back to article Ten... top Android games

Reg Hardware Mobile Week Traditionally, if you wanted your phone or media player to double up as a gaming platform, you bought an iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch. But the last 12 months have seen a veritable revolution in the number and quality of games available for Android. Some of the games here had me giggling like a fool, …

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  1. Morphius
    Unhappy

    Ice Breaker

    Maybe it is just me, but I can't find this one in the Android Market place and the link on the article also errors!

    1. I_am_Chris

      Re: Ice Breaker

      Doesn't work for me either

    2. 1Rafayal

      Re: Ice Breaker

      I tend to find that when a device isnt supported on the App Marketplace, you dont get to see the game/app.

      Could be the same for you? I have a Lenovo Thinkpad, and due to this, I dont see all the games and apps out there.

  2. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    you seem to be missing some of the Kairosoft games?

  3. talltower

    You've missed the masterpiece which is Grand Theft Auto 3. Plays like a dream on my galaxy s2 and only a couple of quid

    1. Danny 14
      Go

      aye

      GTA3 crashes on my SG2 if I put the screen resolution up. Oddly enough if I immediately open it again it works quite flawlessly.

      Much fun to be had on it though.

    2. BorkedAgain

      GTA3 +1

      Quite. Absolutely stonking on my Note. Quite remarkable.

  4. Anonymous Coward
    Thumb Up

    Anomaly - Warzone Earth

    Picked this up in the recent Humble Bundle. Fantastic time waster.

    https://market.android.com/details?id=com.elevenbitstudios.AnomalyWarzoneEarthHD&feature=search_result#?t=W251bGwsMSwxLDEsImNvbS5lbGV2ZW5iaXRzdHVkaW9zLkFub21hbHlXYXJ6b25lRWFydGhIRCJd

  5. Morteus

    Chatup lines?

    Anyone got a working link to Ice Breaker THE GAME? All I can find is some cheesy chat up app

  6. Mark C Casey

    Sprinkle is free if you own a Samsung phone

    If you own a samsung phone then using the "Samsung Apps" app you can download Sprinkle for free. I'm also a bit surprised Dead Space (also free on samsung apps) or GTA 3 aren't on this list.

    Only downside to Samsung Apps is that the downloaded apps can get into a bit of a conflict with android market.

  7. JetSetJim
    Thumb Up

    Instead of Ice Breaker...

    ... try Ceramic Destroyer. Same principle, possibly even the exact same bomb types. Lots more levels for free and the ads are not very intrusive, either. Can't think of a better 0p I've spend - tops Angry Birds, in my book.

    Also, look for "3D Space Game" - aka "Elite". Controls are a bit difficult to work, but it's a fun bit of nostalgia (and also free)

  8. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Shadowrun???

    I played that on a couple of Tegra 3 demos yesterday and I thought it was bloody awful! Another middling 3rd person cover shooter in the 360 style, with a contextual cover system that barely works, the most boring multiplayer maps I've seen in a long time - in fact, that's the right word for it: boring. Boring, boring, boring, all over. If the word "generic" were given form....well, I suppose it was, and they called it Halo, but Shadowrun comes close.

    Dull.

    So. Very. Dull.

    1. Steve Knox
      Headmaster

      Typo?

      Who's got the typo?

      The article reviewed ShadowGun. You're complaining about ShadowRun. Typo, or are you talking about different games?

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Typo?

        I did get its incredibly uninspired name wrong, yes, but ShadowGun, ShadowRun, it's still ShadowShite.

  9. Geoff Campbell Silver badge
    Boffin

    You missed one.

    (Yes, yes, I know....)

    Tower Raiders, and especially the sequel Tower Raiders 2. The best tower defence games I have ever played, on any platform, bar none.

    GJC

  10. Filippo Silver badge

    I wish Android app developers were more careful with permissions. I get that ad-supported games need to access the network (although I'd like a "only access the network to get ads" permission). But exactly why does Dead On Arrival need to know what other applications are running, or who I am calling on my phone?

    1. Phil W

      I'm not certain since I'm not an Android app developer but I suspect call info permissions are to properly enable the game to pause when an incoming call is received

  11. min

    i'm still..

