This has been probably the busiest week ever in terms of notable Android app releases, with a strong lineup of games and apps all making their way onto the Google Play store. That's why this week, the roundup is expanding to 40 apps.
As ever, prices refer to the initial download: for games in particular, (Free) often means freemium, with in-app purchases. Where something is available for tablets as well as (or instead of) smartphones, I'll aim to say in the text.
There's a separate roundup for iPhone and iPad, which this week also has 40 new apps released in the last seven days. After a much-needed break over Christmas, both roundups will return early in 2013.
Superbrothers Sword & Sworcery (£1.25)
One of the most creative, inventive iOS games of recent memory comes to Android on its own, following a recent appearance in the Android Humble Bundle collection. It's an action-adventure with beautiful pixel-art graphics, an excellent soundtrack, and a feeling of craft throughout.
Flipboard (Free)
Personalised news magazine Flipboard has been on Android smartphones for a while, but now it's on tablets too: just in time for a Christmas that's expected to be very big for seven-inch Android tablets. As before, you sign up to various news sources as well as your Facebook, Instagram and Twitter accounts to be presented with a flippable digital magazine of stuff to read.
Pudding Monsters (Free / £0.62)
Pudding Monsters is the new game from ZeptoLab, which had a couple of huge hits with Cut the Rope. This time, it's different monsters – ones who live in the fridge and can stick together to solve puzzles. It's colourful and very cute: the developer looks to have another hit on its hands. The link above is for the free version, but an "HD" £0.62 version is also available.
Eufloria HD (£2.99)
Eufloria HD is described as an "ambient strategy game", which means it's more relaxing than the usual fare. It sees you exploring asteroids in space, coordinating plants and creatures to beat alien opponents across 25 levels of its story mode. It looks and sounds as good as it feels.
The Dandy (Free)
Android appears to be getting first crack at the app for the newly-digital The Dandy comic, offering comic strips of Desperate Dan and co with added motion and sound, as well as avatars, jokes and mini-games. Issue Zero is included with this initial download for free.
Tumblr (Free)
As on iOS, blogging service Tumblr has just had its native smartphone app bumped up to a tablet version. You can manage multiple Tumblr blogs posting text, photos, videos, quotes and links, with a simple and efficient interface making it all easy.
Where's My Holiday? (Free)
Disney's Where's My Water? and Where's My Perry? games have been big app store hits in 2012. Now their heroes – Swampy and Perry – have been brought together for a Christmas sampler. The puzzle action remains the same: guiding water through a series of levels, with links to upgrade to the full versions of each game.
Archos Video Player (£3.99)
Archos makes its own Android devices, but now it's released its video player app for other manufacturers' smartphones and tablets. The app plays nice with lots of digital video formats, can stream from computers on your local network or external USB storage devices, and offers other clever features around the TV shows and films that you're watching.
Nemo's Reef (Free)
Disney has revived its famous fishy franchise for a new free-to-play game on Android (and iOS). Your job is to build Nemo and friends a reef, so this falls into the FarmVille genre of social games, just underwater. More than 50 fish can be collected to fill the world, and show off to friends.
The Pyraplex is Kairosoft's latest addictive Android game The Pyraplex (£2.99)
Japanese publisher Kairosoft makes incredibly addictive simulation games: its Game Dev Story, Dungeon Village and Mega Mall Story are highly recommended. The Pyraplex is most like the last of those, but with pyramids instead of modern shopping malls. You build a giant pyramid, run shops, discover treasure and attract traders from other nations. It looks like the usual sleep/work-ruining fun.
EA Sports Football Club (Free)
This is EA's official companion app to FIFA 13 on PS3, Xbox 360 and PC, tying in to its FIFA Ultimate Team mode. It's a way for players to check on their team info, read news feeds and dive into the in-game auction house to buy and sell items.
eBooks by Sainsbury's (Free)
UK supermarket chain Sainsbury's has its own e-books store nowadays, with this Android app providing a way for you to download the e-books you've bought from the store and read them on the go.
Playmobil Pirates (Free)
The famous Playmobil characters come to Android in a freemium game from Gameloft that sees you building a pirate village, sailing the high seas and looting treasure left, right and centre. It's faithful to the plastic figures, although parents should be aware of the use of in-app purchases.
Gumtree (Free)
British classified ads site Gumtree has launched an official Android app, providing a mobile way to browse its 1.5m ads, and call, text or email sellers from the phone. It also ties into the phone's location to find nearby ads, as you'd expect.
Chuggington: A Train Set Game (Free)
Apologies if you're a parent: you quite possibly have the Chuggington theme song in your head for the rest of the day. Still, if your children are fans of the TV trains, they'll enjoy this: a mixture of track-building, adventures and video clips, with more themed episode packs available in-app.
Flock (Free)
Photography app Flock is the work of startup Bump Technologies, which makes the Bump app. Ported from iPhone, this app is all about creating "private group albums" of photos that you take with friends when in the same location.
Bitcasa (Free)
This is the latest useful cloud app for Android, providing a way to access files stored on the Bitcasa "Infinite Drive", as well as automatically uploading photos to the service – if you set that option. Items in your locker can also be marked for offline storage, so you always have a copy to hand.
Anomaly Korea (£2.29)
Here's a good game if you like a bit more meat to your touchscreen gaming: a spin on the tower defence genre that sees you doing the attacking rather than the defending. This sequel to Anomaly Warzone Earth sees you battling an army of alien robots intent on invading Korea.
