Game Reviews: Still More Android Games

A few more of my favourite Android games. To start off, Disney Magic Kingdoms. This is a game where you build your own version of Disneyland. You get rides and characters based on Disney films. You send your characters on missions to collect tokens and when you have enough you can welcome new characters or upgrade old ones. As you progress through the game you unlock new films with their characters and rides, and also new areas of land to build on. They also have events where certain films' characters and rides are only available for a limited time. I downloaded it because the description made it sound a bit like rollercoaster tycoon, but it's quite different really. It's much more about the collecting tokens than the building. It's quite fun for a Disney nerd like me, and beautifully animated. It is quite time consuming though, it takes ages to start up, and it's also a but clunky and slow to respond.

Seaport. This is a little like Boom Beach, only without the fighting. You have a home port and send your ships on missions to explore new areas and gather resources that you then use to improve your port. To keep it intersting the game continually has a different events running, so that the look of the game and missions are always different. The theme is always to do with famous boats or stories about boats. Themes since I've started playing have included the Titanic, the Mississippi, Darwin's voyage on the Beagle, Odysseus and, for Hallowe'en, Dracula.

Next Word Cookies. You get given letters and blank spaces for words. You need to find all the words you can make out of the letters to fill the blank spaces and progress to the next level. It's a fun game, though I do get annoyed by it sometimes when it omits obvious words and uses obscure ones instead. The ads are quite instrusive too.

Now Machinarium. This is a game that's been around for a while. I first became aware of it as a PC game, but didn't play it until I came across it for Android. It's a really special game. You play an adorable little robot who has to solve puzzles and find objects to get through a city to find your robot girlfriend and rescue her. There's no dialogue at all, so all nationalities can play it. Each one of the puzzles is new and different and some of them are genuinely really hard. Some took me a day or more to work out. The artwork really sets it apart too. It's so quirky and detailed and beautiful. It's not really a game you can play over and over again, but it's certainly worth it.

Finally, Monument Valley 1 and 2. This is another really special game. Again you play a little character who has to make her way through a world by solving puzzles, but a lot of the puzzles are based on optical illusions! It's totally mind blowing to spin the platform you're standing on and find yourself a storey above where you were before. It's so clever and well done, and both the art and music are beautiful. Some of the puzzles are really difficult too. Monument Valley 2 is more of the same except that now you have a daughter and you both have to make your way through a confusing world, sometimes alone and sometimes together. It's not as difficult as the first game though. My criticism for both these games though is that they're both pretty short, and also pretty expensive for a game that, again, you can't really play more than once.

Game Reviews: Even More Android Games

Here are some more of my favourite Android games. To start, Township. It's a cute game where you build your own town. You build houses, roads and community buildings and expand your town's area to satisfy the needs of your people. You grow crops and make goods in your factories for them. In addition you send goods elsewhere in exchange for building materials so that your town can grow. As you level up you can build additional buildings and make new goods in your factories. The supply chains can get quite complicated. For example you might grow wheat and corn in your fields, combine them in your feed factory to make food for your cows. Once fed the cows can then be milked, the milk can be used to make cheese in your dairy, and it can then be combined with syrup, strawberries and cookies in your pastry factory to make cheesecake. I enjoy playing. It has fun events and mini-games, although it is quite time-consuming.

Next, Klondike. Looking for gold! It's quite similar to Township in that you have a settlement where you grow crops and a dairy and a pottery and things where you make goods. As well as your settlement there are other areas to explore. Your characters use their energy to cut the rocks and trees and things out of their way, and to collect useful materials such as coal and iron ore, and treasure like gold, amethyst and malachite. It's a beautiful game. Really well-drawn and nice music. You do run out of energy really fast though. It often takes three sessions of playing to cut out a single rock.

