Games

Mar

Mika Mobile's Decision To Stop Making Games For Android Raises Troubling Questions And Concerns About Developing For The Platform

Posted by David Ruddock in Android OS, Dev, Editorials, News

If you've never heard of Mika Mobile, that's not a huge surprise - they're a small, but fairly successful mobile game developer that focuses primarily on iOS. Their number one title (in terms of recent sales) is Zombieville USA 2, which has over 68,000 ratings on the App Store, and the most recent version of the game has averaged 5 stars. So we're clear, that's no small feat.

Their first game, Zombieville USA, was released for Android last July. I reviewed it and, frankly, wasn't a big fan (particularly because the first release seemed plagued with bugs). It's a relatively mundane time-killing side-scroller in which you button-mash zombies to death with a variety of weapons and characters.

Mar

[Update: Modern Combat 3 Added] Deal Alert: Google Launches "Play Our Favorites" $0.49 App Promotion, Tons Of Awesome Apps And Games Included

Posted by David Ruddock in Apps/Games, Deals, News

To celebrate the launch of Google Play (and the death of the Market brand) and thank developers and Android users across the world, Google has launched a brand-new sale promotion for a number of features apps and games called "Play Our Favorites."

Here's a link (limited to certain countries only, sorry guys). So far, the included apps are:

World of Goo
Jamie's 20 Minute Meals
Shadowgun
Osmos HD
TuneIn Radio Pro
I Just Forgot - Little Critter
Sprinkle
Need for Speed Hot Pursuit
Asphalt 6: Adrenaline
Dead Space
Business Calendar
SoundHound
mSecure - Password Manager
NFL Flick Quarterback
NOVA 2
Quell Reflect
Endomondo Sports Tracker Pro
Flick Golf Extreme
They need To Be Fed
Paper Camera
ZOOKEEPER DX
SwiftKey X
Camera ZOOM FX
It's Tyrannosaurus Rex!

Mar

13 Best Android 3.0+ Apps For Tablets From The Last 3 Weeks (2/17/12 - 3/9/12)

Posted by Artem Russakovskii in Applications, Best Apps/Games/LWPs Of The Week, Games, News, Tablets

Welcome to the weekly roundup of the best new Android applications, games, and live wallpapers that went live in the Market or were spotted by us in the previous 3 weeks or so.

This edition focuses only on new tablet apps or ones that added tablet support. Regular apps are coming soon. Games are here.

Please wait for this page to load in full in order to see the AppBrain widgets, which include ratings and pricing info.

Looking for the previous roundup editions? Find them here.

For Tablets

OnLive Desktop

Android Police review: Fascinating: OnLive Unveils OnLive Desktop - A Free, Instantly Available Windows 7 Cloud Instance For Tablets, Complete With MS Office, Media Streaming, And More [Hands-On]

I was quite impressed with OnLive's new Desktop tablet app (did I say that right?), which spins up an instance of Windows 7 Cloud edition - you guessed it, in the cloud, complete with full Office productivity programs and a few other nice things.

Mar

[Deal Alert] Game Devs, Listen Up: Unity3D Basic Android And iOS Add-Ons Free Until April 8th (Normally $400)

Posted by Cameron Summerson in Deals, Games, News

If you developed a game using the Unity 3D engine and have been looking to port the title to Android or iOS, we have good news. The basic mobile add-ons for the Unity3D, normally $400 each, are now free until April 8th.

This will allow users of the Unity 3D engine to easily port their game to Android and/or iOS with little effort, as opposed to spending months writing all new code. Of course, since these are the basic versions of the add-ons, there are limitations that will require the Pro version of Unity (and the add-ons) to overcome, but if you've been considering trying your hand at porting a Unity game to Android or iOS, this is probably the best time to give it a shot before shelling out $1500 for the Pro versions.

Mar

Big News For Big Apps: Android App Size Limit Bumped Up From 50MB To 4GB

Posted by Eric Ravenscraft in Google, News

In the past, Android apps have been limited to a 50MB file size. App developers who needed to add extra data, as is the case with most big games, would have to have a secondary, self-hosted download after the user first launched the game. Today, that changes with Google introducing support for up to 4GB of "expansion files". While APKs must still be under 50MB, Google will host two 2GB files that include extra data for developers' apps. Nice!

