Not a game in particular but I was more prejudiced against mobile games in general.
I only recently got a good smartphone which is actually able to operate relatively smoothly.
I tried a few games and have to say that despite their simplicity some games aren't that bad.
I have only tried a free Need For Speed game and a free shmup (Squadron 1943) so far, the only things that are bad are the adds.

Curiosity. Without it, we would be drowning to cats because curiosity kills cats.

For me e.g. grand strategy games in general that I "dislike" (or am intimidated by them) and think they are unnecessarily hard to learn to play, but I am still curious about them.

Plants vs Zombies

I had played some other (mostly mobile IIRC) tower defense games before PvZ. While I considered them slightly entertaining, overall I didn't like tower defense games, feeling they are merely very simplified and boring RTS games for masses. PvZ seemed even worse, with cartoony graphics, must be a game for children.

Yes the game is simple, but in a good way. I felt the difficulty level was spot on (for a casual game), even the humor in the game made me chuckle (mainly the zombie notes and letters where they try to trick you to let you in; not so much that neighbor guy who sells you items) etc.

I have replayed the game several times, both on PC and Android, and for now it is my favorite tower defense game. Then again I have played only a very limited number of TD games for now.

Zuma games

Zuma's Revenge and whatnot. Again, I felt they are just simple "three in a row" mobile games, but somehow they got something right and I spent countless hours playing some of those games, even on my old Nokia E66 phone over a decade ago.

I've tried to find a similar game for my Android phone but something was off. There seem to be like dozens if not hundreds of Zuma clones for Android, not sure if EA has even made the official Zuma games for Android?

Some of the clones are just poorly done, and somehow I actually liked how in the old Nokia versions (which didn't have touch user interface) the aiming was slower and inaccurate, ie. you had to actually aim where you wanted the balls to go, instead of just tapping with your finger on the screen the exact place where the ball should go. Same with the PC versions I've tried (I think I have some Zuma freebie on the EA Origin clone), the mouse aim is maybe even too accurate for this type of game.

If someone has good suggestions for good Android "zuma games", fire away.

Warframe

For a few years, my friends wanted me to try Warframe but since i don't like FPS games i wasn't really interested in trying it out but one day one my friend was playing the game and he had to urgently do something(don't remember what exactly) and since you don't have a pause button he let me continue the mission until it was over. And i liked it, because you're not obligated to use guns, you can use melee weapons and weapons that you don't even have to aim. Ever since i tried it for the first time i loved te game

I understand you. Shadow Man is basically a very complicated 3D metroidvania. And it´s long. Took me 26 hours to play through after I learned all the paths by heart. But it´s worth it. The deeper you go into the huge interconnected world, the stranger the sights you will experience. And the lore is brilliant, with things I have never seen in another game before or after that.

And Painkiller really is: Kill everything that moves, unlock tarot card, find use for tarot card to unlock other card or reach difficult secrets. I guess, one must love that specific Beksinski style to fully appreciate repeating the levels over and over. But man, what would I give for a real Painkiller sequel. I like Overdose too, but after that the sequels rapidly degrade in quality.

Fallout 1 and 2
I stopped reading the gaming magazine article at the part where it says ".. and switches to turn-based for combat". Didn't think that could be fun at all. Once I played it for the first time however, somewhere 2008-ish, F2 quickly became the best rpg I'd ever played, And it has held that position ever since

Kerbal Space Program
Got this as a gift from a friend, but never felt like playing it. It took a very severe case of boredom one weekend to finally force myself to check it out, only to be hooked before the day had passed.

I absolutely loathe turn-based games; I find them boring, slow, I don't feel like I'm in control of anything, just some "higher power" in charge of characters' thoughts and, therefore, consequent actions. This goes for pretty much every genre that has turn-based mechanics; rogue-likes, RPGs, JRPGs, TBSes, etc. Every once in a while, though, a game comes along that offers something capable of making me look past a mechanic I abhor (mostly RPGs, I have yet to find a turn-based strategy game I enjoy playing), and I thoroughly enjoy playing them. Off the top of my head, I can mention

- Fallout and Fallout 2;
- Arcanum: Of Steamworks and Magick Obscura;
- The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky (sub-)series;
- Battle Chasers: Nightwar;

Alpha Protocol
I wanted it for my birthday, but reviews were horrible. I ended up getting something else I can't even remember.