Diggy's Adventure: Another game that's fairly similar to Klondike. You have a base and also explore ancient Egyptian tombs, looking for clues to what happened to your father. You run out of energy much less frequently than you do in Klondike, which is nice. There's no challenge in this one whatsoever, but, well, it's kind of cool to explore tombs and talk to Anubis and stuff. After all, didn't we all want to be Egyptologists at some point?

Obviously, being a big Harry Potter fan, I've tried the Harry Potter phone game. It's a role-playing game where you play a Hogwarts student a few years older than Harry. You have to solve the mystery of what happened to your brother. You can customise the way you look, and choose a name, pet and Hogwarts house for your character. You meet familar characters, such the Hogwarts professors, as well as people like Tonks and Bill Weasley. To move forward in the story, you need to learn spells and potions, make friends, find objects and win duels. Like Klondike and Diggy, you need energy for this, and like with Klondike, you run out of energy annoyingly fast. The game's storyline is interesting enough, but to be honest, gameplay is repetitive and boring. Fans of Harry Potter will enjoy the familiar aspects of Hogwarts, and the fantasy of seeing yourself having your own adventures at Hogwarts but I don't think this is a game for non-fans.

And finally, Helix Jump. This is a fun and simple game. Think of it as an upside-down Doodle Jump. You control a bouncing ball, and you have to control its fall down to the bottom of the level. There's a pole in the middle with platforms attached to it, and you use your finger to turn the pole around so that the ball falls down the gaps between platforms. There are dark areas of platforms that you need to avoid, as they kill you, and to make it harder there are some very narrow gaps and also some platforms that move. Like Doodle Jump, you need fast reflexes. It's a good game, although the adverts between attempts are annoying.

Android Games: A Few More Games

A continuation of my updated version of this entry.   Here are a few more games I've discovered over the last couple of years.

First, Plants vs. Zombies.   The people who ought to know tell me that this is called a tower defense game.   You are trying to defend your house from oncoming zombies to stop them from getting in and eating your brains.   You do this by planting plants in your garden that have various zombie killing activities.   The plants include lots of wonderful puns such as a wall-nut, which acts as a barrier, the squash, which, well, squashes, and peashooters, which shoot actual peas.   There are different levels to work your way through and it's pretty easy to get the hang of.   They have made a Plants vs Zombies 2 as well, but to be honest I don't like it as much.   It's bigger, but there's a silly time-travelling storyline, and it's a LOT harder.

Next, Floppy Bird.  This one has an interesting story behind it.   A guy in Viet Nam created the original game, Flappy Bird, a couple of years ago.  It became insanely popular and made him a lot of money.   But he started to feel guilty because it was quite addictive and it's no longer on sale.   Immediately a lot of copycat games emerged based on Flappy Bird and this is one of them.   The game is pretty simple.   You tap to make the bird flap its wings and guide it through a course of pipes that extend from floor and ceiling.   Don't flap enough and the bird drops, flap too much and the bird hits the pipes.   It's pretty difficult and fun.   It reminds me vaguely of games of SuperMario Land on the Gameboy where there were a few levels with sticky sap to swim through.   You had to keep swimming to stay up.   They were much slower paced though.   I think this game has now been pulled as well, because it's too similar to the original.

I think this picture is actually Flappy Bird, but you get the general idea.

Also worth a mention is Robot Unicorn Attack.   You play a robot unicorn running and jumping gaps and obstacles.   Again, it's a little bit like old Gameboy games such as SuperMario Land, only without enemies.   Another difference is that the course changes every time, so you can't learn what's coming next and practice.    You have to have to think fast and have fast reflexes.   It's pretty good.   The music played throughout is Always, by Erasure, and weirdly it doesn't seem to get annoying.   

Finally, Crossy Road.   This is another one where you've got to be quick.   You play a little creature trying to cross a series of roads, rivers and railway tracks.   You've got to time it right so that when you hop onto one carriageway you get a clear shot at the next carriageway before before a car hits yours.   It's quite tricky and frustrating.   You can't stay still too long either or you get carried off by an eagle.   

