Top 5 Best Android Games June 2014

This week we’re bringing you some Android video games that will require you to pay for them in order to get them installed on your smartphone or tablet.

There are tons of Android games out there that are free to play, but only a few are coming 100% free since the release of the ‘in-app purchasing’ system. Some games that are free will sometime take too long to complete all their levels without paying for any extra weapons, power-ups or for any other game elements. So, we’ve decided to bring you a list of four paid games and a single free title for you to choose from and possibly install on your Android device.

Boom Beach – FREE

A new popular game that was first launched on iOS has finally made way to Android. At first the Boom Beach game has been available for selected countries, but now it can be installed freely all over the world.

Boom Beach has been designed by those that have created Clash of Clans, the Supercell developers team. The action in Boom Beach takes place some time during World War II and you will need to hop from beach to beach in order to defeat the Blackguard. There are tons of beautiful islands that require your help in order to get rid of those enemy forces and save all the captured islanders.

Boom Beach is mainly designed as a multiplayer titles, but you can also find some single-player elements in it.

You can play it for free, but if you’re planning on getting better resources then you can choose to pay real money for them.

Boom Beach can be installed on all Android 4.0.3 and later devices and it holds a 4.4 rating from over 50,000 votes.

Get it from Google Play Store.

Warhammer 40,000: Carnage – $6.99:

The game is set on the Mithra planet and it is filled with orcs that you need to defeat using your own team of brave space marines. Use all the in-game elements that Warhammer 40,000 Carnage has to offer in order to complete the game story successfully.

The game is somewhat expensive to install, but you have thousands of war elements to choose from and for every mission completed you will be waraded gold that you can use to purchase better weapons, machines and other things for you to use in order to make your life easier.

Warhammer 40,000 Carnage works with all Android 4.1 and later devices.

Note that this game offers in-app purchases, but you shouldn’t need to use them considering the $6.99 price tag its developers have set for it. However, if you want to gain access to better arsenal faster, then you can dig deep in your pockets and throw money at Roadhouse Games in order to unlock new game elements that will help you complete the whole story much easier than doing it the standard way.

Get the game from Google Play Store

Topia World Builder – $1.99:

One of the most popular world-building games released on iOS has finally made way to Google’s Play Store. This game allows you to become the deity that you’ve never thought that you could become

Topia World Build on Android allows to create rivers, valleys, mountains, oceans and then watch as your planet starts to give birth to animals, plants and other life forms. The game can be easily controlled by swiping the screen and the world will be literally at your fingers. Create different world and see how life unfolds in front of your eyes.

This game be played in both portrait and landscape mode and you have no final objective as you will simply have to control and model a world by your own standards

Get Topia World Build for Android 2.3.3 and later from Google Play Store

Castle of Illusion – $9.99:

Disney developers have released the Castle of Illusion 2 platforming adventure game to Android video game. You will play as Mickey Mouse that is currently looking to find a way to rescue Minnie from the evil witch.

This game was one of the most popular console video games that’s entirely set in 2D graphics. Explore the Castle of Illusions, build up the courage to defeat all the levels thrown at you by the evil witch and go through an endless number of enchanted forests in order to rescue Mickey Mouse’s girlfriend.

Castle of Illusion works with all Android 4.0 and later versions.

Install if for $9.99 from Google Play Store.

Qvadriga – $9.99

This game was launched only a month ago for PC and now it has made its way to Android. It is a chariot management simulation that will require you to create a team and set strategies in order to defeat all your rivals.

In Qvadriga universe you are able to place bets on your own team hoping to make extra profit while also winning the race. A great feature of this game is that you can try and defeat opponents during the race so that they won’t even be able to cross the finish line.

There are more than forty course that you need to set strategies for in order to win as well as being careful that your chariot won’t be destroyed by your opponent’s spiked wheels. Get the game installed on all Android 2.3 and later.

Install Qvadriga from Google Play Store for $9.99.

Metal Framework Gives iOS A Lead In Gaming For Foreseeable Future

Among the many announcements made during the two-hour keynote at WWDC yesterday, three were targeted specifically at game developers: SceneKit, new functions in SpriteKit, and Metal, a new framework that opens the door for vastly better performance in higher-end games on iOS, and does it in a way that Google simply can’t respond to because of the way Android works.

