The best free Android games 2021

Date:
Tue, 29 Jun 2021 12:41:23 +0000

Description:
Our pick of the best free Android games platform games, puzzle games, shoot 'em ups and more.

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There are so many excellent free Android games in the Google Play Store, it can be hard to know where to begin looking for something new to play. That's why we've put together a comprehensive guide to the very best games in every genre.

Whether youre into word games, endless runners, platformers or puzzles,
theres something here for you.

Click through to the next pages to see each category or read on below for our pick of the month. And check back every month for our latest pick. Here are the best free PC games of 2021 Free Android game of the month (Image credit: Team TAPE) Box It Up! Inc

Box It Up! Inc is an action puzzler that finds you sorting boxes on a conveyor belt, to ensure they head through the correct wrapping slot. In theory, this should all be simple: red, yellow and blue boxes merely need to be shoved into position, so theyre in the correct lane. And it is at first.

But Box It Up! Inc soon starts sending all kinds of additional complications your way: staff will dump boxes on the belt, packages will need putting into their boxes, and power-ups will shake everything up, sometimes triggering a breakneck-pace mini-game.

On repeat play, the game does feel a touch repetitive the same kind of puzzles (if not always identical layouts) always appear in each respective level. But at its best, this is an exhilarating and characterful endless puzzler. The best free racing games for Android

Our favorite free Android 3D, retro, 2D and on-rails racers. (Image credit: Hondune Games) Code Racer

Code Racer takes racing game conventions and throws them out the window, so rather than bombing around a circuit, your twitchy reactions being the only thing keeping your car from flipping over, you instead define your route by way of basic programming-style commands.

At first, Code Racer relies on a lot of trial and error as you define acceleration, braking and turn times, and power levels. Its hard enough to go around a corner, let alone face levels with jumps, moving platforms and other terrifying hazards.

Before long though, youll start to grasp the games various nuances and more rapidly piece together the steps required to get to the checkered flag intact
or escape the cops in surprisingly tense takedown levels. Beach Buggy Racing 2

Beach Buggy Racing 2 is a high-octane kart racer. True to form, your dinky vehicle belts along larger-than-life tracks, taking in everything from medieval castles with fire-breathing dragons, to an ancient world full of dinosaurs and gigantic sea creatures you can bounce off.

Naturally, your aim is to get to the checkered flag first, across just two laps. To do this, you must find shortcuts, and make use of power-ups that can turn opponents into a block of ice, blast them into the heavens, and far more besides.

Sadly, there are no leagues, and Beach Buggy Racing 2 only ever offers you
two race choices at any given time. But the compulsion loop is extremely strong, the upgrade/unlock path reasonable, and the racing action some of the best around on Android. Disc Drivin 2

Disc Drivin 2 is the turn-based driving game which was presumably created when someone reimagined shuffleboard as Mario Kart and shoved that strange concoction online for web-based multiplayer contests.

The concept of a turn-based racer is bonkers and it shouldnt work, but it really does. As you flick your little disc about tracks suspended in space, the tension ramps up as you home in on your opponent. You will learn to
master shortcuts, zip past hazards, and also how to make best use of bonus powers afforded to your little disc.

Its absurd to think that one of the best mobile racers on Android is about flicking a coin around a race track, but there we have it. Miss this one at your peril. Asphalt 9: Legends

Asphalt 9: Legends , like its predecessors, is a decidedly nitro-happy, larger-than-life take on arcade racing. It has you belt along at insane speeds, regularly soaring into the air, your car spinning and pinwheeling in
a manner thatd have your car insurance company angrily tear up your policy documents.

This racer also differentiates itself by streamlining controls to the point you neednt steer. The car moves on rails, with you swiping between lanes, and timing actions like boosts and drifts. That might sound reductive, but this doesnt detract from the racing feel, it gives you a keen sense of focus on timing, and theres a manual option if you really want that.

Being an Asphalt game, theres some grind, but this is offset by you being immersed in the most outlandish and eye-dazzling arcade racing on Android. Carmageddon

Carmageddon is a blast from the past of PC gaming. It masquerades as a
racer, but often feels like youre hunting prey albeit while encased in a
suit of speeding metal.

The games freeform arenas are networks of roads in a dystopian future. People and cows blithely amble about while deranged drivers smash each other to pieces. Victories come by way of completing laps, wrecking all your
opponents, or mowing down every living thing in the vicinity.

In the 1990s, this was shocking to the point of Carmageddon being banned in some countries. Today, the lo-fi violence seems quaint. But the games tongue-in-cheek humor survives, sitting nicely alongside bouncy physics, madcap sort-of-racing, and deranged cops attempting to crush you into
oblivion should you cross their path. Asphalt 8: Airborne

Asphalt 8: Airborne is a high-octane racer that gave a cursory glance
towards realism. It then decided against bothering with such a trifling
issue, and decided itd much prefer you to pelt along at insane speeds under the power of glorious nitro, which frequently sends your car soaring into the air.

Not one for the simulation crowd, then, but this racer is perfect for
everyone else. The larger-than-life branched courses hyper-real takes on real-world locations are madcap and exciting. Rather than doing laps around
a boring circuit surrounded by gravel traps, you blast through rocket launch sites, and blaze through volcanos.

There are downsides cynical IAPs and timers abound, welding a massive comedy tailfin to this otherwise sleek racers stylings. But for dizzying speed, mid-air barrel rolls, and loads of laughs, this racer is tough to beat. Data Wing

Data Wing has the appearance of a minimal top-down racer, but its far, far more than that. Thats not to say the racing bit isnt great - because it is. You guide your little triangular ship around neon courses, scooting across boost pads, and scraping track edges for a bit of extra speed.

