Temple Run is among the most-awaited games on the Android. Having achieved considerable success on the iOS platform, it isn't hard to understand why.
Temple Run is a 3D running game, and one that had earned rave reviews by serious casual gamers and a good, growing following of iOS mobile device users. For those who aren't really into games, I'm not surprised if they picked this up and got addicted to it.
A dear friend had one day "barged onto" my Facebook Wall and declared that I should download the app and waste no time in doing so. So I tried to look for it, but alas and alack, I came up empty.
Then I read that an Android version was still under development by Imangi Studios, and that it would be released, soon. At that time, it was around February, and while I'm passionate about the casual games that I do like, it takes a certain type of game to catch my fancy. I'm not even sure about my personal metrics, but as far as I know, I've fallen in love with random casual games that don't really have a set pattern.
Given that I have a random way of taking a liking to casual games, I find that it takes these elements for me to get addicted:
A great storyline
Something to solve
Cute characters
Great graphics
GOALS
Continuity
With that, I find that games that push you back to square one when you "die," save possibly for Fruit Roll and Caverns of Hammerfest, are annoying to me.
That being said, I have a mild distaste for almost all running games I've come across, except for Fruit Roll, Robot Unicorn Attack, Coma and Run Ninja Run. That's because running games tend to warp you back to square one, even as you find yourself still reeling from your "death."
That is why, I personally don't know if I would like Temple Run. But judging from this video:
This game has the makings of a runaway hit, as it already is, way before it's made available on Google Play. I say that it's already a runaway hit way before it debuts on Google Play, simply because Android users are actually clamoring for the app as soon as word of its awesomeness spread all over the Internet.
So, what makes Temple Run a game worth waiting for, then?
Try these:
Gorgeous graphics
Apt, emotion-milking soundtrack
A pace that squeezes out all the adrenaline your body can pump
Thanks to these elements, you'll be installing addiction in your Apple mobile device, or, come March 27, just 10 days from now, on your Android phone or tablet of choice, when it hits the Google Play shelves.
And oh, I almost forgot to add. People are soo insane about Temple Run, that they've actually made a "trailer video" about it.
Let us know in the comments or on the Android Alliance Ph Page if you've played it, and what you think about it!
Let's face it: We all LOVE those worthless Apps. We like those apps that eat up precious RAM but really don't do anything for our gadgets anyway. So since we're in love with them fun but useless things, let me bring to you three worth having on your Android:
Do you like keeping e-pets? Things like Neopets or FooPets? Then you may want a scaled-down version of a virtual pet on your Android's desktops.
Shake Them All is basically an interactive wallpaper on your Android. You don't need to wait for the screen to time out for it to activate. Right after you download and install Shake Them All, you will be taken to an option to activate it. After that, you will see a plain wallpaper with these cute little Droidies dancing, or rather floating and flailing around your desktop.
You may then be able to customize the background from the Wallpaper options menu. A new Wallpaper library or option will be available on the Wallpaper settings, "Shake Them All!" And if it's active, the "Configure..." menu will show as the top option when you go to the Wallpaper options menu. From there, you will be able to set the number of Androids flailing and floating around on the screen, the background for the floating and flailing Droids, the "skin" of the floating Droidies, and a few more options.
While it doesn't serve much other use except to amuse you, or, in the case of the "Battery Indicator" skin, indicate how much juice your Droid has left, I would have to say that the app IS pretty relaxing and DOES make for a few mindless moments flicking the Droids around and making them bump off of each other or even fling each other "on their own."
Silly to say, but I did giggle some while playing with the Droids on this app.
This is a level up of the previous "useless apps" suggestion: these apps talk, interact with and even "answer" the user.
Well, not really. The app just records the user's voice and echoes it back to them. Though, while you're "on the phone" with any of these creatures, they do look like they're actually respond to you.
If you're on a brain freeze, a few lulz from either Tom or Ben might give your brain the breathing space it needs.
