If you somehow weren't already aware, Netflix subscribers actually have access to a whole bevy of different games. While these are largely available on mobile devices like phones or tablets with TV access in beta and limited to specific games, there's still over 80 of them total to choose from. So, what are actually the best Netflix games?
Welcome to Mobile Gaming Week 2024, where we explore what's hot, what's best, and what's next in the world of mobile gaming ahead of the Mobile Gaming Showcase.
While there's a wide variety of genres from puzzles to sports to strategy games available to Netflix subscribers, sorting the wheat from the chaff is honestly fairly simple. The best Netflix games, at least at this point, are often ports of immensely popular games on other platforms. That or they're versions of classic mobile games that were immensely popular before being added to Netflix.
One important thing to remember before getting into what exactly the best Netflix games are is the simple fact that a lot of how much mileage you might get out of any of these games boils down to what, exactly, you're playing on. Are you playing on an older iPhone without a controller? Android tablet with a controller? Are you trying to play on a TV, which is considered a beta experience? The ranking below posits that, for the majority of folks in the majority of situations, these are the best Netflix games to play:
10. Dead Cells: Netflix Edition
Frenetic 2D Metroidvania roguelite Dead Cells has a justly earned reputation as engrossing and there's nothing quite like traversing the game's sprawling castle as an immortal failed experiment. That said, Dead Cells in general benefits from precision controls, so consider this our strong suggestion to use a controller.
9. Cut the Rope Daily
The premise of Cut the Rope is deceptively simple: you cut the rope, the candy goes into the critter's mouth, the critter is happy and you move on. But these puzzles get more complex and convoluted over time with added obstacles and other factors that ratchet up the difficulty. There's a reason Cut the Rope is considered a classic mobile game, and Cut the Rope Daily is basically that but with additional daily puzzles.
8. Oxenfree and Oxenfree 2: Lost Signals
While technically two different games, Oxenfree and Oxenfree 2: Lost Signals from Netflix's first-party developer Night School Studio really feel like more of a package deal. The supernatural thrillers make for fascinating and somewhat spooky adventures, and while you could technically play one without the other or out of order, you're absolutely going to get the most out of doing both and in release order.
7. Paper Trail
As we have previously said, Paper Trail from developer Newfangled Games is a gorgeous world full of origami puzzles that feel good to solve. Players uncover a compelling narrative through folding sections of the environments in order to solve puzzles, which can get far trickier than it might sound. Unlike some titles, Paper Trail's gameplay translates perfectly to mobile touch controls.
6. World of Goo Remastered
Another classic brought into the limelight in the modern age, World of Goo Remastered is a physics-based puzzle game where you use balls of goo to build structures to solve puzzles. Simple, right? Guess again. While it might seem easy enough, the puzzles can be tricky in an exceptionally satisfying way.
5. Immortality
What happened to Marissa Marcel? That's the beating heart of Immortality, which is an interactive trilogy of movies that players can move scene by scene through, match cutting their way to an answer. It's basically the perfect kind of game for Netflix – and anyone looking for a thrilling adventure.
4. Monument Valley
Monument Valley from developer ustwo games is 10 years old, but it would be hard to know that from just playing it. The perspective-based optical illusion puzzles, which must be solved for the game's silent princess to progress on her journey, are just as captivating now as they were in 2014. With Monument Valley 3 set to release later this year through Netflix, there's never been a better time to try the original – or to return to it again.
3. Arranger: A Role-Puzzling Adventure
I spent literal months obsessing over the movement-based tile puzzles in Arranger: A Role-Puzzling Adventure ahead of release, and as it turns out those same puzzles work extremely well in a mobile environment. With charming art, dialogue, and mechanically satisfying puzzles, it's hard to go wrong with Arranger: A Role-Puzzling Adventure.
2. Hades
The extremely popular roguelike from developer Supergiant Games sees Zagreus, son of Hades, trying to defy his father and escape the Underworld. If you've played it elsewhere, you know what's up, and if you've not yet had the pleasure, you're in for a treat that combines compelling narrative arcs with invigorating mechanical gameplay that will see you fighting and befriending various gods and demigods and the like while zooming around various battlefields mashing buttons until your fingers get sore.
1. Into the Breach
Hades is likely the more popular game overall, but Sublight Games' Into the Breach makes for a strong transition to mobile. A Chess-like strategy game by way of time-hopping Starship Troopers, Into the Breach is all about using mechs, pilots, and their weapons to solve square map after square map of horrible creatures trying to slaughter humanity – and you're the only one standing in their way, across multiple timelines. Into the Breach is a captivating sci-fi experience that feels perfectly at home on mobile devices.