Android Games: Sequels and More

Having previously blogged about my favorite Android games to do so again might seem a bit redundant.   However, I feel that things have moved on a lot since 2012.  I feel like there's now more choice, and yet somehow at the same time more standardisation as biggish games companies have emerged.   More often it's the same people behind two of your favorite games.   It feels more like an established industry now rather than just people throwing things at a wall to see what sticks. 

I'm going to start off with some sequels to established "classics".   First Angry Birds Star Wars.   I'm not going to lie, when I first heard about this it sounded truly bizarre.   But it works!   It really really works.   They kind of combine story and character elements from Star Wars with game play from the original Angry Birds, with a little of the physics from Angry Birds Space thrown in.   There are brand new elements you can use such as "Luke" birds with lightsabers, and somehow it's really good fun.   It doesn't feel like just some bizarre money-making merchandising at all.   It's great!

Next another sequel, Temple Run 2.   Again, this was a game I was a little sceptical about.   Temple Run is already perfectly good as it is.   What possible reason could you have for making a sequel?   Is this basically just going to be a graphics upgrade?   But no, the Temple Run people have done it again!   While gameplay is essentailly the same, they have genuinely added more elements to the game to make it more fun!   As well as walls to run along there are now ropes to swing on, hills to go up and down, rivers to ride down and crazy mine cart rides.   There are more obstacles and more special powers.   It's great!

The next game is called Jelly Splash.   It's pretty similar in format to a lot of the King Saga games (LINK) but made by a different company.   You have jelly candies on your screen and you have to draw lines through ones that are the same colour and they all disappear.   You amke jellies to achieve different goals, such as clearing the screen of grey slime, freeing trapped jellies and bringing diamonds down to the bottom.   Like the King games this one has many different levels to progress through.   It's good fun.

 


Finally, another game that is a variation on Jewels.   There seem to be loads (LINK) of these types of games around.   This oone is called Zookeeper Battle.   You have a grid of different zoo animals, and you have to match lines of three of more of the same animal.   When you make a match they vanish.   Some of the animals give you attack points, and others give you defense points.   You have got a very small amount of time to gain as many points as possible and use the points to battle it out against an opponent.   Winning gives you certain rewards you can use to biuld up your Zoo, which allows you to play little side games against a computer opponent.   It sounds fairly dull, but it is pretty addictive.   You get really into trying to increase your World Ranking against other players.   

   

Android Games: King Saga Games

Ok, so King are a terrible company.  They take other people's ideas for games, drag them out into 400 levels and make money off their customers by asking you to pay for things every five minutes or so.   Having said that, their games are actually quite good, if unoriginal.

Their most famous work is Candy Crush Saga.   It's basically Jewels.   You have a board of different coloured candies and when you match three or more in a row of the same colour, they vanish.   You move them round by swapping one with a neighbour, and you can only move them to make a group of three or more.   Sounds simple enough.   But they've come up with all sorts of ways to keep things interesting, like having different goals, different combinations doing different things and different obstacles.   So far I'm almost 200 levels in and not bored yet.   Annoyingly though, the game is a battery eater, constantly asks you for money or to connect to facebook and you only get five lives and then you have to wait (or pay) for them to refill.   It does also have the same irritating music for every level and and sickly sweet graphics.   I'm still playing though.   So are most other people.

Candy Crush Saga has an even more fun successor called Candy Crush Soda.   The basic principle is the same, but this one has added fun elements.   There are soda bottles to break open which gives the game the added complicaton of a liquid level.   Sometimes you have to raise the level of the liquid to beat the level.   Other times there are objects hidden behind the grid.   The music is also less annoying.

Next up, Farm Heroes Saga.   Another almost identical game to Jewels.   It involves matching three of more of the same type of fruit or vegetable.   Its biggest achievement is that despite being based on the same principle as Candy Crush Saga, it manages to feel like a very different game.   Quite astounding.   The goals of the game are more based on what you match, rather than matching things to achieve a different goal.   There are more static objects on the grid and more ways of generating the fruits/veg you need.   And again, the music is less annoying.