But theres something else going on here an underlying narrative where you discover youre, in fact, ferrying bits of data about, all under the eye of an artificially intelligent Mother. Initially, all seems well, but it soon becomes clear Mother has some electrons loose, not least when you start getting glimpses of a world beyond the silicon.

With perfect touch controls, varied racing levels, a few hours of story, and plenty of replay value, Data Wing would be a bargain for a few dollarpounds. For free, its absurdly generous. One Tap Rally

This game does for racing what auto-runners do for platform games. One Tap Rally is controlled with a single finger, pressing on the screen to
accelerate and releasing to brake, while your car steers automatically. The aim is to not hit the sides of the track, because that slows you down.

Win and you move up the rankings, then playing a tougher, faster opponent. In a neat touch, said opponents are recordings of real-world attempts by other players, ranked by time.

In essence, this is a digital take on slot-racing, then, without the slots. But the mix of speed and strategy, along with a decent range of tracks, makes you forget about the simplistic controls. If anything, they become a boon, shifting the focus to learning track layouts and razor-sharp timing. Top stuff. Splash Cars

In the world of Splash Cars , it appears everyone's a miserable grump apart from you. Their world is dull and grey, but your magical vehicle brings
colour to anything it goes near. The police aren't happy about this and aim
to bring your hue-based shenanigans to a close, by ramming your car into oblivion. There's also the tiny snag of a petrol tank that runs dry
alarmingly quickly.

Splash Cars therefore becomes a fun game of fleeing from the fuzz, zooming past buildings by a hair's breadth, grabbing petrol and coins carelessly left lying about, and trying to hit an amount-painted target before the timer runs out. Succeed and you go on to bigger and better locations, with increasingly powerful cars. Keep your mobile secure with one of these best free VPN apps The best free strategy games for Android

Our favorite free Android RTS and turn-based games, board games and card games. (Image credit: TechRadar) Void Tyrant

Void Tyrant tasks you as a mighty hero with cleaning up the galaxy. And
you do so via the power of blackjack. Sort of.

Yep, this free Android game is another card battler. As you work your way through the universe, you face off in one-on-one battles with various violent foes, flipping over cards, and trying to better your opponents score without going bust.

But theres more to winning than guesswork, because you also build a deck full of skills and weapons. Playing these additional cards (which eats into slowly replenishing energy) is the key to success, and adds strategy to what might otherwise have been a lightweight, throwaway card game.

Instead, its one of the best around, with tons of depth and replay value, and a very reasonable premium upgrade if you want to rid yourself of the ads. (Image credit: Stay Inside Games) Bounty Hunter Space Lizard

Free Android game Bounty Hunter Space Lizard is the tale of a despondent lizard living in a van, whose lover left, and whose spacesuit sprang a leak. Obviously, said reptile then had an epiphany: the only way to feel alive is
to be a bounty hunter!

Its not a recommendation TechRadar would make (perhaps get a gym membership, or take up an instrument), but it does provide the backstory for a fun and surprisingly deep turn-based strategy title.

Across 20 levels you carefully move your lizard, mercilessly cutting down targets, and try to avoid getting horribly killed yourself. The game keeps shaking things up, shifting from clockwork stealth to a chess take on Bomberman. Reaching the ending is a rewarding experience albeit one you likely wont have for quite some time. It turns out being a bounty hunter is tough! (Image credit: Juanma Altamirano) Chessplode

Chessplode is as its name might suggest chess with explosions. The big bangs (well, cartoonish pops) occur when you take a piece. At that moment, everything in the pieces line or column is vaporized unless a king happens
to be lurking there. Then, you just get a boring old chess capture.

As you might imagine, this lobs every conventional chess strategy out of the window. There are oddball initial board layouts as well, meaning you must effectively relearn the game in order to win.

Of all of the free Android games that rethink chess, this is the most successful. You get a bunch of predefined challenges to try, real-time multiplayer battles, and a level editor for making your own boards although youre only allowed to share one when you can prove its possible to beat! Pocket Cowboys: Wild West Standoff

Pocket Cowboys: Wild West Standoff invites you to endless high-noon standoffs, with four gunslingers ready to fill their enemies full of lead.
But instead of being a free-for-all brawl, this game is more like rock/paper/scissors, with a smattering of chess.

During each round, you choose to move, shoot, or reload. Depending on which character youre controlling, shooting may unleash leaden death on a wide
area, or just on the space next to you. Success relies on correctly anticipating what your (online, human) opponents will do, and making the
right move yourself.

This straightforward slice of strategy affords Pocket Cowboys great
immediacy; but stick around for the long haul and you can upgrade your team, and partake in events, all while formulating strategies to avoid your gang
too often being sent to Boot Hill. King Crusher

King Crusher is a real-time strategy brawler in a shoebox. The backstory finds the king being annoyed that adversaries exist, and so he dispatches you to remove them. Your little band must therefore trudge through forests, deserts, and cemeteries, wiping out anyone in their path.

Although King Crusher immerses itself in a range of RPG tropes, such as building your team, upgrading powers, and taking on quests, its also
perfectly suited to mobile. Each battle takes place on a tiny grid, where you must quickly react to danger, and unleash your teams powers on whoever you happen to be duffing up.

