Top Android Games To Test Your Reflexes
Unpossible [Android, $1.99]
Even though games on this list are in no particular order, Unpossible is officially my favorite reflex-testing game ever since its launch on Android platform. You drive along a round magnetic tube, which means you can go round it without falling. It is stuffed with diverse sci-fi cutlery, and your aim is to tap left and right to dodge it. Simple premise and perfect execution make Unpossible a hit.
Tron-styled futuristic highway and traps, night city in the background and a huge lonely moon obscured by the clouds create a perfect atmosphere. There are three stages, each with a daily challenge, and the first one is open by default, while the second gets unlocked after you make it alive during 60 seconds in the first one, and so on. The simplicity level is a delight, while futile and ultra is incredibly tough to beat. Then, there is the amazing zen mode, where you can't hit anything - you just drive endlessly, enjoying the visual treat. You can even place your device in front of you and just have the zen mode run, creating a unique psychedelic environment.
The controls are simple and responsive, and you can choose from tilt and touch system. Unpossible is a gameplay and visual masterpiece, engrossing, rewarding and fun, and once you get a taste of it, you will be inevitably coming back for more.
Smash Hit [Android, free w/ in-app purchases]
Smash Hit is nothing short of a masterpiece of a mobile game - dazzling design, atmospheric environment, 50 chambers with 11 graphic styles, awesome sound score and fascinating gameplay.
You sort of float through the technogenic world, beautiful, sci-fi and futuristic, but lifeless. Your motion triggers traps, and you have to break them. This is where the unbelievably addicting trigger works its magic - you have to crash glass with metal balls. Smash Hit creates a delightful experience of a massive glass destruction, and glass traps and barriers are so diverse and beautiful, you will marvel at the design genius in each new chamber.
The sound and look of crashing glass can be surprisingly satisfying, while a diligent play is rewarded by multiplying amounts of balls you can shoot in a go. It is by far the best destruction physics-based game I've played, and one of the most addictive. Smash Hit starts off with a simple, slo-mo chamber, and each new level increases the motion speed and intensity of action, so in no time, you will be throwing balls like crazy. The game is free and ad-free, but more content is available via a one-time in-app purchase, and believe me, you will be compelled to buy - Smash Hit is gorgeous.
Kapsula [Android, $2.05, play online]
Kapsula is a new game with the design as exotic as a retrofuturistic Soviet style in depicting sci-fi imagery. Taking place in the Soviet space colonies, Kapsula has you drive along a five-lane highway through a dazzling neon city. You drive by default and all you can do is change your lane to the left or right. The highway is populated by other cars, or capsules, and if you drive along a capsule, it gets stuck onto your car. There are two way to get rid of the capsule - hit it against another capsule of the same color, or against the wall of the same color.
It is frenetically fast, unforgiving and fresh, and the best way is you can get the knack of it by playing in your browser before you make up your mind to buy the Android game. The soundtracks are awesome, and visuals are unusual, in the least. But most importantly, this game puts your quick thinking and fast tapping to the edge of their capabilities. A fun game, without a doubt, Kapsula deserves a rightful place among the top-notch reflex-testing racers.
Badland [Android, free]
BADLAND is one of the best mobile gaming experiences you can get for free on Android. Not only critics sing odes to it, but millions of players, so if you still haven’t gotten the doze of this highly addictive drug, now is the time.
A visually dazzling masterpiece, BADLAND combines arcade with endless runner side-scroller, wrapping it into a puzzle and spicing all this goodness with a charming story. You control a little fluffy creature with big, sad eyes and disproportionately small wings. Tap to fly, let go to get down. The creature is a curious mix of a bird with a bat, or a plush toy of unidentified species, and by hitting certain power-ups, your little hero gets multiplied, and the best parts of the game is when he travels in group.
