Welcome to the roundup of the new Android games that went live in the Play Store or were spotted by us in the previous week or so. Today I have the surprise release of Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, a puzzle-based Harvest Moon title, and an enjoyable take on the British game show Countdown from the developer behind Chessplode. So without further ado, here are the more notable Android games released during the week of March 2nd, 2020.

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Looking for the previous roundup editions? Find them here.

Games

Castlevania: Symphony of the Night

Android Police coverage: Castlevania: Symphony of the Night is one of the best Metroidvania games ever made, now available on Android

Konami caught everyone by surprise this week by releasing Castlevania: Symphony of the Night on the Google Play Store, the very game that defined the Metroidvania genre. It's easily one of the best Metroidvanias made to date, even though it's considered the first, which really speaks to the polish of this aging title. More or less, this is a port of the PSP version, so it contains new voice work over the original PS1 offering. Amazingly Konami has seen fit to include physical controller support out of the box, though there is no way to customize those controls. All in all, this is an extremely solid release, and for $2.99, you can't really go wrong.

Monetization: $2.99 / no ads / no IAPs

Castlevania: SotN Developer: KONAMI
Price: 2.99
4
Download

Harvest Moon: Mad Dash

Android Police coverage: Harvest Moon: Mad Dash turns the farming sim into a casual puzzler, now available on the Play Store

Harvest Moon: Mad Dash is a casual puzzler from Natsume that offers a friendly Harvest Moon theme. Unlike the title's in the core series, this is an offshoot release where matching harvests is the goal, all by dragging and dropping the crops across the field. This is a level-based release, and yes, you'll want to get three stars in each level if you wish to complete this title. Unlike many mobile games, this is a premium title, so what you see is what you get.

Monetization: $4.99 / no ads / no IAPs

Harvest Moon: Mad Dash Developer: Natsume Inc
Price: 4.99
3.4
Download

POWERCUT, Inc.

POWERCUT, Inc. is an arcade game that plays like a management title. It will be your job to control the power supplied to your employees. Should you not provide enough power, you won't earn a lot of money. Of course, if you spoil your workers, things can go bad too. It will take a perfect balance of power supply to make it through this title, which is actually a lot more fun than it sounds. If you enjoy wielding control in small but aggravating ways, then you're going to love this release.

Monetization: $3.49 / no ads / no IAPs

POWERCUT, Inc. Developer: PID Games
Price: 3.49
Download

Dr Seuss's ABC - An Amazing AR Alphabet!

Dr. Seuss's ABC is an educational augmented reality game that stars everyone's favorite Dr. Seuss characters. Essentially this is an alphabet app designed to help children learn letters and words, all through adorable AR characters displayed on your screen as if they are located in your actual surroundings. This is why I have no doubt that young children will easily get a kick out of this release.

Monetization: $3.99 / no ads / no IAPs

Human Heroes Atom Blast - Elements With Curie

Human Heroes Ltd has been pumping out polished educational games over the last year or so, and Human Heroes Atom Blast - Elements With Curie is the latest title in the series. It covers many topics found in the UK National Curriculum and appears to be centered around the actual science behind Marie Curie's radioactivity research. So yes, this is a highly polished educational game that offers slick art and quality voice work, but this polish is exactly why the title only supports English language users, limiting its usefulness in many regions.

Monetization: free / no ads / no IAPs

Death Rush

Death Rush is an early-access release that offers simple shooting action. It will be your job to mow down hordes of bad guys with an assortment of weapons, and there are even a few boss fights in the mix to keep things interesting. Of course, since this is an early access release, the game's monetization isn't active yet, so now is probably the best time to jump in before things get bogged down with the usual F2P mechanics.

Monetization: free / contains ads / no IAPs

Death Rush Developer: Reality Squared Games
Price: Free
Download

Hit Shadow

Hit Shadow is a unique release from Ketchapp that's all about teaching users how to make shadow puppets as a gameplay mechanic. In order to accomplish this task, you'll have to place your fingers on the screen in order to create the shapes also displayed on your screen, which can be tough but is also pretty amusing, though it's clear the game lacks polish. So I can't say this game will entertain for hours, and the title's annoying advertisements sure don't help in this regard either.

Monetization: free / contains ads / IAPs ?

Men In Black: Galaxy Defenders

It would appear that Men In Black: Galaxy Defenders is currently being tested as a soft-launch release in the Philippines. This means the majority of our readers won't be able to jump into this title just yet, though since it's already out in select territories, I figure there may be more than a few readers here that would like to give the game a closer look. All in all, this title is an on-rails shooter that offers a story that takes place within the Men in Black Universe.

Monetization: free / contains ads / IAPs from ?

Z.O.N.A Shadow of Lemansk Redux

Z.O.N.A Shadow of Lemansk Redux is the latest release from AGaming+, a mobile developer that knows a thing or two about horror games. It would appear that this release is a remaster of an older release, though I have to say this isn't a bad thing since the original Z.O.N.A Shadow of Lemansk was an enjoyable first-person post-apocalyptic shooter in its own right.

Monetization: free / contains ads / IAPs $1.99 a piece

Brainito - Words vs Numbers

Brainito - Words vs Numbers comes from the creator of Chessplode, one of my favorite chess games on the Play Store. Brainito is another solid release from the dev, but this time around, the gameplay is centered around the mechanics of the British game show Countdown. Essentially it's a game that offers rounds where you form words and rounds where you perform simple math. All in all, the title is designed well, it's easy to navigate, and the gameplay is pretty self-explanatory, which is why you shouldn't snooze on this release.