It all works wonderfully. Theres enough depth to keep you scrapping over the long term, but the bite-sized action-packed battles are ideally suited to phone-based play. Hearthstone

Hearthstone is a head-to-head card game that immerses you in a world populated by hunters, mages, warriors, and other fantasy types. Players take it in turns to try and batter their opponents health down to zero, playing cards that represent minions, spells and other skills.

This genre is often baffling to the newcomer, but Hearthstone is an
accessible and balanced game. Although IAPs lurk cards can be bought with bling won in-game, but also by using actual cash veterans have proved that you can blaze through the leaderboards without spending a penny.

However you choose to play, this is a game that rewards those in it for the long haul. Have patience and learn its mechanics, and you may eventually become a master of this fantastical world of character and chance. The Battle of Polytopia

The Battle of Polytopia is a turn-based game akin to a stripped-back Civilization designed specifically for one-thumb mobile play. Each game has you start with a single city, the aim being to dominate a little isometric world. You either race to be the best within 30 turns, or emerge victorious when youre the only tribe still standing.

Wisely, Polytopia focuses more on approachability than depth. The tech tree
is abbreviated, stopping short of guns. The maps are small. Cities can be conquered, but you cant found new ones with settlers.

Each of these decisions helps the game flow, but despite its compact nature, Polytopia affords plenty of opportunities to strategize. Thats especially
true when venturing into online multiplayer with other people a mode open to anyone who buys one or more extra tribes. Train Conductor World

You might moan about trains when you're - again - waiting for a late arrival during your daily commute, but play this game and you'll thank your lucky stars that you're not in Train Conductor World . Here, trains rocket along, and mostly towards head-on collisions.

It's your job to drag out temporary bridges to avoid calamity while simultaneously sending each train to its proper destination - it's
exhausting.

From the off, Train Conductor World is demanding, and before long a kind of 'blink and everything will be smashed to bits' mentality pervades. For a path-finding action-puzzler - Flight Control on tracks, if you will - it's an engaging and exciting experience. Clash Royale

There's always a whiff of unease on recommending a game from a developer nestled deep in the bosom of freemium gaming, but Clash Royale largely
manages to be a lot of fun however much money you lob at it. The game is more or less a mash-up of card collecting and real-time strategy. Cards are used
to drop units on to a single-screen playfield, and they march about and duff up enemy units, before taking on your opponent's towers.

The battles are short and suited to quick on-the-go play, and although Clash Royale is designed for online scraps, you can also hone your strategies against training units if you're regularly getting pulverised. There are the usual timers and gates for upgrades, but the game largely does a good job of matching you against players of fairly similar skill levels, meaning it's usually a blast and only rarely a drag. The best free shooting games for Android

Our favorite free Android FPS titles, twin-stick blasters and vertically-scrolling retro shoot em ups. (Image credit: Jean-Franois Geyelin) PewPew Live

PewPew Live scratches a number of retro-gaming itches, with its fast-paced gameplay and vibrant vector-style graphics. At its core, its a twin-stick shooter, echoing Geometry Wars and Robotron, as you aim to survive for as
long as possible in a claustrophobic arena full of hostile enemies.

But PewPew Live expands on this basic premise across five meaningfully different game modes. One builds on classic arcade title Asteroids. Another has you weave between multiple deadly objects, thereby testing your dexterity more than your trigger finger.

One of these modes alone would be enough to recommend the game. That you get five equally strong challenges for free transforms PewPew Live into one of Androids most unmissable freebies. (Image credit: Ogre Pixel) Shooty Quest

Shooty Quest is an excellent warning to wannabe evil types that annoying someone called the Deadly Arrow is a bad move. Furthermore, you really dont want to, say, burn down his house, steal his cat, and sign your handiwork - because he tends to get a bit shooty.

Cue: 36 levels (and one endless battle) that features you, as the Deadly Arrow, killing everything in sight. Said carnage is all tap-based, with you unleashing arrow-based doom by prodding at the screen.

As you sit stationary at the center, survival initially relies on timing, dispatching encroaching enemies in order; later, you must master multiple weapons, ensuring youre armed with the most effective one to off the nearest foe. In all, this is a frenetic and exciting claustrophobic shooter thats ideal for mobile play. (Image credit: Rovio Entertainment Corporation) Angry Birds AR: Isle of Pigs

Angry Birds AR: Isle of Pigs takes Angry Birds into the third dimension, and frees it from the confines of your phone. Sort of. Both of these things are achieved by the game being presented in augmented reality.

This means ramshackle constructions within which egg-stealing pigs lurk are projected on to your surroundings, be that a table, the floor, or the local town square. You can then check out the current challenge from any angle, before flinging one of the titular avians at it by way of a massive catapult.

As a series, Angry Birds was arguably tired years ago. But this game is more than yet another me-too sequel. In providing 3D environments you can fully scrutinize, the concept again feels fresh; and it doesnt outstay its welcome, with 70 tightly designed levels. (Image credit: Legal Radiation) Kazarma

Kazarma finds you zooming along the ancient bridge of Kazarma, which
connects the human colonies within the galaxy. Sadly, it has seen better
days. Not only have maintenance been slacking, judging by the massive holes everywhere, but the bridge has also been invaded by aliens. Its your job to sort them out, by blowing them all to pieces.

