Android Games you should try #5: Requests.

I love getting requests by people who actually develop games. I feel honored and I actually like doing them. It’s the reason why I put a contact page on my blog. Anyway, it has been quite some time since I actually wrote about Android games. That has a reason, I didn’t play a lot of Android games I wanted to talk about in the past few months. Yet, there are a few that slipped under my radar, so I will correct that mistake. It’s time to talk about some Android games. I write a short review or talk about why you should play that game and give a score of 5! And as usual, feel free to leave a comment on this article with your thoughts on the games, content and or the games I should take a look at in the future!

Special guest: “Bubbliminate“

The developer of this game told me that this game is released rather recently, and he was looking for some feedback and some exposure. So, when I booted it up, I didn’t know what to expect. The screenshots on the store page didn’t explain what this game is about.

That’s one of the issues I had with the game. I didn’t really understand the game. After a bit of trail and error, I think I got the hang of it. You play against another player or CPU. Each one starts out with one bubble. You can do one of three moves. Split, grow or move your bubble. It’s your goal to get rid of the other guy (or girl)’s bubble.

The suggestion I would give to the developer of this game is that he adds a sort of introduction area. A sort of optional tutorial that teaches the basics to beat a CPU on easy mode with ease. On the store page he says that it’s interesting to young children. I’m sorry, but I put this to the test and the children, who were aged in the rage of 5 – 12, didn’t enjoy the game.

Before I talk about the other games, apart from what I mentioned above, the game is quite nice for a first game. Decent and responsive controls, amazing menu work, great music and pleasant visuals.

In conclusion, this game has potential, it just needs a bit more polish to make the entry level and the learning curve a bit less harsh.

Score: 3/5.

Bitcoin Billionaire

I tried various games that tried to emulate cookie clicker. Since that game was released, I wanted to try it out as well. But I quickly lost interested. But when I saw this game in the Google Play Store, I was interested. A Cookie Clicker clone that’s IT-themed? Yes please!

It didn’t take long before I got myself hooked on the game and I spend various hours on it. If you follow me on Twitter, you might have seen this coming since I actually tweeted a few interesting news items of this game. The humor in this game is just amazing!

This game also needs to get an award. This is an incredible example of how microtransactions should work. You can buy special red gems, but you can get 25 of them free each day. The catch here is that you get them rather easily. Also, when you connect to Wi-Fi, you get the option to enable ads for a few seconds for in game rewards. That’s just impressive!

The only negative of this game is that sometimes the prices are a bit unbalanced, but hey, how else they make getting the next level rewarding?

Score: 5/5.

Buttons And Scissors

I didn’t see this one coming. This puzzle game is one of the most simple games I played in a while. I don’t mean this in a bad way! When you press any button, the game shows you the possible moves. And thanks to that, I was able to figure out how the game works in no time.

Your goal is to cut all the buttons from the piece of fabric. You can only cut the buttons from the same color away, as long as there are no other buttons in between them. Since you can also cut diagonally, this game offers quite a big challenge. This game is nice to play in short bursts.

The only flaw in this game is that they don’t offer a mode for people who are colorblind. Since the contrast mode isn’t really that helpful if you are colorblind.

Score: 4,5/5.

1010!

I discovered this one only rather recently. At the start of this week, actually. So, I can’t say that I had much fun with it since, yeah. I barely started getting into it. But it’s that good that it deserves a spot in this list.

It’s a puzzle game where you get various shapes that you need to fit in a grid. As soon as you put a whole line full of blocks, they disappear. Your goal is that you can keep placing the blocks that the game gives you.

The only negative I have with this game is that you only get new blocks if you placed all blocks from the bottom. A nitpick I have is that the ads when you lose are too much in your face. It’s something I don’t like at all.

Score: 4/5

Final words

Alright, I think I’m going to wrap up this article here. Thank you for reading, and I hope you enjoyed it. Hopefully you found out about some new Android games that you could play in the waiting room or on the bus.

If you ever find new interesting Android games, feel free to send them to me. I might cover them on my blog if I like them or if I dislike them. I love user feedback.

In the meantime, I will be on the lookout for new Android games myself. I actually want to write this kind of articles more often. Since this way I can give more than one game some time to shine. Anyway, take care and I hope to see you in another article!

