Welcome to the latest entry in our Bonus Round series, wherein we tell you all about the new Android games of the day that we couldn't get to during our regular news rounds. Consider this a quick update for the dedicated gamers who can't wait for our bi-weekly roundups, and don't want to wade through a whole day's worth of news just to get their pixelated fix. Today we have a long-awaited survival game, a unique management sim, a Chromecast multiplayer game, a text-based AR game, and a uniquely twisted adventure title. Without further ado:

Don't Starve: Pocket Edition

I've been wondering when this one would come to Android. Don't Starve takes the popular idea of a crafting-based survival game and applies it to a top-down interface, with an art style that blends dark cartoony character design and flat, line-heavy woodcut drawings. The black comedy aspect of the game (basically everything wants to eat you) helps tell a trippy sci-fi story. The mobile version is currently in "unreleased" status (read: beta) for just $4 with no in-app purchases. Compatibility is odd, too - it might be intended only for tablets.

Don’t Starve: Pocket Edition, brings the hit PC game enjoyed by over 6 million players to Android. Now you can experience the uncompromising wilderness survival game full of science and magic on the go. Play as Wilson, an intrepid Gentleman Scientist who has been trapped and transported to a mysterious wilderness world. Wilson must learn to exploit his environment and its inhabitants if he ever hopes to escape and find his way back home.

Dog Sled Saga

Dog Sled Saga is a sports management game with a unique hook: you're a dog sled musher who must train and manage your canine team. There's a bit of runner-style action in the races, but the meat of the game is managing the dogs and the small business that surrounds a sponsored Iditarod-style racing team. You can hire and fire staff or animals, breed new puppies, and manage sponsorships. The game uses Google Drive to sync with iOS and/or Steam versions, and there are no in-app purchases.

As a rookie musher, foster a dogsledding team whose skills will grow if they're treated right. Week by week, get to know your dogs' unique traits, and carve your story into the trails of the Mount St. Something region. Dog Sled Saga has a pick-up-and-play dogsled racing. Each dog's speed is hindered by hunger. Lob a limited supply of food to them to keep at full speed. Hazards on the track await.

Dog Sled Saga Developer: Trichotomy Games
Price: 3.99
4.6
Download

Heist

There was a glut of board- and card-style games for the Chromecast a few years ago, but it's slowed since. This new one has an interesting premise: teams of "cops," "robbers," and "bankers" try alternately to steal or protect a bank's cash stash. The point is to turn over your team's cards without revealing the opposing cards. Two modes are available, words or pictures, making Heist appropriate even for teams with young children. The game is free to try with a $3 in-app purchase for the full unlock.

Heist is a board game for your living room and is played with Chromecast. Team up and compete to see who's better, Cops, Robbers, or Bankers. In Heist, two or three teams compete to reveal their teams cards first. A Chromecast is the Game Board and the Captain provides a single word hint and how many cards that hint relates to on the Game Board. Teams then use the hint to uncover their cards before the other teams. Make sure you avoid other teams cards and bombs or you may lose.

The Virus: Cry for Help

Do you like the Lifeline series? The conversational text-based play style, the notifications for game progression? Do you wish it had more zombies? Well here you go then. The Virus casts you as a nameless outsider helping a woman trapped inside a zombie-infested city. Notifications that progress the story can be replied to in-line. The Virus is free to download with a $2 in-app purchase to unlock the whole story.

A whole city belongs to the dead and a devastating virus turns people into mindless monsters. Hanna's a survivor and right now she's fighting for her life... and you receive her call for help. Use your smartphone or tablet to communicate with Hanna. Help her and maybe it's enough to save her and even everyone else. You decide the course of the adventure - in real time. Hanna will frequently send you text messages: in the app, via push notification. You can directly answer the push-messages without starting the app.

Put A Sock In It!

Put a Sock In It is, broadly, an adventure game, in that your dialogue choices are the primary means by which the story is progressed. The thing is, it's a story all about sad and sarcastic sock puppets, and you (the player) are a bored woman stuck in a locked building telling it to yourself. Hand-drawn visuals and biting humor combine for a unique indie game. It's free with no in-app purchases.

Having locked herself in a stairwell, Serena is quickly beginning to run out of distractions. Thankfully, she has two colorful socks and a penchant for amusing herself. You choose a pair of socks and to pass the time Serena will weave short, humorous skits based on your selections, with storylines ranging from romantic melodrama between Princess and Stable Boy to merciless quarrels between an evil Wizard and spooky Ghost.

Be sure to check out our gaming coverage from earlier this week: