Dhruv Bhutani / Android Authority
Call me a boomer, but for me, mobile gaming peaked in the early 2010s. Phones were getting powerful enough to run console-like experiences, but the industry hadn’t yet drowned in gatcha tactics, ads after every level, or endless battle passes. Instead, developers focused on compelling single-player experiences, short but addictive gameplay loops, and just the right balance of challenge and accessibility. In those early years, some mobile games felt more like passion projects than monetization funnels. Beyond that, they offered many of today’s mobile games don’t – bite-sized entertainment. While many of those titles have disappeared from the Play Store or become incompatible with modern Android versions, a handful remain playable and enjoyable even today.
Mobile gaming peaked in the 2010s and I'm ready to die on this hill.
Here are eight forgotten Android classics I still find myself revisiting for the magic they brought to mobile gaming’s formative years, and, surprisingly, for still being just as much fun.
Dead Trigger
Dhruv Bhutani / Android Authority
While modern-day Call of Duty might be all about team tactics and group play, I yearn for the single-player, story-driven FPS experiences offered by shooters from the 2010s. And guess what, it was possible to get these on mobile too. While one of my all-time favorites, N.O.V.A 3 is no longer supported on modern Android devices, another favorite, Dead Trigger is. Where modern zombie shooters keep pushing you towards micro-transactions to get better games or upgrades, Dead Trigger was, more or less, a fairly pure experience. Sure, the first-person zombie shooter had things like daily challenges, weapon upgrade paths, and more, but the stunning graphics for its time and a reasonable storyline easily let you look past that.
Bite-sized missions and solid graphics make Dead Trigger just as fun today.
Back in the day, the game was specifically optimized for Tegra chipsets and made use of hardware-level optimizations to push higher quality graphics. That’s obviously not a deterrent on today’s screaming fast processors. I still dive in from time to time when I need a horror shooter. And while the game does look a bit dated, it’s really not a major issue for me considering how much fun it can still be making it one of my favorite free Android games. More so because of the focus on bite-sized missions like surviving a zombie hoard for 70 seconds.
Asphalt 8
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