In 2016, the App Store has flooded with a ton of mobile games across all genres. 2016 brought us all a bevy of mobile titles that featured addictive gameplay and excellent mechanics.
1. Pokémon GO
Release date: 6th July 2016
Publisher: Niantic, Inc.
Genre: Adventure, Augmented reality, Location-based game
Awards: The Game Award for Best Mobile/Handheld Game, The Game Award for Best Family Game
Pokémon GO is the stand out mobile game of 2016. Pokémon GO exploded onto the mobile gaming scene on July 6, 2016, in Australia, New Zealand, and the United States. It didn’t take long for the game’s servers to crumble under the strain of millions of nostalgic millennial, eager for a taste of their childhood and it immediately became one of the best mobile games ever.
Niantic has developed Location-based Pokemon Go for Android and iOS devices. It’s an augmented reality game similar to Ingress where you walk around the real world, catch Pokemon, and hit up Pokestops to restock on items. In the game, players use GPS system to locate, capture, battle, and train virtual creatures, called Pokémon, who appear on the screen as if they are in the same real-world location as the player. The Pokémon Go game supports in-app purchases for additional in-game items.
It took only two months for Pokémon Go to hit $500 million in revenue. There is no shortage of apps and gadgets with a fitness angle – from Zombies, Run! to the humble Fitbit, but none of them got popularity like Pokemon Go, and this is probably because Pokemon Go didn’t feel like a fitness app.
2. Super Mario Run
Release date: 15 December 2016
Publisher: Nintendo Entertainment Planning & Development
Genre: Platform game, side scrolling, auto-running game
Super Mario Run was released first for iOS on December 15, 2016, and will be released for Android in 2017. It was the first mobile game from Nintendo. Super Mario Run is a momentous release in the history of Nintendo. The publisher has traditionally held tightly to its characters and properties and kept them exclusively on its gaming systems. It is an infinite runner-like experience that incorporates the best parts of the side-scrolling Super Mario games. The multiplayer races add so much more to Super Mario Run.
Super Mario Run focuses on three principles: i) the core game where the player will control Mario and other characters, ii) Tod Rally where players will compete ghosts of other players and iii) Mushroom Kingdom where players will be able to collect more coins. It has all the hallmarks of Nintendo’s quality craftsmanship and feels just as good when you’re entrenched in the throes of a difficult level. Every stage you complete feels like a triumph.
The game is the top-downloaded app in 80 countries and the top-grossing in 30 countries. Surprisingly, Super Mario Run was downloaded a record 40 million times in its first four days and has broken Apple’s record for the fastest-downloaded app in the first week that is has been available.
3. Crashlands
Release date: 21 January 2016
Publisher: Butterscotch Shenanigans
Genre: Action-adventure game, Role-playing video game
Award: Toucharcade & Gamezebo 2016 Game of the Year
Nomination: Best Upcoming Game in 12th IMGA
Released in 2016 and Crashlands is already among the best Android games ever made. The game showcases a trucker that crashes with an alien planet. Player’s duty is to find the reason behind it by collecting many items and need to save the world. It is a sci-fi adventure game mixed with funny plots. The game story is really attractive, and as the player will reach the higher level, he or she will experience the aesthetic of the game.
Basically, the game is about battling with bad guys, collecting stuff, building bases and crafting things.
4. Clash Royale
Release date: 4 January 2016
Publisher: Supercell
Genre: Strategy, Player versus player
Nomination: The Game Award for Best Mobile/Handheld Game
Developed by Supercell, Clash Royale is a freemium mobile strategy game. It is incredibly simple to play, yet hard to master; it’s addictive and enthralling, and it’s simply a ton of fun.
The new arena of Clash Royale, the Jungle Arena has an Indiana Jones treasure exploring vibe to it and feels quite different from earlier arena’s. When you get into overtime while playing in the Jungle Arena, you get a nice torrential downpour that makes the Arena come alive.
In Clash Royale, a player wins a battle by destroying more towers than the opponent, or by destroying the opponent’s King’s Tower, which grants an automatic three Crown victory. As the game starts, players will be given four cards from the deck of eight cards which can be used to attack or defend. Players must have to have enough elixir to use the card and players battle through 10 arenas.
5. Deus Ex Go
Release date: 18 August 2016
Publisher: Square Enix Holdings
Genre: Puzzle, Strategy
2016’s Deus Ex GO is the best in the series (that crown still belongs to Lara Croft), but it’s still trendy, confident, and tricky as hell. Square Enix’s Hitman Go proved that a stealth-focused action game could be turned into a turn-based puzzler back in 2014, and a year later Lara Croft Go showed you could retain the essence of Tomb Raider’s treasure hunting using the same kind of mechanics.
