What’s a good way to play Android games on Linux?

Waydroid is a sensible first thing to test. It runs Android in a container rather than behaving like a traditional emulator, so it can feel fairly lightweight. Game compatibility varies, though, and some titles may not launch or work properly. Check whether your desktop setup supports it before spending time configuring controls.

If you need keyboard mappings, look into whether a Waydroid helper tool can provide them for your setup. That can make games designed around touch controls more manageable, but it won’t fix compatibility problems with a particular game.

A virtual machine is another route, but it’s not automatically the easier or faster one on a modest PC. I’d try the specific game with Waydroid first, then consider a VM only if you have a reason to use a different Android environment.