Stickman Games: Simple Figures, Clear Rules

The one-button branch is the easiest way in. Stickjet Challenge gives you a jetpack and nothing else: hold to rise, release to drop and run, and the height you reach depends purely on how long you keep your finger down. StickMan Rush runs the figure automatically and leaves you only the moment of the jump, with a quick tap giving a hop and a long press a high one.

Stickman Climber adds a second button and stops there. One leap takes you across to the opposite wall, the other flips you away from a bomb, and the score is simply the height you reached before one of those choices went wrong. It is the shortest round on this page and the easiest to restart without thinking about it.

Three picks ask you to draw instead of press. Draw and Save Stickman shows a scene with a hazard somewhere in it and lets you draw a solid line to take the hit, with a limited amount of ink to spend. Stickman Prison Warriors has you cut blocks off a wall so they fall into a staircase, which is a physics problem rather than a reflex one. Both reward looking at the whole screen before touching it.

The aiming games stay deliberately bloodless and mathematical. Stickman Tower Defender is a bow and an arc: the longer you draw the bow the faster the arrow flies, and distant targets need you to aim high because the arrow drops the whole way. Mr Stickman counts your shots, so the level is a puzzle about finding an angle that clears two figures at once rather than a test of speed.

Two are built for a pair of friends at one desk. Stick Duel: Medieval Wars fires arrows and catapult stones through a physics engine, where the first shot is for range and the second one corrects it. Stickman Duel Battle drops tools onto moving platforms and hands the advantage to whoever gets there first, though falling off the platform ends your round just as quickly. The guide on sharing one keyboard covers the seating, and the two player category holds more of the same.

The calmest of the ten is Stickman Golf Super, which is angle, power and nothing else. Every hole is one reading taken twice, and a round that ends on the first swing is the ideal. If that pace suits you, the skill category and the platformer category hold the neighbouring shelves, and the controls glossary explains the key names these games use.

Most of these run on a phone as happily as on a computer, because a single hold or a single drawn line translates straight to a finger. The exception is Stickman Duel Battle, which is keyboard based and expects an external keyboard if you are on a phone.

How do these games play?

The controls fall into three shapes. Hold-and-release governs the jetpack, the bow and the golf swing, where the length of the hold is the input. Tap timing governs the runner and the climber, where the only question is when. Drawing governs the two puzzle games, where the shape of your stroke becomes a solid object in the world.

Hold-and-release games reward smaller inputs than people expect. Short taps on the jetpack thread a wavy line between obstacles far better than one long climb into the ceiling, and a half-drawn bow simply falls short of the target. Learning the middle of the range, rather than its ends, is most of the improvement available.

The drawing puzzles ask you to read the scene first. Cracks, shadows and arrow marks tell you where a hazard will come from, and ink is limited, so a small line in the right place beats a large one anywhere else. In the block-cutting game the piece that lands flat makes the steadiest step, and cutting a block directly under your own figure sends you back to the start of the level.

In the two player duels the physics does the arithmetic. Neither player gets an aiming line, so the opening shot is information: watch where it lands, adjust the distance, and keep moving in small steps while the other side is lining up. Standing still is the mistake that decides most rounds.

Which one should I pick?

Left column is the game, the two right columns say whether it runs on a phone and how many people can play.

• Stickjet Challenge - Free One Button Jetpack Game: Hold to rise, release to run; short taps thread gaps better than one long climb.
• StickMan Rush - Free Platform Jumping Game: The figure runs on its own; a quick tap hops, a long press jumps high.
• Stickman Climber - Free Wall Jump Climbing Game: Two buttons only: one leaps to the far wall, the other flips you past a bomb.
• Draw and Save Stickman - Free Drawing Puzzle: Every stroke becomes a solid shield, and the ink you get in a level is limited.
• Stickman Prison Warriors - Free Puzzle Game: Cut blocks so they fall into a staircase; no clock runs anywhere in the level.
• Stickman Tower Defender - Free Archery Game: Draw length sets arrow speed, and the arrow keeps dropping the whole way there.
• Mr Stickman - Free Stickman Shooting Game: Shots are counted per level, so the angle that clears two figures is the answer.
• Stick Duel : Medieval Wars - Free 2 Player Duel: Arrows and catapult stones follow physics; the first shot is for finding the range.
• Stickman Duel Battle - Free 2 Player Shooting Game: Tools drop at intervals and platforms move, so falling ends a round as fast as a hit.
• Stickman Golf Super - Free Golf Game Online: Set the angle, stop the power gauge, and allow for the roll instead of aiming at the cup.

Frequently asked questions

For more, browse the 🎯 Shooting, ⚡ Skill, 🧗 Platformer categories.