Much more suited to a phone than a tablet, this free Android game has you use a single thumb to zip left and right, dishing out neon death to anything stupid enough to get in your way. Procedurally generated levels ensure no two games are the same, and there are also three difficulty levels. On the easiest, Kazarma almost has a chill-out vibe, but ramp things up and it will take your face off! (Image credit: Oddrok) Boom Pilot

Boom Pilot is a shooter that yet again finds a lone hero saving the world,
on the basis that the good guys can apparently only afford to fund a single pilot. This time, youre in vertically scrolling territory, weaving through bullet hell, to take down robot fleets that now command the skies.

For some reason, the heavens are also packed full of boxes to blow up, coins to grab, and massive floating plane crushers. There are also, naturally, bosses to take on with the comparative pea shooter that is your plane.

The controls are a bit floaty, but the games nonetheless an entertaining blaster, with vibrant visuals, and an urgent soundtrack thats seemingly
beamed in from the 1980s. (Image credit: Tree Men Games) HELI 100

HELI 100 has the standard backstory of an arcade blaster: hordes of aliens are invading; but, for some reason, all your lot can cough up is a single defensive fighter. Into the fray you go, then, your peoples last hope against annihilation.

Fortunately, your craft is pretty hot stuff. You use two thumbs to have it zigzag between enemy fire, and it automatically retaliates, blasting foes to pieces. Now and again, pick-ups helpfully appear, which when triggered
unleash all kinds of extremely dangerous death.

There are 100 levels in all, the last of which is endless, and the first ten or so of which are quite dull while youre learning the ropes. Stick with it, though, because HELI 100 offers some cracking shooty action perfectly tuned for mobile play. Piffle

Piffle is a shooting game where you fling strings of balls at blocks, depleting their face numbers until they explode. The backstory is that the nefarious Doc Block is doing something suitably evil with the blocks, hence why youre trying to eradicate them.

Okay, thats not the deepest of stories, but it doesnt matter when the cartoonish action is so inviting and immediate. Flinging balls around the colorful levels is lots of fun, not least because they resemble tiny meowing cats.

Theres some grind here, and youre going to hit levels that urge you to open your wallet. In the main, though, this is a bright and breezy arcade treat, with nice surprises as you work your way to the ultimate goal of stopping the blocks and Doc Block for good. PewPew

PewPew is a twin-stick blaster in the classic mold. It has no time for storylines. Instead, it dumps you in a ship, hurls countless enemies your
way, tasks you with blowing them to pieces, and dresses the entire thing in gorgeous old-school neon vectors.

From the off, this is a tense, exciting game. The arena youre within is claustrophobic and frequently packed with ships and projectiles. Surviving
for any length of time requires mastery of the controls, and learning how different enemies behave.

But theres depth here, too. Once youve suitably honed your shooty skills, you can take on a mode with giant space rocks, and a version of PewPew that removes your weapons entirely, presumably making the ships pilot really wish theyd added bring a really big gun to their to-do list. Shadowgun Legends

Shadowgun Legends is a first-person shooter with tongue firmly in cheek. Set in a world where mercenaries are rock stars, and aliens are so much cannon fodder, this is a bold, brash, noisy slice of wanton arcade violence.

If youre looking for nuance, head elsewhere. The story and characters here
are wafer thin. But if youre after action, Shadowgun Legends does the business. Missions are linear in nature, challenging you to be fast and accurate. Combat is responsive and fluid, and you soon find yourself amassing a pile of cash, upgrading kit, and adding to your fame.

Get good enough and your adoring fans will build a statue in your honor. It still wont be enough to convince you this is a console-quality shooter, but this game feels perfect for mobile: streamlined, bite-sized, free-flowing,
and fun. Drag'n'Boom

Drag'n'Boom shows that you should never encourage a teenage dragon. Here,
the rebellious fire-breather zooms about minimal landscapes, belly-sliding down hills, soaring into the air, barbecuing soldiers, and generally being a menace.

Fortunately, you get to be the dragon, rather than the put-upon army rather wishing it had better weapons. The game recalls Angry Birds in how you ping your dragon along, but also borrows from twin-stick shooters, Sonic the Hedgehog (super-fast tunnel bits), and even The Matrix (slo-mo as you aim).

Although theres admittedly not masses of variation across the games 50 levels and endless mode, its hard to be too critical. Drag'n'Boom looks great, and has the kind of grin-inducing breezy gameplay thats perfect for slotting into the odd moment when you feel the need to unleash your inner dragon. Time Locker

This vertically scrolling shooter plays with convention in a manner that messes with your head. The basics are familiar youre dumped within a vertically scrolling environment and must shoot ALL OF THE THINGS.

Occasionally, obliterated foes drop bonus items that boost your weaponry, providing the means to unleash major destruction while yelling YEEE-HAA if thats your sort of thing.

However and this is a big however everything in Time Locker only moves when you do. The temptation is to blaze ahead, due to bonus points being won for covering greater distances, and because youre being pursued by the sole thing that doesnt freeze when you do an all-devouring nothingness.

But careening on isnt always a good strategy, because blundering into a
single foe or projectile ends your game. Risk versus reward, then, in this fresh and great-looking blaster that dares to try something different. AirAttack 2

Bad news! It turns out the Axis of Evil needs overthrowing immediately, on account of having access to a ridiculous number of planes and tanks, some of which are the size of small villages. Sadly, we've had some cutbacks, which means our air force is now, er, you.

Still, we're sure you're going to love your time in AirAttack 2 , cooing at gorgeous scenery shortly before bombing it, surviving bullet-hell, and
puffing your chest to a thumping orchestral soundtrack.