Last year, Deus Ex Go captured what makes Adam Jensen’s adventures so cool – stealthily infiltrating enemy lairs while hacking sentry turrets and sneaking up on bad guys.
The player uses a touchscreen to move Adam Jensen, a protagonist from the cyberpunk-themed series, like a puzzle piece through a board game while avoiding obstacles and manipulating the environment. The game follows the format of Hitman Go and Lara Croft Go. Deus Ex Go introduced an in-game story and puzzle creation mode.
Critics mentioned that the game successfully captured the cybernetic dystopia of the Deus Ex series and the brain-teasing puzzles of the Go mobile game series.
6. Color Switch
Publisher: Fortify Games
Genre: Action
Color Switch is one of the popular most popular games of 2016 where players play in an under intense circumstances. In Color Switch, the basic gameplay is sort of 2D red light/green light, where you navigate by avoiding the colors you are not. Colour is the main factor of the game as it acts as both the gatekeeper and the obstacle.
Player has to tap the ball across various obstacles with colored patterns. At the same time, they also have to make sure that the ball should match the color they go through. During the game, players can also collect the stars which will help to buy more balls.
The game has special modes like Endless Mode, an Arcade Mode, and Game Mode, a level mode. In Endless Modes, the player has to go through an endless amount of obstacles, and in Game Mode, there are finite levels that the player has to complete.
David Reichelt is a colorblind former Iraq War veteran created this game. Looking at Color Switch, it’s hard to believe that it’s been made by someone who is color blind since the color changing mechanic is such an integral part of the game. He added, “I can see about 10 percent of the colors that other people can see, it’s hard to explain, but the game looks beautiful to me. But for example, I thought I had picked blue for one of the colors, and I later realized that it’s actually purple.”
7. Deer Hunter 2016
Release date: 20th December 2016
Publisher: Glu
Genre: Action, hunting games
Deer Hunter is a series of hunting simulation video games. Initially available for Windows platform published by WizardWorks Software, it was also released on Mac, and later on the mobile phones. The first game in the series was developed for only USD 125,000, yet sold over a million copies and topped the PC game charts.
The game follows the plot in a thick forest in different seasons of the year. Here, player has to kill a lot of animals in the style of a wilderness hunter. But the player will be penalized if he or she kill any protected species.
As with its predecessors, the animals seem lifelike. Graphically Deer Hunter 2016 for Android, iPhone, and iPad remains an eye-candy.
8. Traffic Rider
Release date: 7th December 2016
Publisher: Soner Kara
Genre: Racing
Soner Kara developed Traffic Rider with the nickname of skgames. It is available for both Android and iOS running devices.
The game can be played in first person mode, and player has to complete the rides or mission in time to earn in-game cash. The graphics are pretty good, and the controls work well. It all adds up to an excellent experience, especially if you like motorcycles.
The creators of Traffic Racer came out with Traffic Rider, which puts the player in the driver’s view of a motorbike. The racing game boasts first-person perspective, real motor sounds, detailed riding environments and 26 motorbike options. The player scores points based on speed – the faster you drive, the more points you acquire.
The game has an amazing quality graphics, and the bike front look gives an amazing experience of racing. Besides the look, the audio also helps with delivering an excellent experience to the players. In short, Traffic Rider is an incredible game to play while it also shares and wonderful driving experiences.
9. Slither.io
Release date: 25th March 2016
Publisher: Steve Howse
Genre: Multiplayer, Action
Slither.io a simple game where the player is a worm competing for food against other worms while trying to not run into the other worms in the game. Yet, the multiplayer game is the top most searched game on Google in 2016 and also rank fourth on Google’s Top Trending Games list for 2016.
Players will be allowed to control an avatar looked like a snake. This avatar consumes multicolored pellets from opposite players, and that’s how the game grows in size. The objective of the game is to grow the longest snake in the server.
10. Mini Metro
Publisher: Dinosaur Polo Club
Genre: Puzzle, Brain games
Award: Satellite Award for Best Outstanding Mobile Game
Mini Metro was first released in 2014. Since then, it’s seen a release on mobile platforms, and the republish in 2016 on smartphone devices has given the game new life. It is a beautiful puzzle strategy game of Dinosaur Polo Club.
The game is quite interesting as the players will be allowed to construct a rail transit of a rapidly growing city. In the game, the stations are portrayed as different nodes and players can build the tracks by simple drawing lines. Players will meet new passengers’ demands by connecting stations together. The game also provides many levels according to the cities and appearance of stations and passengers.
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