I found alpha protocol some months later for $5. Played it and remembered why I shouldn't listen to reviews too much.I loved it. Played it fast and hard. Bought a few digital copies and another disc just so I could replay it after I forgot all about it.

I thought of another one:

Temple of Elemental Evil. Horrid reviews. It had been out for maybe 5 or 6 years before I played it. It was either stupid cheap or maybe I got it on Gog as a bundle. Either way, amazing

Still my favorite turn based rpg.

This is actually the opposite of how I feel. I don't like real-time combat in party based games because I don't feel like I'm in control of anything, whereas I do feel like I am in control in turn-based games. Baldur's Gate and its sequel are examples of games where I really didn't feel like I am in control, due to the real-time nature of the combat and the fact that you're forced to rely on pathfinding for movement (why couldn't they just let me move my characters with the arrow keys?).

Also, turn based combat can be fast if the developer doesn't insist on putting in long animations. See, for example, many of the Dragon Quest remakes. Or, for example, classic Bard's Tale games with maxed message speed (although that one fight with 396 enemies can still take a while, but that's not typical).

Interestingly, I enjoyed Dragon Warrior 4 on the NES despite the fact that, in the last chapter (which is most of the game), you can only issue commands for the main character. In fact, when I played Dragon Quest 4 DS, I found myself avoiding the "Follow Orders" tactic and just letting the AI take over. (Note that the AI sometimes cheats (especially with healing magic) and is therefore sometimes better than a human player.)

I never mentioned party-based games in my post. Turn-based just tends to be used with games where you control a party of people, because real time really isn't ideal for those kinds of games. To be fair, I tend to avoid party-based stuff; I like third person action adventures, I like first person shooters and even first person platformers, I like fighting games and brawlers, I love point & click adventures, which all tend to be the player controlling a single character (at least at once). Even if a turn-based game is "fast", it's never as fast as you pressing a button and the character throwing a punch or firing a weapon, and the whole "gentlemanly" aspect of the fights in turn-based games is utterly ridiculous, to me ("OK, sir, I will now kick you in the groin and patiently wait my turn while you stab me in the neck with a broken bottle!").

I don't understand how you feel more in control when all you're doing is telling characters what to do, instead of actually doing it for them, in real time. Want them to fire a gun? They fire it when you would. Want them to retreat and run away? Just do it, no need to "issue commands" that are never enforced the exact moment you give them. Granted, turn-based works better for party-based games, this is true, but I generally avoid party-based RPGs like the plague, mostly because I dislike tolkienesque fantasy settings, and 90% of party-based RPGs are set precisely in those kinds of universes.

Also, I don't even know why I'm replying to you, because you clearly have nothing to add to this discussion, you just come in here, as **** as ever, and engage people you disagree with "in conversation", not even mentioning a single game "you were 100% prejudiced against, and ended up loving to bits". Which I did. Because I really dislike turn-based mechanics, but I absolutely love all of the games I listed.

Rogue Legacy.
I never fancied pixelated MODERN games, but that one just works. And that is very rare to say now a days.

Sim City 2000

I bought this (or my parents) when I was between 6 and 12 and even had an extra cd with additional content. I adapted the playstyle from the SNES version where I never built roads but only railways which didn't work in SC2K. I sold everything and many years later I was able to play it again, built roads and zones were finally able to grow. I miss the extra cd though :/

Hooray for Shadow Man!
Hooray for Plants vs Zombies - so good!

That's one of the games that looked really cool and was super-hyped back in the day. I remember seeing the Demo being played in the mall at EB, I think it was in german though.

It was just one of those games I wouldn't get into, but looking back it's one of the games I regret not playing.