Why I Only Review Games That Work Offline

Most of my gaming happens in dead zones: the subway, a train tunnel, a flight, a cabin with one bar of signal. That's where a phone game should earn its keep, and it's exactly where half the popular ones freeze on a spinning loader.

So the rule for this site is simple. If a game can't be played in airplane mode after the initial download, it doesn't get reviewed here. That filters out a surprising amount of the store's front page.

There's a design upside too. Offline-first games tend to respect your time more, because they can't rely on daily login hooks and constant nudges. The experience lives or dies on whether the actual gameplay is fun.

It's not a perfect rule. Some genuinely good games need a connection, and I'll miss those. But for the way most of us actually use our phones, offline is the honest baseline.