Next Diamond Digger Saga.   It's similar to, well, I can't specifically think of a named game, but any of those games where if you touch a group of similar coloured blocks they disappear.   I actually really enjoy this one.   There's a fair amount of stratgy to it.   You have a fixed number of moves to tap groups of blocks to clear a path for water to flow through.  You can't afford to waste a single move.   It's not all played on one grid either.  You need to work your way through a series of underground rooms.   This one too gives you different goals to reach.   You might have to free trapped creatures, collect prizes or simply gain a high score to beat it.   Good times.

Next Bubble Witch Saga.   This is based on various other bubble popping games, but again it has added extras to keep it interesting.   The main difference is the scoring system.   You have a series of pots at the bottom to catch your falling bubbles.   Each is worth a certain score.   There are also spiders hanging just above the pots.   Bouncing falling bubbles on your spiders gives you a higher score.   Every time you perform a successful move a spider appears and every time a move fails you lose two spiders.   What's frustrating is that fairly frequently you meet the game's objectives but still fail because your score isn't high enough.  You've buggered up too often to have enough spiders to give you a decent score.   What surpirsed me when I started playing it is that you are given a line to show where you're aiming.   I thought this would make the game too easy, but it really doesn't help all that much.   The game is far more about strategy than aim.   There are also lots of trick bubbles to keep the game interesting, such as bubbles full of poison that kill your spiders if you pop them, green infected bubbles that spread their infection to the rest if you don't get rid of them fast enough and bombs bubbles that explode if you don't get rid of them in time.   It's a good game.   I know there is a Bubble Witch 2 out as well though I havent played it much and can't compare the two.  One thing I have noticed though is that in 2 the witch is a lot more sexed up.   Sigh.   So unnecessary.

Lastly Papa Pear Saga.   This one is basically Peggle.   You have a pear (a round one, obviously) and you have to fire it down the screen to achieve various objectives.   It bounces a LOT, making the world's most annoying Doing! sound as it does.   The more it bounces the more points you get.   Different levels give you a different number of pears to use.   Objectives include getting pears into every single bucket at the bottom, knocking fruits into the baskets at the bottom and bouncing on certain numbers of objects to make them disappear.   Like Bubble Witch, as well as meeting the level's objectives you need a sufficiently high score to win the level, though this is easier to do in Papa Pear.   There are also things you can bounce on to get certain bonuses, such as a higher score, extra pears appearing, pears becoming giant etc.   It's pretty good fun!

Android Games: Games for Two

A couple of years ago I wrote about my favourite Android Games.   It occurs to me that things have moved on since then and that it would be worth writing an up-to-date version.   The trouble is that my list of favourite games is now rather long, and would make for tedious reading in one post, so I've decided to split it up into several posts.   The first category: games for two people.   These are great for helping you feel connected to your friends, while also allowing you to play them in your own time.   No need to drop what you're doing and respond immediately.   Most of them are based on simple board games.

To start off, Draw Something.   Based on Pictionary, but more fun as your only tool is your finger and less stressful, as no one is shouting at you not able to understand your picture.   Hurrah!   Just draw and hit send when you're ready.   It then appears on your friend's screen, showing how your drawing progressed.   The more you play the more points you get, which lets you buy new colours and stuff.  So the more you play the better it gets.   A fun one to play with friends.   And a quick google search that some people have mad skilllz!

Up next, Words With Friends.  This is basically Scrabble.   Play the highest scoring words you can and beat your friend.   Only there's no arguing about whether or not something is a word becuase the game won't let you play words it doesn't recgnise.   Sadly it doesn't think Ewok is a real word.   Oddly enough, I'm not a fan of Scrabble, but I do enjoy this.   Wonder why.