The travel is a deadly maze, though, and your little friends have to make their way through a spectacular forest stuffed with deadly traps, spikes, razors, needles, jams and all sorts of disgusting stuff that eventually kills the entire colony of your fluffy friends. There are literally tons of levels and modes - single-player campaign mode with 90 levels, 23 levels in the local multiplayer for up to four people playing on the same device and a life-saving 'skip this checkpoint' feature that gets you through the most impossible gates once in a while. The sound score is atmospheric and engrossing, while each update brings new content.
Avoid Sensory Overload [Android, free]
Avoid - Sensory Overload is an overload to your sense, indeed. Acid colors and a cubic grid get imprinted in your inner vision, and you will be seeing them with your eyes closed for weeks. The game looks fantastic, featuring a great variety of colorful worlds and challenges your little rocket has to dodge.
You control a rocket ship on its endless way through the neon tunnel stuffed with traps, holes, and occasional power-ups. Each world is of a different color scheme and features different music score. The controls are simple and responsive, and thankfully, there is an easy level, so everyone can enjoy the game, not just the hardcore gamers, but youngsters and seniors alike. The pro level players, on the other hand, have plenty of room to complicate the gameplay. The game features several unique themes (Electronic, LaserDance and SynthRock), each with its own color scheme and music, challenges and pace and two mode, endless and story, with several difficulty levels. Overall, Avoid Sensory Overload comes packed with many hours of addictive and challenging gameplay, and the best part is there are areas accessible for players of all level skills to play and enjoy.
Dot Wave [Android, free]
Dot Wave is a spiritual successor to Wave Wave and takes you to a beautiful geometrical maze, where you control a shooting spike on its way through highly angular labyrinth. Tap to direct it upwards; let go to let it dive down. It just does not go in direct trajectories. The maze twists and turns, sometimes rotates, and there are several game modes and difficulty levels from hard to hardestest.
The visuals are dazzling; the music is amazing, and if you appreciate fine electronic soundtrack, Dot Wave is superb, featuring more than 20 tracks by Teknoaxe. A pleasant female voice will be your constant companion, impassively telling you if you suck, or rock. Mind you, 4 seconds is a good game!
Doppler [Android, $2.50]
After spending four days with Doppler, I am torn between love and hate, and nothing in the middle. I love the visuals, the new take on gameplay physics, the music and the pace, but I really hate how ridiculously difficult it is. Mind you, that anyone below awesome in playing fast reflex games will feel desperate and left out in Doppler.
The action takes place somewhere dark, and all you can see is a bright neon wave that runs across your screen dividing it in two halves. On its both sides, there are two neon dots you have to control with your fingers simultaneously. The dots have to be close enough to one another to create an electric charge. Move too far apart - the charge gets disrupted - game over. Move too close to the dividing wave - game over. The challenge is the darn wave that twists and wiggles worse than a snake. The result is a game that makes your teeth screech, and your jaws go numb with pressure. It taps into that part of your brain that is responsible for 'just one more try' addiction hormone production, so if reflex-testing games are your favorite, Doppler deserves a place on your device.
The game is best placed with your device on the table, because you need both hands to be fully focused on the two dots. It is definitely not the kind of time killer you can play casually while commuting, but requires utmost concentration.
Alone [Android, $2.47]
Alone is a new entry on Google Play that has generated tons of praise from players and reviewers alike thanks to simplistic, but beautiful visuals, sharp controls, and intensely fun and addictive gameplay. You are a tiny rocket trying to make its way through the maze of crumbling debris somewhere in the outer space. The falling rocks are all over you, and if you hit a big one - game over. If you hit a smaller one, you can take the damage and survive, and if you manage to make it through a couple of seconds without taking any more damage, your life bar gets replenished. Short, but intense replay rounds are some engrossing, you wouldn't realize this game is a major black hole where players lose sense of time.
The controls are sharp and very responsive, plus you can customize how you want them to register, although the default option seems to work best. Alone looks and plays great on both smartphones and tablets, so we highly recommend this ingenious, fast and smooth work of mobile art.
