Matt Demers - Android Police - Android News, Apps, Games, Phones, Tablets

Matt Demers

Matt Demers is a Toronto writer that deals primarily in the area of Android, comics and other nerdy pursuits. You can find his work on Twitter and sites across the Internet.

Follow @MattDemers

Dec

Flower Power: Eufloria HD Review

Posted by Matt Demers in Apps/Games, Game Reviews, Games, Reviews

My fondest memories of the original Star Wars films were the starfighter dogfights. The first time you see the assault run on the Death Star, or the ill-fated attack on the second before it was finished, it's really cool to watch a bunch of fighter craft flying around, blowing the heck out of each other. Every once in a while, you can get the same sense of scale and calamity in a game - usually of the real-time strategy variety.

Eufloria is a game that manages to capture this sense of chaos, allowing you to zoom out to see the entire asteroid belt you're capable of conquering, or to zoom in completely to see each individual ship firing lasers at targets.

Dec

Honestly, Kind Of Dull: Broken Sword II - The Smoking Mirror Review

Posted by Matt Demers in Apps/Games, Game Reviews, Games, Reviews

It's safe to say that while point-and-click adventure games have a very niche market, there's a select few mediums where they work well. Touch devices and PCs have always been prime candidates, as their interfaces lend themselves to a control scheme that isn't overly complicated: click to move, click to interact, click to do everything.

Especially with this year's The Walking Dead games garnering so much praise, the genre could be in for a little bit of a renaissance. With the recent release of Broken Sword II - The Smoking Mirror: Remastered, Android gamers will get an updated look at a game that many have touted as one of the best adventures in the genre.

Dec

Making Editing A Snap: Snapseed Review

Posted by Matt Demers in App Reviews, Reviews

It's hard out there for a photo app these days. After the runaway success of Instagram, a lot of imitators popped up thinking that if they offered the same "snap, filter and share" features, users would flock to them, as well.

Sadly, this means that we have legions of piss-poor imitations without any clear alternatives; as the filter features became more ubiquitous, they almost provoke a roll of the eyes when announced. Unless an app fixes glaring problems with the market leader or offers some other kind of of advantage, users will find themselves wondering "What's the point?"

I was interested when it was announced that Google would be acquiring the Snapseed because it seemed almost in reaction to Facebook's purchase of Instagram.

Dec

Flying High: Falcon Pro Review

Posted by Matt Demers in App Reviews, Applications, Apps/Games, Reviews

Despite Twitter making it difficult for developers to maintain third-party clients, they just keep popping up. This week, we take a look at Falcon Pro, which seems to marry the idea of beauty, functionality, and smooth animations into a solid contender for the best of its kind.

^{Hey look, we're in this screenshot!}

Falcon Pro had roots as Falcon, a Twitter widget that was fully-functional and looked damned good, to boot. However, fans were restless for a full client release, so the development team released Falcon Pro, first as a beta and now as a complete package.

Dec

Dropping Some Science: Splice Review

Posted by Matt Demers in Apps/Games, Game Reviews, Games, Reviews

I first played Cipher Prime's Splice when it was part of a recent fourth Humble Bundle, and it still enjoys a place in my Installed Games list on Steam. It's a puzzle game that involves taking different strains of bacteria and "splicing" them, moving around cells in order to fit an provided outline. Of course, you have a set amount of moves, and added "mutation" cells will change the game in different ways: for instance, one mutation will cause each cell attached to it to grow, or split identically. The trick is to plan ahead and think strategically in order to finish each level and move on.

Dec

Time To Wreck It!: Wreck-It Ralph Review

Posted by Matt Demers in Apps/Games, Game Reviews, Games, Reviews

As gamers, we've all become familiar with the tie-in title. These are usually released in conjunction with a movie or TV show to widen its exposure, and historically they're usually pretty sub-par.

However, Disney's Wreck-It Ralph subverts this trope because it's in the unique position of being based off of video games. That's kind of hard to mess up.

Wreck-It Ralph is a series of three (soon to be four) arcade games that feature characters and environments from the movie. The first is a direct port of the Fix-It Felix Jr. arcade game that Ralph calls home, the second will remind players of Doodle Jump and other "bounce as high as you can" games, and the third is a very modest twin-joystick shooter.

Dec

Game Review: Shoot Em Up + Rave = Beat Hazard Ultra

Posted by Matt Demers in Apps/Games, Game Reviews, Games, Reviews

I've been enjoying video games for most of my life, and some of them come with a seizure warning before I start playing. This is to make sure that people who are prone to seizures or headaches know that there is a large amount of strobe effects in the game they're about to start.

I've never felt that been susceptible to the problems the warnings are meant to address, but then again, I hadn't played Beat Hazard Ultra, either.

Beast Hazard Ultra is a shoot-em-up game that uses your music to generate levels. Gameplay-wise, it's a mix of Asteroids and the traditional two-joystick shooters that many players are already familiar with.

Dec

Do The Twist: Pixel Twist Review

Posted by Matt Demers in Apps/Games, Game Reviews, Games, Reviews

For all the shooters and racing games that mobile fans see, there's another subset that seems specifically made for the touch environment. "Zen" games are popular because they're relatively simple, can be played in short bursts to cure boredom, and ultimately allow their audience to sit back and relax. Pixel Twist fulfills all three of those criteria.

Pixel Twist starts off quite simple: you're given an exploded view of an image, like a lime, painting or game controller, and by moving the camera around you can line up the pixels so that they form a complete picture.

As you can see from the left screenshot, the game provides a hint to particularly frazzled players on the first few levels, but eventually they disappear.

Nov

Running Rings Around Other RPGs: Chaos Rings Omega Review

Posted by Matt Demers in Apps/Games, Game Reviews, Games, Reviews

What looks, plays, and sounds like a Final Fantasy game, but isn’t? If you answered Chaos Rings Omega, I’d like to give you a no-prize. This game comes to us from publisher Square-Enix, who also handles a lot of the other JRPGs that have shaped the genre into what it is today.

Like my colleagues at AP have commented, the Chaos Rings series may be their way of testing the waters before a full-fledged Final Fantasy mobile title, and it shows; the game is one of the most beautiful that I’ve ever played on the Android platform, and it is worth every penny of the $12.99 price tag.

Nov

Needs More Training: Avengers Initiative Review

Posted by Matt Demers in Apps/Games, Game Reviews, Games, Reviews

After a long time in development, Marvel (and their parent company Disney) have released Avengers Initiative to the Android masses. Coming with a $6.99 price tag on a limited number of devices, it adds to the growing list of Avengers-themed mobile games, even if only one of those heroes is available in this particular title.

The Premise

Avengers Initiative puts you in the role of the Hulk, who has been tasked in bringing in a number of super-villains who have escaped from a high-tech prison in the Marvel Universe. The game plays almost exactly like the popular Ininity Blade series on iOs, where you'll dodge, parry, and perform attacks in 1-on-1 duels.