One-button games have a kind of mystical quality. Given how straightforward their controls are, you would have assumed that these games wouldn't provide much in the way of gameplay. What can you really accomplish with only one button, after all. Nevertheless, despite this significant restriction, one button games may feature remarkably intricate game mechanics (just look at the fully-fledged RPG in this list). Additionally, certain one-button games, like Poto and Cabenga, may really provide players with an extremely difficult task.

One-button games are particularly wonderful and enjoyable to play due to their capacity to unleash intricate and difficult game play with the most basic of controls. It is interesting to note that often One-button games players are big fans of slot games too. Nevertheless, we provide our picks for the top online games that just need pressing one button.

G-Switch

Numerous online games are obviously influenced by Adam Atomic's renowned one-button running game Canabalt (No 6 on this list). The majority of them are just imitations that don't significantly change the core game. However, the same cannot be true about Portuguese developer Vasco Freitas' G-Switch. Like Canabalt, G-Switch is a running game in which your goal is to get as far as you can without dying. But in G-Switch, clicking the button causes gravity to invert as opposed to Canabalt, where pressing the single button control causes your character to leap. Instead of sliding downhill, you begin to ascend. If you press the button one more, gravity will return to its proper position. You can guide your character around obstacles and over dangerous distances by adjusting gravity at precisely the correct moment. The game now has a terrific and original new mechanism that works really well.

One Button Bob

Australian video game firm Ninja Doodle is known for creating amusing throwback games. One Button Bob, a platformer that serves as the ideal illustration of the possibilities given by one button game-play, is one of my favourites from their collection (see our in-depth review of the game here). The game is broken up into a number of stages, each of which has a unique action that you may do by pressing the button. Thus, for instance, on one level, the game's protagonist, Bob, would jump when you click the button, enabling him to clear a barrier. Another possibility is that pushing the button would make Bob halt in his tracks, saving him from being struck by a falling item and dying. When you hit the button, several things might happen, which creates for some extremely exciting game play.

Poto and Cabenga

You may wonder how a game with just one button could be challenging. After all, there is only one button to be concerned about. Well, to start, the game can offer you control over two characters, each of whom appears in a different location on the screen. The game could then be designed such that one of the characters would leap and the other would begin to run when you pushed the button, and vice versa when you raised it up. Oh, and the game may also have a tonne of adversaries and obstacles that you have to avoid colliding with. If you'll pardon the profanity, you could potentially have a game that is just as much of a headfuck to play as this one. One of the most challenging—not to say frustrating—games I've ever played is Poto and Cabenga. The chances of keeping both characters alive are quite slim. However, the game has a lovely design, and with little effort, you can master multitasking game play..

Flabby Physics

Even though this game calls itself flabby, the way it plays is not the least bit bloated. Indeed, the creator Paolo Pedercini has stripped away all extraneous functionality and features, reducing the physical game principles to their barest essentials. The final product is a beautifully simple physics-style game that can be played by pressing the space bar alone. It's extremely ingenious how this is accomplished. The majority of physics games begin with a static scene. To transport the ball to its goal or to have all the blocks fall off the screen, you either need to remove a support from the world or interact with it in some other way. In contrast, when you begin a level in Flabby Physics, the game is already underway. Then, with exact timing, you hit the spacebar to alter the shapes in the game, ideally advancing the ball toward the goal. Flabby Physics is quite clever. Try it out here.​