TOP 25 ANDROID GAMES OF 2014
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What we say: Beautiful
puzzler Monument Valley won bags of critical
acclaim in 2014, deservedly. It’s a surreal shape-shifting game that sees you
guiding a mysterious princess through a series of impossible-architecture
levels by tapping and swiping.
Short, but wonderfully sweet.
Short, but wonderfully sweet.
What we saY:
The original The Room was one of the best puzzlers on Android, and its
sequel The Room Two continued the quality. “A
physical puzzler, wrapped in a mystery game, inside a beautifully tactile 3D
world,” as its developer put it, this was carefully-crafted 3D puzzling with
plenty of 3head-scratching challenge.
What we say: Clumsy Ninja was the best new character
in an Android game this year, thanks partly to spiffing animation. His game is
all about training the little guy to be a lot less hapless, from popping
balloons and trampolining to playing basketball – with Clumsy as the ball.
Joyful.
4 The Walking Dead
What we say: Telltale Games’
Walking Dead games are gripping, polished adventure titles that adopt a
TV-style episodic format to tell their stories. You’ll want to binge-play them
just as you might binge-watch the zombie-apocalyptic show that they’re based
on. And while I’ve chosen Season One for this roundup,Season Two follows on perfectly.
5 Threes!
What we say: Threes! might have been the most moreish
Android game of 2014: a puzzler so simple in theory you wondered why no one had
thought of it before. As it turned out, lots of people thought of it
afterwards: there are hundreds of Threes! clones. But the original, adding 1s
and 2s together, then 3s and upwards, remains the most addictive.
6 80 Days
What we say: 80 Days sits in between books and games
as a piece of work: a retelling of Phileas Fogg’s journey around the world in
80 days, with an added layer of steampunk culture and technology. There’s
plenty of reading, but also plenty of decision-making as you plot a route and
explore the cities along the way.
7 Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft
What we say: Right at the end
of 2015, already-classic card-battler Hearthstonemade its way from iPad to Android
tablets. It’s a deep, engrossing strategy game, but perhaps the best thing
about it is the way it makes the genre accessible for newcomers too, with a
well-designed tutorial
8 Leo’s Fortune
What we say: Leo’s Fortune won a design award from
Apple this year, and its Android version was every bit as good as on iOS. A
lush platform game with excellent level design, controls and visuals – and bags
of charm too.
9Surgeon Simulator
What we say: Surgeon Simulator was of the goriest
games on Android this year, even though (in theory) you were trying to avoid the
bloody bits. This port of the popular PC game saw you operating on “the world’s
unluckiest patient”, transplanting teeth, eyes and double-kidneys with some...
unorthodox equipment.
10TwoDots
What we say: Dots was
brilliant. Its sequel, TwoDots, was brilliant too. An ideal
pick-up-and-play puzzler, as you connected coloured dots over 135 levels,
challenging friends as you went. Some purists still prefer Dots’ more open-ended
formula, but TwoDots was sufficiently different to pick up its own fans.
11Best Fiends
What we say: Released right
at the end of 2014, Best Fiends is a polished puzzler that sees you
matching coloured items to battle slugs, upgrading your own critters as you
progress from level to level. And yes, the difficulty level starts getting
genuinely... fiendish once you’re into the thirties and fourties, level-wise.
12Boom Beach
What we say: Boom Beach was the third game from
Supercell, the developer that’s enjoyed huge success with Clash of Clans and
Hay Day. It was more like the former with its mix of base-building, defence and
attack, except with a military theme rather than the fantasy characters of
Clash of Clans.
13Thomas Was Alone
What we say: Already a hit on
browsers, PCs, PS3 / PS Vita and iOS, Thomas Was Alone brought its solitude to
Android this year too. And while a platform game where you play a rectangle
called Thomas might not sound appetising, this is a lovely piece of work.
14Fish Out Of Water!
What we say: Developer
Halfbrick made its name with Fruit Ninja, but Fish Out Of Water! deserves to sit
alongside that casual classic. It sees you skipping a group of colourful fish
across the waves, each with their own bouncing pattern. Your job is to make
them go as far as possible, while being scored by crab judges. Sounds weird,
plays excellently.
15Twisty Hollow
What we say: In an app store
stuffed with match-three puzzlers, Twisty Hollowwas a breath of fresh air: a puzzle game involving rotating circles to match
different items and characters, creating goods for a fictional town. It had
originality and verve in spades.
16Skylanders Trap Team
What we say: It needed a
pretty powerful Android tablet and lots of space – 2.5GB – but Skylanders Trap Team was stretching the
platform to good effect. A proper, full-blown Skylanders game to match the
console version, complete with its own joypad and portal stand so that kids
could use their physical Skylanders toys.
17Candy Crush Soda Saga
What we say: Yes, the Candy
Crush games have plenty of haters. But they have even more fans playing on the
sofa, on the train, in the loos at work... For them,Candy Crush Soda Saga was a sequel worth
playing: the same sweet-swapping action, but with new touches (rising soda and
hidden bears, for example) to provide new appeal.
18Football Manager Handheld 2015
What we say: Still the top
football management franchise in the world, on smartphones and tablets as on
computers. Football Manager Handheld 2015 was well
worth paying for even if you owned the last version, with its revamped match
engine, tweaked scouting system and an in-game data editor for players who
can’t resist the urge to give themselves some artificial assistance.
19XCOM: Enemy Within
What we say: XCOM: Enemy Within was expensive at just
under a tenner, but you got plenty of value for money from this mobile port of
the engrossing sci-fi strategy game. Tooling up your cyber-soldiers was part of
the fun, but careful tactical planning – i.e. not just blundering around
shooting – was key to getting the most out of it.
20Game of Thrones
What we say: What a year for
developer Telltale Games, whose Walking Dead games (see earlier) were
accompanied by Game of Thrones, an official adventure based
on the TV show. For fans, it was an absorbing chance to play within the world
without just rehashing the plot. And for newcomers to GoT, it was an excellent
introduction too.
21Kingdom Rush Origins
What we say: It’s traditional
to talk about fending off hordes of enemies in tower defence games, but it’s
fair to say Android gamers are also used to facing hordesof tower
defence games on the Google Play store. Kingdom Rush Origins is one of the very
best, though: fun and challenging in equal measure.
22Angry Birds Transformers
What we say: Can Angry Birds
have a hit with games that don’t play like the traditional Angry Birds games?
Rovio tried hard in 2014, although the jury’s still out on its performance. But
quality-wise, Angry Birds Transformers was great:
stompy robots (in disguise) shooting merry hell out of blocks and bots.
23République
What we say: République was one of a number of games
in 2014 proving that Android – and mobile in general – is perfectly capable of
delivering rich, console-style games as well as casual fare. This
stealth-action-puzzler featured a beautifully-realised world, and lots of
originality.
24World of Warriors
What we say: World of Warriors is the work of Mind
Candy, the company behind children’s virtual world Moshi Monsters. This game
was for an all-ages audience, though, as you collect and train warriors from
various historical periods, then send them out to fight. Well-crafted and very
playable.
25World of Tanks Blitz
What we say: World of Tanks
has been very popular on PC, but this year the multiplayer tank-battler crossed
over to Android as World of Tanks Blitz. It’s very much focused
on that multiplayer aspect too, with seven-on-seven tank battles and a big
battalion of vehicles to choose from, according to military taste.
SOURCE: The guardian.com
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