Being a gamer, I often end up discussing mobile games, and any discussion of mobile gaming I have tends to include some declaration that iOS has better games than Android. Since I just can't get behind what Apple does, I bought a Galaxy Nexus to keep me company. But, for a hardcore gamer, what does mobile gaming on Android hold? When I initially bought the device, I was surprised by the sheer lack of quality topping the games charts, so it took me a little digging to find tolerable stuff. Android gaming isn't just Skinner-box games like Farmville, or the (much) less evil casual playthings put out by the guys at A Thinking Ape, even though that's what most of the stuff tends to be. Take the recent ports of traditional games like Max Payne and Spacechem, for instance.
But even though games like that exist, the hardcore have been turning their noses up at the platform. Just Google anything related to "Top Android games" and you'll mostly find another article that cites Angry Birds as the must-have game and goes on about free casual games it would be faster just to download off the top 10. If I bring up Gamespot, the Android gaming section is filled mostly with user ratings (hardly any text reviews). If I bring up IGN, you get some coverage, but there's apparently no Android section as of yet, and everything's being given 8s as usual. Metacritic's Android coverage is nonexistent-- probably because there just aren't enough critics talking about the platform's games.
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| Android isn't even on the radar over at Metacritic |
That's why I'm going to make a list of every game on Android I find worth playing, and update the list until there's too many good things to write about-- by then, other people should be cluing in thanks to the volume of money being flung about. I'll start with the games currently on my device (I put them there for research, mostly), then go over some games pointed out by posts floating around the internet. Here are the games currently on my device (yes, it's a lot).
THE FREE GAMES:
Solitaire
Tank Hero
Glow Hockey
Angry Birds
Gun Bros
GL TRON
Speedx 3D
Defender
Chess Free
Labyrinth Lite (demo)
Temple Run
Gravity Probe
The Game Of Life
Moonlight Walks
Strikefleet Omega
BONUS: Tap Dragon Park
BONUS: Tap Dragon Park
THE PAID ONES:
Osmos HD
World of Goo
Minecraft: Pocket Edition
ShadowGun
Tetris
Game Dev Story
My Paper Plane 3
Doodle Jump
JetCarStunts
HexDefense
Neon Zone
Reflexions
AirAttack HD Lite
PewPew2
Spirit
Radiant HD
Canabalt HD
Apparatus
Where's My Water
CHAOS
MC3
Asphalt 6
Dead Space
Draw Some
Tank Hero: Laser Wars
Pix'n'Love Rush
Riptide GP
Moe Cure Net
Avadon: The Black Fortress
GLWG
Star Colonies
GTA III 10-Year Anniversary Edition
Max Payne
NHex
Dead Trigger
Of course, another word before I start. Many will ask why I even bother trying to find hardcore games on Android, pointing to the PC (or consoles) and extolling their superior control schemes and processing power-- "Right now, the games on PC will be better 99% of the time." You'd be correct to say that. The PC has the advantage in processing power and in control scheme, which is why I have a GTX 680. What more could I want? Two GTX 680s? (Two GTX 690s?) Market share, of course. If the analysts are right and we're really shifting to a "Post-PC world" (read: more mobile), then mobile is where people are going to get their games. Of course, nothing will destroy Quake 3: Arena, because the current hardcore will always recognize what Q3A means, but the next generation of gamers will be doing a lot of their gaming on mobile, so it makes sense to put some of our focus on the mobile front. It even makes sense for the current crop of hardcore gamers (like me) to pay attention to mobile gaming, given that we're not always glued to our PCs.
Thoughts on the free ones in Part Two.
P.S. My phone is not rooted at the moment, so I unfortunately cannot take my own screenshots.
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