Action games are among the most popular on any platform. They get the blood pumping, the fingers moving, and it’s a great way to test your reflexes and wits. There are a variety of action games out there, including shooters, fighting games, adventure games, platformers, and more. However, the DNA of a good action game is if keeps you going. There are tons of games to choose from, so here are 15 of the best action games for Android!
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Ailment and Endurance
Price: Free / $2.49-$3.99 each
Ailment is a classic, retro-style, top-down shooter. It’s more or less your classic arcade action shooter. You have an option between a bunch of different weapons, multiplayer support, and plenty of violence. Obviously, this one isn’t great for younger kids. In any case, the controls are easy enough to learn and the retro graphics are charming. It also has some smaller niceties like secret Easter eggs and a narrative to follow. This one keeps the action going in all of its retro glory, even if you have to watch an ad to revive yourself every time. The sequel, Endurance (Google Play link), is also quite fantastic and features most of the same mechanics
Blackmoor 2
Price: Free / Up to $4.99
Blackmoor 2 is a hack-and-slash platformer with some fun elements. You get your standard platformer experience similar to old Castlevania games. However, the game also comes with co-op multiplayer, online PvP, and a build mode. We actually quite like the build mode because you can build your own levels and share them with other players. It’s a neat touch for a mobile game. In any case, you get the usual nice things like Google Play Games cloud saving and some other stuff. It has the occasional bug, but nothing serious.
Brawl Stars
Price: Free to play
Brawl Stars is a new action game from Supercell, developers of Clash of Clans and Clash Royale. This game pits players against one another in a beat ’em up style game. Most of the game modes feature three versus three-player team battles. However, you can do two versus two and one versus one combat modes as well. The game types range from taking out certain players to capturing their loot. It doesn’t matter, though, because every game mode can get intense. The online matchmaking can occasionally make the experience less fun, but that’s how online PvP usually goes. We also appreciate the simple mechanics and quick games.
Call of Duty: Mobile
Price: Free to play
Call of Duty: Mobile is the most popular FPS game on mobile at the time of this writing. It has all of the elements of a good online shooter. There are multiple PvP modes, various things to unlock, and the graphics and gameplay are both excellent. It has a 100-player battle royale mode similar to Fortnite and PUBG Mobile (two more excellent action games) along with the standard deathmatch style like Modern Combat and Critical Ops (another two excellent action games). However, Call of Duty: Mobile is the top dog right now in the genre and so it’s the one we’ll recommend first. Any of the four other games we mentioned would fit well on this list too.
Dead Cells is one of the newer action games on the list. You play as a failed experiment and platform your way around various levels to reach the end of the game. There are various obstacles, environments, and hack-and-slash mechanics to keep you tapping the screen. It’s also a roguevania so the whole map is connected and you can travel across all of it as you will. The game has customizable controls, hardware controller support, and a single price tag with no in-app purchases. You can also play it offline if you want to.
The action genre can span various other genres and so does Evoland 2. The game features hack-and-slash, trading card, 2D RPG, 3D fighter, and arcade mechanics across its story and mini-game lineup. Players traverse through the game’s story. As you progress, the graphics and mechanics change. You may be playing a retro Legend of Zelda style hack and slash one moment, and a match-three combat game the next. The first game in the series is very similar and much cheaper. You really can’t go wrong with way. Evoland 2 is $7.99 with no in-app purchases or ads and is frequently on sale for less than that.
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GRID Autosport
Price: $9.99
GRID Autosport is a newer racing game and one of the truly excellent releases of 2019. It boasts 100 unlockable cars along with 100 events to race through. Additionally, you get all of the original game’s DLC along with scalable difficulty so you can play at a level that offers challenge but isn’t too difficult. It’s a large and deep game, but never loses its arcade racing roots. This is one of the truly good ones, folks, even if the price tag is a little high. There is also a version where you can buy the DLC piece by piece instead of all at once. You can find that version on the Play Store here.