Sure, you might have to turn down the graphic effects a bit on older
hardware, and it's a bit of a grind to reach later levels, but you're not going to get better freebie shooting action this side of World War III. The best free puzzle games for Android

Our favorite free Android brain-smashers, logic tests and path-finding games. (Image credit: Dustyroom) Empty.

Empty. is a puzzle game for people with - or wanting - a decidedly zen outlook on life.

Each handcrafted level begins as a minimalist space with objects dotted
about. These are depicted almost as silhouettes, featuring as few as one and rarely more than a few colors. The idea is to manipulate the scene so objects are merged into matching flat planes.

Success mostly hinges on finding the correct order in which to dispense with items - and its satisfying when you manage to empty a room, unlocking the
next stage. This games designers want you to relax while you play, too - its generous with object positioning, is devoid of ads and IAPs, and has no timers. Ideal stuff to unwind with, then - and to learn a little about the value of simplicity in your life. (Image credit: thatgamecompany inc) Sky: Children of the Light

Sky: Children of the Light is a freeform adventure that draws heavily from Journey a game thats yet to arrive on Android. That doesnt matter now, because Sky is arguably the better title.

If youre into backstory, theres one about children trying to spread light and hope through a desolate kingdom. All you really need to know is that theres a lot of running about, giddily sliding down hills, and figuring out how to
deal with puzzle-like barriers that block your way.

The twist is that loads of other people are playing at the same time. Often, you must work together to succeed - easier said than done when communication takes the form of parps and gestures. It can frustrate, but there are also times when someone will grab your hand, and a group of you will soar into the sky. Moments in mobile gaming are rarely so magical. (Image credit: Jussi Simpanen/Adventure Islands) Total Party Kill

Total Party Kill finds a trio of heroes in dank single-screen dungeons with their exits inconveniently far out of reach. They then hit upon a novel way
of escape: sacrifice.

Your job is to figure out in which order everyone needs to be dispatched. The knight hacks at chums with his sword, sending them flying across the screen potentially towards otherwise inaccessible switches. The mage freezes companions into blocks of ice. And the ranger uses his arrows to impale cohorts on walls. You get the idea.

The mix of dark humor especially the little jig the escapee does while his friends lie dead and tight puzzles make for an entertaining brain-smashing time. (Image credit: TechRadar) Turn It On! Free

Turn It On! Free is an excellent response to all those people who gripe when they find it a bit tricky to turn on a new piece of kit they buy. At least those items arent as bonkers as the black boxes in this game, which take powering things up to a level beyond the ludicrous.

Initially, you flick the odd switch or twiddle a dial. But Turn It On keeps upping the insanity level. Even fairly early on, youre faced with an entire board of switches, and no idea what any of them are for.

Eventually, there are cranks and cogs, meters and displays, and probably your quiet sobbing voice in the background when you realize youre 15 minutes into
a level and still have no idea how to complete it. The mark of a solid puzzler, then. XOB

XOB transplants an ancient TV into your Android device. Within the CRT fuzz and lurid colors lie 100 levels of platform puzzling, where you must find a path to the exit by manipulating gravity.

You play a square. By dragging the screen, the entire level tilts, forcing
the square to trundle. If it falls from an edge on to another plane, the entire scene twists. A single tap and the square leaps to the ceiling, rotating everything 180 degrees.

This can disorient, but XOB keeps you glued to the screen with its retro-modern aesthetic. The end result is something that at its core is actually quite basic, but the whole is elevated by way of superb presentation and execution, in a manner countless other free Android games would do well
to take note of. Friday the 13th: Killer Puzzle

Friday the 13th: Killer Puzzle bucks the trend in Android horror games. Instead of traipsing about a rickety building that may as well hang Enter to be horribly murdered! above the door and getting the odd jump scare, you instead face a sliding puzzler. Think Sokoban but with buckets of cartoon gore.

The aim in each level is to slide horror icon Jason Voorhees into
unsuspecting campers, who are then summarily dispatched. The required
pathways become increasingly convoluted; hazards and move limits also act as barriers to your desire to get all stabby.

The puzzles are well designed, and the horror neatly straddles the line between icky and ridiculous. After all, its hard to take things seriously
when your mothers decapitated head, levitating in the corner, is offering sagely wisdom. Tiny Bubbles

Tiny Bubbles is a mostly meditative match game set in a world of gloopy bubbles. A premium app in its previous life on iOS, it comes across intact to Android in free form, merely dropping in the odd commercial break if you dont fancy splashing out on IAP.

The game itself is delightful, having you figure out how to match four
bubbles of the same color, which then pop, ideally in an explosive chain reaction. Complications come by way of color mixing demands, troublesome bubbles to remove, and the machinations of a bubble-blowing fish.

If that all sounds a bit too sedate, the game ramps things up some in the arcade mode. But however you take on this puzzler, its bursting with fun! Flipflop Solitaire

Flipflop Solitaire is at its core spider solitaire. The aim is to remove every card from the table. Cards can be built on the tableau in rank, and in-suit sequences can be moved between columns but Flipflop shakes things up by messing with the rules.

First, its primarily designed for smartphones, and you get just five columns of cards. This is trickier than the standard spider layout, and so the game allows you to stack cards in both directions enabling dizzying sequences
like 9876787654543. You only have to stop stacking when you run out of space.

These changes might seem paltry, but they have the effect of making almost every hand technically possible to win. Throw in endless undos and this transforms Flipflop from yet another throwaway card game into a deviously clever mobile puzzler. A Way to Slay

A Way to Slay turns epic and extremely bloody sword fights into a kind of turn-based puzzle. You start each bout surrounded by angry foes with a penchant for getting all stabby and head-choppy. Double-tap on any enemy and your hero zips his way over, before painting the screen red with their insides.

