Welcome to the roundup of the best new Android games that went live in the Play Store or were spotted by us in the previous week or so. Today's list is broken up into several segments, ranging from best, average, to mediocre. So whether you're looking for the best games of quality or are simply looking for the latest free-to-play gacha titles, you're covered. This week I have a top-notch adventure noir, a slick low-poly story-based adventure, and a fantastic indie platformer from Crescent Moon. So without further ado, here are the new and notable Android games released during the last week.

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Looking for the previous roundup editions? Find them here.

Best Games

Titles that offer fair pricing, enjoyable gameplay, polished interfaces, or are intriguing

Chicken Police – Paint it RED!

Chicken Police – Paint it RED is the latest port from HandyGames. This is a quirky noir adventure staring characters sporting animal heads that are placed on top of human bodies. The odd presentation is downright superb, and this is a lengthy title, clocking in at 6 hours for the main story, which can stretch to 15 hours for all of you completionists out there. So if you're a fan of noir settings, quirky stories, solid presentations, and are big into point-and-click adventure games, then you should definitely check out Chicken Police – Paint it RED.

Monetization: $9.99 / no ads / no IAPs

Embracelet

Embracelet is a story-rich adventure game that was recently ported to Android. The visuals offer a slick low-poly style that fits well with the Norwegian island you're tasked with exploring. This is more slice of life game than an adventure title, though there's some unique storytelling included. Just keep in mind this isn't a game for kids. It's more a title for teens and adults with a few grown-up themes, so don't let the simple graphics fool you. All in all, this is an enjoyable point-and-click adventure that should last most players four to five hours.

Monetization: $7.99 / no ads / no IAPs

Embracelet Developer: machineboy
Price: 7.99
Download

Duck Souls

Duck Souls is the latest release from Crescent Moon, and this is a port of an indie platformer that has just made its way to Android this week. The graphics are fairly simple since this is a pixel-based game, but the gameplay is solid, albeit challenging. There are 100 levels to explore, and there's even a hardcore difficulty for all of you masochists out there. So if you're a big fan of portable platformers, then you're going to want to check out Duck Souls.

Monetization: $1.99 / no ads / no IAPs

Duck Souls Developer: Crescent Moon Games
Price: 1.99
4.2
Download

Polychoron

Polychoron might not look like much at first, but once you see it in action, it's clear this title was inspired by Descent, a fairly popular Doom clone from back in the day. Seeing that I'm a huge fan of Descent, I found Polychoron to be a delightful tribute in mobile form. The goal, to solve each stage's maze, but of course, a bunch of baddies stands in your way, and so you'll have to clear out the game's drones in order to make it through each level. These mazes are procedurally generated, so you have an unlimited amount of content to explore as you try your best to reach a high score.

Monetization: free / no ads / no IAPs

Polychoron Developer: FRACTiLE Games
Price: Free
Download

Tropico: The People's Demo

Tropico: The People's Demo is exactly that, a demo for the mobile Tropico game released on the Play Store in 2019. Why it took two years to get a demo out, I don't know, but now that it's here, everyone can easily check the game out without spending a dime. This way, you can see if performance is up to snuff before you plunk down on the full version.

Monetization: free / no ads / no IAPs

Tropico: The People's Demo Developer: Feral Interactive
Price: Free
4.2
Download

Forest Camp Story

Amazingly Kairosoft is still pumping out management sims. This time around, you can expect to grow a campground or two by micromanaging each ground's customers and activities. It's a typical Kairosoft game, simply sporting a new theme. So if you enjoy such things, then there's plenty to like about this title. Plus, this is a premium release absent of in-app purchases, which is always lovely to see.

Monetization: $6.99 / no ads / no IAPs

Forest Camp Story Developer: Kairosoft
Price: 5.99
4.8
Download

Bomb Club

Bomb Club is a fun little puzzle game where you'll strategically detonate all kinds of bombs to get them all to explode in order to move on to the next level. It's a simple setup, and it works well. Plus, the game is monetized properly, so you won't have to worry about any annoyances as you play. There are hundreds of levels to explore, so there's a good bit of content to keep you busy.

Monetization: free / no ads / IAPs $0.99 apiece

Bomb Club Developer: Antoine Latour
Price: Free
4.6
Download

Tower Blocks!

Tower Blocks is a simple stacking game, but unlike similar titles, this is a totally free released absent of ads and in-app purchases. The goal, of course, is to build the tallest tower of blocks possible, which isn't so easy, making this a challenging game that's still fun to pick up and play whenever you have a few spare minutes.

Monetization: free / no ads / no IAPs

Average Games

Titles that may not be the best-of-the-best, but still offer fun and interesting mechanics

The Actual Game Rescue - Pull the Pin

You know how Google allows all kinds of fake ads for mobile games on YouTube? Well, some crazy developer has actually made a real game inspired by the images we've all seen in those fake games. It's called The Actual Game Rescue - Pull the Pin, and it's a puzzler where you'll pull a pin to solve said puzzles. There are 57 levels to explore, and more content is planned for the future.

Monetization: free / contains ads / IAPs from $1.49 - $4.99

Sweet Roll

Sweet Roll is a simple game where you'll roll a ball through tons of different courses in order to color these courses 100% in a new color. This setup is intuitive, and the controls work well, making for an enjoyable casual game that just about anyone can pick up and play with ease. Best of all, Sweet Roll is a free release absent of any ads, meaning anyone can check it out without having to worry about any annoyances.

