5 Classic Cell Phone Games You Almost Forgot About

With smartphones able to play games that are roughly on par with console games, you may have forgotten how the original cell phones games looked and played. Here are 5 classic games that pioneered cell phone gaming.

Image via Flickr by arvidr

1. Complete Rows of Blocks in Tetris

Tetris was originally a computer game made in Russia. Players needed to create rows of blocks made of different shapes. Completing a row causes the entire row to disappear from the screen, which subsequently makes space for the blocks above it. If the blocks stack up to the top, the player loses. It’s not just a stacking game, you need to strategize and plan where to place the blocks so that you can score the maximum amount of points.

2. Chase Down Food in Snake

Another old game that made its appearance on cell phones is Snake. In this game, the player guides the snake to dots of food inside a box and consumes them, causing the length of the snake to increase.

As you consume more and more food, the length of the snake becomes a disadvantage because it becomes harder to maneuver around the box. In later versions, different foods appear in the box, including rats. The point value for this was much higher than the regular food. But you had to react quickly to these tempting rats, because they would disappear quickly from the screen.

3. Blast Aliens Before They Get You In Space Invaders

Space Invaders is another classic cell phone game that originated as a popular arcade game. Players needed to shoot down aliens as they approach them. Move your trigger across the bottom of the screen to aim at the targets and blast them before they reach the bottom of the screen. Some versions have additional features including bunkers protecting your position and special enemy aircrafts that become targets.

4. Avoid Getting Caught While Eating Pellets in Pac-Man

Pac-Man is an arcade game originally made in Japan that quickly gained popularity among video game fans. Even now, almost four decades later, the cell phone version is still wildly popular. The game essentially consists of guiding Pac-Man through a maze filled with pellets.

Eat all the pellets to get to the next stage, while avoiding ghosts, which roam the maze chasing after anyone in it. If the ghosts touch Pac-Man, one turn is lost. If all your turns are lost, the game ends. Pac-Man is available on virtually every device such as smartphones, notebooks and tablets. So if you can’t find an arcade cabinet, you can still enjoy this classic.

5. Blast Asteroids Before They Crash Into You in Asteroids V1.04

Asteroids was originally an Atari game. The main objective of the game is to shoot down asteroids to earn points. The game features a triangular-shaped spaceship placed in the center of the screen. You can rotate the spaceship 360 degrees to face any direction. As asteroids approach your spaceship, the objective is to fire on them to destroy them. While it’s similar to space invaders, the game play is considerably different in terms of the graphics and gameplay.

The next time you get bored; download one of these classic cell phone games. They’re so fun and addictive, you’ll wonder where the time has gone after getting sucked into them.