Android action games to get your adrenaline pumping


If you'd rather be handling weapons and slaying rivals than kickflipping your way to a high-score, these action games should keep you entertained.

Immortal Rogue

Immortal Rogue is a hack and slasher with a twist: you play an immortal vampire who wakes up every 100 years to feed, hunting down your pray across different timelines from prehistory to hi-tech sci-fi civilizations. Different timelines offer different enemies to defeat and unique items to discover. Your timeless protagonist can end up slaying enemies with a magic sword, dinosaur skull helmet, and robotic powerfist or any number of wacky combinations.


As a roguelike game, this game can be difficult, you'll die over and over again only to be revived in a new time, losing some resources but keeping others across all your lives, which makes you grow incrementally more powerful through play, even if you're on a losing streak.

The story's timeline is affected by who you choose to kill, and who you choose to turn over to your vampiric minions. These allies can give you persistent bonuses so it not only changes the story, but your character's abilities.

Download Immortal Rogue APK for Android

Grimvalor

Grimvalor isn't shy about its influences, being a 'Metroidvania' style side-scrolling action game with many mechanics borrowed from Fromsoftware's Souls series. Expect your fantasy hero to die a lot as you navigate the 2D platformer levels and slash, smash and dash through mobs of enemies and tricky bosses. Thanks to well-implemented touch controls, the action flows fast and rewards aggressive combos and timely dodging.

True to its inspirations, Grimvalor's environments contain many secrets that you can find to explore hidden areas, gaining new abilities and experiences to customize your hero is particularly satisfying, especially in the boss battles which provide the game's highlight, pushing you to use your abilities in novel ways. Leveling up your character allows you to build for more power, speed and so on, and different weapons and trinkets help keep the game fresh as you battle through its dark fantasy world.

Grimvalor offers the first chapter for free, with a one time $7 purchase for the whole game. It's well worth it, but the free version offers hours of play by itself, by which time you'll know whether you want to pay for the rest.

Download Grimvalor APK for Android

Start your engines! Racing games for speed freaks

Got that need for speed? Longing for the engine's roar? Then strap yourselves in, because here we go!

Asphalt 9: Legends

The latest in the popular series from Gameloft, Asphalt 9: Legends is one for fans of high-end graphics and realistic vehicles. As always, it is available for free download but in-app purchases are there to tempt you.


One of the main draws of Asphalt 9: Legends is the extensive roster of well-known cars (about 50) such as Ferrari, Porsche or Lamborghini. New circuits are present, as are new online features like the 7-player multiplayer. For the first time in the Asphalt series of games, you can also create your own online community of racers with the Club feature.

Gameloft has perfected racing with touch controls, and Asphalt 9 plays smoothly and responsively so that you can react in those split seconds crucial for winning in such a high-speed contest.


Riptide GP: Renegade

This racing game has been around for a few years but still receives regular updates and sees fierce competition on the leaderboards. You play a hyrojet racer, piloting a kind of hoverbike/hi-tech jetski through a futuristic landscape. The controls are smooth and responsive and the graphics are excellent, with impressive water physics that give a real sense of physicality to the racetracks as you zoom through future cityscapes, underground ruins and other locales.


The game has a career mode story campaign that has you follow the narrative of an illegal racer dodging the authorities, and of course the multiplayer element is important, in which you compete in 8 player matches with racers from around the world. 

As you progress you can collect new vehicles and upgrade them, but this isn't a pay-to-win game. Real-world currency is only used for the initial purchase the game, everything else is earned through play.

Android fighting games: the way of the warrior

Sometimes all you really want to do to release frustration with the real world is bash the hell out of someone in a video game. For those moments, we recommend these Android fighting games.

Street Fighter Fighter IV: Champion Edition

When it comes to fighting games, you can't go wrong with Street Fighter. Capcom's classic fighting series puts up a good fight on mobile, although you'll notice a graphical downgrade if you've played SFIV on console (come on Capcom, even Street Fighter 2 on the Sega Genesis had animated stage backgrounds).

But Street Fighter IV: Champion Edition doesn't skimp on gameplay. Unlike many fighting games on mobile, there's no login for daily rewards, no grinding for in-game currencies to level up your fighters punches, no gambling-style random unlocks of characters or features.


Instead, you can try it out for free, playing Ryu against three classic characters, and one eminently in-app purchase of $5 unlocks all the other fighters. Then you can let rip with the full roster in a variety of game modes including online versus, with a full virtual gamepad (though you can add your own controller) to give Street Fighter veterans the deep gameplay they're used to.

For new players or those who find the touch controls awkward, there are various convenience features make special moves easier to pull off.


Shadow Fight 3

The classic beat 'em up, in which a pair of rock-hard warriors thrash each other within an inch of their lives, isn't one of the more popular types of mobile games but the Shadow Fight series has always stood out as one of the best examples of the genre on mobile devices.


Although previous titles in the series featured battles between almost featureless black figures, Shadow Fight 3 brings all the action into the light, with great graphics and a variety of fighting styles, armor and weapons for your fighter to brutalize opponents with. "Shadow" powers are still available as special moves, however.

You won't get far with button-mashing in this game either, beating Shadow Fight 3 requires proper form and timing to succeed, especially if you resist the in-app purchases.