If you're into Battlestar Galactica and you hate them Cylons with a passion, then here's your chance to pummel a couple of Cylons for hours (or minutes, or even mere seconds, depending on your patience and attention span) on end.
The characters mimic the Bobblehead dolls which have springs on their necks; those things usually on car dashboards, bobbing their heads as you drive from Point A to Point B.
This is a very mindless, brainless diversion, and unless you get your kicks out of flicking a Cylon head over and over again, you're probably better off with just Shake Them All.
Last week, and for a few weeks before that, Zombie Dash was at #1 of the Top Free Apps on Android Market. Today, however, it's just at #3. But still, being part of the Top 3 Free Game Downloads on the Android Market means something, right?
But my question is, does Zombie Dash actually live up to its hype?
Zombie Dash, as we mentioned in the review for Fruit Roll, is also a sidescrolling platform game. Meaning, you will find your character dashing through the stages, while you get your upgrades, coins, and in the case of Zombie Dash, kill zombies.
Character:
Zombie Dash allows you to choose between a girl or a guy character. Both serve the same purpose: run and kill zombies.
Gameplay:
You don't need to press anything to make the character run. It runs, nay, DASHes on its own. All you need to do is to jump to avoid the ground spikes and the floating/moving/turning sharp things that are hanging in midair. If you don't want to shoot your enemies, your jumps will allow you to dodge them, too.
There are coins to be collected, and upgrades to be scored. You'll have to jump to get them, as well.
In order to earn more points, it's better to shoot your enemies than to avoid them. It's also helpful to gather the coins, so that you can buy upgraded weapons in the store. The points you earn from shooting your enemies will also be added towards the total coins for upgrade purchases.
You have three lives for every "run." You will lose 1 life whenever you bump into an enemy or a lethal object. When you lose all three lives, it's game over for you. When you fall into a ditch/gap in between platforms, it's instant game over for you, whether you still have 1 life left or 3.
Basic Functions/Powers:
There are two buttons for the player: the Jump button on the left, and the Fire button on the right. Just as it says, the Jump button allows you to jump in order to dodge the lethal objects and enemies, while the Fire button allows you to shoot a gun in order to kill your enemies and gain points.
Weapons And Upgrades:
You start out with only one weapon, a shotgun, and depending on whatever weapon you'll be able to get from the boxes with question marks: [?], you'll have 40 seconds to use each upgrade, every time you manage to touch the [?]-marked box.
You may also buy upgrades with your total "cash" on hand from the store. Weapons start at 2000 coins, with an M-16A1 rifle, and topping off at 9000 coins with either an MS-07A GYAN or a Jetpack.
Tips:
Try to gather as many coins as you can, and kill as many zombies as you can. This way, you can earn enough coins for your store upgrades.
Review:
Initially, I hated the game as it was too fast-paced for my taste (I kept falling into the ditches, haha!), and pointless. I prefer games that will build up to ultimate enemies, you see, and I like games that have a certain degree of continuity in its storyline.
But playing Zombie Dash for this review today allowed me to realize that it's pretty relaxing to keep shooting at zombies. And when I saw that I could actually buy weapon upgrades, I found another fun element to it. I'm a power hog, and as soon as my game characters earn all the powers and super powers they can earn, I'm at my happiest. So, upgrades in any game, are completely welcome.
The game also serves the purpose of annoying everyone around you. So if you hate your roommate or your housemate, turn up your media volume to the maximum and it'll achieve exactly that.
While all three may look the same to the non-gamer, these three are vastly different in their tastes, game choices and frequency of gaming.
All three types may come from all walks of life. Both may spend hours, even the equivalent of days, just gaming. But the similarities may well end there.
The Professional Gamer is stereotyped as the classic parents' headache. He or she may be the teen who goes home at 3AM because he just had to finish a game of DotA (Defense of the Ancients), Warcraft, or some other MMORPG, RPG or strategy game.
