For information about Coder Kids classes and camps, including online coding and gaming topics, visit register.coderkids.com/onlineclasses.

As we covered in our Gaming on a Chromebook article, the Chromebook is a cost-effective, albeit somewhat limited, system to play a host of non-demanding video games. The caveat of gaming on a Chromebook is that downloading almost any game requires internet connection, and most major games can either not be played on a Chromebook or cannot be played offline. The silver lining of this issue is that many Android games can be played offline on a Chromebook, so this article will focus on games that can be found on Google Play.

The titles of all games mentioned are hyperlinked to their Google Play Page for your downloading convenience. Our list of games to play offline on a chromebook consists of seven games in two of the most popular categories of games on the Google Play Store: Roleplaying and Puzzle. A miscellaneous honorable mention is added at the end bringing the total to eight games that we will cover.

*Note most, if not all games listed here will need a working internet connection to be downloaded, but can then be played offline. This list will include some well-known titles, as well as some hidden gems (that’s a pun because a lot of these games involve collecting gems. We couldn’t resist!)

Offline Roleplaying Games for a Chromebook

Minecraft

Rating: E for Everyone 10+

Rated: 4.6/5

Price: $7.49 before tax (IN-APP PURCHASES)

Minecraft is a wildly popular building and sandbox style game where the player assumes the role of one of the two protagonist characters, Steve or Alex. Minecraft functions as basically a survival RPG with sandbox elements and textures that might remind you of a massive game of Legos. Using a variety of differently colored blocks made of different minerals, players can build small houses all the way up to huge castles.

The different appearances of the minerals, such as gold, can make the player make sure that their creations stand out and reflect their individuality, even on a smaller scale than what is offered by Minecraft on a console or PC. Players can also farm crops and capture and tame an assortment of different farm animals such as pigs, sheep, and even wolves. Minecraft features 34 different types of “mobs” (groups of animals/monsters) to discover and battle, each type ranging in behavior from passive to enemy. The online multi-player allows player to player interaction with friends so that they can play the game together.

Although the Android version of Minecraft is a bit more limited than its console or PC counterparts, there are still countless things to do in the game that guarantees that you get the most bang for your buck. After being downloaded from the Google Play Store, the Android version of Minecraft can be played completely offline (internet or Wi-Fi is still required to make IN-APP PURCHASES).

Pokémon Quest

Rating: E for Everyone

Rated: 4.2/5

Price: FREE! (IN-APP PURCHASES)

This game offers the Pokémon training experience in miniature scale with textures that look a lot like Minecraft. Pokémon Quest stars your favorite cast of Pokémon, only in block form, and can be enjoyed by both new trainers and seasoned trainers who played the original Generation 1 Pokémon games. Pokémon Quest allows the trainer to “befriend” a team of various Gen 1 Pokémon while exploring the world of Tumblecube Island. Pokémon Quest features simple controls that make it easy for both young players and older players; you battle by tapping the screen rather than pressing an assortment of buttons!

Pokémon Quest is free-to-play but offers in-app purchases in the form of decorations to spruce up your Pokémon team’s base camp. After being downloaded from the Google Play Store, Pokémon Quest can be played offline but requires internet for in-app purchases.

Stardew Valley

Rating: E for Everyone 10+

Rated: 4.7/5

Price: $4.99

Stardew Valley is one of the few games that is pay-to-download, but it deserves its spot on this list. Stardew Valley is a roleplay farming simulator in which the player farms, forages, and frolics through luscious fields while raising animals and performing tasks to assist their fellow villagers. Stardew Valley has 40+ crops that the player can cultivate during the dynamic changing seasons in which the different plants grow.

The RPG elements of Stardew Valley come in the form of the player’s ability to choose what crops to grow, design their farm and home, and perform various “side quests” from other characters. The game also includes other assorted side tasks such as fishing, crabbing, and mining which means that there is no shortage of things to do to keep the fun going. There’s even a romance option! Your farmer can choose to marry one of 12 potential partners and start a family with them. In other words, Stardew Valley is all the fun of being a real-life farmer without the hard work and smells that go alongside running a successful farmstead.

Pair all of these side quests and extra storylines with gorgeous graphics and you get an immersive farming simulator that will make you want to go out and buy yourself your own pair of work boots and overalls. To sweeten the deal (a Candy crush pun) Stardew Valley has no official ending, which means that players can continue caring for their farm for an indefinite amount of time without starting over. The best part is that this game isn’t just your ordinary farming simulator – Stardew Valley boasts “over 50 hours of gameplay content” according to its Google Play page.

Epic Conquest

Rating: E for Everyone 10+

Rated 4.6/5

Price: FREE! (IN-APP PURCHASES)

Epic Conquest is an old-style graphic, hack-and-slash RPG with a romantic side story. The story is delivered in the form of a visual novel, but unlike most visual novels, the game involves immersive fight scenes that make the player feel like they’re truly in the moment. Like similar RPGs, Epic Conquest allows the player to choose between four playable characters which can be customized with different armor and stats to give them a personal feel that reflects the player’s preferences.

