Best shooter games for iPhone and iPad

Ready, aim, fire! These great shooters will keep your iPhone and Pad smoking!

Shooters are typically high-octane, fast-paced, adrenaline-pumping games that are filled with explosions, acts of violence, and of course, lots of gunfire. They are among the most popular titles when it comes to console and PC gaming, but there are a ton of great shooters for your iPhone and iPad too; here are some of my favorites!

• Modern Combat 5: Blackout
• Geometry Wars 3: Dimensions Evolved
• Into the Dead
• World of Tanks: Blitz
• Ready Steady Bang
• Dead Trigger 2
• Overkill 3

Modern Combat 5: Blackout

Modern Combat 5: Blackout is a first-person military shooter that provides a console-like gaming experience right on or iPhone or iPad.

Beginning with a mission in Italy, the solo campaign follows Caydan Phoenix as he travels around the world to gun down plenty of soldiers of the World Liberation Army.

You can customize your soldier's loadout and special abilities, meaning you can adjust each mission to the play style you want to roll. As you increase your rank, you'll gain access to more weapons, giving you, even more, options to defeat your enemies.

No first-person shooter is complete without a robust multiplayer mode, and Modern Combat 5 offers it in spades with five game modes: Free for all, VIP, Squad Battle, Capture the flag, Zone control, and Cargo.

• Free - Download Now

Geometry Wars 3: Dimensions Evolved

This award-winning frantic 3D shooter offers a unique experience in a familiar package.

The core objective of Geometry Wars 3 is to survive as long as possible, which helps you rack up more points. You control a claw-shaped ship at the center of the map and are tasked with shooting other ships that appear on the playing field. When they explode, they leave behind geoms, which you collect for points.

This dual-stick shooter offers great repeatable gameplay that doesn't go stale, wrapped in an insanely colorful and thrilling world. The graphics, the music, and the gameplay are all so smooth and cohesive; it's easy to lose track of time while playing Geometry Wars 3: Dimensions Evolved.

• $9.99 - Download Now

Into the Dead

Into the Dead cleverly mixes endless runner gameplay with the action of a first-person shooter as you run through an endless swarm of flesh-eating zombies.

As you run through cornfields, forests, and grasslands you need to dodge zombies left and right, you can even pick up weapons on the along way to help you kill the zombies before they kill you!

The visuals are simple but utterly macabre, and it's the sound design of Into the Dead that makes it stand out. The growls of the zombie hoard, the heavy breathing of the hero, his footsteps through the cornfields, and even the screams when he gets eaten are all superb and make you feel tense as you're playing. I've personally never experienced a mobile game that does such a fantastic job of creating atmosphere.

• Free - Download Now

World of Tanks Blitz

Who says shooters can only be with guns? World of Tanks Blitz lets you pilot a tank across massive online battlefields against lots of opponents! With over 250 different tanks to use, the seven-on-seven multiplayer games get really wild.

I want to give a shout out to iMore reader and World of Tanks Blitz fan, Joel Carlson, who suggested the game to me on my roundup of the best strategy games for iPhone and iPad who sums up the game quite nicely!

"One great strategy/shooter game would be World Of Tanks Blitz. It has tons of tanks to choose from. You start out with pre-WWII tanks in a tutorial that teaches you how to fire and to drive your tank. As you progress you unlock better vehicles like the Tiger tank or the Russian IS-3. The strategy aspect comes into play when you start a battle. You have to decide which way you will go on each map depending on the makeup of your team."[sic]

The best part about World of Tanks Blitz is, while it's free to play, it doesn't have all the annoying time-gated nonsense that a lot of other games do, so you can play all you want!

• Free - Download Now

Ready Steady Bang

Ready Steady Bang is a much simpler shooter game than others on this list, perfect for gamers who love the minimalist approach.

This black and white cartoon-like dueling game has players tap their side of the screen as soon as the countdown is finished. The twist? The "bang" happens at random intervals, meaning you have to wait to hear it before you can pull the trigger!

This game relies on pure speed and reflexes and is perfect to play with a friend. Although, it does have a single-player mode that increases difficulty as you progress further.

• $0.99 - Download Now

Dead Trigger 2

Despite being an older game on the App Store, Dead Trigger 2 continues to be a solid shooter to have on your iPhone or iPad.

Wherever there are zombies, there are usually guns, and in Dead Trigger 2, there is a lot of both! The graphics are amazing, even in 2017, and the game doesn't take itself too seriously. Lots of funny quips throughout the story and plenty of over-the-top creatures to kill make Dead Trigger 2 one hell of a ride!

The controls have also been streamlined for touchscreens, and while it may take some getting used to, it provides a very smooth gameplay experience. All you have to do is move the crosshairs over a zombie or another baddie, and if your target is within your weapon's range, you'll instantly start firing!

• Free - Download Now

Overkill 3

If you prefer a third-person perspective over a first-person in your shooting games, Overkill 3 is worth a look!

This rail-shooter — meaning you don't control your movement — is pretty simple to play, as you're only in control of aiming and shooting your weapon. Before each boss fight, Overkill will prompt you to pick a difficulty level for that boss, meaning the previous bad guys you just took out give you no indication of how tough the big baddie will be.

You'll choose a loadout before each mission, meaning you can customize which weapons you have and unlock new ones as you progress through the game. To unlock more missions, you'll need to collect stars, which you do by completing objectives throughout the mission. The more stars you collect, the more missions you'll be able to do.

• Free - Download Now

What's your favorite iOS shooter?

Let us know in the comments.