This will solve a lot of problems for a lot of people, not the least of whom are developers. Since Google is doing the hosting, it's no longer necessary for a game developer to host hundreds of megabytes, or even gigabytes of data on their own servers.

Mar

28 Best New Android Games From The Last 2 Weeks (2/18/12 - 3/5/12)

Posted by Artem Russakovskii in Applications, Best Apps/Games/LWPs Of The Week, Games, News

Welcome to the weekly roundup of the best new Android applications, games, and live wallpapers that went live in the Market or were spotted by us in the previous 2 weeks or so.

This edition focuses only on new games. The app roundup is coming up soon.

Please wait for this page to load in full in order to see the AppBrain widgets, which include ratings and pricing info.

Looking for the previous roundup editions? Find them here.

Featured App

EasyMoney

Today's roundup is sponsored by Handy Apps' EasyMoney. EasyMoney is a popular personal finance manager for Android, which has already been downloaded over 500,000 times.

Mar

[New Game] 'HEIST: The Score' Lands In The Android Market, Brings Old School Gangster Action To Your Mobile

Posted by Cameron Summerson in Games, News

Dane Cook said that there are certain things every man wants, one of which is to be part of a heist. I can't say that I personally disagree with Mr. Cook, except I'm not sure that I'd fare very well in prison if my team of bank-robbing rebels was caught. That's where HEIST: The Score comes in handy.

HEIST is a rail shooter that puts you in the middle of a bank robbery back in the golden age of gangsters: the 1920s. You've got something to prove, and the heist seems relatively straight forward; until the whole thing goes horribly awry, leaving you to "fight your way out of an impossible situation."

^{Is that...}

Feb

[Game Roundup] Check Out Our Pick Of The 5 Best Games To Hit The Android Market In February 2012

Posted by Brandon Lancaster in Games

Zombie Wonderland 2: Outta Time

This is quite possibly one of my favorite games from the entire month, and even beats out many of the titles from the January installment of the Best Of series. In Zombie Wonderland 2, you play the role of Chuck, who just so happens to be Niceville's only Zombie Cleaner. That's an odd job title, is it not?

As Chuck, you'll play through 31 missions in 12 different places, and the goal is to protect your current location from hoards of oncoming zombies. You'll have access to a full arsenal of weapons to do your job, and you have to clean up the zombie guts after the onslaught is complete to avoid paying damages.

Feb

NVIDIA Announces New Tegra Zone Games Including Sonic The Hedgehog 4 Episode 2, Exclusively For Tegra 3 Devices

Posted by Eric Ravenscraft in Games, News

What good is four-to-five cores if you're not going to crank out some high-quality games to go along with it? That's the question NVIDIA had to ask itself. Thankfully, we're getting the answer in the form of some brand new quad-core-optimized games coming to the Tegra Zone. Perhaps the most recognizable name on the list is Sonic the Hedgehog 4: Episode II.

Sonic the Hedgehog 4: Episode II

In a follow up to Sonic the Hedgehog 4: Episode I, available on the Market now, the sequel is bringing a new set of effects and updated graphics to the classic console games.

Feb

[New Game] Meltdown On Mars Sets Up A Colony On The Android Market, Pits You Against Invading Alien Hordes, Ripley-Style

Posted by Eric Ravenscraft in Games, News

Thumbstar Games, whose previous work appears to be an Android version of that game they played in Hackers, has launched its new shooter/tower defense game for Android, Meltdown on Mars. The game is reminiscent of Gun Bros., with some tower defense elements adding an extra layer of strategy to the game.

The game utilizes a dual-virtual-joystick system to move and shoot. You can also create and upgrade towers to help you defeat the incoming invasion. The game is a nice blend of action and strategy. Straight tower defense games are fun, but can get a little tedious once you've settled into a strategy and wait for the automated enemies to come flooding in.