Hi everybody. Greggyz is here.
I love old school platformers, the ones that make you wanna pull your hair out. I come from ZX Spectrum time, so I developed a rare passion for masochism infliction through hard-core gameplay. For many months I have been collecting/testing Android games to find the ones that can be played using gamepad or keyboard like in good old times, I despise on-screen controls. I only play games on either my display or 4K TV.
Gear used in testing:
LG G5 mobile phone, (best in terms of price and performance, as far as connecting to 4k TVs is concerned, maintains correct aspect ratio @60Hz, unlike s8, s9, note8, LGv30+ huawei p20 and so on, nothing else worked on my 4k TV @60Hz)
8bitdo zero gamepad
8bitdo NES30 pro gamepad
1 Generic USB keyboard, 1 Bluetooth foldable keyboard
Here I am sharing my findings hoping they will make you as happy as I was to discover each single gem below.
My ratings in order of awesomeness: crap, ok, good, gold, sick!
g=gamepad support, k=keyboard, g/k=both
(Before you judge my ratings, please find a cardboard or plastic box 30x30cm dimensions will suffice, spew all the BS you might tell me and burn that crap, I have no idea why I rated them the way I did other than I am a human with 673534512311 biases, thanks)
Oceanhorn - g/k is glitchy, needs testing - gold
Sword of Xolan - g/k - sick!
Meltdown - g - ok
Magic rampage - g/k - crap
Meganoid 1,2 - g/k - sick!
Dungeon quest - g - gold
Heart star - k - gold
Air attack 2 - g/k - gold
INC The beginning - g/k movements only - ok
Super mage world - g/k - ok
Bubble bob - g/k - ok
Rayman adventures - g - ok (great gfx)
Super (phantom) cat 1,2 - g/k - gold
Demons must die - g/k only for moving - crap
Adventure story 2 - g/k - gold
Bloo kid 2 - g - gold
Heroes of loot - g/k - good
Reaper - g - ok
Space mashals 2 - g - good
Bombsquad - g/k for multiplayer? needs testing, gold
Pocket rogues - g - good
Bomber friends - g - ok
Astro quest - g/k - gold
Hot Guns - g - sick! unfortunately only few missions are available atm
Beandreams - g/k - good, smooth and pleasant music
Rockbot 1 - g/k - ok, chip music
Euric's Adventure - g/k - ok
Super androix - g - ok, shitty controls, jump with right shift wtf?
Indi adventure - g/k - good, smooth with great background sounds
Shootout - g - sick, superb gameplay
Red ball 4 - g - ok
Jungle adventures 2 - g/k - ok
Dan The Man - g - good
Xenowerk - g - gold
Groundskeeper2 - g/k moves only - ok
Stardash - g/k - crap but nostalgic
Maxim the robot - g/k - good
Fancy pants - g/k - good - annoying if you play on TV, you still have to touch the screen
Nubs Adventure - g/k - sick, great music!
Agent aliens - g/k - good
The east new world - g - good
Kraino - g/k - ok
Looper - k - good
Become a legend - g/k glitchy, - ok, no sound
Archlion saga - g - crap RPG, music can cause delirium!
Atomic super lander - g - good
Escape! - k - totally sick! One of my top picks!
Bounce - g/k - good, no music :( just sound
Cally's cave IV - g - gold!
Double jump ringo - g/k - good
Duke Dashington - k - gold, fast paced!
Exploration divers - g/k+ mouse Minecraft like
Exploration reloaded - g/k+mouse Minecraft like
Gamestart pixel battle - g - good
Ghoulboy - g/k - gold
Hyper switch - g/k - fast-paced but crap, hate games in which the hero runs himself
Pixel force 2 - k/gamepad had glitches - good
Platform pixels - g/k work in progress, great potential, sick!
Retro ghosts'n'devils - g/k - crap
Solomon's key - k - old port, ok
Crystal hunt - k, still have to press on the screen sometimes
Missile escape - k, ok
Stealth - g/k good
Stone age platformer g/k - ok
Super Dangerous Dungeons - k - gold
Tiny Dangerous Dungeons - k - gold
Fight club - k, ok
The slimeking's tower - g, you can map keys - good
Toon shooter 2 - k, sick indie shooter!
Unity chan's action shooter - g/k - very Japanese, gold!
Unny world (online) - great gfx, keyboard and gamepad are glitched but WASD + mouse playable, ok! DotA-like.
Manuganu 2 - g/k, great gfx, overall crap coz he runs himself.
Imprisoned light - g, ok. (credit to a random tube vid for discovery)
Space grunts - g/k - gold!
Masked - g/k(no roll skill, need mouse to click) good
Last day on earth survival - g (was glitchy)/k with mouse ok - good
Smash club - g, crap
Alpha guns 1,2 - g/k - good
Red ball evolved - k, platformer with puzzle elements, gold!
Soul knight - g/k sick! Absolutely superb!
Hoodie platformer - g/k good
Jake and skull pirate - k, ok.
Free droid - k, some port, didn't get a chance to play enough to rate.
XRick aka Rick dangerous - g/k old port, ok.
Charlie the duck FREE - k, good.
Mad dex 1,2 - k, gold!
Mushroom heroes - k, sick!
Catbird - k, sick!
Jelly killer - k, good.
Super jungle adventure - k, mario clone, ok
Shadow of death - k, gold!
Huey Revisited - g/k but roll skill is missing(not needed :) good
Nine worlds a Viking saga - k, gold!
Acrack Platform - k, ok
Diseviled - k, ok
Super retro bot - k, gold
Zombie raid survival - k, ok
Persist - k, ok
Overdrive - k, good
Pixel shon adventure - k, ok
Giana byte - k, ok
HopSwap - g/k, laggy crap
--- CAR GAMES (not a big fan) ---
Prime peaks - k, good sfx, ok.
Cars battle - k, good.
Stunt rush - k, great gfx and music, gold!
Crash of cars - k, micromachines-like, ok
Asphalt extreme - g, good
Asphalt 8 - g, gold
Hovercraft takedown - g/k, good
Beach buggy racing - g, good
Splash cars - g, good
Maximum car - k, ok
Woopdrift.io - g/k , ok
Micromachines - g, ok, makes me dizzy af
Smashy town - k, ok, still need to touch screen occasionally
This is it folks, hope it has been useful to you.
Greggyz