Spaceteam

Spaceteam from independent developer Henry Smith launched in 2012 as a local co-op party game that works best when you're sitting in one room loudly shouting instructions at each other. Each player sees their own control panel on their phone, full of knobs, levers, and sliders, but the commands that appear on screen usually belong to a teammate's panel — the goal is to read the instruction aloud as fast as possible and find whoever at the table has that control, so they can execute it before time runs out.

The controls rely on quickly tapping, dragging, and turning virtual elements scattered across the entire screen, while a relentless time limit ticks down on every command and the spaceship around the players gradually changes shape and color depending on how well or badly the crew is doing during the flight. Chaos, confusion, and loud shouting are a deliberate part of the fun here, not a design flaw or a technical shortcoming of the game.

The game became a beloved example of how mobile phones can serve as a party game for a whole room full of people, not just a device for one player staring at a screen, and it inspired a number of other local party titles using multiple interconnected phones at once. Part of the experience is also the visual state of the growing spaceship, which changes, gets damaged, and changes color as the flight progresses depending on how many mistakes the crew made along the way.

Why play it: ideal for a group of friends looking for loud, chaotic fun at a party or celebration, considerably less suited to quiet or solo play.