The advent of smartphones has brought about numerous types of phone applications. They entertain, they educate –some can even teach how to cook dinner. However, the most popular type of apps are most definitely the game apps. These consist of simple, addictive games that have helped fuel the app craze, and are most likely to be found on anyone’s phone. Even those that don’t own smartphones know what these games are as they’ve become part of our pop-culture — the Pong’s and Pacman’s of our generation.
1. Angry Birds
Angry birds is exactly what it sounds like. The objective is to sling-shot angry, wingless birds at the pigs that have stolen their eggs, knocking down their hiding places in the process.
The video game franchise, created by Rovio Entertainment Oy, released its first game in 2009 after 8 years of development and attempts at making it popular. Today, 50 million people play the game and spend a combined 200 million minutes on Angry Birds daily.
There are several versions of the game, that take the birds everywhere from Brazil to Space. The Star Wars Angry Birds (featuring a flying Yoda) is a fan favorite.
Check out this hilarious “Angry Birds Peace Treaty” sketch by Israeli sketch comedy show ‘Eretz Nehederet’:
2. Fruit Ninja
In fruit ninja, the player is the ninja behind the screen. The objective of the game is to slice fruits without hitting any of the bombs flying at you. Hit a bomb? That means you’ve lost the level you’re on.
Fruit Ninja was developed by Halfbrick Studios in 2010 and sold over 200,00 copies in it’s first month. According to the developers, it is a direct result of studying what games were available for smartphones and which did not yet exist.
As you progress through the game, you’re offered a wider variety of knife selections and cooler-looking backgrounds.
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Photo courtesy of http://appadvice.com
3. Cut the Rope
A game that manages to be simple yet strategic (and incredibly cute) Cut the Rope involves trying to feed the hungry little monster Om Nom. You do this by cutting a series of swinging ropes at just the right moment in order to get the candy to drop right into the little guy’s mouth, while collecting stars along the way.
Cut the Rope was introduced in 2010 by the Russian company ZeptoLab, and in nine days had been downloaded over one million times — that number now tops one hundred million. In 2011 a sequel, Cut the Rope: Experiments, was released that expanded the story of Om Nom.
Image courtesy of Gustavo da Cunha Pimenta / Flickr.com
4. Flight Control
In this game, the player controls planes and jets. As the planes land, the player has to become better coordinated, controlling several airplanes at a time, as the levels progress.
This game was release in 2009 and released by a company called Firemint that later became part of EA Games. It has been the number one downloaded game application in 20 countries –with almost 4 million copies sold worldwide.
5. Paper Toss
In Paper Toss, the player has to get a crumpled up piece of paper into trash cans in different locations. These locations become more and more complicated as the levels progress.
There are two versions of Paper Toss; the free and the paid version. The free app makes $125,000 a month in revenue for advertisements.
The game was created by Backflip Studios and has been downloaded over 24 million times since its release.
Bonus Games!
1. Words With Friends
Words with Friends is a word game, much like a Scrabble game made phone-friendly. It is a multi-player game that even connects to your personal Facebook profile.
The game was developed by Zynga in 2009 and has versions for Facebook, Kindle and all Mac iOS products. Zynga is also responsible for Texas Hold ‘Em Poker and ChefVille and has over 265 million active users their applications.
Image courtesy of http://community.sprint.com
Don’t have a Facebook profile? No problem. You can play against your computer or with a randomly selected person who is also in search of a partner.
2. Draw Something
Draw Something is another application that is multi-player and can be connected to your Facebook profile. The purpose of this game is to draw a photo of a word selected for you by the computer. Your friend’s job is to guess what you’ve drawn.
Photo courtesy of http://www.smosh.com
As of 2012, Draw with Friends was the most popular game to connect with friends. This app is also owned by Zynga, the same company responsible for the Farmville craze.
All of these phone applications are highly addictive, which is most likely why they have become so popular and widely known. They are not only highly profitable, but good old fashioned fun thought up by game developers to precisely infiltrate today’s game market. Many people play them every day and get quite competitive with themselves and their friends. They’re definitely going to be remembered in the future as classics.
Marcela De Vivo is a freelance writer and online marketing professional in the Los Angeles area. She has written on everything from marketing, health & beauty, and tech.
8 Comments
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Susan
April 3, 2013 at 4:35 am
You are right, these are classic apps. I think we’ll never get tired of playing Angry Birds once in a while.
Alex
April 3, 2013 at 6:35 am
I love classic kind of apps its fun playing with..
Tysone Driscoll
April 3, 2013 at 2:03 pm
Angry Birds is surely going to be classics! The game that hooked almost every mobile user))
Julia
April 4, 2013 at 1:29 pm
angry bird surely
James
April 6, 2013 at 7:21 am
I think “Rail Rush” should be added in this list. The other apps which you have mentioned here are definitely very addictive especially “Angry Birds” and “Cut the Rope”. These 2 apps have already paved their way to classic apps.
Umer
April 6, 2013 at 1:31 pm
Angry birds is my favorite among the list.
Luis
April 12, 2013 at 8:16 pm
What a hilarious sketch, thanks for sharing, Marcela! It’s true all these apps are already timeless classics in the short life of mobile apps!
rajneesh
May 30, 2013 at 2:40 pm
My favourite Angry Birds at the top. wow, surely a classic in everyone’s list. You can’t get bore playing this game. The best part of Angry Birds is that Whenever you are going to complete a season, an another version/season will be waiting for you. You can’t ever forget its sound as well, I remember those days when I had started to play this game, even after closing the game I used to feel its sound around me. Nice post marcela, almost all the game are among my favourites.