Back in 2013, an indie game developer by the name of Orteil, released a browser game called Cookie Clicker. The premise of this game is simple: to click on a giant cookie. Yup, that’s it. Well, kind of. There’s a lot more to the game that meets the eye, but the general idea is that simple; you just need to click a giant cookie. Back when the game first came out, I was immediacy hooked. I played for days on end, just letting the game run in the background while I did other things, while occasionally checking on my status. And that’s what I believe makes the game so addicting. After you first start playing the game, all you can do is click to earn points. But after a while, you can purchase upgrades with the cookies. These upgrades range from helpful grandmas, to portals that send cookies from other dimensions. While in the beginning you’ll do a bit of clicking, after a while you won’t have to manually click as much. The upgrades you purchase will give you more CpS, or, ‘Cookies per Second’. After so many upgrades, you’ll eventually get to insanely high numbers. Don’t be surprised when after 10 hours, you’re making billions of cookies per second, which, surprisingly, isn’t a very high number.
Cookie Clicker hasn’t even been out for three years yet, and the game has received so much love that it’s already through its beta stage, and into the official stage. Just a few weeks ago, Orteil released V 2.0, which introduces tons of new content, like Golden Cookies, and even Cookie Dungeons. There’s also a new monster, which is pretty cool looking, but you have to be far into the game to find him.
But let’s say you’ve already got your fill of Cookie Clicker, and you want to venture out and find new games that are similar in nature. Well, we’ve got your covered. I’ve come up with a list of the top 5 games that are just like Cookie Clicker. While all of these games have the same game play as Cookie Clicker, visually they’re all different, which is really what makes this genre of gaming so unique.
So without further ado, here are the 2018 list of the best games that are just like Cookie Clicker.
Top Five Games Like Cookie Clicker – 2018 List
#5 – Goomy Clicker
Back in October of 2013, Nintendo released the sixth generation of handheld Pokémon games, this time on the Nintendo 3DS. Pokémon X and Pokémon Y featured over 100 new Pokémon, one of them being Goomy. If you don’t follow Pokémon that much, each generation has their own line of pseudo-legendary Pokémon — Pokémon that aren’t legendries, but contain the stats of legendary Pokémon. The most well-known of the pseudo-legendries is of course Dratini, but you have other popular ones as well, like Larvitar, and Deino. But for some reason, Goomy was different. When the initial images of Goomy were leaked onto the Internet, Pokémon fans from everywhere went nuts for Goomy. He’s just this tiny little blob of a Pokémon, but that is what makes him so adorable. He’s just a little dragon blob. When Sluggoo, Goomys second form was leaked soon after, the Internet continued to go crazy. But the craziness would soon die down, as the final evolution of the Goomy line was leaked – the Pokémon known as Goodra. Goodra on its own isn’t so bad. He’s relatively decent looking, but it could have been better. He goes from adorable little blob, to a kind of cute-ish blubbery looking dragon, but that’s not where Goodra fails. The lack of a viable moveset, the weak final stats, topped off by it being pure Dragon type, rather than something new, like Dragon/Poison, or even Dragon/Fairy, made Goodra one of the most underwhelming Pokémon as of late.
Anyway, that’s the history of Goomy, in case you weren’t around for those few hours of madness. And now if you’re wondering why Goomy, of all Pokémon, got their own clicker game, well, now you know.
Goomy Clicker starts off very similar to Cookie Clicker. You click the giant Goomy that is on the left side of the screen, and it gives you more Goomy’s. The more Goomys you have, the more items you can use to purchase upgrades. The upgrades are of course Pokémon themed, including Youngsters, and even legendary Pokémon. The look of the screen when you are playing is similar to a PokéDex. You have your own stats, the total number of Goomy’s, and there’s even an experience bar under the Goomy, that shows when it will level up.
Overall, Goomy Clicker is a very cute game. In terms of graphics, it’s a lot simpler than Cookie Clicker. It’s more straight forward, so you won’t be confused by anything, and you can just enjoy starring at Goomy.
#4 – Clicking Bad
If you’re one of the few people on Earth who never experienced the Breaking Bad craze, then this game will likely confuse you very much. Feel free to check this game out, but before you do, hop onto Netflix and binge watch Breaking Bad. You’ll likely fall in love with the show and become obsessed, which is normal. But whatever you do, don’t go and try becoming a drug lord. Play Clicking Bad instead.
Clicking Bad has the same general premise as Breaking Bad. You start the game as a lowly drug dealer, by both creating and selling methamphetamine, with the goal of becoming much more than just a pity thug. Clicking Bad, despite the lack of any graphics, is actually quite a complex game, and there’s more at stake here than any of the other Cookie Clicker clones out there. When you first begin playing, you need to spam the COOK! button. After gaining some batches, all you have to do is click the SELL! button, which is located directly underneath. The more batches you sell, the more upgrades you can buy, and with more upgrades, you can gradually increase the purity of your product.