    ..enjoying a spot of ol' Pirates and Traders when i have a few moments on the tube. i just can't shake off from playing it! (this was once i had finished all the other gameloft games i had on my phone)

  12. Bit Brain

    Speedx 3D also deserves a mention

    Another great tunnel racer is Speedx 3D.

    https://market.android.com/details?id=com.bytestorm.speedx

  13. The Jon
    Thumb Up

    aDosBox and Civilization has got me gaming like it's 1992.

    1. Parax
      Thumb Up

      aDosBox

      and xcom enemy unknown has me :D

    2. cowbutt

      ScummVM

      And whilst you're on an emulation streak, ScummVM to run LucasArts (and a few others besides) point-and-click adventure games.

  14. ZoesDad

    Also worth checking out

    Disney's "Where's my water" is well worth a look, especially if you have kids. Simple enough in theory: Get the water to the bathtub. The physics engine is excellent and puzzles are nicely weighted, introducing new elements as it goes.

    1. Morphius
      Thumb Up

      Re: Also worth checking out

      I do agree with this one... getting all the achievements was not easy.... the kids get a friendly croc to watch and laugh at, and I get hugely frustrated trying to collect 3 ducks on every level!

  15. 1Rafayal

    Sonic CD

    Is there a reason Sonic CD isnt listed in this review?

    it has recently been released for Android and is pretty excellent for a 20(ish) year old game.

    1. Al Taylor
      Alert

      Re: Sonic CD

      Yes - it costs nearly £3.78 and is almost as old as me!

  16. hamsterjam
    Trollface

    Ad-supported is not "free", please don't pretend otherwise

    In the scribbler game it is necessary to pretend that advertising is simply sunshine rendered into little pictures and films to bring joy to us all. The scribbler must maintain this fiction in order to keep his whisky-vouchers coming. You will not see a journalist criticising advertising - hand that feeds and all that.

    The proof that it is a fiction is the use of the word "free" to denote content slathered with intrusive and unwelcome lies. These lies use bandwidth and screen real estate and frequently obscure the content that they are "supporting". These are costs that I must meet. This is plainly not "free", so to tell me that it is is contemptuous.

    Please developers: take my money. I am happy to pay you. Just let me know what your software costs. Don't soil your efforts by grovelling to the takers.

    Please scribblers: enough with the grotesque, gratuitous and offensive untruths. Denote "ad-supported" software as such, so that I can make an informed decision. Don't deliberately mislead me.

    I put my phone into flight mode if I need to run an ad-poisoned app anyway, so the notion that advertising "supports" the software is a non-starter with me, and I suspect that I am far from alone in this.

    1. The Jon

      Re: Ad-supported is not "free", please don't pretend otherwise

      Indeed, just turn off data and wi-fi and, hey presto! No pesky ads.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Ad-supported is not "free", please don't pretend otherwise

      "Denote "ad-supported" software as such, so that I can make an informed decision. Don't deliberately mislead me."

      If you download an app and you find that it has adverts you are perfectly free to uninstall it at a total financial loss to you of 0 pounds and 0 pence. It's not fucking rocket science.

    3. Al Taylor
      Alert

      Re: Ad-supported is not "free", please don't pretend otherwise

      You download game, you don't pay money. That's free in my book.

  17. Anonymous Coward
    Thumb Up

    World of Goo

    Cute graphics, good physics, Hideo Kojima on acid laced Mushrooms like plot. Get the free one, which has limited levels - worth it.

    Also available on Linux/Windows....

  18. b166er

    Would like to add, Chu-Chu Rocket from Sega, Super Stickman Golf, Unblock Me Free.

    +1 for SpeedX too

    Off to get GTA3 though, cheers for the heads up

  19. Danny 14
    Go

    scummvm?

    I am rubber you are glue

    (oh yeah?) DOH!

    1. Sys110x
      Thumb Up

      Re: scummvm?

      +1 to this.

      I'm having heaps of fun playing through Beneath a Steel Sky and Day of the Tentacle with ScummVM on my Desire HD. Can't recommend it enough!

  20. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    411 on Ice Breaker

    To the best of my knowledge Ice Breaker is a complete rip-off of Amazing Breaker, which is an IPhone game. Ice Breaker was on the Android Market a few weeks ago, I managed to get a copy while my tablet was being repaired. By the time I got my tablet back the game was gone and in my purchase history I have a completely blank line.

