Sporting the simplest of game mechanics and minimalist interfaces, hyper-casual games have been dominating the charts on multiple mobile gaming stores for some time now. While their simplistic approach to game design has connected with audiences worldwide, it is a fact that many hyper-casual games that are inflating the market today are replicas, following the trends set by others.
Coming up with innovative game mechanics and designs that manage to set new trends while staying true to what makes the hyper-casual such a lucrative gaming genre is at the heart of hyper-casual game designing. As mobile gaming stores fill up with multitudes of slightly tweaked versions of whatever is trending at the time, some games keep the genre fresh through innovation and clever design.
Crossy Road
Sadly the answer to the age-old question "Why did the chicken cross the road?" isn’t in this game. What is in this game however is the answer to the question of just how fun it is in helping the chicken cross the road.
Boasting classic dexterity and lane switching mechanics while combining them with fun arcade-style visuals, Crossy Road is a classic that checks all the boxes when it comes to a perfect hyper-casual game.
Blob Hero
One of the first ever mobile story-driven video games of the hyper-casual genre by Rollic, Blob Hero merges the simple game mechanic of guiding a blob character through endless incoming hordes with the skill trees and battle mechanics of the rogue-like genre expertly.
Blob Hero offers its players a unique and incredibly customizable gaming experience each time they start playing, offering an incredible amount of replay value. Players can choose to build up their blobs in manners ranging from squishy and speedy damage dealers to hulking brutes that rampage through their enemies.
Jelly Dye
Good Job Games has a knack for creating oddly satisfying games. While their smash hit Paper Fold included fun and tasteful 2D imagery, they added an extra layer and dimension into a similar vein of gameplay through the wiggling jellies and color-filled syringes of Jelly Dye.
The injection of colors into transparent jelly offers such a fulfilling and exciting experience that players can often find themselves foregoing the level objectives just to mess with different color combinations. These factors can make it worthy of ranking among the best mobile games.
Fill The Fridge
Instead of copying a trend in the hyper-casual gaming world, Fill The Fridge looked at TikTok and adapted one of its many trends to the world of mobile gaming.
Filling up a fridge might not seem like an exciting game mechanic but through this game, Rollic managed to both capitalize on a TikTok trend and create a satisfying ASMR experience for players.
Flappy Bird
The bird that sparked a thousand memes while shattering phone screens and thumbs alike started the hyper-casual gaming revolution. Flappy Bird became a huge meme overnight and became the first true hyper-casual game.
Unlike the idyllic gameplay of the games that would come after it, Flappy Bird combined a simple tapping mechanic with enraging difficulty to incredible success, forming a love-hate relationship with its players.
Rise Up / Helix Jump
The rising and falling mechanics brought along by Serkan Özyılmaz and Voodoo opened a new chapter in hyper-casual gaming. The tile smashing ball of Helix Jump and the plank pushing balloon of Rise Up have become synonymous with their brands of hyper-casual titles
What games like Rise Up and Helix Jump managed to accomplish was to introduce the sense and mechanics of gravity into the sideways movement and dexterity actions.
Aquapark.io
Aquapark.io by Voodoo gave rise to the trend of swerving mechanics in hyper-casual mobile games. An ingenious merging of the swerve mechanics with the aquapark is merged with the fun idea of leaping out of one slide to another which allowed players to find their own shortcuts through the levels.
The swerving game mechanics evolved into a staple of the hyper-casual gaming world spawning multiple replicas and setting new grounds for other games to cover.
Craft Island
Homa Games achieved something special with Craft Island, offering a blend of idle and arcade-like gameplay with resource gathering and management. Through dialing down on the adversity, Craft Island is a meditative experience that is fun to go back to on a daily basis.
Having clean and clear visuals mixed with a world that players can build and expand regularly results in a game that offers low stakes, engaging fun.
Amaze
Amaze by Crazy Labs revolutionized the hyper-casual puzzle gameplay through smooth sliding mechanics. The fast-paced gameplay of navigating each maze is accompanied by the fulfilling sensation of painting over the entire level.
The influence of the puzzle solving and sliding gameplay of Amaze can be seen in some other extraordinary hyper-casual titles like Tomb Of The Mask by Playgendary.
Temple Run
While Temple Run predates the boom of hyper-casual gaming by a long shot, the original endless runner has to be acknowledged in the discussion. Imangi Studios truly captured lightning in a bottle with this perfect time-killing mobile title.
Letting gamers experience a condensed Indiana Jones experience, the swiping and dexterity mechanics of this endless runner set the template that many hyper-casual games would follow to great success.