Three years ago, Netflix introduced a perk in an attempt to stand out from the cord-cutting fray: video games. Subscribers can pick from a variety of smartphone games and play them for no additional charge, each free of advertisements, microtransactions and other typical nuisances.
The selection of games has since grown in quantity (70 games and counting) and popularity (Grand Theft Auto games have been downloaded more than 36 million times). Some of the titles are exclusive, including Monument Valley 3, a sequel to the isometric puzzle games that was released on Tuesday; some are Netflix themed; and some are critical darlings. But which ones are worth pausing your “Love Is Blind” marathon to play?
As Seen On Netflix
Too Hot to Handle 3
Many of Netflix’s cheesiest shows have been adapted into smartphone games in which players become the protagonists of popular shows like “Emily in Paris,” “Outer Banks” and “Selling Sunset.” Generally, we recommend just watching these shows instead, as the writing in their “interactive fiction” adaptations is underwhelming.
But if you enjoy the tawdry side of reality dating TV, it’s worth putting yourself into a contestant’s shoes in Netflix’s three Too Hot to Handle games. Their TV-14 content wins out thanks to the writing’s self-awareness.
Each bachelor and bachelorette lays on a mix of clichés and surprising rejoinders while goading you into joining lusty competitions, with a dollop of supermarket-aisle romance-novel prattle stirred in for good measure. Pick a match (or two or three), make and break alliances, and enjoy a gentle amount of interactivity — just enough to help you invest in the drama, and nothing more.
Runners-up
-
Stranger Things 1984: An N.E.S.-style top-down adventure full of puzzles, combat and stealth.
-
Queen’s Gambit Chess: Choose from classic chess or a trippier version inspired by the TV series.
-
Squid Game: Unleashed: An online party-battle game similar to Fall Guys.
Classic Adventures
The Case of the Golden Idol
Puzzle-adventure games were pioneered in the late 1980s, and hits like The Secret of Monkey Island and the Carmen Sandiego series stood out with a mix of intrigue, humor and clever mysteries. Decades later, an award-winning homage to that period is available on smartphones via Netflix, and it scales well to phone touch screens.
In The Case of the Golden Idol, tap around the scene of a crime to uncover clues in the form of words, and then insert those words into a police report’s sentences to solve mysteries and expand the captivating story. The results are darkly funny, the vocabulary rich for the teen-and-up set. Any Netflix subscription also includes the equally compelling 2024 sequel, The Rise of the Golden Idol.
Runners-up
-
Immortality: Review 1970s-style film reels to reveal information in a cold murder case.
-
Paper Trail: Fold the edges of hand-drawn pages, in the style of Mad magazine, to make new pictures and solve puzzles.
-
Arranger: Move a character by sliding her world around with your finger, which creates its own series of puzzly challenges.
Fun for all ages
Storyteller
Netflix has many options for wordless, mindless gaming, but you can aim higher with a sneaky mix of kid-friendly and educational in Storyteller. Every puzzle in this award-winning game begins as a blank comic strip with movable objects and a one-sentence prompt like “A heartbreak is healed” or “Edgar shocks himself.”
Move the available objects — people, pets, tombstones, mirrors — into the empty panels to tell a linear story that fits the prompt. The further you get, the more creative your answers can be. In your dream story, it’s possible for a dog to get amnesia, come back to life and save the world.
Runners-up:
-
Poinpy: Endlessly bounce upward in a colorful, arcade-inspired romp.
-
Krispee Street: A “hidden objects” game à la “Where’s Waldo?” with bubbly animated characters and helpful assists.
-
Bowling Ballers: Knock as much cartoony stuff over as possible.
Cards and classics
Puzzle Gods
Candy Crush has nearly perfected the “match three gems” genre of easy-to-tap gaming, but what if you could enjoy the same formula with none of the distractions within? Netflix Games has a few match-three options, and the best by far is Puzzle Gods because of its breadth of puzzles, charming Olympian motif and steadily increasing difficulty.
Much like Candy Crush, levels will introduce temporary limits and hurdles. Certain colors of gems may be blocked, or boss monsters must be dealt with. But here you can fail and fail again without being asked to watch ads or buy in-game currencies.
Runners-up:
-
Minesweeper and Solitaire: Clean, ad-free versions of the card classics.
-
Pinball Masters: A tailored-for-Netflix adaptation of the popular Pinball FX series.
Depths of Gameplay
Into the Breach
Imagine a board game that pits anime-style robots against city-clobbering aliens where each move of a piece boils down to the lesser of two evils. Save your sergeant? Or protect a building full of civilians? Tricky monsters, limited mobility and natural disasters (earthquakes, volcanoes) factor into this game of three-steps-ahead troop management, and the result is among the most finely crafted adaptations of board game difficulty in gaming.
In great news, this PC and Switch hit translates nicely to touch-screen taps. Coming back after inevitable failure is fun thanks to a balance of high difficulty and accessible design, and a variety of fictional armies sweetens repeat play.
Runners-up:
-
Monument Valley 1, 2, and 3: An M.C. Escher-esque series of visual puzzles.
-
Spiritfarer: Create a Sims-like village to attract lost souls who you can talk with and usher to the afterlife.
Add a Gamepad
Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas
Modern phones are powerful enough to run the biggest 3-D game series from the PlayStation 2 era, and Grand Theft Auto’s irreverence and go-anywhere adventure remains accessible and amusing, even on a smaller screen. If you really want to climb the criminal ranks in fictional cities like San Andreas, though, try attaching a traditional gamepad to your phone; the Grand Theft Auto games Netflix offers include touch-screen controls, but they’re too imprecise. Look up phone add-ons like the Razer Kishi or Backbone One for this category’s best games.
Runners-up:
-
Sonic Mania Plus: Classic, high-speed Sega action for the modern era.
-
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder’s Revenge: Arcade revival that one-ups the Turtles’ 1990s arcade hit.
-
Dead Cells: An endlessly replayable homage to the 1980s classic Castlevania.
The post Netflix’s Surprising Selection of Free Video Games appeared first on New York Times.