For those without a technical background, Metal offers developers a set of functions that are “closer to the metal” than OpenGL, the application programming interface traditionally used on iOS (and Mac, Android, and game consoles not made by Microsoft). That means that they have more direct control over the graphics hardware, enabling faster performance because there’s less overhead for the system to deal with.

In practical terms, this won’t mean much for most developers — only those who really need to get into the guts of their code to boost graphics performance need be concerned. But there’s an entire industry built up around creating “game engines” for developers so that they don’t have to rebuild the wheel every time they start a new project. Getting those developers interested is how Apple gets Metal into most iOS games.

As it turns out, some of those teams have already started building Metal into their engines. Yesterday, Unity3D rendering guru Aras Pranckevičius  tweeted that building Metal into the company’s engine was the “fastest port to brand new 3D API ever”:

Playing around with Apple #Metal was super fun btw. Fastest port to brand new 3D API ever. #unity3d
— Aras Pranckevičius (@aras_p) June 2, 2014

On his blog, iOS developers and startup consultant Nat Brown points out that this won’t mean that games aren’t going to be built for Android just because developers can get better performance on iOS through Metal. Most won’t even touch it, because it’ll be baked into the tools they use to make their games.

But gamers might start to notice when games built for the platform start to offer significantly better graphics:

That said, of the class of very advanced programmers who will jump on Metal are… the teams that maintain the game engines, frameworks, and toolchains used by 95% (perhaps 99%) of the games for mobile. Unity3D, Unreal Engine, and a few others simply dominate mobile gaming on both iOS and Android and have traditionally targeted a relatively common core of OpenGL ES for both platforms.
Due to this I find it unlikely that the API itself will act to lock anybody into iOS from a classic API perspective – everybody is using an engine or framework and indeed tools much higher up the value chain. But… Metal could very well offer an iOS performance lock-in on mobile.

While there are equivalents of the Metal framework available on other platforms — Mantle on AMD-made graphics chips, and DirectX 12 from Microsoft for Windows and the Xbox platform — neither company has complete control of the ecosystem for which they are building, which complicates things and limits the extent to which they can optimize for specific hardware.

After all, AMD makes a wide variety of graphics cores that can be used in a nearly infinite range of PC hardware configurations, while DirectX has to work with the same range of CPU, RAM, etc., while also accounting for graphics chips from AMD, nVidia and Intel.

That means these frameworks simply can’t optimize for specific hardware in the same way that Apple can, as Anandtech’s Ryan Smith noted this morning:

Of the other low-level APIs we’ve seen so far – AMD’s Mantle and Microsoft’s DirectX 12 – the former is an API established by a hardware vendor who has to ride on top of other companies CPUs and OSes, and the latter is an OS vendor who has to ride on top of third party CPUs and GPUs. Apple on the other hand is in the enviable position of being as close as anyone can be to offering a fully vertical ecosystem. Apple designs their own CPUs, configures their own SoCs, and writes their own OS. The only portion of the chain that Apple doesn’t control is the GPU, and even then the company has exclusively used Imagination Technologies’ PowerVR GPUs for the last 7 years with no signs of this changing.

With the iPhone 5s, iPad Air, and iPad mini all running on the same A7 system-on-a-chip — and this year’s models presumably sharing the A8 — Metal can be optimized specifically for one set of hardware and get the same gains across its range of mobile devices.

While the diversity of Android handsets comes with its own advantages, Google simply can’t create a Metal equivalent that optimizes for every device manufacturer’s hardware. As gamers’ expectations for what their phones are capable of evolve, it’ll be interesting to see how the introduction of Metal shapes the mobile gaming landscape.

Windows Phone game Commando Jack puts you in the middle of an alien fight

Commando Jack is a tower defense game for Windows Phone 8 that has you battling wave after wave of alien invaders. While game play isn't much different than other tower defense game, Commando Jack steps out slightly by letting you jump inside a defensive turret for a first person perspective on things.