Return Zero [Android, $0.99, free demo]
I discovered this little gem a few days ago, and after having toyed with it for a while was amazed the title was released in 2011, and haven't received an update since then. By far, this is one of the neatest tilt control games I've played in 2014, and a high quality one, so why give it credit for its awesomeness?
Return Zero is a Tron-based arcade endless racer that puts you behind the wheel of a Tron fighter jet on a lightning fast dash through a digital highway. You have to collect blue gates, avoiding gates of other colors, and the best part here is you don't die. Ever. The game registers the percentage of gates collected, and that is how you know how good you are, or how bad you suck. That approach lets you enjoy the beautiful race through the Tron-styled tunnels and highways. There are five worlds of different colors, each with 4 levels, and different types of challenges. As I said, Return Zero does an excellent job of making tilt controls-based system a smooth and enjoyable experience, while the psychedelic neon visuals will imprint into the fabric of your eye crystals. The game introduces a new twist in each level, so there is plenty of addictive entertainment and a high replay value.
Hyper Trip [Android, free]
Hyper Trip is a newcomer to the genre - it just got rolled out a few days ago, but it is clear from the start the game is a winner. What does it take to make the right reflex-based game? Neon graphics, Tron theme, simple controls, awesome electronic soundtrack and an impossible challenge that will make players lose self-control and weep.
Hyper Trip has it all. It may not be something new, but it takes all the pre-requisites and implements them perfectly well. The result is an intensely good-looking, fast-moving, neck-breaking arcade, which tasks you with tapping your fingers faster than the impulse from your brain reaches them. You are a neon cube in a maze of neon cubes forming walls. The goal is to stay alive by avoiding the walls, which is an impossible challenge since everything here moves so fast you barely register the direction. If you are looking for a new, gorgeous time killer that will set your mind at peace and help you doze off in a psychedelic neon-lit experience, download Hyper Trip - it is free. Oh, and it supports controllers.
Super Hexagon [Android, $2.99]
Super Hexagon is the reflex testing classic, while many other games in the niche just follow in its footsteps. As many other crazy arcade games, Super Hexagon is difficult to the point of absurd, which drives thousands of hardcore players even more willing to have 'just one more try' to beat their own high score.
Super Hexagon puts you in a beautiful geometric world where you are in the middle of a colorful kaleidoscope that is about to collapse on you. Your aim is to stay away from the wall because once you hit a wall - game over. Did I say the walls were spinning? The pumping beat, neon visuals, insanely fast pace and addictive gameplay have earned Super Hexagon the rightful place on the Pantheon of the best Android games that put your reflexes on the edge of their potential.
Featuring an awesome soundtrack, Super Hexagon offers three levels, each with two difficulty levels - alternate and insanely hard.
Dumb Ways to Die [Android, free]
This game is the best demonstration of how simple things can be awesome. Dumb Ways To Die was created by Melbourne public metro transit association to raise public awareness about safety in the subway. Don’t stand too close to the edge of the platform, kids. The game is a hilarious mix of cartoon graphics, fast-paced one-tap arcade game and common sense safety rules manual. You have a bunch of colorful and adorable, but not too smart creatures, who chase fun and adventure without thinking about consequences.
Check out the trailer because it manages to convey the fun and educational atmosphere of the game, which tasks you with a series of short, but intensely fast mini-games, where you have to save the dumb but cute critters from nasty demise. Piranhas, bears, bees, snakes electrocution, fire, food poisoning, glue intoxication, and of course, subway trains are just the tip of the ice-berg here. The game is free, addictive, easy to pick up and fun to play for adults and children. I would recommend parents share the experience with their children, though, for some tasks require literacy skills, while most of them require verbal explanation of the safety rules. Otherwise, young children may make wrong conclusions and take the ideas as a manual for implementation (clothes dryer as a hiding place).
