While Flappy Bird did a lot to influence mobile gaming, it led to plenty of wannabes. But some managed to do a great job at taking after its principles and making something better. Crossy Road is one of the games that takes inspiration from that viral sensation. It itself was a major influence on many mobile titles, combining simple, familiar Frogger-style gameplay with cute characters and stylish voxel graphics that countless games have since taken after. Its character-unlocking business model has also done extremely well for the developers at Hipster Whale, and for other indie developers who tried to do free-to-play but sometimes failed to do so in a fair way.
Many fun games have since risen from the ashes of Crossy Road’s impact. Here are some of the best Crossy Road-inspired games on Android.
Pac-Man 256
Namco partnered up with Hipster Whale to make an endless Pac-Man game in the vein of Crossy Road. It works brilliantly. An endlessly-generated Pac-Man maze is great fun, with the different ghost patterns being difficult to deal with. While the characters from Crossy Road aren’t really a thing in Pac-Man 256, the powerup system is interesting to play with, giving you a long-term progression. And the themes added in later updates are fun to play with, too. It’s a great one-handed game, and the controller support is fantastic to boot. It’s even fun on Android TV. No matter what, it was one of the best games of 2015. It does a better job than Slashy Souls does, which is an odd little crossover some people had a problem with.
Short, fast-paced levels keep you coming back for more.
Captures the classic arcade feel of the original Pac-Man.
Difficulty spikes between levels are sometimes drastic.
Limited unlockables and power-ups to keep gameplay fresh.
Boom Dots
This one-tap game is a ton of fun and features a unique scoring system to play with where perfect hits and combos help you get higher points. Plus, you can’t sit back and carefully line up your shots as the game quickly ticks down to your doom. It’s good pick-up-and-play fun with tons of different themes to unlock, but the game’s mission system is a key part of why you’ll keep coming back to this one again and again.
Highly addictive gameplay.
Skip ads after five seconds.
Minimalist graphics are unoriginal.
There’s no music.
The Quest Keeper
Mix Crossy Road with a dungeon crawler and this is what you get. Sure, there are voxel graphics and even a chicken suit to unlock, but variety is the spice of life here. You can unlock several different items and upgrades that affect how hazards impact you, and how you move throughout the game. The levels with special rewards are difficult fixed challenges that test you but reward you. It’s a ton of fun and iterates quite well on the Crossy Road formula.
Epic soundtrack and terrific overall presentation.
Purchase extras with in-game currency earned from playing.
Default camera angles are sometimes impractical.
Challenging to navigate the menu and adjust the settings.
One More Dash
SMG Studio makes fun and replayable games that can be easily played with one hand, but One More Dash features some of the best reasons to keep coming back. You have all sorts of customizations to unlock, and the game combines the fast reactions of the aforementioned Boom Dots with a system that’s somewhat forgiving for a fast-reaction game, yet still demands great performance. While the swinging gameplay of One More Line is also a great choice, One More Dash is the one we prefer.
Relaxing soundtrack keeps things from getting too frustrating.
Nice reward system encourages you to not give up.
Ads are annoying and it’s easy to accidentally tap them.
Notifications sometimes pop up in the middle of levels.
Smashy Road: Wanted
Admittedly, the visuals and interface on this game skew a little too close to the original Crossy Road. But the gameplay itself is a clever mix of disparate styles, blending in the isometric chases of Pako with Grand Theft Auto’s wanted system. It makes for a game that’s somehow its own unique thing despite having too-obvious influences. It’s clear how it became a chart-topping game.
Dozens of unlockable vehicles that are fun to experiment with.
Randomly generated maps manage to look unique.
Not very different than its follow-up, Smashy Road: Arena.
Touch controls are a little too sensitive.
Shooty Skies
Could the shoot ’em up be mixed with Crossy Road? Two Crossy Road developers formed a new team to see if they could pull it off. It’s colorful, blocky, and a lot of fun, but it ain’t easy. Not one bit. Dastardly enemy patterns and only having one life throws you into a deadly gauntlet, while still having all the fun characters you expect from a game like this.
Fun and creative boss battles.
Every character has their own unique level backdrops.
No music, minimal sound effects.
Some items must be repurchased after a set time.
Vault!
Nitrome doesn’t do voxels, but they do exceptional pixel art. And their character-unlocking take on endless high score games is a ton of fun. It also features a tricky gameplay mechanic that has you perfecting pole vaulting. The timing is difficult to pull off and requires a lot of practice, but it’s really rewarding when you do well at it. Until then, just enjoy the colorful art and fluid animation.
Clever character designs.
Upbeat soundtrack keeps players motivated.
You may respawn in inconvenient locations after dying.
Periodically has trouble syncing with Google Play.
Ball King
Ever since the ABA used the red, white, and blue ball, crazy-looking basketballs have become a part of basketball games. Ball King is no exception, as you can start sinking fish bowls like your name was Steph Curry. A slower, one-miss-and-you’re-done mode and a faster mode where you score as many points as possible before time runs out provide two disparate experiences in the same game.
Excellent physics-based gameplay.
Adorable graphics and sound effects.
Different shaped balls all handle the same.
Prone to occasional bugs.
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