Games that respect your one free hand

I do most of my mobile gaming with one hand, because the other is holding a coffee, a rail, or a phone charger. Designers who ignore this end up with games that only work at a desk, which defeats the point of a phone.

The best one-handed games keep every important control in a thumb's arc and never demand two simultaneous inputs at the edges of the screen. It sounds obvious, and yet plenty of otherwise great titles fail it.

Casual and puzzle games usually nail this, but I've been pleasantly surprised by a few racers and sims lately too. It comes down to whether the studio actually tested on a phone in a hand rather than a tablet on a stand.

My advice when trying anything new: play the first level standing up, holding the phone one-handed. If it's frustrating there, it won't get better on the sofa.