Why These 7 Retro Games are Still Awesome to Play in 2021

Written by B Johnson September 09, 2021
Angry Birds
For many many years, retro gaming apps like Angry Birds, Candy Crush Saga and TETRIS have been the celebrities in the mobile gaming world. Even until now, these retro games still remain in the hearts of today’s generations, especially millennials.

Today we are stuffed with tons of 3D games that are not only looking good in terms of graphics, but also more challenging and innovative in gameplay.

If you are a huge fan of racing games, you'll have Asphalt 9: Legends as your best option here. But if you want to engage in a guns blazing battlefield, Modern Combat series can be your go to. And if you're into online battle arena games, you would be busy leveling up your character right now in Arena of Valor.

However, despite all of the gorgeous graphics and visual effects offered by these modern looking games, we should never put aside many retro gaming apps that used to be insanely popular on mobile device a few years ago.

Betway has an interesting infographic which shows how retro games like Angry Birds, TETRIS, Candy Crush Saga or Flappy Bird are still really popular until today despite the massive arrivals of newer modern 3D games.

Below, I'm going to show you 7 retro games that are still really huge among Android and iOS gamers out there. Many of them may not offer stunning visuals just like you see today in modern 3D games, but they are still worth checking out and can be really addicting to play especially if you’re into simple games.

#1. ANGRY BIRDS

Okay. Who doesn't know Angry Birds? This one was a massive hit when the iPhone 3G hit the market. In fact, everybody knew this game.

Angry Birds is a simple catapult shooting game which lets you point and shoot your target to a bunch of bricks or planks using catapult in order to beat the enemies.

ANGRY BIRDS

ANGRY BIRDS

It may not offer mind blowing graphics, but its addicting gameplay is the one that really stands out here and can really glue people to their phone in many hours, even all day.

According to the infographic made by Betway, Angry Birds is still the most popular game among Instagram users. On this photo sharing platform, it scored 10 out of 10 in terms of popularity, measured by hashtags and trending topics on Instagram.

Of course, games like Asphalt 9 and PUBG currently are the top hits all over the world right now. But in other countries, Angry Birds is still really huge there with many gamers still flocking to the game until now.

#2. TETRIS

Tetris has been insanely popular ever since it came to Gameboy. On Android and iOS, this game is being developed by EA Mobile and it still offers the same block-puzzle-solving gameplay just like the original, with some added features and more attractive visuals.

TETRIS

The amazing thing about TETRIS is that, this game was really huge on mobile device as it became the best selling paid game with over 100 million downloads worldwide.

Unfortunately, in 2020, when the pandemic struck the world, EA decided to retire the mobile version of TETRIS, making it unavailable to play anymore on Android and iOS, which is a shame because people have been stuck all day at their home during this pandemic and they wanted to play something fun like TETRIS.

But they couldn’t, because it’s unavailable.

So thanks a lot EA Mobile!

Anyway, despite being an old retro game, TETRIS is still the game that most people still search today on Google, way more popular than Angry Birds - with more than 3,1 millions global monthly searches. Vast majority of them are coming from people in Belgium, who still love this game a lot.

#3. CANDY CRUSH SAGA

Candy Crush Saga is probably the game that offers nearly identical gameplay just like TETRIS. So basically it's a puzzle game where you have to swap one diamond to another one in order to form a combination of diamonds in the same color.

And when you manage to do that, all of the similar diamonds will be gone and replaced with the newer ones. And you'll get points depends on how many diamonds are being destroyed.

Candy Crush Saga

Candy Crush Saga

Currently, Candy Crush Saga is as populer as TETRIS with well over 1.400.000 global monthly searches on Google. However, it still falls short compared to Angry Birds when it comes to popularity on Instagram.

This game is still huge though in Mongolia with gamers there still playing it regularly until now.

#4. PLANTS VS ZOMBIES

The fans of zombie games would be thrilled to play a game called "Plants vs Zombies". Okay, it may not have the same type of gameplay that most regular zombie games have to offer, which mostly are shooting games. But this game still runs in the same spirit of its counterparts. And that is survival between human against hordes of flesh-eating zombies.

