There's something truly special about Dead Cells - how it effortlessly combines the exploration of a great metroidvania and the solid loop of a brilliant roguelite. The walls of the opening level ooze with style, and despite offering pixel-style visuals, the animations are smooth and filled with flair. It's a must-play game on your phone, and you can experience my favorite indie game for free on both iPhone and Android.
Dead Cells feels like a beautiful blend of roguelite games and metroidvania games, while also offering something wholly unique and great for fans of both genres. A seemingly cursed island is your playground, and as you progressively defeat more levels and harder bosses, you'll earn more resources to make future runs easier to handle.
It's such an incredible game that it's not only one of my favorite mobile games, but I've also bought it a second time and regularly call it one of the best Switch games. It has enough action to keep you switching around your gear often and constantly building towards making your protagonist as strong as possible, but enough exploration and secrets that will keep you changing how you play, for example, a door that only opens if you're fast enough on the previous level.
There's also plenty of post-launch DLCs that have arrived for the indie game, all of which include new biomes to explore, enemies to encounter, and new weapons to use. However, my favorite is the Return to Castlevania pack, which fittingly pits you against Dracula himself, the Ruler of Darkness, and definitely shows a lot of love for the franchise, one of the two series that gave life to the Metroidvania genre (the other being Metroid, of course).
But, what if you could enjoy Dead Cells and all of its DLC for free - yes, you read that right, without paying a cent. Well, you can with your Apple Arcade subscription, which brings the excellent iPhone game and packages it with all of its expansions as part of the Apple Arcade games list. If you don't have a subscription, you can take a free trial, meaning you don't have to pay to play Dead Cells (or any of the other games in the library).
Alternatively, Dead Cells is also free with Play Pass, allowing you to enjoy one of the best Android games with your subscription. Admittedly, this doesn't include the DLCs (which have to be bought separately). However, you do get additional benefits with Play Pass, including weekly offers that save you money on in-app purchases for free games or give you free rewards for them.
If you're enjoying Dead Cells for free on your phone, I'd recommend grabbing one of our favorite phone controllers - they really help make Dead Cells the best experience possible on your handset. Alternatively, you can check our list of the best action games to play something with more intensity.