Indicating at a junction nobody is watching
Simulators are their own genre and the usual review criteria do not apply. Nobody plays a lorry game to win. The pleasure is procedural: the pre-flight checklist, the indicator at the junction, the long dull motorway with a podcast on, the satisfaction of a trailer that went into the bay straight.
The Android versions divide sharply. A handful are serious attempts at a system, with fuel, damage, routes and traffic that behaves. Most are driving games wearing a simulator's clothes. Both can be fun; it is worth knowing which one you are downloading.
Which kind of simulator is it
| Signal | Serious simulation | Arcade in a uniform |
|---|---|---|
| Damage and fuel | Modelled and costly | Cosmetic or absent |
| Traffic | Follows rules you must also follow | Obstacles to weave through |
| Route length | Tens of minutes, deliberately | Two minutes to the next reward |
| Controls | Several, and configurable | Two pedals and a tilt |
| Progression | Buying a better vehicle slowly | Constant unlocks and timers |
| The mistake | Costs money in the game | Restarts the level |
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The ones worth the space
Truckers of Europe 3. The closest thing on a phone to the desktop lorry simulators, with gearboxes you can actually shift, real weight in the handling and long routes across the continent. The one to start with.
Truckers of Europe 2. The previous game from the same studio, lighter and smaller, and still a good drive on a phone that struggles with the newer one.
Truck Simulator: Ultimate. More of a business game around the driving: a haulage company, contracts and employees. Heavier on progression systems than on the road itself.
Truck Simulator 3D. An older and simpler take that runs on almost anything, which makes it the fallback for a low-end phone.
Bus Simulator Indonesia. Enormously popular for good reason: the atmosphere is specific and affectionate, and the community-made liveries and vehicles are half the appeal.
Bus Simulator: Ultimate. Timetables, passengers with opinions and a company to run. The passenger feedback loop is a surprisingly effective reason to drive smoothly.
Bus Simulator: EVO. The better-looking of the bus games, with a route system that expects you to stop where you are supposed to and not a metre past it.
Train Sim. Trains are the purest version of this genre: the route is fixed, the job is the speed limits, the signals and stopping at the right place on the platform.
RFS - Real Flight Simulator. Real-world scenery and routes, proper airport layouts and an instrument panel that means something. The most serious aviation option here.
Infinite Flight Simulator. Strong flight model and a live multiplayer world with other pilots and air traffic control. The subscription is what unlocks most of it, so try the free portion first.
Turboprop Flight Simulator. Smaller, cheaper and much less demanding, focused on short hops and rough strips. Easily the best value of the flying games.
X-Plane Flight Simulator. The mobile version of a serious desktop product, aimed at people who want the aerodynamics rather than the scenery.
Extreme Landings. Not a free-flight game at all but a set of emergency scenarios: failures, weather, and the approach going wrong. A good way to learn what the instruments are for.
SimplePlanes. You build the aircraft first and then find out whether it flies. Half engineering puzzle, half simulator, and it has kept people busy for years.
Flight Pilot: 3D Simulator. The arcade end of flying, openly so: short missions, quick rewards, no manual required. Included because it is the honest entry point for the genre.
Farming Simulator 23 Mobile. A working farm with crops, machinery and seasons. Slow in a way that is entirely the point, and the mobile versions are properly made rather than cut down.
Construction Simulator 3. Excavators, cranes and concrete, each with their own controls to learn. The fiddliest machinery in this list and the most satisfying when it goes right.
Car Mechanic Simulator 21. No driving at all: diagnose the fault, strip the assembly, order the part, put it back together. The procedural pleasure of this genre in its purest form.
Ship Sim 2019. Large vessels that respond slowly to everything, which makes docking a genuine exercise in planning three minutes ahead.
Making one of these playable on a phone
- Change the steering method first Tilt is the default in most of them and the worst option in a vehicle with weight. On-screen buttons or a wheel will feel wrong for ten minutes and better forever after.
- Switch to the cab or cockpit view The external chase camera turns every one of these into an ordinary driving game. The interior view is where the genre lives.
- Turn the assists off one at a time Automatic gears, then braking assist, then the route line. Removing all of them at once is how people conclude a game is too hard.
- Connect a controller if you have one Analogue steering and a trigger for the throttle is a different experience, and most of these support a standard Bluetooth pad.
- Plan for a long session, not a short one A proper route takes twenty to forty minutes. These games are badly suited to five minutes in a queue and very well suited to an evening.
- Check the download size and the storage first Several of these are large, and the flight simulators grow considerably once scenery regions are added.
- Procedure and routine are the appeal
- Long unhurried sessions suit you
- You want something calm with attention in it
- A controller or a large screen is available
- You want a result in five minutes
- Reading a settings menu is not your idea of fun
- The phone is old and already warm
- Free-to-play timers annoy you, as several have them
What the mobile versions cannot do
The desktop simulators these borrow from have twenty years of modelling behind them, and no phone version matches that. Traffic is simpler, the maps are smaller, and the physics are approximations that mostly hold. The flight simulators come closest, because instruments and procedures translate to a touchscreen better than the feel of a heavy vehicle does.
The other honest point is monetisation. Several of the free ones have energy timers, advertisements between routes or vehicles priced to be irritating. The paid ones are usually the cheaper choice over a year, and that is worth checking before committing to a long career in one of them.
Pick one, change the steering off tilt, switch to the cab view and give it a proper route. The genre rewards patience and nothing else.
Frequently asked questions
Which one should a complete beginner start with?
A lorry game with automatic gears and the cab view on. The routes are long enough to learn on, the traffic is forgiving, and nothing is lost by taking a junction badly. Flying is a much steeper first hour.
Do these work with a Bluetooth controller?
Most of them do, and analogue steering improves them considerably. Support is not universal, so check before buying a pad specifically for one game.
Are the flight simulators realistic enough to be useful?
They teach instruments, procedures and navigation reasonably well, and pilots do use them for familiarisation. They are not training devices and nothing they certify counts for anything.
Why does my phone get so hot playing these?
Open worlds with long draw distances keep the processor busy continuously, unlike a puzzle game. Lowering the resolution and the traffic density helps more than anything else, and taking the case off helps more than most settings.
Are the free ones full games or demonstrations?
It varies. Some are complete and supported by advertising, some are effectively a trial with the useful vehicles priced individually. Check what a second vehicle costs before investing an evening in the first one.
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