The game has plenty of weapons upgrades, a wide range of enemies to defeat and several global venues to defend. Graphics are nicely drawn up and with plenty of gaming variations and difficulties, Commando Jack will keep you on your toes. Commando Jack has been well received over on iOS and should see similar success here on the Windows Phone platform.

Game Layout

When you first launch Commando Jack, the game sends you straight into game play where the first two levels serve as tutorial guide. These levels aren't very challenging, being designed to guide you through game play. The game isn't difficult to pick up but pay attention to the tutorial because asides from re-playing these levels, there isn't an independent help section available to refresh your memory with.

One quick side note on load times with Commando Jack is that they can take a while to complete (painfully so on low-memory devices such as the Lumia 520). Sometimes the delay is such that you will think the game has frozen up. Game play, on the other hand, ran smoothly and I did not experience the random crashes that have been noted in the Windows Phone Store reviews for Commando Jack.

Once you complete the tutorial levels, the game shifts to a global map where you get to battle the aliens from six regions of the World. All totaled, Commando Jack has forty-six levels of play that are progressively unlocked and re-playable. After completing the tutorials and reaching the map, a main menu will appear each time you launch Commando Jack, which will have options to start the game, view more games from the developer and view your coins/high score.

In the lower right corner of the map view is a button with an "up" arrow, which will pull up the game's settings cog. Tap the cog to view the game settings that includes aiming sensitivity, effects/music levels, access to your gaming stats, the about screen and a few turret control options.

In addition to the forty-six levels, you also have three gaming styles, four difficulty levels and two gaming modes. The gaming styles include original, mixed and elemental, which dictates the types of aliens you will face. The elemental aliens are harder to take out. The two gaming modes are campaign and endless. The campaign mode has you taking the aliens on one level at a time while the endless game continues until the aliens overtake your turret and suck your brains out.

Game Play

Again, game play is scattered about six regions of the globe that are progressively unlocked. You begin the game in London with six levels. Tap on the highlighted region, choose your difficulty, gaming mode, enemy style and then the level you would like to battle in.

Prior to the start of each level of play (after the tutorial levels that is), you will be presented with a set-up screen that has tabbed sections to show you the types of enemies you will face and upgrade opportunities for your turret, guns and ammo. The more tab that is present will provide you with the opportunity to make in-app purchases for coins.

Commando Jack has twenty-one weapons for purchase, thirty-eight upgrades and three elemental styles of weapons (useful in defeating the elemental aliens). You also have a wide range of ammo styles and bonus items that are available for IAP.

The game screen itself has your tower defense controls spread across the bottom of the screen, vital statistics in the upper left corner of the screen and a pause button in the upper right. Pausing the game will present you with a few settings options (aim sensitivity and effects/music volume levels).

As you would suspect, the main goal with Commando Jack is to destroy all the aliens before they destroy your main turret. Your turret options are to the lower right of the screen and placing a turret will cost you a few coins. Tapping the turret icon will pull up a placement grid on the battle arena. A red square will be highlighted to indicate where the aliens will start from and the best strategy is to build a maze or gauntlet of turrets that the aliens must walk through to get to the main turret.

In the event aliens survive the gauntlet or you simply want to join in on the action, you can tap the eyeball icon in the far left, lower corner of the screen to jump behind the main turret. When you do, the left side of the screen controls the turrets movement and tapping the right fires your turret. The turret gun overheats easily so be careful with your bursts. If the turret gun overheats, it will take several seconds to cool down where you can resume slaying aliens.

When you're ready to step back and manage your automatic turrets, just tap the eye icon a second time.

As you upgrade and buy more turrets, they will become available in the form of additional icons that are spread across the lower right side of the screen. In the upper left corner you will see the enemy alien in play, your health meter and your current build point level. It costs money to build turrets and as you wipe out the aliens, you earn build points. The more powerful the turret, the more build points needed.

There are additional buttons on the gaming screen will give you a boost in power for your turret, boosts in building points and adding larger turrets to the mix. While the basic game play is simple to pick-up on, it would be helpful if the developer included a help section to cover some of these features.

When you have defeated each level of alien incursions, your gaming stats will appear and based on your performance (number of aliens killed, damage inflicted on you turret, etc.) you'll be award coins that can be spent upgrading and unlocking additional weapons.

