One of the best types of video games is the kind that really puts you in the shoes of a very specific thing. Simulation games, as they’re typically called, don’t follow the normal trends of battling the bad guys or saving the princess, and that can open up a world of very fun, engrossing experiences.
Whether you’re wanting to cook some digital meals or build the house of your dreams, there are no shortage of simulation games on Android. You can spend time in whatever specific niche you want, doing just about anything you can imagine. But to make that a little easier, we’ve rounded up some of the best options on the Play Store to help get you started with the best simulation games.
The Sims Mobile
When you think of simulation games, your first thought very well might be The Sims. The classic franchise started on PC as a virtual doll house life sim where you create your own Sims and let them live their lives doing anything you can imagine. Build houses, get a job, raise kids, learn some new skills or set the garage on fire; whatever you could think of, you could do it in The Sims.
That revolutionized video games, and EA has recently brought their hit franchise to smartphones. With two options to pick from, including The Sims Mobile and The Sims Freeplay, you can get two free Sims experiences that let you create your own Sims families, push them through careers, build their houses, cook new recipes, and tons of other things that flesh out the typical Sims experience on a smartphone.
The Sims Mobile focuses more on building relationships and careers, including storylines and multiplayer narratives, while Freeplay is better suited for someone that likes the creative side of the Sims. Build houses and families sprawled out across a custom town watch your Sims interact with all the shiny new objects.
If you’re craving that life sim experience, check these out.
Play Store Download Links | The Sims Mobile, The Sims Freeplay
Game Dev Tycoon
Sure, playing video games is fun, but what about making them? Okay, maybe Game Dev Tycoon isn’t exactly going to let you make your own real video games, but it does simulate the experience of running your own game development studio, and that’s a ton of fun on its own.
The game starts out with your character building computer games in their garage circa the 80’s. You steadily get better and better at making (and selling) games until you move up into your own studio. From here you’re tasked with hiring other developers, marketing your products, going to gaming events, and even handling contract work and releasing expansions and patches to your software to keep growing bigger and bigger.
The end goal of Game Dev Tycoon is to run your own developing and publishing powerhouse with your own MMO servers and dedicated marketing team, and it’s a blast getting there. The variety of genres and topics and combinations of video games you can make, plus the whimsical nature of the game’s dialog and events makes it fun to play through multiple times. Definitely worth checking out, especially since it’s on Google Play Pass.
Play Store Download Link | $4.99
Plague Inc.
Is a game about infection diseases a little too on the nose right on the heels of 2020? Yeah, probably, but it’s been around for a while and it’s still as fun as ever to play, even if it hits close to home these days.
Plague Inc. puts you in the role of a deadly virus whose only goal is to infect the entire global population and wipe everyone out. You can create several different types of viruses and infectious diseases and then mutate and change them up to keep them on their path to global domination. Quickly adapt drug and environmental resistances, develop new symptoms to increase infectivity, and stave off the world’s scientists from finding a cure too quickly. It’s a scary thought, but a very fun game.
The developers have also recently released an expansion that puts you on the other end of things, and you’ll have to develop a cure to stop a rapidly spreading disease. That mode will probably help you feel a little bit better about everything going on, I think.
Play Store Download Link | Free
Bitlife
Another extremely popular simulation game in the life sim category is Bitlife. You’ve probably at least heard of this from its immense popularity on YouTube, but it really is very simple to play.
You randomly generate a character to play, and run through their entire life. That sounds simple, and it mostly is, but the fun comes from all the choices you can make. Right from the start as a child you’ll be able to interact with your family and deal with life’s consequences. Are you going to be mean to your mom? Maybe skip school, try and hang out with your friends? Should you pursue a college degree or hold up the little old lady that you live next door to?
The game is all text based, which allows it to really put you in some hilarious and creative situations, and the outcomes are equally as wild. Sometimes a life of partying and questionable choices will pay off for you, and chasing that high-paying job will backfire in a way that you can’t help but laugh at. This one’s easy to accidentally put too much time into.
Play Store Download Link | Free
Cooking Simulator
Who hasn’t at least sort of wanted to be Gordon Ramsay once or twice? You can pretend to do that in Cooking Simulator, the most accurate* cooking simulation on the Google Play Store.
You’ll be in charge of your own kitchen and orders here, and you’re tasked with getting main courses and side dishes cooked up to perfection. There’s a slew of recipes to work through, from all kinds of meat and fish to salads and desserts. Everything has to be cooked in its own way with different sets of utensils, dishes, and appliances, so there’s a lot of variety here.
The game can be a little quirky with touchscreen controls, and you can tell it was really made for consoles, but just getting that full, bigger experience on mobile makes it worth checking out, especially if cooking is your thing. Sometimes just burning everyone’s fancy dinner is pretty fun, too.
Play Store Download Link | Free
PC Architect
Building a computer is fun, but expensive. Parts aren’t cheap, and sometimes inventory is just a mess and it’s hard to find exactly what you need. If you’re looking to scratch that itch before your next build, then you’ll want to see what’s up with PC Architect.
The game features a simple, mobile-friendly way of simulating building computers. There’s still progression and development, since the game gives you tasks of winning overclocking competitions and building PCs for other people to make money, so you have to steadily get better and better parts. You won’t be piecing together a that $5000 rig right out of the gate, but that makes it all the more satisfying when you get to that point.
There are a ton of parts to pick from, and you can tweak your PC to get better overclocks and performance in-game. You unfortunately can’t use your virtual computer to run Cyberpunk 2077, but sometimes the journey is more fun than the destination, anyway.
Play Store Download Link | Free
Smartphone Tycoon 2
Smartphone Tycoon 2 is almost too perfect to leave off of a list like this on Talk Android.
If you’ve ever wanted to build your own smartphone, this is the one to check out. I would imagine it’s a little simpler than what Samsung actually deals with on a daily basis, but the fun is still there. You’ll get to design your phone to your dream specifications, whether that’s a super high-end phone or something a little more budget-friendly to have more mass market appeal.
These decisions means you’ll need to run your company effectively around that, and Smartphone Tycoon 2 gives you a lot of options for it. You can choose different marketing strategies, hire the right staff for your company, and adjust parts and profit margins to stay competitive. If you think you could run a better smartphone business than HTC, give this free game a spin.
Play Store Download Link | Free
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