Monetization: free / contains ads / IAPs from $1.99 - $2.49

Escape Machine City: Airborne

Escape Machine City: Airborne is a gorgeous escape room game from Snapbreak, the same people behind the Faraway escape series. So clearly, this is a dev that knows what they are doing within this genre, and after playing Escape Machine City, it's apparent that the title stacks up. There are many different puzzles to solve, and the first eight levels are free, so players can decide if they'd like to purchase the title through an in-app purchase if they enjoy what's there to sample.

Monetization: free / contains ads / IAPs from $1.99 - $3.99

Escape Machine City: Airborne Developer: Snapbreak
Price: Free
4.3
Download

Don Zombie: A Last Stand Against The Horde

Halloween may not be for another seven months, but that doesn't mean fighting for your survival in a zombie apocalypse can't still be fun. Don Zombie plays like a classic action shooter, so you better believe you'll find plenty of cool weapons to arm yourself with. As you earn money and battle against the game's many hordes of zombies, you'll be able to upgrade your equipment so that you can slay the mass of undead plaguing the in-game world.

Monetization: free / contains ads / IAPs from $2.99 - $7.99

Don Zombie: Guns and Gore Developer: No Six Five
Price: Free
4.4
Download

RaceCraft - Build & Race

RaceCraft - Build & Race is just that, a racer where you'll build your own stunt courses. These courses can then be raced online against friends or family, and of course, there's a ton of customization options so that everyone can look unique while they race. Just keep in mind that many of the title's features are locked behind paywalls, which is where the title's in-app purchases come into play.

Monetization: free / contains ads / IAPs from $0.99 - $19.99

Orc Heist

Orc Heist is an adorable casual game where you'll lower felines into numerous orcs mouths in order to take back the treasure these orcs ate. Essentially this is a game all about timing, and so it will be your job to time your taps on the screen so that you don't wake up the sleeping orcs as you dive into their mouths to recover lost treasure.

Monetization: free / contains ads / IAPs from $0.99 - $49.99

Orc Heist Developer: Puditobi
Price: Free
5
Download

It's Literally Just Mowing

Now that spring is almost here, it's time again for a plethora of mowing games to arrive on the Play Store, and it would appear that Literally Just Mowing is one of the first for 2020. Like most mowing games, the goal is to mow digital yards, but even though this is described as a "zen experience," the title is filled with in-app purchases. For a game designed around a simple mechanic like mowing, it sure seems odd that its in-app purchases reach up to $49.99 per item. Man, it's almost like there is nothing zen about a F2P game filed with IAPs, no matter how many times the game is described otherwise.

Monetization: free / contains ads / IAPs from $0.99 - $49.99

It's Literally Just Mowing Developer: Protostar
Price: Free
4.6
Download

The Seven Deadly Sins: Grand Cross

The Seven Deadly Sins: Grand Cross is a new release from Netmarble, and it's a brand-new turn-based RPG that stars the characters from The Seven Deadly Sins manga and anime. Like most branded free-to-play releases, this mobile RPG contains a boatload of in-app purchases while offering the same grindy gameplay and PvP content as every other F2P RPG on the Play Store. Imagine that.

Monetization: free / contains ads / IAPs from $0.99 - $79.99

The Seven Deadly Sins Developer: Netmarble
Price: Free
4.3
Download

Wild Brawlers

Wild Brawlers is the latest battle royale game to arrive on the Play Store. This is a title that plays from a bird's eye view, which should keep the title's graphics from being too demanding. Much like an io release, it will be up to the player to try and survive each round as the last-man standing. Of course, there are tons of weapons to utilize, not to mention a plethora of cosmetics to theme your character with. Essentially this is a game that plays out like a larger match of Brawl Stars, and sadly its monetization matches its inspiration.

Monetization: free / no ads / IAPs from $0.99 - $99.99

Wild Frontier

Wild Frontier is a brand new strategy game that takes place in the Wild West. Essentially this title plays just like any other Clash of Clans clone on the Play Store, though its theme and art are pleasant. As you would expect, the current reviews offer a mix of blind defenders of any-and-all monetization styles, and the rest are bad reviews from people that can clearly see the purpose of this release. Much like any free-to-play title, it all comes down to whether or not you are willing to ignore the game's greedy (and annoying) monetization.

Monetization: free / no ads / IAPs from $0.99 - $99.99

Scrabble® GO - New Word Game

You'd think at this point that greedy companies would have run out of ways to monetize the game Scrabble. Electronic Arts somehow managed to stuff $49.99 in-app purchases into its version, and the Words with Friends series has been stuffing ridiculous IAPS in its clones since the first release. Then in comes Scopely this week with the launch of Scrabble GO - New Word Game, which not only changes the familiar mechanics of the base game by adding in a bunch of new game modes, the company somehow managed to stuff in $299.99 IAPs as well. Yes, you read that right, Scoopy thinks people will spend $300 on yet another mobile Scrabble title, and worse yet, the studio isn't wrong.

Monetization: free / contains ads / IAPs from $0.99 - $299.99

Know A Worthy New App? Let Us Know!

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