Overall Impression

Commando Jack is yet another Windows Phone tower defense gaming title, it is a nice addition to the Store's library. Graphics aren't too shabby, game play challenging and it is a nice touch to be able to jump into a turret and join the action.

Commando Jack is a free, ad-supported game for Windows Phone 8. The ads consists of ad banners on the menu screens and a full-page ad that pops up in between levels. The game screen is ad-free and while I'm not a fan of the full-page ads, Commando Jack doesn't try to beat you up with them.

I do have a couple of nits with Commando Jack. For starters, the game has a lot of variables and while the tutorial does a nice job of walking you through basic game play, the game needs a help section.

Next up, there were times my finger got in the way of placing a turret, which resulted in a bad placement. I wouldn't mind a confirmation of placement to avoid screwing things up. You can zoom into the game screen and touch scroll around the battlefield but then you lose sight of the big picture.

Last up is the load times that are unusually long for Commando Jack. Load times for Asphalt 8: Airborne (which I consider graphically intense) were shorter. While Commando Jack is available for low-memory devices, the load times tend to make the game unplayable.

Still, while I have my concerns nothing was detrimental with Commando Jack when played on a Windows Phone with at least 1GB of RAM. It is one of the more enjoyable tower defense games available and if you have a little patience, well worth a try.

Top 10 Android Games For June 2014

If you think smartphone gaming is a child's play, then you better get your hands on one because we bet, you would never think the same again. Here is our monthly round of the best Android games available in the play store worth give a shot.

Space Runner 3D

Space Runner 3D is an interesting endless running game where you play a guy running on a space road and trying to avoid obstacles. The twist is that the guy runs towards you on the screen as opposed to running away. The game is an undoubted addiction!

Block Legend

In this retro puzzle JRPG game you travel through different regions as a protagonist fighting monsters, visiting towns and completing quest missions. The game can keep you hooked for hours but also drains the battery faster than you would expect.

Even

All you have to do is swipe to rearrange the numbers on the board to match the same numbers. The game play sound simple, however it requires attentive strategizing and speed play.

Save the Furries

Furries are cute little aliens who have arrived on earth and are totally oblivious about the dangers that lurk around them. Your duty is to save these adorable creatures. Tap and swipe pinballs, ropes, logs, crates, carts, switches, fans and all sorts of other items are at your disposal to help create a safe haven for these aliens.

Penombre

Pénombre is a place where you run endlessly saving yourself from witches, ghosts and other creatures. You get to play Umbra who has lost her way in the wicked wild woods, and eventually she must travel across 7 kingdoms to find her way back home.

Lost Light

Lost Light is a unique matching game from the stable of Disney wherein you have to match your way through a forest filled with wicked witches and massive beasts. There are more than 100 levels and amazing power-ups to keep you going for hours.

XCOM: Enemy Unknown

XCOM is a team of war veterans who are brought together for an international mission to clear out aliens trying to invade and conquer Earth. If you think the game play is easy, then listen up. Even if one of your team members gets killed it's game over, for all. Moreover, you have to train rookie soldiers from scratch and each team member's performance on the battle field adds up to move on to next levels.

Impossible Road

Well, this game is somewhat of an endless runner, only that you have to guide a ball instant of a character. Guide a ball called "The Vessel" down an endless twisting swirling track without falling off the edge. Clear check points to earn points, but if you fall off the edge you will find yourself from where you started. The game is so addictive that either you will end up uninstalling it or will find yourself killing more than enough time.

Clumsy Ninja

Don't judge a book by its cover, the Ninja here is not a slaughter machine but a cute little clumsy doe-eyed boy. You have to teach him what Ninjas do by training him using a trampoline, a punching bag, and even a basketball net. The more you are successful, the more equipment you get and move ahead.

The Walking Dead: The Game

The Walking Dead still remains a favorite and scores a spot on our June round-up as well. The game is an excellent adaptation of the television show about a group of survivors in a zombie apocalypse. The game packs in amazing graphics, reflexive game play and outstanding sound effects. The first season is free, while you would have to pay to further fuel your addiction.