The main difference between Clicking Bad and Cookie Clicker is the fact that you need to watch your product and your profits very carefully. There is both the DEA and the IRS to look out for, both of which will mess up your game if you’re caught. Luckily there are ways to dodge both of those agencies, through money laundering and generally watching your percentages to make sure you aren’t audited or raided.
#3 – Sandcastle Builder
When I first opened up this game in my browser, I had no idea what I was looking at. The look and feel of the game reminded me of those old text-based games from the late ‘90s, back when the majority of computers couldn’t handle gaming very well. The graphics of Sandcastle Builder look like they were made in Microsoft Paint, what with perfectly lined boxes and two stick figures, which seem to be somberly looking out into the ocean from their little beach. Everything is so basic and nostalgic looking, but that is where the game comes to deceive the player. This game is so mind-bogglingly complex, that even when you think you’re far into the game, you’re just as likely to still be in the beginning stages.
The first thing you’ll notice when you start playing is the giant picture of the couple on the beach. When you begin clicking the picture, you get sand, and when you get enough sand, it creates a sand castle. You can spend sand castles on either Sand Tools or Castle Tools. When you’ first start clicking, you’ll notice you get a castle pretty easily, and it’s like that for the first few, but after a little bit, gaining more sand castles becomes difficult, which is not like Cookie Clicker at all, considering gaining cookies and buying upgrades is very easy.
At first you’ll want to get into buying NewPixBots, because these are the things which will help you get more castles once you get going, as long as you aren’t clicking. I know, that doesn’t make very much sense, but once you get the hang of the game, you’ll understand better. The game can be very confusing in the beginning, but the main thing you should know is that this game, while very similar to Cookie Clicker, operates very differently. Cookie Clicker is a very fast paced game. You can leave your computer for half an hour and return to find yourself with a bunch of cookies. Sandcastle Builder isn’t like that whatsoever. This is a lot slower, so if you’re one of those people who enjoys taking their time and really getting involved with their games, you should definitely check this one out.
#2 – Sakura Clicker
If you’re a fan of Japanese anime, with anime girls wearing revealing clothes, then Sakura Clicker is the perfect game for you. It’s fairly NSFW, so I would steer clear from playing it around other people. Unless you don’t have any shame, in which case, feel free to play it with whomever around. The goal of this game is much like an RPG, where you level up your party and defeat bosses. You start the game as an anime girl, and you click other anime girls’ bodies to gain gold. With gold you can buy more members for your party, but only the one girl (on the right) with stay on screen, as you’re mainly her. You can also purchase upgrades to make your party stronger.
The cool thing about this game is how customizable it is. You can purchase different sets of clothes and hair for your anime character, which is a feature other clicker games don’t have. The game is based on stages, and every 10th stage is a boss. If you can’t defeat the boss, you can go back to the previous level and train more. When you’re fighting a normal enemy, you have an unlimited amount of time, but if you’re up against a boss, you only get 30 seconds. If you run out of time, you simply start the level over again. Each enemy and boss is a different type of half animal, so you’ll be seeing a lot of cat girls.
#1 – Clicker Heroes
Much like Sakura Clicker, Clicker Heroes is a full-fledged RPG, and in my opinion, is the absolute best clicker game of them all. If you’re looking for an idle-game that you can really dedicate some time too, and you don’t feel like starring at anime boobs all day, I 100% recommend playing Clicker Heroes.
You begin the game by clicking the monsters that show up on the right side of the screen. After you defeat them, depending on which stage you are on, you gain a certain percentage of gold. With gold you can hire adventurers. These adventurers join your party, and when you acquire more gold, you level them up, making them stronger. Each adventurer has their own unique gimmick, which becomes even more noticeable when you buy their upgrades. Most adventurer upgrades will double their DPS, but certain characters will give you cool skills to use and even give you bonuses to make the game easier, like earning more gold after you defeat each monster.
This game also has bosses, which appear every 5th stage. It’s easy to go back to previous stages in case you aren’t strong enough and you need to grind for more gold to upgrade your characters. The stages change themes every time you defeat a boss, so you aren’t forced to look at the same boring thing all the time. The change of scenery really helps too, as a lot of things will pop up on the screen at random intervals, which give bonus currency and skills, but I’ll let you figure out what those things are.
Both Clicker Heroes and Sakura Clicker are on Steam and they’re 100% free, so you should definitely check them out. They aren’t played on your browser, but rather a new window which pops up.
From popular cable television shows, to Japanese video games, there’s a different theme of clicker game for everyone. You may ask yourself why you’d even bother playing games like this. There are thousands of free games on the Internet to choose from, so why choose one where you don’t really do much of anything? That I can’t tell you. There is just something unique about these games that make your brain become addicted. You can play when you’re not paying attention, and even when you’re out with your friends.
Happy clicking!