Monetization: free / no ads / no IAPs

Sweet Roll Developer: OHM Games
Price: Free
Download

PoTII: RB

Rhythm games and horrible names, it just goes hand-in-hand. Despite the nonsensical letter-salad of a title, PoTII: RB (The Prince of Tennis II: Rising Beat) is an alright rhythm game. It's themed around tennis for some reason, an odd choice for a rhythm game, but in practice, this theme fits well with the design of the game, where you'll tap on the screen to the beat of the music. Like most Rhythm games, this release is stuffed with in-app purchases, but that's to be expected because the entire point of this genre is to sell additional music.

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

Mediocre Games

Titles that are buggy, unpolished, or offer aggressive monetization

Mitrasphere

Mitrasphere is the latest anime-themed game from Crunchyroll, and it's another in a long line of RPG bawlers where you'll tap on cards to choose your moves while fighting with a team of four. Think MARVEL Strike Force, and you're getting close. It's a played-out setup that's been done to death, just with a new anime skin slapped on top. The game is also monetized poorly, showing precisely why Crunchyroll chose to enter the mobile game publishing market. Clearly, Crunchyroll sees its fanbase as a plump pocket to be picked.

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

Epic Fantasy

Epic Fantasy is a typical gacha game that offers over 150 heroes to collect. This setup is what allows the game to be heavily pay-to-win, and worse yet, despite the gacha design, this is also an idle game. Because why actually play something when you can let it play itself after you've dropped a ton of funs to get past the latest grind wall. Like how much lazier can game design get? This junk is offensively bad because all it boils down to is gambling, which sure is odd for a game marketed to teens. It's almost like Google allows this blatant abuse because it profits from it.

Monetization: free / no ads / IAPs from $0.99 - $94.99

Epic Fantasy Developer: Cravemob
Price: Free
4.4
Download

Darkest Rogue 3D : Slingshot RPG

It would seem the publisher behind the Real Moto series has been branching out into other areas, and so Darkest Rogue 3D is the latest release from the company. This is an RPG that you'll control through slingshot mechanics, both your character and your moves. This allows for easy control on a touchscreen, but sadly the game is filled with in-app purchases, and so the balance is poor, and the grind is annoying. Too bad, too, because this could have been a good game. Instead, it's a blatant cash grab, just like everything else this publisher pumps out.

Monetization: free / contains ads / IAPs from $0.99 - $99.99

Rogue Land

Rogue Land is essentially an Archero clone, and much like its inspiration, this game is stuffed with in-app purchases. Despite the title being labeled as easy to play, you will hit grind walls because this game doesn't actually take skill to advance. Either you win easily, or you lose spectacularly, there is no in-between, and that's because the game is balanced to suck pockets dry instead of being designed for fun, which ruins any reason to bother playing, just like every other horribly monetized F2P release in today's list. Unsurprisingly, this cash-grab clone is lackluster.

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

Rogue Land Developer: Huuuge Games - Play Together
Price: Free
4.4
Download

Mafia Crime War

Mafia Crime War is described by a word salad of genres. It's an MMO strategic card game, and of course, the developer hasn't uploaded a single helpful screenshot or trailer (now why would a dev purposefully hide what their game looks like, hmm) because this is a garbage game designed to suck up money, just like all of the other mafia games on the Play Store. So far, connection woes are frequent, and really, the whole thing boils down to building an empire, of which there are many better games available that offer a much deeper empire-building setup that isn't plagued by bugs and greed.

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

Mafia Crime War! Developer: ONEMT
Price: Free
Download

Claw Stars

Claw Stars has finally left early access. It's essentially a claw game, much like the physical claw games in arcades. It will be your job to obtain unique items by picking them up with your claw. Of course, this is a free-to-play release, so it's monetized horribly, all there to "help" players alleviate the game's purpose-built grind walls, much like any F2P match-3 title. So while skill isn't a requirement, patience or a fat wallet are.

Monetization: free / contains ads / IAPs from $1.99 - $99.99

Claw Stars Developer: Appxplore (iCandy)
Price: Free
4.5
Download

Botworld Adventure

Botworld Adventure is an open-world game where you'll fight bots in strategic battles as you explore the in-game world. But really, this is a simple gacha title where you'll collect bots to form a team in order to take on your many foes. You battle these foes to earn the scrap used to build more bots, creating a boring but lucrative gameplay loop. Of course, like all gacha games, the monetization in this title is awful, and the grind stinks too, which is precisely why the game's IAPs are so lofty.

Monetization: free / contains ads / IAPs from $1.99 - $99.99

Botworld Adventure Developer: Featherweight
Price: Free
4.6
Download

Barcode Hero Rises - Fighting Action RPG

Barcode Hero Rises offers an interesting mechanic where you'll scan barcodes to make your items and characters more powerful in what is essentially an RPG. Sadly the game is absolutely stuffed with in-app purchases, and of course, all of the typical free-to-play annoyances are present, and so you'll have to build a base, another ham-fisted avenue for grind on top of typical RPG systems one would expect. While I love that someone is working on a mobile game that can utilize barcodes as a mechanic, the F2P design of this title stinks.

Monetization: free / contains ads / IAPs from $0.99 - $129.99

Know A Worthy New App? Let Us Know!

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  • the app's launch date has to be no longer than 2 weeks ago
  • it has to be original, ground-breaking, well-reviewed, interesting, fun, etc - the cream of the crop

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