Tokaido

Most everyone’s used an Android phone to play mobile versions of popular board games like Monopoly or Ticket to Ride. They’re generally pretty fun, if not exactly life-changing. Tokaido, on the other hand, is an exception. Tokaido, already an almost perfectly balanced board game, shines on mobile for one reason: It doesn’t play exactly like a board game. Sure, the board itself is still there, and the core rules are by and large the same, but playing Tokaido on Android feels like playing a video game.

Characters, no longer mere tokens, are fully animated. When you stop at a store or temple, you’ll encounter a storefront straight out of any role-playing game. The camera even zooms in on your traversal as in a more mainstream video game. It’s not the only board-game adaptation to deploy this trick, but it’s certainly the best.

A good match for: Board-game and RPG fans.

Not a good match for: Anyone seeking heart-pumping action.

Watch it in action.

Purchase from Google Play