10 Of The Best Arcade Games On Android To Play In 2023

The mobile games market shows no sign of slowing down, giving players getting access to more and more impressive games. In fact, the available power in smartphones and tablets, combined with the larger budgets that developers are being given to produce mobile titles, means that many Android releases can rival those coming to consoles and PC.

One of the great advantages of platforms such as Android is the sheer variety of titles available. The Play Store is home to millions of different games, ranging from thoughtful strategy games to vast open-world titles that allow hundreds of players to interact with each other. Arguably the most popular genre of games on mobile is action games. These fast-paced experiences often focus mainly on gameplay, with players having to think quickly and use lightning-fast reflexes to beat opponents or advance through stages. Here are some of the best Android action games available right now.

"Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night" is a Metroidvania action-adventure game designed to be a spiritual successor to the "Castlevania" series. It even includes high-profile figures from the Konami series, such as long-time series producer Koji Igarashi, among its list of developers and designers. Therefore, anyone who is a fan of games such as "Castlevania: Symphony of the Night" will likely find that "Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night" is the perfect game for them.

Developed by ArtPlay and 505 Games, "Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night" first became available in 2019 for PC, PlayStation, Switch, and Xbox, before ports became available for mobile devices such as Android and iOS. It was financed through a successful crowdfunding campaign on Kickstarter and went on to become a highly-rated, popular game among both critics and fans. Like the games that preceded it, "Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night" combines elements from several genres, including platformers, RPGs, and action games as players travel through a large array of rooms, backtracking through previously explored areas as new items open up locations that were once locked.

The game largely revolves around a young woman and Shardbinder, who sets off on a quest to stop Gebel from summoning hordes of demons to destroy England and the church alchemists that imprisoned him. Along her journey, players can upgrade their skills and abilities as well as find additional gear to enhance their powers, providing real rewards for exploring the world.

"Dragon Ball Legends" is an action fighting game from Bandai Namco based on the popular animated series. Just becoming available in 2018, it has remained one of the most popular and highly rated fighting games on the Play Store. Utilizing real-time 3D combat, it's the perfect game for those who love "Dragon Ball" and want to experience the breathless fast-paced nature of the battles within the television series.

Using taps and swipe gestures, alongside a series of card-based mechanics that can be selected in-game, players can quickly use various abilities to try and avoid damage while also unleashing devastating attacks on enemies. Gameplay largely revolves around PvP battles online although there are also options for those who prefer to play offline against AI opponents, including Story Mode and Adventure Mode which give players the chance to unlock new characters and play through a variety of campaigns. The action is constantly being refreshed with time-limited events and unique content, bringing the total number of characters to more than 400, and ranked tournaments for the more competitive players.

A highly faithful adaptation of a beloved series, "Dragon Ball Legends" is everything you'd want from a game based on the anime. It has fantastic visuals, frantic gameplay that is lightning-fast, and almost every central character and location that fans will be familiar with. Gacha mechanics designed to extract extra money from players might put off some players but the game can be played entirely without making any additional purchases.

Created by Ivan Panasenko for PC and mobile devices, "Ailment" is a pixel-art action game that mixes traditional shooter mechanics with a dark sci-fi horror theme. Set on a far-flung spaceship far away from Earth, the protagonist wakes up after having fallen unconscious three days ago to find his crewmates and former friends are now seemingly mindless enemies determined to kill him. No stranger to attempting to scare the player with its creepy atmosphere and terrifying characters, "Ailment" tasks the hero with discovering what has happened to the ship and the crew.

The player will focus on exploring the spaceship, dispatching the various enemies that are out to kill you, and avoiding the different traps that have been laid to capture you. "Ailment" includes a vast number of weapons, fast-paced combat, and intense firefights that require quick thinking and reflexes to stay out of trouble. Finding new areas and defeating challenging bosses slowly unveil the horror of the situation as the truth is unveiled. "Ailment" also includes some RPG elements, giving players the chance to upgrade their character with additional abilities or enhance their skills.