    Oh and I know exactly who contacted the developers of Amazing Breaker to let them know an almost identical copy of their game was free on the android market.

  21. krkr8m
    Facepalm

    iOS the traditional gaming platform?

    "Traditionally, if you wanted your phone or media player to double up as a gaming platform, you bought an iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch." Where did you get this gem?

    1. Al Taylor
      Happy

      Re: iOS the traditional gaming platform?

      If 18 months ago - even 12 months ago - someone had asked me if should they should buy an Android PMP/smartphone or an iOS PMP/smartphone but that the key determining factor was that they wanted a wide selection of games, I would have had to say iOS was the way to go.

      Now there is far less - if anything - in it.

      That was my point.

  22. sorry, what?
    Alert

    Paranoid

    I'm not talking about a Tron game, but rather how I feel about *any* app that wants to get hold of my device's ID. So many of the games and apps listed by El Reg as "top" require this permission which stops me downloading and using them.

    It would be really great if this was taken into consideration when creating these top 10 lists - even if that is just to mention this need in the summary of the app...

    1. Chet Mannly

      Re: Paranoid

      Root and get LBE privacy guard (free app) - problem solved :-)

  23. Tigra 07
    Thumb Up

    Wow...

    All of these look good!

    QR Codes would be useful in future though Reg

  24. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    wow, just wow

    glad I went iPhone 4S last October when tossing up between a new galaxy s ii and a iphone 4s.... would have been upset with the quality of droid games for sure...

  25. Robert Carnegie Silver badge

    Smell my ginger

    You say Babel Rising features "a ginger that squashes the unrighteous". Well... the graphic looks more like a finger.

    Appropriately, I'm going to Hell.

  26. Richard Lloyd
    Stop

    No love for emulators?

    It's not "one game", but emulators can run potentially hundreds of games (though the legality of ROMs/downloads of the actual games is another issue altogether). Can I suggest MAMEdroid with some classic 80's arcade ROMs (Mr. Do!, Phoenix, Galaxians etc.) or perhaps Beebdroid with all those BBC Micro classics?

  27. Al Taylor
    Alert

    Ice Breaker

    Ice Breaker has indeed vanished from the Android Market, but I'm happy to report it is still available from Android Zoom as well as through the link now shown below the review.

    Sorry about that.

    Al

    http://www.androidzoom.com/android_games/brain_puzzle/ice-breaker_bwxzw.html

  28. Miffo
    WTF?

    Sprinkler & android 2.3

    I can't install Sprinkler as the market says it's not compatible with my phone. The text says it works on 2.3 or later. I have CM 7.1 which is based on Android 2.3.something so I should be OK. Am I wrong?

  29. W.O.Frobozz
    Alert

    Zen Pinball!

    How could you omit the greatest game ever on the PS3, now ported to Android? (Or at least, Tegra-based android)

    It plays great, and is every bit as fun as the original game on the PS3. It has a couple downsides..I can't get the game to work with a real controller or even a keyboard...you have to use the touch screen. Hopefully they'll fix that. And the tables...well, there are a couple decent tables...the free Sorcerer one is fun. Excaliber is about as fun as it is on the PS3, which at best is only middle-of-the-road. I cannot at all justify buying the Marvel comic based ones. I hope they port over some of the awesome PS3 ones like Mars, or especially Tesla.

    Ever since I was a young boy, I played the silver ball...

  30. h3

    The only ones of these games that are decent are Osmos HD (On a tablet sucks on a phone).

    and Apparatus.

    Best Android Game I have played is Sonic CD. (Perfect on my Xperia Play).

    Toki Tori is alright as well.

    GTA3 is ok with a pad and on a dual core tablet (sucks on the Xperia Play - Xoom it is ok with a 360 pad).

    Modern games generally have no depth compared to the 16 bit era ports.

    (When Android gets Chrono Trigger in English that will be better than all the junk new age RPG's)

  31. h3

    Adware should be moved to its own section. (As it stands I just don't install anything that needs full internet access from the market).

    People saying it has no cost to you it does wasted time. It is only free if you value your time as worth nothing. (I value it as the most valuable thing I have as it is the only thing I cannot get more of).

  32. Demosthenes

    Sentinel 3

    Great tower defense game, I really like the music as well, though the dubstep + jungle might not go down so well with others.

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