Want to see the other challenges? Check out our list of the top fighting games for Android

Lock and load: the best Android FPS games

First-person shooters have been a popular genre in the video game world ever since the days of Doom, and yes you can play Doom on Android. For our selection here, we've picked our favorite action-packed space shooter, as well as the best sniping game for those who like more careful, tactical action.

Shadowgun Legends

Shadowgun Legends is the latest offering from Madfinger Games, the same team behind the previously mentioned zombie shooter Dead Trigger 2. Shadowgun Legends is a more futuristic affair with lush graphics that will remind gamers of classic AAA PC/console titles such as Destiny and Halo.


You play a futuristic mercenary, or "Shadowgun" that can be equipped which an impressive variety of weapons and armor for an edge in battle but also with an eye to cosmetics, as high-scoring hero will strut their stuff in front of other players and will be honored with public statues of their avatar in the game world.

The emphasis given to visuals fits in with the game's economic model, which offers in-app purchases for cosmetic items. But the actual gameplay is solid, and offers a lot for free: an extensive single-player campaign, as well as multiplayer, versus and co-op team challenges, still offers a lot of fun, intense FPS action without any need for spending.

Download Shadowgun Legends APK for Android

Hitman Sniper

There are plenty of fast-paced action shooters on the Play Store, but there's something to be said for the slow-paced satisfaction of picking the perfect shot and sniping your enemies from afar. For that experience, Hitman Sniper is king and a steal at less than a dollar.


The main challenge in the game is executing your targets in a discreet manner, leaving guards and bystanders none the wiser. The game contains over 150 missions, various sniper rifles to unlock, and leaderboards to check your rankings.

Download Hitman Sniper APK for Android

Expand and conquer with the best Android strategy games


Want to plot the rise of an empire? Conquer new lands while developing technologies that catapult you through the ages? These Android strategy game suggestions have got you covered.

The Battle of Polytopia

The Battle of Polytopia is a wonderful mix of strategy and adventure that sees you exploring (and conquering new lands) and battling any AI tribes you come across on the way. It's also one of the better-looking options with cute, blocky graphics.


The tribe you choose for each game will dictate the type of adventurer you start with, but you can research new abilities along the way, so it really just dictates what you'll be doing at the start. Leveling up is easy enough to achieve to not be frustrating but the gameplay is tricky (and varied) enough to keep you coming back for more. This is also helped by the automatically generated maps and different tribes you can join. 

It's very simple in comparison to many strategy games, meaning there aren't too many in-game options and items, not that it doesn't present a challenge. It's a pleasingly small download and there's really no need to pay for any in-game purchases in order to progress or fight off the newest challenge.


Uciana

Uciana is an indie space strategy game that came out of nowhere to impress us this year. The game delivers a fantastic amount of depth for just $0.99. There’s no IAP either. What you get is effectively a mobile game version of sci-fi Civilization descendants, such as Master of Orion 2.


There are several distinct spacefaring civilizations to play as, from humans to interstellar crabs. Through the graphics are basic, each comes with distinct bonuses and ship design to give them a different flavor.

The goal is galactic conquest, which is accomplished via exploration, expansion, economic growth, technological research, and of course, diplomacy and war once you start bumping into your rivals. Nonetheless, once you've spent time getting the hang of it, Uciana stands out as one of the best strategy games out there on mobile that isn't tarnished by pay-to-win monetization or predatory IAP.

Download Uciana APK for Android

All against all: welcome to battle royale

Despite the name, the now uber-popular battle royale format of shooting game doesn't just offer free-for-all battles, but various other game modes such as squad-based games are also possible. Nonetheless, the classic battle royale is still king: start with nothing, explore and scavenge on an island for the weapons and items you need to overcome your enemies and be the last left standing as the game area closes in on you.

Battle royale is a hot trend right now, with two big names currently in competition for world domination:

PUBG Mobile

PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds (popularly known as PUBG), is one of the most played video games on PC and Xbox, and enjoys great success as a free-to-play game on mobile, with over 20 million players active daily.


PUBG Mobile is fantastically faithful to the addictive gameplay that made the PC version so explosively popular in the first place. 100 players parachute onto an island, scavenge weapons and equipment and engage in a winner-takes-all fight for survival as encroaching death zones push them ever closer to the enemy.

We'll admit that several AndroidPIT editors gave their lives over and over again on launch day as we struggled to adjust to the touchscreen controls, but we quickly got the hang of it, and before long, we were winning that chicken dinner.
  • Compatibility: Android 4.3 and up
  • Price: Free 

Fortnite Battle Royale

Global gaming sensation Fortnite has arrived on Android, but you won't find it in the Play Store. Nonetheless, we couldn't not feature it on this list. Want to get in on the action? Here's how to download it for free and try it for yourself.


For an in-depth look at how Fortnite plays on Android, you can check out our full review. Fortnite's take on the battle royale format is quirkier, more cartoonish and generally more whimsical than PUBG's grim and gritty 'realistic' style. The environments and player avatars have eye-catching colors, bizarre outfits and a more absurd feel. Whether you prefer Fortnite's visuals and zany sensibilities to PUBG is a matter of taste but it's also free to try, with in-app purchases reserved for outfits and cosmetic enhancements.

Download Fortnite Battle Royale APK for Android

Source: Androidpit