Some of our favourite mobile games are those that can be played for a moment or for hours and hours. Obtaining a high score or outperforming a friend to obtain a higher score? Those are a few of the most fulfilling encounters. And some of the best entertainment is offered by these games. Games that contain auto-running but aren’t necessarily high-score focused runners aren’t listed here, and games that trend more toward the Flappy Bird or Crossy Road style of gameplay are omitted and considered for inclusion on other fantastic lists.
1. Temple Run 2
The pioneer of one million endless endless runners. While the sequel still holds up admirably compared to the original, it also included some new techniques and a fascinating cast of characters that included some intriguing celebrities. Isn’t Usain Bolt the ideal type of personality for a runner? The fundamentals of this game—changing lanes, gathering coins for upgrades, gems for revives, and more—set the standard for countless more games to follow.
2. Canabalt
Canabalt is the obvious starting point if you wanted to trace the origins of the endless runner subgenre in mobile gaming. This was the first significant endless runner, converted from Flash to mobile, and including music by Danny Baranowsky (who later composed the scores for Super Meat Boy, Crypt of the Necrodancer, and other games). One of the most recognisable moments in the history of mobile gaming is still the initial leap out of the glass window. Since then, the game has received updates with new modes to add some new twists to the gameplay, including a mode that emphasises the aforementioned window-jumping.
3. ALONE
Before creating the amazing Hopiko, Laser Dog Games created this stunning high-speed space flying runner. You have to avoid the dangerous surroundings and the debris that is hurtling at you at an absurd rate of speed. Thanks to your protection, flying items that aren’t attached to anything won’t hurt you much, but colliding with the top or bottom of the planet will. You have a lot to complete in one go thanks to the five different modes’ varied obstacles.
4. Alto’s Adventure
Alto’s Adventure made this style of endless runner in which you perform backflips as you go great, even if Ski Safari arguably invented it. One strategy involved giving the game a fashionable artistic flair that makes it appear clean and fashionable in a post-Monument Valley mobile gaming environment. The other is that the wingsuit you discover completely alters the situation and gives you a brand-new flying realm to explore while you explore this lovely world. The game’s transition to free-to-play on Android was predicted but still fits well with the game’s cash collection mechanics.
5. Touchdown Hero
You must deftly avoid incoming tacklers as you attempt to reach each further endzone in Cherrypick Games’ hybrid of American football and endless runners.
The way the whole thing works is interesting since it has a football-like element where you have to avoid the out-of-bounds lines and avoid defenders.
The same developer’s zombie-themed game, Must Deliver, also features this enjoyable combination.
6. Spider-Man Unlimited
In this game, Gameloft gave the lane-based endless runner a wild makeover. It would have been simple to create an endless runner with a few passing allusions to Spider-Man, but Gameloft went all out to please Spider-Man fans with this title. There are numerous Spider-Man variations shown here, including Spider-Gwen, Miles Morales’ Spider-Man, and Spider-Ham. You can play as Spider-Ham in this game, the spider that turned into a super hero after getting bitten by a radioactive pig. Nothing will persuade you to play this endless runner if that doesn’t.
7. Jetpack Joyride
The Flash game where you had to click to get a helicopter to ascend in order to fly through caves may be well-remembered by many millennials. With Barry Steakfries from Age of Zombies as the main character, Halfbrick drew inspiration from that game for Jetpack Joyride. They added absurd new challenges, unique vehicles to ride in, and a tonne of weird modifications to unlock for the obscene amounts of cash you gather. Halfbrick simply expanded on the timeless gameplay’s fundamental elements to create a timeless game.
8. Subway Surfers
With this game, Kiloo’s invented the lane-based runner genre by streamlining Temple Run’s system of changing lanes by tilting down to simply swiping between three separate lanes. The game was distinctive enough that many other games have imitated it in order to be successful themselves, thanks to its vibrant graphics and intriguing premise. It merely have that certain something or stroke of good fortune that made it stand out among other mobile games.
9. Time Surfer
Tiny Wings by Andreas Illiger sadly never made it to Android, although several games that were inspired by it have. The best and most notable is Time Surfer by Kumobius. You move through the waves, tapping to come down on the slopes and releasing to soar upwards. The key twist, though, is that you can partially turn back time in order to escape your oncoming fate or correct your timing in order to perhaps rescue yourself in the long term. There are a tonne of characters and pets that you can unlock that will influence your gameplay.
10. Robot Unicorn Attack 2
The premise of Adult Swim’s version of the endless runner is particularly ridiculous; it parodies the Lisa Frank graphics that dominated file folders in the 1990s and uses the cheese of Erasure’s “Always” to set the mood. But if the game weren’t enjoyable to play, it wouldn’t be around as long. This unicorn-chasing endless runner stands out in part because of its three-attempts structure, which encourages you to strive for improvement rather than rewarding you for a single lucky run. However, the bizarre adaptations and alternative music tracks (such as the sublime power metal of Blind Guardian) also contribute to the enjoyment of this activity.
