steamrolling’ and introducing a more considered and defensive version of the game in its place.

The excellent graphics and interesting AI make Armies of War an ideal choice for all those Risk gamers out there looking for a fresh take on their favourite board game.

Similar to how Armies of War changes the Risk formula, Scrabble Remix takes the basic game of Scrabble and makes a series of interesting mini-games from the seven tiles in its hand.

There’s no arguing about if ‘Splatulate’ is a real word here. Instead Scrabble Remix introduces six individual mini-games based loosely around the word identifying of the board game, breaking it down into quick chunks of anagram-based gameplay.

Ideal for mobile play.