Out all the crappy games on the app store, the occasional absolute gem emerges. Out of a quarter of a million games, the top five (in my opinion) are timeless classics that you should play, because you haven’t really lived. The criteria for these games is that they must be originally App Store available, and must not be loaded with microtransactions that are pay-to-win. It has to be replayable, and intuitive to learn.
The fifth best game of all time in my opinion is Jetpack Joyride. The basis of the game is that you are a guys escaping a scientific facility with a jetpack made of machine guns. You run towards the right side of the screen, increasing speed and dodging obstacles the whole way. You collect coins on the run, and find cool vehicles and power ups. This game is really addicting, and is really fun to collect all the outfits, and race your friends for a high score. One of the only downside is that there are micro-transactions, but they are purely cosmetic.
The next best game Geometry Dash. A quick synopsis is that you navigate a square that is moving only by tapping the screen to jump. If that sounds simple, it’s not. This game is famous for notoriously difficult levels, and really good music to go with it that can guide your tapping. The game is simple, yet very much based on skill. There are microtransations, but they are mostly to get more content, or cosmetics.
The third game on the list is Temple Run. While the genre of infinite runners in mobile games is really vast, this (in my opinion) is easily the best because it gets much harder as you go along in the game, and also it is the first one to go big. The game consists of a Indiana Jones-like character running to collect coins while being chased by monsters. Once again, it is intuitive but hard. Microtransactions are present, but nearly all are methods to unlock cosmetics or power ups quickly.
The second best mobile game of all time is the original Plants versus Zombies. In this game, you defend a house from a Zombie invasions by planting defensive plants, like sun-collecting sunflowers, and peashooters that literally shoot peas to defend against large waves of undead. There are a bunch of levels, where you fight in new environment and gain new plants, with a bunch of minigames. In this list, it easily has the most content, and for that reason it is ranked high. It also has zero microtransactions.
And finally, the best mobile game of all time is Angry Birds. When it came out, it was the first game of its kind: You have a destructible map full of nefarious pigs, and you must launch a team of birds with special abilities to take down the pigs, and get the eggs back. While it sounds quirky, the game itself is really fun, because you have to look at the map and figure where you have to hit it to take the whole thing down, as you have a limited amount of birds on every level to launch. It did so well, it has a crazy amount of spinoffs, TV shows, movies, and a few sequels. While most other Angry Birds content is pretty bad, the original had no microtransactions and was a one time few dollar purchase. Since this article has been written, the original has been taken down (Angry Birds), and replaced with Angry Birds Classic. While technically a different app, it offers everything the original had, with a few bug fixes and quality of life upgrades, so it still plays exactly the same.
Honorable Mentions
These games didn’t quite make the list for various reasons, but they are still good enough to earn some recognition.
Subway Surfers: This game is similar to Temple Run, but you are a vandal running from the police in a subway tunnel. It has a large following, but due to the game never really increasing in difficulty, the game gets old pretty quick, but the game somehow has a huge following.
Candy Crush: This a a puzzle game where you move candies to match and clear them off the screen. While the basic content of the game is pretty cool, once again, after a certain point levels repeat themselves, and it can get old. It also has a lot of microtransactions.
Clash of Clans/Clash Royale: These games are really good, and both made by the same developer, Supercell. Clash involves making a fort to make and manage an army to kill other people’s forts, while Royale involves managing. cards to spawn enemies to fight an opponent in an arena. The games themselves are good, but they have crazy amounts of monetization, and microtransactions so that they are completely pay-to-win. In my opinion, pay-to-win should not be in the top five.