Plants vs Zombies

Plants vs Zombies

In "Plants vs Zombies", you're basically being tasked to prevent the hordes of walkers from entering your residence by setting up a bunch of traps using plants and fungi on the ground. But as the level goes up, the much harder it can get to beat the zombies - plus, they are much faster.

On Google or Instagram, this game may not be as popular as big names like Angry Birds or TETRIS. But Plants vs Zombies still blows these 2 games out of the water when it comes to User Rating - with 8,5/10 score, compared to Angry Birds and TETRIS that both scored 6,5 and 7 respectively.

#5. TEMPLE RUN

The other retro game that used to be insanely popular on Play Store and App Store was definitely Temple Run. So this game is basically pretty similar with third person platformer like Crash Bandicoot, where you'll have to avoid obstacles along the way by jumping, ducking or sliding.

TEMPLE RUN

TEMPLE RUN

But unlike Crash Bandicoot, in Temple Run, your player will be running automatically and you cannot stop him from running because there’s a huge gorilla chasing you from behind. But you can still control how he jumps, ducks and moves to avoid sharp traps and obstacles.

Until now, despite being a really old game, Temple Run still gains pretty decent monthly searches on Google, with over 140.000 searches globally. Interestingly, many gamers in Uganda are still in love with this game.

What about you? Do you still love being chased by a gorilla on your phone?

#6. INFINITY BLADE

From all of the retro games here in this article, Infinity Blade is definitely my top favorite retro game of all time. Well, what's not to like from this game? The graphics look sick, the gameplay is really really fun and the storyline is also great.

INFINITY BLADE

INFINITY BLADE

So if you've been living under the rock, Infinity Blade is a hack and slash role playing game where you play as a knight and you'll have to fight a series of enemies and giant monsters along your journey using your sword and shield.

Although the game offers jaw-breaking visuals as it uses Unreal Engine, but the swipe-based combat system is actually the one that really captures my attention to the game. The gameplay is really intuitive and immersive with the use of swiping gesture and combos - although it can be a bit repetitive over the time.

In Philippines, this game is still pretty huge there. In comparison, it may not be as popular as Angry Birds, let alone TETRIS, but it still managed to score 7,6 out of 10 in terms of user rating, beating Angry Birds and TETRIS with 6,5 and 7 in score respectively.

#7. FLAPPY BIRD

Who would have thought that a simple tap-to-fly game like Flappy Birds could become insanely popular on mobile device. The crazy thing is, compared to other retro games that look attractive, Flappy Bird is not really heavy in terms of graphics as the game itself, visually, looks very simple.

FLAPPY BIRD

Actually, the environments in Flappy Birds look nearly identical with Super Mario games, especially with the green pipes, the ground, the clouds, etc.

But the originality that its gameplay brings to the table here is definitely the one that made it a big hit on App Store in a blink of an eye. The insane part is, the developer of Flappy Birds managed to make $50.000 every day from this game on App Store.

In terms of gameplay, your job here is to keep the bird flying by tapping on the screen repeatedly at the right time to avoid obstacles. But the game is not as easy as it seems as it requires player to be patient when tapping on the screen in order to prevent the bird from falling to the ground or hitting the obstacles. Otherwise, you will have to repeat the level over and over again.

Speaking about the game, Flappy Birds is currently still pretty popular on Google, with more than 274.000 searches every month globally.

And despite its removal on App Store not long after its release, this game is still loved until today mostly by the people in Norway.

If you’re still interested to play this game, you can actually still play it on your Android device. But your phone has to run on Android Lollipop. It’s hidden on Android Lollipop screen and the game can be activated by tapping on the lollipop candy for a few seconds.

CONCLUSION

So there you go guys, 7 retro games that I think are still really awesome to play on your phone or tablet even until today. What do you guys think about the games aforementioned above? Do you still play any of them on your phone?
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