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Android Games You Should Try #4: Now with a special review

So, I got a mail from a developer. He asked me to review their game. This game will be the first entry in this article. I was planning to give that game a game quicky article, but it has too few contents for that. Anyway, welcome to a new Android games article. In June, I’m working on a ton of content for you guys. So, I’m playing more and more on my phone. As a short breaking between writing. Now, I have decided to be as strict as in my previous article. All these games are free Android games that you should try. They don’t have any or annoying ads. They are fun to play and they aren’t pay-to-win. These games are truly worth playing (and maybe taking a secret bathroom break during work). I also choose to take offline games. The reason for that is, not everybody their subscription included affordable 3G internet. So, yeah. Anyway, I have been talking too much again. Let’s start this new article in my Android games series. Oh, don’t forget! I quickly review, talk about each game and score it. I also give you the link to the play store page, so you can download it! But before we start, feel free to leave a comment on the games, my mini-review and / or your opinion. 

Special “guest”: Adventure Birds

Now, I’m known on my blog to be fair. I don’t review the games I play very subjectively. Honestly, while I’m honored that this developer mailed me to ask a review on this game… I’m afraid to say that I didn’t like it.

If he didn’t ask, this game wouldn’t have made the selection for these articles. Now, this isn’t a bad game. It’s a well-made Flappy Bird clone. There is some more variation in the scenery. But that’s it. Besides trying to beat your top score, there isn’t anything more to this game than that.

I honestly got bored. This game is not for the hardcore gamers. This game is better suited for a (casual) audience looking for the perfect replacement to Flappy Bird. But the low score isn’t because this game is a bad game, this is the score I would give it. But objectively, this game deserves higher marks.

Score: 2.5 / 5

Adventure Land 

I applaud this app! This game is truly fun to play. The only downside is that when you want to save your character, you’ll have to pay.

But this game gives you randomized hero’s each and every run. When I got my tablet, I played a lot of Jetpack Joyrides, but honestly, this is the better game. But not by much.

Each run feels different. While this game hasn’t any fun special objectives for you to achieve. This game gets really challenging but encourages you at the same time.

You can also change the randomly chosen abilities before you start the run. And you get a safe zone before you start the adventure. This way you can quickly “relearn” the ability that you have for this run.

There is a still a bit more to this game. And I leave that for you guys to discover. But this game nearly gets full marks!

Score: 4/5

Lost Keys

This game is simple. Go from point A to B. The only catch here is that you need to get all the keys before you can continue to the next level.

The controls are a bit clunky and require some getting used to. But in general, this game is a lot of fun. The only thing I dislike is how the game lacks a bit in terms of sound effects. Apart for dying and getting a key, there aren’t any sound effects.

This game isn’t too long either. This game only has 60 levels and this isn’t a bad thing, since in my opinion, this is just the right length.

The last remark I have to make is… Why can I select the areas I haven’t unlocked? They are grayed out, so I can’t play them, but I can select the area’s for some reason.

Score: 3.5/5

Strange Adventure

Remember my last rant? I talked about this game. Is this game worth playing? Heck yes! Does it have negatives? Well, it’s frustrating as heck. Narrow jumps and sometimes the solution isn’t clear at all.

But this game uses the clichés to its advantage. This game is truly a masterpiece on Android in my opinion.

It’s a more then just a platformer. It’s a clear parody with the problems of the current game industry. I might be looking way to deep into this, but this is what I think of this game. And because of that, the negatives are forgiven.

Score: 5/5

Closing words

This might be a shorter article, but blame the World Cup. Belgium just won from Russia! And what a strange match it was. I think I’m running out of Android games I want to talk about. So, it’s quite possible that this series goes on a short break until I find new games to write about.

To all (Android) devs, do you want me to look to your game? Click on my contact page! I’ll gladly take a look at your game. And maybe it will appear here on this article. Anyway, thanks for reading, and hopefully I see you at the next one.

Android Games you should try #3 – New phone

So, it has been quite some time since I wrote an entry on my blog about Android games but since I got this new phone, Samsung Galaxy Ace 3, I started to play a ton of Android games again. Now, it’s time to write a new entry in this series. Time to revive it from the dead. So, because it has been quite some time, I think I have some explaining to do. In these articles I talk about several Android games that got me hooked or were fun to play. But these games are casual games that don’t have enough content to make a fully fledged review. So, I shot each game extremely shortly, give you a rating and a download link. And as a cherry on the pie, all the apps are free, and I try to have as fewer ads as possible. So, yeah. Anyway, when you have suggestions for games I should try out, feel free to say it in the comments. But for the rest, I invite you to leave a comment about this article and or your thoughts of the games or one of them. 