Guns'n'Glory Heroes Premium (£0.81)
HandyGames' latest Guns'n'Glory game is a fantasy-themed tower defence game, with more elves, dwarves and orcs than you can shake a magic wand at. There are 50 levels to play through, and a "Heroic Difficulty" mode if you fancy your chances.
Rated People - Find Work (Free)
Rated People has already launched an Android app to help people "Find a Tradesman" for work around the home. This app deals with the other side of that equation: tradesmen looking for work. It's a quick way to browse jobs available and contact the homeowners quickly.
Wombi Airplane flies onto Android devices for children Wombi Airplane (£2.31)
One of a flurry of new children's apps on Android by Swedish developer Wombi Apps, this gets kids to build an airplane then fly it, collecting treasure boxes and avoiding birds and a nefarious skunk. Characterful and accessible fun for youngsters.
Twist (Free)
I know at least three people who swear by Twist as a way to neatly avoid endless "I'm about 20 minutes from the station" phone calls to loved ones. The app calculates your arrival time at a given place, then shares that with your selected contacts, so they know if you're running late.
Press (Google Reader) (£1.22)
The Google Reader app on Android is fine, but Press may be a good alternative to try, with an emphasis on making your RSS feeds easy to browse and manage, with attractive design and simple swiping controls.
UberStrike: The FPS (Free)
This is the latest deathmatching first-person shooter to hit Android, coming from Facebook where it has more than 8m people playing. The game is free-to-play at its basic level, with the promise of thousands of people online at any one time to play against.
Beanstalk (Free)
One cloud storage app to rule them all? Well, interface with them all: Beanstalk helps you move files between Dropbox, Box.net and Microsoft SkyDrive, or send one file to all of them at once. It works on Android smartphones and tablets.
Super Mega Worm Vs Santa 2 (Free)
The original Super Mega Worm remains a backbone-less treat on iOS, and having already spawned one Christmas spin-off, it's back for another festive release – with Android joining the party this time. You're a giant worm laying waste to penguins, reindeer and elves, with an "epic final battle with Santa" to look forward to.
Chasing Yello (Free)
Social mobile games publisher Pocket Gems is having a busy week, with this the first of three new Android games. It's an endless runner – well, swimmer if we're being accurate – that sees a goldfish called Yello trying to swim along a river avoiding enemies and obstacles.
Endgame : Syria (Free)
This is a game developed in two weeks by GameTheNews as part of its mission to explain current affairs through gameplay. In this case, the affairs are the civil war in Syria, with you playing as the rebel forces. It sounds a risky release, but GameTheNews says it's "gone to great lengths to be sensitive to the subject matter it covers".
Tracks (Free)
Tracks is another group photo-sharing app, and again one that's been available on smartphones for a while, but is freshly available as a native Android tablet app. The idea being that it intelligently aggregates photos from specific locations and relationships, while making it easy to share them on.
OverLight - Alpha (£0.79)
Another game, in a busy week for Android gaming. This involves directing laser beams through screens full of glass blocks, creating and chaining together explosions to rack up a decent points total. Power-ups spice up that action further.
Tap Paradise Cove (Free)
The second Pocket Gems game this week sees you building a village in the mysterious Paradise Cove, constructing shops and houses, and exploring the surrounding environment to find treasure. It's another freemium game, with in-app purchases funding the action.
Pretty Pet Toy Store (Free)
More freemium action comes with this cutesy game from the developers of the popular Pretty Pet Salon. In this case, you've swapped the salon for a chain of toy stores staffed by cartoon animals, with in-app purchases used to speed your progress towards retail nirvana.
Zen Pinball HD opens up to more Android devices Zen Pinball HD (Free)
Previously focused on Android devices with Tegra processors inside, Zen Pinball HD is now opening up to a wider range of smartphones and tablets. It's an engrossing pinball game with ninja ball physics and plenty of depth.
VideoCast (Free)
File this under "Intriguing": an app that wants to help people broadcast live video footage to individual friends, or all their Facebook mates. Aimed at a mixture of personal and business users, it's one to watch.
Protect Your Videos: Vilynx (Free)
Here's another video app, albeit one that aims to stop people from losing the videos they've already shot and stored on devices. It works with cloud storage services like Box.com and Dropbox, uploading footage and generating five-second summaries to help you find them later.
Campus Life (Free)
Finally from Pocket Gems there's this social mobile game aimed squarely at younger women. It sees you building "your own sorority house" at college, ensuring that the party keeps partying, the decorations stay glitzy and the clobber is more fashionista than frump.
Wombi Detective (£2.29)
Wombi Apps has been equally busy on Android this week: here's its second children's app of this roundup. Wombi Detective is a game for kids where they have to investigate a crime, noir-style. That means grilling witnesses, hunting down stolen goods and figuring out whodunnit. Stylish and fun.
Small Call (£0.61)
Rather than get a press release, I've had three separate contacts all email to recommend Small Call this week. It's simple: a widget that intercepts incoming calls, and helps you carry on what you're doing without a fuss, sending a text back in return if you want to be polite.
Wombi Ice Cream (£2.29)
One last Wombi Apps app: this gets you running an ice-cream van, mixing up icy creations, adding sprinkles and other toppings, then seeing how they go down with six cartoon customers.
Sphero Nyan Cat Space Party (£0.61)
People still laughing at Nyan Cat who have Android devices AND the Sphero robo-ball controller? That's a niche. That said, you don't need a Sphero to play this officially-licensed Nyan Cat app, which puts you in charge of the meme-famous feline as it flies through outer space.
That's this week's selection, but what new apps have you been enjoying on your Android devices? Make your recommendations or comment on the apps above by posting a comment.
No comments:
Post a Comment