Strikefleet Omega
If you watched Battlestar Galactica, the basic premise of Strikefleet will be instantly familiar. Alien hostiles destroy man’s homeworld and pulverise its armed forces leaving only one fleet, Omega. Its mission is to carry on the fight and hunt down the Hive Queen and hopefully save the outer colonies from ending up as cinders too. As you warp across the galaxy, you deploy your command ship’s fighters to fend off wave after wave of attackers, build more ships in the surviving fleet shipyards and upgrade those already in the armada.
The knack is knowing when, and in what direction, to launch your fighters and how to position your ships both in relation to each other and the edge of the screen. Scroll your ships to the left and you can see what’s happening far to their right but you are then vulnerable to attack from the other side. As Commander Adama said at Ragnar Anchorage, "That’s a bad tactical position."
Reg Rating 85%
Traffic Wonder HD
A game that involves route planning, road congestion avoidance and fuel economy doesn’t sound like a laugh a minute but Traffic Wonder is actually a rather clever idea. The aim is to simply get the cars into their respective coloured garages. However, you need to plan each route to avoid collisions and cover the shortest distance. The early levels are easy but things quickly get more complex as routes become more circuitous, petrol more limited and more cars of different speeds are introduced.
The game has some neat touches like the way cars slow to take tight bends and their little indicators flash on and off. Basic gameplay is easy – just drag a coloured route from car to destination – but working out the best route and putting temporary stop signs and such in the right place is altogether more of a challenge. One for the inner Al Gore in us all. ®
Reg Rating 80%
Ten Android games
COMMENTS
Better than all the aforementioned games:
ScummVM and a bunch of old point and clicks. I really don't know why developers aren't making native adventure games for Android already, the ergonomics are ideal for it.
Machinarium
> but I found this puzzler extraordinarily difficult and was constantly rummaging about on the web for walkthroughs
Use the little book icon on the menu. You play a little maze game with the key in order to unlock the book which then gives you useful hints.
Don't be put off by the the fact that the game can be challenging; the music, the art work and the way the story is told is absolutley superb.
Missing a few points.
Some goodies on the list but your review missed massive factors.
Strike fleet omega is a freemium game, impossible to progress after a while because upgrades cost. You have to unlock mega credits (cube like things) and you get maybe 2 or 3 in later levels, if you are quick and good. However you need 40 or so to buy chepaest upgrades (try an artillery ship to level 3, or buy the advanced fighter carriers)
It is only thanks to peer pressure that replaying early levels unlocks 'material' allowing a replay value, otherwise you wouldn't be able to progress or upgrade either. And replaying early leavels actually require you to spend mega credits on the doomsday weapo as a demonstration on how to use it. Seriously bad game if you don't want to spend real money on a suppodesly free game.
Now I support free games, but I worked it out that it would be over 20 quid if you want to be able to upgrade and but enough to get the all the ships.
Radiant HD as well is a must purchase or you will struggle, half those turrets you show in your screen shot are a purchase only affair with unlock packs. Only a quid each or so, but there are 5 or 6 of them.
I thnk the main thing is...
I think the main thing for tablet/phone gaming is that it's something to fill dead time - "I have 40 minutes until my flight boards, what shall I do with this time?"
To that end, IMHO games need to be:
1) quick. I should be able to complete a game or two during that time
2) resumable - when they say "group 4 may now board" I need to be able to shut the game down without losing a great deal of work.
3) absorbing, but not too absorbing: it should entertain me but not keep me from hearing the previously mentioned boarding announcement.
It seems that many of the games in this article meet those requirements, which is good.
And another..
Don't forget 'Great Little War Game' and its follow-ups.
My girlfriend is always complaining that I spend more time playing this than talking to her. But then, pretty much anything is better than talking about fluffy kittens / pretty dresses / celebrities, or whatever the hell else it is that women talk about.
