Accelebot turns your iPhone into a tilt-controlled platformer you can play one-handed
Just your thumb and gravity
- Tilt your iPhone to move and tap to jump
- Explore large levels packed with secrets and time trials
- Accelebot is out now on iPhone for $0.99
You don’t get a single button in Accelebot. No d-pad, no jump icon parked in the corner, nothing. You tilt your iPhone to move, tap anywhere on the screen to jump, and that’s the whole control scheme, playable one-handed in portrait. It’s a 2D platformer, and it’s out now on the App Store. It comes from solo developer Robert Perez.
The levels are large, with secrets tucked away for anyone who goes poking around. The level select screen keeps track of which ones you’ve found. Each level also logs your total time, so you can chase your own best or the developer’s, and there’s a quick menu for switching off the sound effects and music without leaving a level. Wearable cosmetics are in there too.
Tilt controls used to be all over the App Store, and then they mostly weren’t. Tilt to Live only got updated for modern phones this summer, and the platformers making noise on mobile lately have come from consoles, with Disney Epic Mickey: Rebrushed out last month and Replaced heading to Android in December.
Accelebot is the opposite bet, something built around what a phone can do that a controller can’t. The catch is that tilt has always been better at drifting than stopping. Dodging dots in Tilt to Live works because nothing asks you to land on a ledge the width of your thumb.
If the jumps here leave a bit of room for that, I’d happily play it one-handed on a crowded bus, which is more than I can say for a virtual d-pad.
Accelebot is out now on iPhone for $0.99. There’s no news of an Android version at the moment.
If you're looking for something similar but not quite, our list of the best platformers on iOS needs both thumbs, mostly.
