Games Like Jetpack Joyride to Play in Your Browser
Updated
Games like Jetpack Joyride are side-scrolling flyers: you hold a button to rise, let go to drop, and weave past hazards while you collect coins. Jetpack Joyride is a 2011 game by Halfbrick Studios. The browser games below are original titles by independent studios that borrow parts of that formula.
How Jetpack Joyride plays
In Jetpack Joyride the screen scrolls on its own and you fly a jetpack through it. Hold to climb, release to fall. Zappers (electric obstacles), lasers and missiles are what you dodge, coins are what you collect, and a hit usually ends the run.
Your only input is height, so everything comes down to how well you control the rise and the fall. That gives four things to look for in a similar game:
| What to look for | What it means in play | Try |
|---|---|---|
| Hold to rise, release to fall | Height is your only control | Jetspire |
| Hazards to slip past | Electric obstacles and enemies come at you | Jetpack Rider |
| Coins that pay for upgrades | Each run helps the next one | Jetpack Panda Bao |
| A new setting | The same idea with a different hero | Jingle Jetpack |
Jetpack runs, closest to Jetpack Joyride
These four are all named for the jetpack, and each one asks you to collect coins and dodge what comes at you.
- Jetpack Rider is a side-scrolling flyer set on a construction site. You destroy or avoid enemies and obstacles, and coins pay for skin upgrades or helpful items. Its power-ups include a shield that makes you invincible for 5 seconds and a rocket that destroys electric obstacles and enemies.
- Jetpack Panda Bao is side-scrolling too, with a boss waiting at the end of the sky. You kill enemies, avoid obstacles and spend coins on upgrades in a shop. It plays with a keyboard and mouse or with a touch screen.
- Jingle Jetpack has you help Santa deliver the gifts. Strap on a bullet-powered jetpack, dodge lasers, electric fields and missiles, and collect coins for power-ups and skins. You play it with the mouse or by touch.
- Jetpack Meteorfall is an endless escape from a meteor shower in a damaged spacecraft. You collect coins and avoid drones and rockets, and you can add coin magnets, shields and a team of drones that shoot threats for you. A click or a tap is all it needs.
One input, other vehicles
Jetpack Joyride lives or dies on how the rise and the fall feel. These four also boil the controls down to one input, in other vehicles.
- Jetspire is the plainest version. You click to thrust upward and release to fall, and you pass through gates that open and close. Each screen you clear is one point, and the gates move faster as you climb. It runs up the screen instead of sideways.
- Balloon Escape swaps the jetpack for a hot air balloon. Hold the left mouse button to move it, avoid obstacles, and collect coins and gems for new balloon skins. The higher you fly, the harder it gets. On a phone you touch and drag anywhere on the screen.
- Cosmic Sprint puts you in a UFO flying through an asteroid field. Click or press Space to keep it flying, avoid space mines and meteor showers, and collect cosmic energy to get new spacecraft.
- Ember Ascent is a one-tap climb on a dragon. Tap to boost, dodge crows, lightning bats and storm clouds, and face a guardian boss at the gate of each zone. Embers you collect pay for dragon skins and permanent upgrades.
Flying runners with other heroes
If the coin-and-obstacle loop is what you like, these swap the jetpack for a ninja or a helicopter.
- Ninja Boy Flying is an endless flying game. You collect gold for your score, avoid obstacles and defeat enemies with shuriken. You play it with touch or the mouse.
- Ninja flying boy is a side-scrolling action game. You help the ninjas cross a city and a forest, collect coins, and clear each level by collecting all the gems. You fly with the arrow keys.
- Chopper Scape is an infinity runner about avoiding obstacles and collecting coins, played with a click or a touch. Its tags list a helicopter.
For tap-to-flap games with pipes, see games like Flappy Bird, and for one-button runs on foot, see games like Geometry Dash.
How to fly better in side-scrolling flyers
- Use short presses. Small taps keep you near the middle of the screen, where you have room to move either way.
- Watch the space ahead of you, not your character. In a side-scroller the hazards come toward you, so the gap to aim for is the one you can see coming.
- Take coins only when they are on your path. A coin that pulls you into a hazard costs the whole run.
- Take the shield when a game offers one. Jetpack Rider's shield makes you invincible for 5 seconds, and Jetpack Meteorfall lists shield systems among its upgrades.
Games like Jetpack Joyride FAQ
Do these games have missions and vehicles like Jetpack Joyride?
The descriptions of the games above mention coins, upgrades, power-ups and skins, but not missions or vehicles. Cosmic Sprint comes closest, with several spacecraft to earn.
Can I play these on a phone?
The site works in the browser of a phone, a tablet and a computer. Jetpack Panda Bao, Jingle Jetpack, Balloon Escape, Cosmic Sprint, Ember Ascent and Ninja Boy Flying all list touch controls. Ninja flying boy lists only arrow keys.
Are these games free?
Yes. Play free, right in the browser, with no install and no registration. The coins you spend in these games are collected while you play, and there are no in-game purchases, paid access or subscriptions on the site.
Is Jetpack Joyride on Jumpcade?
No game in the catalog is named Jetpack Joyride. It is a commercial game by Halfbrick Studios, and the games here are original titles that fly in a similar way.
More one-input arcade games are in hypercasual games and arcade games.