The game involves a blacksmithing mechanic in which the player earns different materials to customize their equipment and gear to make it the best it can be, which incentivizes the player to do their best in battle to get the maximum rewards so they can upgrade their equipment. Epic Conquest also includes 27 unique achievements that give the player a sense of linear story progression and completion.

Epic Conquest is also unique in the fact that it is completely free. The developers did not put in features that make you pay to progress in the story or to get the best quality equipment in the game, unlike most other “free” games on the Play Store. The rewards you get in game depend only on the effort you put in, and your mettle in a fight can be tested with four different difficulty levels. Epic Conquest is free and playable offline on a Chromebook after being downloaded from the Google Play Store. A sequel called Epic Conquest 2 has been released and is also free-to-play.

Offline Match Three Puzzle Games

Candy Crush

Rating: E for Everyone

Rated: 4.6/5

Price: FREE! (IN-APP PURCHASES)

Puzzle games by far dominate the category of Google Play Games that can be played on a Chromebook. Of the thousands of titles, Candy Crush is undoubtedly one that stands out from among the competitors with over 32,568,035 downloads. Candy Crush involves the, well…crushing off an assortment of sweet treats to progress through the thousands of levels.

Candy Crush is basically a dynamic “match three” style game where the player must crush three or more candies of the same type in one move to shift the other candies around them into crushing position. The goal of the game is to crush all the candies in the least amount of moves by performing combos.

If you’re frustrated in your daily life, what better way to alleviate some of that stress than to take your frustrations out on a bunch of candy? Candy Crush is free-to-play and can be played offline – in-app purchases require internet access, however.

Merge Dragons

Rating: E for Everyone

Rated: 4.5/5

Price: FREE! (IN-APP PURCHASES)

Merge Dragons is another match three style puzzle game, but unlike Candy Crush, there’s a story! Your goal is to heal the tainted vale of Dragonia from the blighted flog that has taken over the land. In Merge Dragons, you match different objects that each have a unique purpose in the storyline of healing the land. For example, you can match dragon eggs to hatch baby dragons which can then be evolved into stronger dragons that can aid you in lifting the curse.

Merge Dragons has over 180 levels and 900 challenges associated with each level, which means that you will be playing this addictive game for long stretches of time. In your defense, what monster could stay away from baby dragons?! Merge Dragons is playable offline and is free-to-play but requires internet for in-app purchases.

Best Fiends

Rating: E for Everyone

Rated: 4.6/5

Price: FREE! (IN-APP PURCHASES)

Best Fiends is another match three puzzle game, but it has some unique gameplay features that make it stand out from the rest.

Best Fiends has a story in the form of a battle between two opposing sides: the Fiends, the good guys, and the Slugs, the bad guys. Each level serves the dual purpose of being a match three puzzle game, but also a turn-based battle akin to a Pokémon game. Each successive title match equals damage done to your enemies, and level completion means that you have defeated that set of enemies.

Best Fiends boasts over 3,000 levels and 50 collectible Fiends each with a unique story. A not so well-known detail of the Best Fiends team is that they are supporters of several podcasts, including Casefile True Crime, so who knows – maybe just by giving this a game a chance you could be helping to support the creators that you love!

Miscellaneous/Honorable Mention

Pokémon Magikarp Jump

Rating: E for Everyone

Rated 4.6/5

Price: Free (IN-APP PURCHASES)

For this game, we return to the world of Pokémon for a game centered around…Magikarp?! For those unfamiliar with Pokémon, Magikarp is a orange goldfish Pokémon that is thought to be useless among the community due to it only knowing one move that does no damage until it evolves into Gyarados at level 20. The only thing that Magikarp knows how to do in battles is flop around like… a fish out of water (I’m sorry, these puns don’t get better).

Someone took Magikarp’s useless move, a move that has made poor Magikarp a mockery among die-hard Pokémon fans and turned it into a game. Magikarp Jump is surprisingly much more fun than it sounds, and the descriptions of Magikarp on the Google Play Page make it even more hilarious.

In Magikarp Jump, you train your useless goldfish to jump the highest in a competition with help from other less useless Pokémon friends by your side. Luckily, you can raise successive generations of Magikarp which get stronger with each passing generation, meaning that Magikarp’s useless attack can be used for something – finally, Magikarp has a purpose other than being literal baitfish while training your Pokémon in regular Pokémon games! Magikarp Jump is playable offline but requires internet for in-app purchases.

Conclusion

And that concludes our breakdown of offline gaming on a Chromebook. Obviously, this is not a comprehensive list of titles as there are thousands of other puzzle games and roleplaying games that can be covered, but we hope this is a good start to your offline gaming on a chromebook!

Let us know in the comments if you would like to see another article covering even more games to play on a Chromebook in different categories, or if you want to see more articles on gaming in general!