On making a move, your opponents also get a chance to adjust their positions and they are vital to keep track of. For if you venture too near to anyone, its your innards that end up decorating the sparse landscape.

The key to victory, then, rests in figuring out the combination of moves that will see you tap your way to victory, a lone survivor surrounded by a sea of corpses. Top stuff, assuming youve the stomach and brains for it. Aquavias

Aquavias is a sedate path-finding puzzle game. The aim is to deliver water
to cities, which will otherwise suffer from drought. Unfortunately, a buffoon has decided the means of moving said water is by way of elevated and fragmented aqueducts.

Each section most being a single line or quarter circle can be individually rotated, the idea being to gradually fashion a solid path for the water to follow.

Naturally, this is where you come in. Each tap rotates a piece 90 degrees clockwise. Depending on the level, youll either have a limited number of moves, or a rapidly draining reservoir.

Over time, the complexity of the required pathways increases notably when T-junctions enter the fray; but the game never becomes overbearing, and its pleasing visuals and soundtrack further add to the charm. Does Not Commute

This superb arcade puzzler finds you directing traffic about a small town. A vehicle enters the screen, and youre told where it needs to leave, steering
it by way of directional arrows. Easy.

Only, this town is afflicted with strange temporal oddness that means subsequent journeys overlap previous ones. Before long, youre making all
kinds of detours to avoid collisions with cars youd a minute ago driven to safety, which would otherwise wipe seconds off the timer as you wait for damaged vehicles to limp towards their exit.

Adding to its smarts, Does Not Commute includes a storyline with multiple characters, playing out across its varied environments. The only snag on mobile: you must complete the entire game in a single sitting. If that sounds like too much, a one-off IAP unlocks checkpoints. Orbit

Although you play games, few of them are about play itself, in the sense of experimenting with a set-up or situation and seeing what happens. Orbit , though, while presenting itself as a puzzle game, is more a minimalist
sandbox where you immerse yourself in the delights of creating tiny solar systems.

The game is played by slingshotting celestial bodies around black holes. They then proceed to leave colored trails in their wake, while gravity does its thing. Soon, you have planets clustering together, wheeling around one or
more black holes, creating minimalist modern art while they do so.

It's all rather gorgeous and mesmerizing. The only snag is ads periodically wrecking the mood, although they can be eradicated with a single IAP. RGB Express

In RGB Express , your aim is to build up a delivery company from scratch, all by dropping off little coloured boxes at buildings of the same colour. Sounds simple, doesn't it? Only this is a puzzler that takes place on tiny islands with streets laid out in a strict grid pattern, and decidedly oddball rules regarding road use.

Presumably to keep down on tarmac wear, roads are blocked the second a
vehicle drives over them. Once you're past the early levels, making all your deliveries often requires fashioning convoluted snake-like paths across the entire map, not least when bridge switches come into play. Despite its cute graphics, then, RGB Express is in reality a devious and tricky puzzle game, which will have you swearing later levels simply aren't possible, before cracking one, feeling chuffed and then staring in disbelief at what follows. The best free arcade games for Android

Our favorite free Android arcade titles, fighting games and retro fare.
(Image credit: Martin Magni) Fancade

Fancade is 50 minigames in one but also potentially unlimited in scope. The base game has you face off against bite-size arcade tests that echo fare
youll find elsewhere on Google Play. There are dinky racers, micro-puzzlers, and tricky compressed platform games. Win enough stars and you unlock more worlds and games.

That alone would be enough for a recommendation. The games are without exception fun and simple, and they fit nicely into odd moments. But Fancade also invites you to make your own games, either through using pre-defined kits, or - for the most motivated players - by starting with a blank canvas.

This is a level of ambition rarely seen on mobile, not least in a free
Android game. Should you fancy rewarding the creator, consider the low-cost monthly IAP that will help keep the servers running while you work on your next miniature Fancade epic. (Image credit: Thomas K Young) Super Fowlst 2

Super Fowlst 2 finds a chicken on a mission to defeat evil, but said fowls main weapon is merely a rotund behind - and its no marvel in the air either.

Tap left or right and the bird hurls itself in that general direction, gracelessly arcing through the air. Smack into a demon to clobber it - but
you must avoid chicken-skewering projectiles spewed your way. Beyond that,
you grab gold to later buy upgrades, and beat up bosses that appear periodically - if you can figure out how.

All of which might sound familiar to fans of the original (and excellent) Super Fowlst , but this ones even better. There are treasures to hunt, mechs to drive, and a body slam move to squish anything beneath you. With its retro visuals and two-thumb controls, this game is a tiny arcade classic perfectly realized for your phone. (Image credit: Mindsense Games) Tiny Tomb: Dungeon Explorer

Tiny Tomb: Dungeon Explorer is a free Android game that reimagines dungeon crawling for mobile. But although youre not surrounded by swarms of enemies you have to cut through with your weapon, theres still tension as you use a single digit to explore varied dungeons, aiming to find food for a gigantic demon.

The isometric visuals echo Crossy Road, and have plenty of vibrance and character as you dart about dank locations. Coins are grabbed, skeletons are punched, and you quickly learn to jump on and off bear traps to avoid losing one of your three lives.