Onwards, to victory and Scramble!   This one is more or less Boggle.   Well, actually it's more like a cross between Boggle and Scrabble.   Instead of just getting points for length of words, you get points for individual letters, and you get some words/letters worth double or triple in later rounds.   The letter combinations are different to Boggle as well.   More Es and Rs and other useful letters.   It's good fun.

Finally Songpop.  This one isn't based off any board game I know off.   You get played a small clip of song and have to guess its title or artist faster than the other person.   Pretty simple, but it takes some practice to get good.   You have to be FAST!   There are lots of different categories of music to choose from, from Musicals to Modern Rap, so everyone should be able to find playlists that suit them.   And with practice you do tend to get quicker at recognising the songs that typically come up for a particular playlist.   And you hate yourself when you make a mistake!   Quite hard, but good fun.

My Favorite Android Games

The idea for this entry was inspired by (Ok, blatantly stolen from) my good friend Graeme, who has his blog here.  He reviews his favorite Android games in this this entry.   So I thought I'd do mine too!   In no particular order, let's dive right in.  

Firstly, Angry Birds.   Yes, ok, this is a very obvious choice, but I can't help it!  I love it.   It's a great game.   You get to catapult cute little birds that make funny noises at green pigs.  You get to knock down buildings and smash lots of glass.   It's clever, challenging and entertaining.   Ok, some parts of it get a bit repetitive, but mostly they keep bringing in enough new ideas to keep me interested.   And when you do finish it there are other newer versions to keep you going, like Angry Birds Seasons and Angry Birds Space.

Next up, Doodlejump.   Again, another fairly obvious choice that I'm sure most people will have played by now.   Basically you control a doodled little creature thing and make it climb up the screen by jumping and using little platforms as steps.   There are various items to catch that give you height bonuses, and various enemies and obstacles to shoot and avoid.   It's controlled entirely by tilting the phone.   I don't know about anyone else, but playing this it blows my mind at how sensitive my phone is.  Amazing!   Very simple game, very cute and highly addictive!

    



Next, Temple Run.   Another popular one.   You control an Indiana Jones type character, running away from enemies along crumbly temple walls.   You make your explorer jump, duck, turn and balance by a combination of tilting the phone and swiping your finger, and there are coins to collect along the way as well.   The game also gives you different objectives to reach as you go along, such as running a certain distance, or collecting a certain number of coins.   Again, a simple game and highly addictive!   The only issue I have with this one is that the controls could do with being more sensitive.  It's very irritating when you die because you tried to jump and the phone thinks you were turning.

Next up, Unblock me.   A more intellectual game here.   You're given some wooden blocks laid either vertically or horizontally.   There is also a red block.   The object is to move the red block the hole in the wall on one side of the board.   In order to do that you need to move the other blocks out of the way.  The vertical blocks can only be moved up and down and the horizontal blocks can only be moved from side to side.   Hours of fun!   Some of the levels are really hard!   It's a great work-out for the brain.   Mine needs one sometimes.  

And now, Ninjump.   This is a great one.   Again, very simple and very addictive.   You control a little ninja who's climbing up the space between two buildings.   There are various enemies to watch out for, either jumping out of their way onto the opposite building, or jumping into them to kill them.   If you kill the same type of enemy three times in a row you get a height bonus.   It's all controlled by finger taps and just like Doodlejump, the aim is to get as high as you can.   Again simple and addictive.   I quite like how the rise of smart phones has amde simple games popular again.   Most of the other video games you see these days and so complex.

And finally, Quell Reflect.   This is the only game Graeme and I have in common as a favorite, and in fact I discovered it after reading his blog entry.  It's a great game.   A real brain challenge.   Sadly it's not free but it's worth it!  The music and look of the game are just beautiful and it's a real brain challenge.   When playing through it I sometimes took three days over one puzzle.   You move a drop of water around the scren trying to collect pearls and avoid obstacles.   All the levels are pretty unique.  There seems to be a different new type of obstacle or aid in every level.   The only thing I have against it is that's too small!   Only took me a couple of months to complete.  

GAME ON!  ;)