Half Brick Studios
Price: Free to play
Most people have heard of Halfbrick Studios. They have a number of huge games in their library and they’re all decent action games. Some of the games include Dan The Man (beat ’em up), Fruit Ninja (arcade), and Jetpack Joyride (endless runner). There are many others as well. The games all feature bright, colorful graphics, family-friendly content, and simple controls. Not all action games require guns, explosions, or things like that. Halfbrick Studios proves it with their lineup. The games are usually free to play and they’re all action-arcade mobile classics. Plus, Fruit Ninja 2 came out toward the end of 2020 so the developer has new stuff coming fairly consistently.
Icey is a 2D side scroller with hack-and-slash mechanics. The game could’ve been an action-platformer, but the developers decided instead to just let players fight. There is a balanced rock-paper-scissors combat style where you attack, dodge, and counter until all the enemies die. The game also includes a little narrative to keep players engaged until the end. There is a boss rush mode in case you want to come back and slam on the screen a little longer. The game is fairly short and that’s the only knock we have of it. It’s otherwise an excellent action game.
Into the Dead 2
Price: Free to play
Into the Dead 2 is one of the more unique runners on mobile. You run through a field with weapons and defend yourself against the zombie horde. The second game adds a lot from the first game. That includes multiple endings, more weapons, a dog companion, and even some tower defense elements. The game also features daily and special events, but that’s fairly normal for free to play titles. The endless runner style along with the shooter elements combines two excellent action genres into a single experience. This is another one of the really good ones.
MADFINGER Games
Price: Free to play
MADFINGER Games is a developer on Google Play with several excellent action games. Their most popular titles are the zombie shooters Dead Trigger, Dead Trigger 2, and UNKILLED. Each one has more features than the last along with outstanding graphics, decent shooter mechanics, tons of stuff to do, and, in the case of UNKILLED, online multiplayer. MADFINGER also makes the Shadowgun series of FPS games. Those are more traditional sci-fi style FPS shooters and arguably among the best in the genre. You really can’t go wrong with any of the games in MADFINGER’s library. They’re all excellent action games.
Maple Media games
Price: Free to play / Varies
Maple Media is a developer on Google Play with a variety of extreme sports games. That includes classics like Skateboard Paty 3, Snowboard Party, Mike V: Skateboard Party, and the newly released Tony Hawk’s Skate Jam. The mechanics are occasionally clunky. However, this is about as close to early 2000’s style extreme sports games as you can get. The pacing is good and the graphics are about as good as expected for a mobile game. The biggest problems with any of these games are the occasionally clunky controls, but if you can get passed that, these are the best extreme sports games on mobile.
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Rayark
Price: Free / Varies
Rayark is a developer on Google Play and one of the few that do really good rhythm games. Their list of titles is extensive, and includes Cytus I and II, VOEZ, Deemo, Mandora, Implosion, and Sdorica. All of these games start out fairly simple and get rather intense fairly quickly. Each game has a narrative along with a list of songs to play. Each game lets you buy additional song packs as in-app purchases. That gives them the appearance of freemium games. However, these DLC packs are permanent additions to the game, so they’re not. Several of their games are also free on Google Play Pass if you use it.
Sky Force Reloaded
Price: Free / Up to $1.99
Sky Force Reloaded is a top-down shooter with tons of action. Each level has you flying through a battlefield, destroying enemies, completing in-level objectives, and avoiding being destroyed. The game also has various aircraft to unlock, upgrades, and card buffs to make things easier. It rounds out the experience with beautiful, colorful graphics, voice-over work, and a decent soundtrack. It’s a bit older and there are plenty of other top-down shooters. However, few have the polish of Sky Force Reloaded.
Xenowerk
Price: Free to play
Xenowerk is a third-person shooter with some dungeon crawling elements. Players descend down 70 levels to the bottom of a science lab to progress through the game’s story. There are also special abilities to use, things to collect, and little niceties like achievements and leaderboards. It does have in-app purchases, but you can earn enough credits via advertising without buying anything if you want to go that route. The graphics are decent, it seems to run well on older and lower-end devices, and there are a ton of bad guys to shoot. It’s great for a list like this.
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