Naturally, theres freemium gunk alongside more traditional green stuff on the dungeon walls, but the apps quite generous regarding progression and checkpoints. And although ads pop up now and again, the fun factor of Tiny Tomb is more than enough to encourage further exploration of its blocky depths. (Image credit: TechRadar) Vertical Adventure

Vertical Adventure is a minimalist tap-based arcade effort that depending
on your approach is either a casual game for noodling around, or the kind of speedrun test that will leave you sobbing and rocking in a corner.

The game casts you as a tiny dot that for some reason needs to climb 60
levels packed full of obstacles. Between you and the finish line are a bunch of collectables. With careful aiming and a basic grasp of gravity, reaching the end shouldnt be too tricky, if youve a reasonable sense of timing.

Leave things there and Vertical Adventure is worth your time. But if you
crave further challenge, a bar fills at the side of the screen as you play, indicating a target reference time. Only if you beat that by way of a crazed mix of prodding, slalom, and luck can you truly consider yourself having mastered the game. (Image credit: NEUTRONIZED) Yokai Dungeon

Free Android game Yokai Dungeon features a festival interrupted by the
titular yokai monsters, demons and spirits out to make a nuisance of themselves. Taking the form of what amounts to a furry ghostbuster, you set out to banish the evil critters primarily by hurling things at them.

All these critters are fortunately corporeal and easy to squash, so you scoot about grid-like arenas, and shove boxes at the monsters to flatten them against a wall. Its fast-paced stuff, with a fluid control system that keeps you zipping about.

Because the dungeons are randomly generated, no two games are the same. And with power-ups, periodic boss battles, and some arenas that span multiple screens, the hero of the hour wont get bored dishing out justice in this beautifully realized arcade treat. (Image credit: Brad Erkkila) Knight Brawl

Knight Brawl is a side-on brawler, where medieval fighters leap about the place, hitting each other with weapons designed to do serious damage. But rather than immerse you in blood and gore, Knight Brawl gallops towards the absurdist end of the fighting-game spectrum and then keeps on riding.

If youve ever played the creators previous efforts, such as Rowdy Wrestling , youll know what to expect. Cartoonish combatants bounce around, realistic physics having long ago left the building. You get the feel youre just about in control, as if driving a car thats always on the edge of skidding off the road.

Its glorious huge amounts of fun, and perfectly pitched for mobile.
Moreover, theres surprising depth, with several modes when you just fancy a scrap, and also missions to carry out. Project Loading

Project Loading depicts the adventures of a loading bar on a quest to reach 100%. If youve ever wondered why such bars take ages to fill, this game explains why. Rather than inching from left to right, the bar here must work its way around all kinds of hazards and traps.

There are speed-up mats, and those that slow you down. There are bouncers and deadly crosses, and barriers to open with keys. Given the twitchy nature of the tilt controls, getting to the end can be a tricky business.

The lives system (refilled by watching ads) can be a drain when you hit later levels, but otherwise this is an engaging creation, with stripped-back arty visuals, a clever concept, and plenty of challenge. Williams Pinball

Williams Pinball squeezes some of historys best pinball tables into your Android device. Each has been lovingly recreated, with superb physics, lighting, and visuals. Although this being a free app, your experience does end up bouncing around some freemium bumpers.

You start by choosing one table to unlock from the selection, and you then gain XP, table parts, and coins from daily challenges (single-ball; score attacks). Parts and coins can be used to gradually unlock other tables for challenges, and then free play.

This takes ages, and we doubt many players will ever get tables to level
four, where creator Zen Studios animatronic components come into play. Still, the vanilla pinballs great, the challenges are fun, and at worst youll have one amazing table to play, assuming you pick well at the start. (Hint: Attack from Mars or Medieval Madness!) Fly THIS!

Fly THIS has hints of mobile classic Flight Control, which some time ago vanished from Google Play. Like the older title, Fly THIS has you draw paths for planes to follow, so they land at airports. But instead of following Flight Controls endless stylings, ramping up the panic until an inevitable collision, Fly THIS feels more puzzle-oriented in its execution.

You deal with fewer planes, but the maps are smaller and peppered with hazards, such as weather and mountains you probably dont want to steer your aircraft into. Youre also charged with getting passengers from A to B and must do so within a strict time limit.

The entire thing becomes a grin-inducing and sometimes challenging and frustrating juggling act. Its different from the game that inspired it, but no less appealing. Sneak Ops

Sneak Ops is a retro-infused stealth game where every day brings a new mission. The goal is to get to the chopper by stealthily moving through an enemy compound without being spotted.

The game utilises intuitive top-down gameplay - initially, you can freely scamper about the tiles, but when deeper into your mission, its vital to carefully time runs past cameras and regularly use your ability to smack guards over the head.

Getting to the chopper is tough, but if you dont fancy starting from scratch on being captured, you can buy restart points with floppy disks that litter the compounds an odd quirk we suspect a real spy would give up their best attach case for.

Fun gameplay and a fresh daily challenge keep Sneak Ops feeling fresh. Spaceteam

Spaceteam is a superb multiplayer game that deftly showcases your ability
(or lack thereof) to work as part of a (space)team. With between two and
eight players connected in local multiplayer, youre informed that your spaceship is fleeing an exploding star, and you must perform actions to stave off your transport being blown up in a manner that would be a major downer
for everyone on board.

The snag is the controls were designed by a lunatic. Theyre spread between everyones screens, and demands simply show up as text-based prompts, so youll be searching for the Dangling Shunter switch and Spectrobolt slider, while pleading with everyone to please turn on the Eigenthrottle. Captain Kirk
never had it this tough. Jodeo

Jodeo features a cycloptic blob being put through the grinder by a sadist. A claw-like contraption lifts the jelly-like critter above an experiment and lets go. Your aim: to move it left and right, squelching over every edge of geometric shapes lazily rotating on the screen without falling off.