A premium version of the game is available for a very small price, which includes extra content and gets rid of the requirement to have an internet connection. That means you can happily play "Ailment" wherever you go without having to worry about being online.

Developed by Long Hat House and published by Raw Fury, "Dandara" is a platformer and Metroidvania game that first hit store shelves in 2018. In the game, players take on control of the protagonist, who lends her name to the title of the game itself, as she journeys through different areas of a world known as Salt attempting to liberate the people from the Eldarian Army, a tyrannical force that has effectively enslaved Salt's inhabitants.

The main gameplay mechanic of "Dandara" is that the heroine is capable of defying gravity. This means she can effectively cling to walls, ceilings, and other surfaces regardless of their orientation. This makes the game rather unique among platformers and other Metroidvania games, as players have to take every single surface into account rather than just concentrating solely on the floor. Although unconventional and somewhat confusing at first, it only takes a short amount of time to become accustomed to it. Once that is the case, moving through the world becomes instinctive and fluid.

With environmental puzzles and an array of interesting enemies to overcome, being successful in "Dandara" requires players to think strategically and not just jump straight into the action. The game features many weapons to combat enemies and a rich in-game world that makes you want to explore further and take in what is a beautiful and immersive environment.

"Deemo" is among the older titles in this list of great action games to play in 2023. It was originally released on Android and iOS in 2013 and has since been ported to a variety of platforms, including the PS Vita and Nintendo Switch. A music-based game, the plot follows a young girl named Alice who is magically transported to a strange world where she discovers Deemo. This strange figure works with Alice to help her get home, playing various pianos to force a tree to grow and lead her back to the sky where she came from. What at first seems like a whimsical story soon turns into a deeply emotional and heartfelt plot that is unique among most action games.

The gameplay, though, is more action focused. As a rhythm-based music game, the bulk of the gameplay is centered on playing notes in time with the music. This is done in a way similar to "Guitar Hero" or "Rock Band," with the notes appearing at the top of the screen and moving towards a score line. The process of hitting the notes at the correct time essentially mimics the act of playing the piano, with higher scores causing the tree to grow higher and advance the story.

For a more updated version of the game with modern hardware, there is a remake also available on Android and other platforms in the form of "DEEMO -Reborn-," which features enhanced 3D graphics and extra content.

Dreamotion's "Ronin: The Last Samurai" has already made a name for itself as one of the best action games on the Play Store. Since it launched in 2021, the game has been downloaded millions of times and sits at an impressive user rating with almost 300,000 reviews from players. A hack-and-slash combat game, "Ronin: The Last Samurai" is set in feudal Japan and sees players having to engage in close-quarters battles with a series of enemies.

The action in "Ronin: The Last Samurai" tasks the protagonist samurai character with facing off against hordes of enemies. As enemies are defeated, new waves arrive with a greater number of more imposing enemies, slowly increasing the challenge. Rewards scale with the number of waves that are completed, providing rarer loot as you perform better. These can range from brand-new equipment to special resources that can be used to upgrade weapons and gear to make them more effective in combat.

The gameplay is focused on careful timing attacks and parries. With the game having to rely on touch controls as a mobile title, it means that the mechanics need to be simpler than they would with a controller, and here the developer has certainly succeeded. The game is intuitive and simple to learn, although mastering the precise moment to launch attacks and defend against incoming blows requires practice. With highly-stylized visuals that resemble traditional Japanese art, "Ronin: The Last Samurai" is an easy action game to recommend to Android owners.

Like its predecessor, "Hotline Miami 2: Wrong Number" is a single-player top-down shooter. Released by Dennaton Games in 2015, the title has since been ported to every available platform, including Android, consoles, and PC. It's plot is something you'd expect to find in a Quentin Tarantino film rather than a video game, with the story jumping between several different points in time in a seemingly random order. Throughout the campaign, players take control of different playable characters, exploring events and backstories from various points of view. This gives a new perspective on the events that happened during the original "Hotline Miami" as well as providing context to what happened before and after the first game.