New things in the series

Alright, before we start the actual listing of the games, I have a few new “rules” for this series. First, I will list these under “Game Quickies” and “Game Review”. Since it’s kinda both, it’s a quick review of a game. But it’s not really a full “game quicky” since I talk about more games than 1.

Another change I do is that I’m way stricter towards the quality of the games. What I mean here, is that the game needs to be addicting and fun. In other words, I’m going to try to avoid the clones of Bejeweled and games like that.

Also, games that require constant internet connection or accounts, have a smaller chance. Unless there is a benefit to having an account.

And the games need to be free! It’s possible that I list a demo on here, but the demo needs to have enough content to be enjoyable. Games that allow you to play only a few levels for free and promise an overload of levels if your pay won’t appear on this list!

Oh, and games that require Facebook or any other social media… Oh, heck no! I hate them so much. I don’t want to recommend you games where you possibly have to spam your friends for lives or spam your wall. Forget it.

So yeah, that’s a heads-up before we start. I think I might have been a bit too strict on the games for this article, but hey, sometimes some quality control is good.

#1: Mine To Escape

This game is quite fun, yet very flawed. I finished this game in the course of a day or three. I’m quite sure that you’re able to finish this game in one very long sitting.

First, the negative things. The fact that you need to do things one by one makes you swipe your phone like crazy when you want to sell e.g. 10+ iron ore. Also, this game has only one planet. So, it’s quite short. Once the addiction kicks in, you are nearly finished with this game.

The good is that this game is challenging. You truly need to keep an eye on that oxygen. Also, sometimes ores are hard to find.

And it’s fun. You literally tap your time away. It a game like Minecraft, were you just tap one more block before you stop. While some people would find the one and only song quite annoying, I didn’t find it that. I rather enjoyed the music. But truth to be told, this game could use various tracks.

Score: 3.5/5

#2: Choice of the Dragon

Besides cats, I’m a big fan of dragons. Moreover, that, I’m quite a big fan of visual novel and adventure games.

This game tries to revive a genre thought dead. The adventure “choose your own path” genre. Basically an RPG but with lots and lots of text.

But here is the twist though, you are a dragon AND there are extremely different play styles. Sweet, no?

Don’t I have your interest just yet? Oh, you can play this game with your own music at the background. What do you want more? What, text? Deep story? Yes, this game has this!

The writing is amazing. It’s almost you are reading a book where there is somebody talking to you when the main character, in this case you: the Dragon, decides the actions.

I have two complaints. The fact you can’t decide your own name and the words used might confuse non-native English speakers.

Score: 4.5/5

#3: 1001 Attempts 

This game, yes please! If my memory serves me correctly, this game is ad-free! And it’s big fun! This game is simple, stay alive as long as you can.

This game is easily to learn but hard to master. Each time you pick up a jewel, the game gets more difficult. It throws more and more projectiles to you, and it’s not so easily to follow all the action going on.

This game doesn’t waste time with unneeded things. You can easily jump straight into the game and play as long as you want. This game is highly addicting. Since you have that “one more try” feeling.

I have no complaints about this game. So, worthy of a download!

Score: 5/5

#4: Hoplite

Do you want to play a simple 2D rouge-like adventure game? Well, you are in luck! This game is just for you then! This is also a puzzle game.

One word of warning though, this game isn’t easy. If you aren’t careful, you can die quicker than you can say your curse words.

But it feels so rewarding when you are able to beat a floor and move on to the next!

What I like so much about this game is how simple yet deep this game is. There is a lot of strategy involved to it.

Maybe with a bit of shame, I have to admit that I haven’t gotten further than the 5th floor. Tell me in the comments how far you got.

I haven’t found anything negative about this game. So, it gets the full 5 stars!

Score: 5/5

Closing words

This article has seen multiple versions. Now that I finally have my finished version, I’m glad that it’s done. I have added and removed a lot of games. I think that I tried at least 50 games for this article. Don’t worry, there will be new games I recommend in the future.

Leave me a comment which is your favorite game I recommended here. Or have you played one of these games before? Or which game looks interesting? Anyway, grab your phone and start playing. Oh, and if you have suggestions, please drop them in the comments as well. Maybe I’ll add them to one of the future articles in this series.