With standard 2D forms, Jodeo might have been entertaining, but it wouldnt have been as interesting. Here, youre tackling 3D objects moving in and out
of a 2D plane, along with other scientific conditions, such as someone unhelpfully hurling meteors your way, or turning off a shapes lines so you cant see them.

The experience is short, but its hard to gripe about a freebie not least given the protagonists seemingly permanent expression of sheer terror. Beat Street

Beat Street is a love letter to retro brawlers, echoing the likes of classic arcade title Double Dragon. Yet here you duff up all manner of evil gang members by way of using only a single thumb.

This is quite the achievement. Old-style scrolling beat em ups might not have had a modern-day gamepad littered with buttons and triggers, but they still had a joystick and two action buttons. Here, though, you drag to move, tap to punch, and use gestures to fire off special moves.

It works wonderfully. Beat Street gradually reveals new abilities and
features not least weapon pick-ups, one of which rather unsportingly has you smack opponents over the head with whats described as an 80s brick. Silly Sausage: Doggy Dessert

In Silly Sausage: Doggy Dessert , the worlds stretchiest canine finds himself trying to worm his way through a land of cake, chocolate, ice cream, and a worrying number of spikes, saw-blades, and massive bombs.

Rather than walk like a normal pooch, the furry hero of this game stretches
as you swipe, until his front paws can cling on to something. His bottom then snaps back into place. Its quite the trick but also a hazard if one end of his body ends up in danger when the other end is worryingly distant.

There are 50 scenes in all, along with tricky bonus rooms to try and beat.
And although some of the later bits of the game are perhaps a bit too
testing, this one as a whole is a very tasty, satisfying arcade treat. The best free match games for Android

Our favorite free Android games where you swap gems and match tiles, aiming for a high score. (Image credit: Nitrome) Sprint RPG

Sprint RPG in stills looks an awful lot like a retro take on a FPS - or at least a first-person hack and slash. In reality, its much closer in nature to a match puzzler.

The aim is to reach an exit, offing monsters and grabbing bling along the
way, all without getting horribly killed yourself. Helpfully, all this
happens against the clock, too.

However, on encountering a terrifying gigantic spider or a goofy skeleton zombie, you cant just mash at the screen to give it a kicking - each enemy requires you execute a precise sequence to defeat it.

Its interesting stuff, mashing up several genres in an effective way that feels particularly appropriate on the small screen, from the neatly realized retro visuals to the smartly conceived thumbable controls. (Image credit: Zut!) I Love Hue Too

I Love Hue Too is a color-matching game about harmony and geometry. It
begins as a series of colorful shapes with a gradient painted across them. Next, some tiles vanish and reappear in random locations. Your task is to recreate the original layout by dragging and swapping tiles.

That probably doesnt sound very exciting, but thats not what I Love Hue Toos going for. This isnt some kind of manic gem-swapper, with you playing against the clock. Instead, this is a meditative and almost zen-like free Android
game that you can relax to.

That said, if you fancy a challenge, each level does have a minimum moves target to aim for; and as you work through the hundreds of levels, patterns become increasingly complex, challenging you to spot the smallest differences between similar colors. (Image credit: N3TWORK Inc) Tetris

Tetris is one of the most famous games of all, and you probably know the drill. Blocks fall, and you position them to make complete lines, which disappear. Should your pile of blocks reach the top of the well, its game over.

Designed on PC, and later exploding into the mainstream on the original Game Boy, Tetris has had a tough time on slippy touchscreens. But this version controls well, even at relatively high speeds.

This free Android game is also devoid of cruft. Theres one IAP to remove the ads, but multiple skins are available immediately, rather than you grinding for in-game currency. Its possible that fans of EAs discontinued Tetris may gripe about the simple nature of this new version, but we prefer to think it echoes the elegance of the Game Boy favorite. (Image credit: Spawn Digital SAS) The Ninja in the Dark

The Ninja in the Dark is at its core not far removed from Fruit Ninja. Youre tasked with quickly slicing up a bunch of stuff (in this case, evil critters) on the screen, while avoiding getting all stabby with hero-obliterating
bombs. Only in this game, you do this in the dark.

Its something of a memory test, then. You get a few seconds to study the screen layout; then your finger becomes a virtual sword, zipping about and hopefully not scything through anything deadly.

The core gameplay is, perhaps inevitably, a little repetitive. But The Ninja in the Dark is fun in short sessions. Stick around for the long term and
youll end up battling increasingly ferocious monsters, along with unlocking new worlds and power-ups. Six Match

Six Match is a new take on match games. Instead of swapping gems, you switch coins by having the suitably named Mr Swap-With-Coins barge past them. The twist: a number on the cuboid heros head denotes how many moves he has left before he freezes to the spot six at most before he must make the next
match.

This twist makes for a very different match experience one thats far more strategic than swiping at the screen like a maniac. You cant afford to waste moves particularly when Six Match introduces new concepts to help and
hinder. These include bombs, coin-shifting cages that assist and frustrate in equal measure, deadly skulls, and poker-style card hands that boost your score.

The combination of factors proves clever and engaging, and offers scope for long-term play as you work out strategies to improve your score. Push & Pop

Push & Pop is a sliding tiles puzzler, with mechanics not a million miles

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