Anyone who has played "Hotline Miami" will be familiar with the gameplay of the second game. The ultimate goal is generally to kill every enemy at a location, with secondary objectives such as acquiring specific items also coming into play. Certain levels also include bosses that have their own special skills, with players having to locate appropriate weapons and gear to take down these threats. The fact that "Hotline Miami 2: Wrong Number" features such a diverse set of playable characters opens up new gameplay opportunities as there are now simply more abilities to use. Combined with the additional content available in terms of more stages and larger areas, the sequel certainly feels like it contains more depth and has a greater variety in terms of what the player can do.

After years of stubbornly refusing to allow its content to appear on other platforms, Nintendo changed its stance in 2015 and subsequently began to exploit its IP on mobile devices. This included launching "Super Mario Run" in 2016 and the "Mario Kart Tour" in 2018. Fans were understandably excited at the prospect of being able to play one of Nintendo's most popular multiplayer franchises on the go without needing to have a Switch or other console with them.

Obviously, "Mario Kart Tour" is not a one-for-one port of any particular "Mario Kart" game. The fact that most gamers play mobile titles using touch controls rather than a traditional controller means that the gameplay requires some tweaking to work effectively on a touch screen. Unlike traditional entries in the series, "Mario Kart Tour" doesn't give players full control of the vehicles, automatically accelerating, braking, and jumping. Meanwhile, certain actions can be controlled by tapping or swiping on the screen, putting players in charge of things such as drifting, turning, and using items.

The mobile adaptation received a lot of plaudits for the way it simplified the controls and played intuitively on a touch screen that may not seem like the best way to experience "Mario Kart." The familiar visuals and soundtrack were also praised, although there was some criticism about the Gacha elements that it included, which have since been removed.

A sequel to the highly-popular zombie shooter game "Into the Dead," the second game from developer PikPok once again puts players in a post-apocalyptic world infested with zombies. In this endless runner game, the gameplay sees the protagonist automatically run and avoid obstacles, while players control aiming and shooting enemies. There are dozens of different guns, all of which have specific strengths and weaknesses that can be used to target the wide array of different zombies that show up during each stage.

Unlike many other action games, "Into the Dead 2" has a heavy emphasis on a narrative experience. The gameplay is centered around the efforts of the protagonist to reunite with their family and survive constant attacks by zombie hordes. According to decisions made throughout the narrative, there are multiple different endings and the overall story features more than 60 different levels spread across various chapters. Outside of the standard campaign mode, there are also several extra game modes that feature leaderboards such as a wave-based survival mode and daily challenges to test the abilities of players.

A free-to-play game, it offers great value with its large amount of content, impressive presentation in terms of visuals and sound effects, and fast-paced gameplay. For those who enjoy Easter eggs and references to other franchises, "Into the Dead 2" also features content designed to complement the likes of "Night of the Living Dead" and "Ghostbusters," adding additional stories and chapters to these already-established series.

The "Doom" franchise is arguably one of the most well-known in the gaming industry. Having helped to establish the first-person shooter genre, the series has played an important part in the history of action games and is still highly regarded. In fact, recent releases in the series have proven that "Doom" as an IP is still an incredibly strong leader in the market. Therefore, it's no surprise that various ports and games based on the series have made their way to mobile devices in the last few years

One of the most recent is "Mighty Doom." First launched in early 2023, the top-down shooter sees players assume the role of the traditional series protagonist, known as the Slayer, as he battles against the demonic forces of hell through levels that are littered with environmental hazards. However, the game differs significantly from other entries in the series as it is not as dark or mature. Not only does it feature more colorful visuals than you would normally associate with "Doom" but the entire story is also centered on the fact that the demons have stolen the Slayer's pet rabbit.

The gameplay of "Mighty Doom" closely resembles other noted action games such as "Archero." The main character automatically shoots at enemies, with players only put in charge of determining where they move using an on-screen joystick and activating special attacks and abilities. This works surprisingly well with touch controls and keeps the gameplay working at a quick speed.