I’ve reported a few times about my passion for free-to-play games, how to save money, and even what to do if you just don’t have the money in general. Today I’ve decided to take a look at one of my passion’s that some of the hardcore of the hardcore don’t consider a part of the gaming genre; tablet gaming on Android and iOS. This passion of mine has come around recently as it has become easily accessible to almost anyone. By anyone I mean literally almost everyone that has a smart phone or a tablet. Heck even Windows 8/8.1 and Windows 10 have implemented a decent amount of mobile games to their operating systems.

A few of the games that we’re going to talk about might be free-to-play or even come at a small cost. There’s even a few that cost almost the same price as their console or PC counterparts, but they’re still worth a go if you’d rather have them on the go. Granted the tablet versions may not just cut it in the end. Luckily for us, tablet gaming is rather inexpensive and easily enjoyable by anyone.

When looking at tablet gaming there’s always the question about App Permissions, memory use, and well performance as tablets are beginning to get the power treatment for gaming and usability. For many of the games listed the tablet used was a Samsung Galaxy Tab S2.  As mentioned in our review, the Tab S2 is a powerful, powerful tablet, but it’s not anywhere near the Nvidia Shield, which is something we’ve been tempting to get our hands on for several years now. One of these days we will if we’re lucky enough to hear from Nvidia or even get a chance to have one that we come across in the wild. Till then bare with us as the S2 is a powerhouse and does quite well.

On the first of the list is Vainglory. For many MOBA fans, the title brings an interesting aspect to the well known genre. One that has offered a unique blind of both touch and the subtly of high paced action. With characters ranging from Guardian, Assassin, Jungler, Support, and Warrior, the game offers a unique blend of familiar mechanics on a one lane map with objectives off to the sides. Luckily the game offers out some unique twists at every corner as all characters can be earned by simple gameplay. For those wanting a character that’s not accessible instantly, a few dollars (around 7 USD a character) can purchase a single character. While this alternative is there, it’s advised to save this for unique skins that get posted from time to time or even Early Access characters that may fit your preferred play style.

Next up on the list is a tower defense game I’ve found myself enjoying quite a bit when on the go. It has worked great on both my HTC One M9 as well as the Galaxy Tab S2. The game is called Epic War TD 2. TD standing for Tower Defense. The game idea is simple. A war has broken out. Your objective is to play turrets in a precise fashion in order to keep enemy forces at bay so you can defend your territory, but all this is not as easy as it sounds. The game requires patience, a quick mind, and the ability to swap out turrets faster than they can be placed. This means tactical thinking is a must for those wanting to spend a decent .99 cents or rather 1 USD. The game is gorgeous for being a tablet game and stands with a very simple and streamlined HUD for those looking to play. The game can be found on iOS and Android much like the previously mentioned Vainglory.

Next up on the list is Implosion – Never Lose Hope. The unique thing about this game isn’t that it’s just beautiful, but it plays extremely well for being on a tablet. With a rather chunky analog stick and a nice implementation of action command buttons, Implosion – Never Lose Hope is a game that does what most haven’t done on tablets quite well. It’s unique blend of high action AAA like graphics and mechanics keep it alive even though maps can get rather repetitive, but not enough to make you want to quit. Instead its blend of in-app purchases to gameplay don’t take away from the overall experience. While it’d been nice to see the game come to life on say the PlayStation Vita or Nintendo 3DS we can’t be disappointed at what the game has to offer. The boss fights are unique, tough, and will ground players down in the post-apocalyptic setting the game has aimed for. However, it’s not quite like our next game that’ll rip at the hearts of fans as it has already been doing on PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One for quite some time now.

This War of Mine is a breathtaking experience. For 4.99 USD on Google Play or 3.99 on the Apple App Store, we’ve been able to play this game for some time on both console and PC. This War of Mine takes place in the fictional city of Pogoren, Graznavia where a group of survivors find themselves hiding together in order to survive the ongoing war. With a ceasefire seeming to be no where in sight, fans must take to this strategically challenging survival game by building up their house, going out at night to find supplies, and somehow managing their survival so that their characters don’t die. This includes making use of limited supplies, surviving break-in’s that will cause loss of food, and even surviving hostile enemies when going out at night. Here character traits do matter as does the characters back-packs as these will determine the supplies they can carry back on their adventure outside of the house. If that doesn’t sound like fun, the next title we have coming up might seem all-to-familiar to some while others may find themselves scratching their heads.

Blizzard Entertainment has been known for their massively successful franchises such as Diablo, Warcraft, Starcraft, Heroes of the Storm, their Upcoming title named Overwatch, but also their famed card game by the name of Hearthstone. Originally launched a few years back on P.C., Hearthstone has taken the world by storm since it allows a TCG like experience on mobile platform and PC. Luckily the game allows fans to go from PC to handheld quite easily as the account that you use will be your Battle.net account so that you can migrate your progress seamlessly without any hassle. Much like any free-to-play, Hearthstone does have in-app purchases that allow players to buy the raids at full cost with real money or save up gold via playing in order to unlock them. This also goes for booster packs as well, which means the free-to-play portion may take newcomers a bit longer to build up to the builds that veteran players have.

Now we do have a few MOBA’s on here, but there is another worthwhile mentioning as it is quite fun, but at the same time different from my favored go-to mobile MOBA Vianglory. This one is called Ace of Arenas. Ace of Arenas uses the well known hack-‘n-slash mechanics we’ve gotten used to with many Android and iOS based RPG’s and Shooter genres. What this game does differently, however, is take the idea and has gone MOBA with it. With graphics being slightly lower that of games like Vainglory or even Implosion, the game still offers a wide array of characters and player matches allowing for a fun if-not challenging time. The game does feature a free-rotation as well as a unique use of a gem system, which many may seem slightly familiar with thanks to MOBA’s like League of Legends.

While it’s hard to say there aren’t other games out there, there is a hard-time finding games that we know a majority of you will like since there are other genres out there. We’ve seen Final Fantasy, Breath of Fire, Grand Theft Auto, Minecraft, and a numerous amount of other games out there. We’ve played so many of them to even bring this article it’s been hard to choose what ones we know would be best for gaming on a budget. Because a majority of games on Android are free-to-play, we decided to grab a few of the hardcore games out there just to show you what is there, and what you can enjoy for free or at a cheap cost, and on-the-go.

Till next week, here’s your Cheap @$$ Gaming article.

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About the Writer:

Dustin is our native console gamer, PlayStation and Nintendo reviewer who has an appetite for anything that crosses the boarders from across the big pond. His interest in JRPG’s, Anime, Handheld Gaming, and Pizza is insatiable. His elitist attitude gives him direction, want, and a need for the hardest difficulties in games, which is fun to watch, and hilarity at its finest. You can find him over on Twitter, Google+, and or you can find him on PSN with RaivynLyken.