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've got a unique indie shooter, a surprising "rolling" platformer, a new book-game, a new take on Q*Bert, an old-school RTS, and a cute block puzzler. Without further ado:
The Edge: Isometric Survival
In The Edge, you command a single purple rectangular prism which slides around an isometric stage. Broadly you could consider it a top-down shooter, but the sliding physics, jump button, and limited ammo mean that it requires a bit more thought than the usual "bullet hell" game. Both the gameplay and the graphics are pleasingly minimal, and there are no in-app purchases. There's also a free version if the $1 price tag is too rich for your blood.
The Edge brings simplistic controls and unanticipated enemy movement to the action arcade genre. This infinite survival based game is sure to keep you entertained for hours on end with unlimited re-playability. Inspired by the best survival based games, The Edge takes this to a minimal level with simplistic controls and easy but effective game mechanics that is sure to entertain for hours.
Aurora: Quarantine
Aurora: Quarantine stars a ball rolling around a simple plane... but the game is a lot more complex than that simple description might lead you to believe. The graphics are surprisingly advanced, and they service a detailed science fiction story: the ball is a remote-controlled robot deployed to clean up after an act of bio-terrorism. Aurora includes Marble Madness-style level design, a few puzzles to flesh things out, and support for external gamepads.
An unconventional game, that tests the skill and cleverness of a player, while merging the balance ball genre with an adventure game and an intriguing detective story, taking place in a realistic environment. Challenge yourselves while avoiding a variety of realistic traps, searching for secrets, earning a high score and upgrading your robotic ball. Can you overcome all challenges and complete your mission while saving the city?
Choices
Tin Man Games is known for conventional story-book titles, a mix of Choose Your Own Adventure-style storytelling and pen-and-paper RPGS. Choices is something new: while it keeps the developer's focus on text-based plot, the adventure is laid out in an open-ended story that advances with a new chapter every week. New chapters can be bought via in-app purchases or earned by watching video advertising.
What if the sun inexplicably vanished only to return hours later? Investigate with your AI companion, Moti. Uncover conspiracies. Discover ancient religions. Travel the globe. Find out who is murdering scientists and what this has to do with the random disappearances of the sun. This is your journey, and only your choices can expose the truth. Choices is a path-based adventure with a difference - the story regularly updates, and is ongoing. No one player can discover the entire story in a single play through.
Zenge
At first glance, Zenge seems like a collection of fairly straightforward jigsaw puzzles. But putting the pieces on rails makes things much more interesting than they might otherwise be: puzzles must be assembled in a specific order and orientation to solve the stage. The pastel colors and neutral music place this one squarely in the "zen" category. Zenge is $1 with no in-app purchases.
Zenge is a peculiar puzzle game, telling the story of Eon - a lonely journeyman who's stuck between the worlds and time. Game is intended to be a relaxing experience, thus there are no points, stars, tutorials, move counters, in game shops or any other distractors. Just pure, immersive journey with Eon, told through gorgeous art and music.
Mars Mountain
Mars Mountain takes more than a few pages out of Q*Bert's book. You're an astronaut who's crashed his ship. The only objective is to hop down the isometric mountain and grab coins, stars, and canisters while avoiding the various bad guys and obstacles. Controls are simple - just left and right - so the gameplay is focused on timing and foresight. In-app purchases are limited to a $2 upgrade to banish advertising.
You've crashed landed on Mars. Now it's up to you to join the space crew of Apollo 741 in search of cannisters to repair your ship. Dodge fireballs, evade UFOs, escape man-eating plants and much more in this action packed jumping adventure.
- Casual tap style gameplay
- Dodge anything thats sharp and everything that moves
- Master your timing to conquer the mountain
- Collect stars to unlock new characters
- Grab cannisters to boost your score
- Easy to learn but insanely hard to master
- High resolution pixel art design
- Super groovy tunes
Machines at War 3 RTS
It's so nice to see a standard real-time strategy game on Android, rather than yet another Clash of Clans clone out for every IAP it can get. Fans of classic top-down strategy games like Red Alert will find a bit of familiar territory in Machines at War 3, and like the best games of its type, the focus is on efficient resource management, building up troops, and progressing through the tech tree. A single player campaign and online multiplayer are included.
Command and elite force through 21 campaign missions in this real time strategy game, build over 130 different types of units and technologies, enjoy unlimited random map skirmishes, and dominate in network multiplayer with friends.
• Build over 130 different types of units and technologies
• Rescue the Omicron Initiative in 21 missions
• Play unlimited random map skirmishes
• Conquer four friends in online multiplayer combat
• Dominate with seven awesome RTS mega units
• Deploy a full arsenal of infantry, aircraft, naval, and ground forces
AfterLoop
AfterLoop stars a tiny robot who is definitely, certainly not Disney's Wall-E. He needs to get through a series of levels made up of linear paths obstructed by sliding block puzzles (which should be familiar to anyone who played Pokemon). The gameplay is simple but effective, though the $20 in-app purchases are a bit discouraging. Unlike most new games on the Play Store, this one is compatible with Android TV.
PR8, the cute robot, will guide you in a fun and entertaining way in the unique universe of AfterLoop. Solve a wide range of puzzles with an incredible variety of challenges in the middle of a mysterious forest, escape from an arid desert, melt your brain in a shimmering ice cave. Open new paths towards answers and get closer to the exit. However, PR8 has a long adventure that awaits him. It's time to discover what's after the loop.
Be sure to check out our gaming coverage from earlier this week: