Recommend some android games for kids

Lego games

I probably started playing those when I was 5

If you download an app store like f-driod you can get good apps from there.

My kids like this Libre Memory game which is Memory and nothing else. You can also download apps for them to draw and other games

Balatro

I guess it’s kinda addictive, but only because it’s really good. It doesn’t feel like it was cynically designed to be addictive, if that makes sense. No ads or microtransactions!

balatro's a very high quality roguelike game but don't make any kid get addicted to gambling please
would uno be good? there's this which is just souped up uno known as "hot death uno" based on an ibm pc game. updated in 2022
- It’s not gambling!

Morrowind android port

no but on a real there's a lot of android ports of old games that aren't addictive, and all you have to do usually is click install on an apk file.

Here's one that requires a bit more setup than that if you're techy - https://www.reddit.com/r/TrackMania/s/QDNYzg499o

If that seems too tricky, I still highly recommend the original Trackmania Forever game if you've got ANY laptop. Super simple arcadey racing game - completely free - smooth as butter, lots of replayability, runs on anything, you can play against each other, has a track creator mode that's easy to use, customisable cars - and on, and on. I used to play it when I was about 8-9 years old, then recently when I was babysitting I taught my cousin to play it - he was only 6 years old and loved it. Absolutely brilliant - I used to spend hours playing against my dad back in the day.

my toddlers can barely play minecraft or supertux, they're used to those weird dress up games with ads and stuff. i can't imagine them play morrowind.
i know what i said about them playing minetest. they can't build properly there
have you tried rvgl? re-volt in general. cool game tbh
- I remember playing revolt that as a kid (split screen with my brother) and being somewhat amazed at the graphics. It was fun, I would recommend that for a kid. Kids easily get drawn to racing games and it never feels that addictive.
- Hehehe, I was only joking about morrowind. Yeah, idk if they're toddlers just put them in the garden.
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Mindustry (factory management with tower defense and rts) is also available for android and is on fdroid too so no ads. It might be a bit addicting I guess.

it's a very solid game, one of the two games that made me actually interested in foss software, but it might be really complicated for an average kid
- My bad, I should have thought about that.
  Emulators are probably the way to go.

Shattered Pixel Dungeon - open source, ad-free - turn-based rogue-like dungeon-crawler

https://shatteredpixel.com/

but that's addicting person name dead :(
i spent many hours on pixel dungeon and shattered pixel dungeon. it's genuinely a solid roguelike but god damn it'll become crack cocaine for some

I tried to list everything I have played that can be emulated on an android platform, excluding very hard games or games with scary/adult elements.

Easy-tier

Pokemon Fire Red / Leaf Green (GBA)
Pokemon Emerald (GBA)
Pokemon Platinum (DS)
Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Red Rescue team (GBA)
Chrono Trigger (SNES or DS)

Mid-tier

The Legend of Zelda: Minish Cap (GBA)

Hard-tier

Mega Man X / X2 (SNES)

You can get most of the roms from Vimm's Lair or CDRomance

vimms lair has been cracked down by nintendo and other companies so you can't get much. cdromance too i think. i don't remember.
i highly recommend using myrient.erista.me (or an easier to use search-type tool via https://myrient.mahou.one/). for some advanced systems like the wii or ps3 you sadly need to convert the isos or roms into usable mediums.
more cool shit at fmhy.net

Also cave story on retroarch. Its a masterpiece so why not.

https://github.com/doukutsu-rs/doukutsu-rs
native android version of cave story!
really good game, little me tried beating it many times
- I tried to use this version first, but it's not compatible with controllers. The Retroarch version is
- Oooh didn't know this. I wanna play all over again. I was only familiar with the retroarch one.
  Yeah I have lost count of how many times I played it. But yeah I always end up giving up fighting the doctor.

Bloon tower defense 6, so worth the price

don't forget luanti. kids love that minecraft stuff. so many options there. spin up a server if you're into that and know how to port forward and stuff, champloo

supertux too. my nieces play supertux sometimes along with luanti but on some dogshit android 5 tablets that can't even get "new games". they pester me but hey they play that foss stuff lol

(now please help me disable youtube shorts on tvs i am getting sick and tired help)

((edit: i got so used to the old name of luanti sorry))

if your tv runs android i think this alternative youtube app can hide shorts
https://github.com/yuliskov/SmartTube
- a smart lg tv. can't jailbreak
  i vouch for smarttube on my dinky android 5 tv box thing due to its layout but i still have to use newpipe for privacy

Unciv is open source 2D Civilization V but I guess you said not addictive

i like unciv, very good foss game. a kid may get confused by it, so i have found this simpler alternative that's also foss. idk if it's simple enough for a kid to play but it has less mechanics compared to unciv
https://f-droid.org/en/packages/de.sesu8642.feudaltactics/
- Idk I was a weird kid who got into civ when I was ~10, but you're right that it might be too complicated for some children. There's another old game (like 30 years old) called Slay that looks a lot like this Feudal Tactics game, but I don't think it's foss. I'm actually kinda wondering if this is a foss version of it

If you want just a game that's realistically super fun and kids can sink time into and engage with you can try the PvZ2 Altervz mod.

It has daily challenges but there are no microtransactions, ads, or any other malicious feature. Setup is a little tricky depending on which OEM you have (involves moving a file into a directory that might be hidden by default), but this is probably one of the best options.

plants vs zombies was peak, i should honestly try that mod cause i never got into pvz2

bloons td6

And the Kingdom Rush series (in the Tower Defense genre)
- I got to check this out. I have btd6 on pc but on my phone I got it for free from epic. Infinitoide is another one which was good when I played it albeit very minimal.
- my oldest memory of kingdom rush is this video of a lego mindstorms robot playing a level

Monument valley? The problem is it actually ends, eventually.

Or idk, old GBA games on an emulator? I spent way too much time on Pokémon blue growing up.

Oh definitely have them play old Zelda games. A link to the past is my fav.

Yeah, if I had kids, I'd give them emulated Gameboy games and lock the internet to avoid them getting ads or microtransactions or anything like that.
Kids would still enjoy those Mario, Pokémon, and Mega Man games, right?
Also, they'd be free and you could probably add hundreds.
- At that point it's just better to invest on one of those dedicated emulator consoles... They're not terribly expensive and they're natively offline. Plus, clicky buttons, which I think really enhances the experience.

downwell

might have too many microtransactions but i can recommend arcaea and noisz starlivht. both are free to play with no ads.

arcaea has you paying per song, while noisz has a paid club pass which just makes the game faster to grind.

noisz is a bit mature, mentioning sex, transphobia, awful parents, quite a bit of violence, etc. and is also gay as hell if you do end up picking it up.