The Professional Gamer may choose a career that will allow for games for hours on end. In fact, there are cases that they never get a career at all. On the other hand, Professional Gamers based in the US do have a shot at success: game companies do hire Beta Testers for their game releases.
Professional Gamers tend to choose strategy games, RPG's and other games similar to DotA in gameplay and level of graphics complicity.
The Hardcore Gamer has similar tastes, but usually just uses games to relax themselves. They may play just as tough and as hard as Professional Gamers do, but they only do this for fun, and this is at the mid-level to the last of their priorities. They do this to de-stress, but that doesn't mean that they play in a mediocre manner. They may work hard, but they will also play hard.
I know of a high-ranking IT officer in a multinational company who may well be classified as a Hardcore Gamer. A CEO of a call center in Iloilo City may also be classified as such.
Lastly, the casual gamers.
Casual Gamers are those who loved Super Mario, Tetris, Battle City, Adventure Island, Twin Bee, B-Wings, and their ilk as kids. As they were growing into adulthood, DynoMite, Bejeweled, Text Twist, Chuzzle and Peggle caught their fancy. They have Nintendo DS', PSP's or iPod Touches. Today, they may have installed Plants vs. Zombies, Insaniquarium, and Feeding Frenzy on their PC's. And if they are Android users as well, their apps may mostly be games.
Many an Android casual gamer I know has Angry Birds, Fruit Ninja and a permutation of a Match 3 Game (Bejeweled, Frozen Bubble/Bubble Shooter, Luxor). An Android could very well be an equivalent of an iPod Touch, with phone capabilities, or a more affordable equivalent of an iPhone.
However, The Android Searcher has noted that lower-spec Androids do have that "signature" lag, because a majority of entry-level to mid-range Androids do have only 600MHz in CPU speed/256MB RAM. If you want a seamless gaming experience, then higher-end Androids are recommended. Choose one with at least 1GHz in CPU speed, preferably a Qualcomm-powered machine, and at least 512MB in RAM. With that, you won't go wrong.
For those who are still on entry-level to mid-range hardware, however, we will have to find kludges for our handicap. For me, all I need to do would be to kill all the running apps then leave only the game. Removing or not even installing moving/dynamic widgets like a Facebook widget is also a good solution. Widgets tend to eat up resources, making the Android slower.
A friend once experienced having her Samsung Galaxy Y overheat and slow down, especially with playing Fruit Ninja. We cleared the memory using Android Assistant, killed all apps, and she even uninstalled nearly everything except for Facebook Messenger. Her Samsung Galaxy Y still stayed turtle-slow; until, she rebooted her Android. After the reboot, everything was back to normal. So remember, when all else fails, it won't hurt to reboot. It may well the fix-it-all solution for your Android's bugs.
But I digress.
While there are games that may cater to a Hardcore or even Professional Gamer's tastes on the Android, there is no doubt that it is a Casual Gamer's machine.
It just occurred to me that we've never really talked about great games for the Android on this space. Surely, y'all are bored to the hilt by the perfunctory Angry Birds, the paid Cut The Rope, and the other, originally iOS games. So today, I'll bring you one of the games that not only captured my gaming heart, it also effectively obliterated hours, possibly even days off my life.
Do you love Match 3, Match 4, Match-howmany-ever games like Bejeweled? Well, this is an upgrade of that. Pumpkins vs. Monsters is a Match 3 -- Fling-to-Monsters -- Kill-Em-With-Chained/Matched-Pumpkins -- Smile-A-Manical-Gamer's-Smile kind of game.
This is also a form of a Tower Defense Game, wherein you need to defend your "home" from these marauding monsters. The goal is to kill them all, while preventing them from entering your fence, by matching 3 or more similar pumpkins then flinging it at them.
This is for casual gamers, by the way, so if you're looking for something more, like a Warcraft kind of game, this isn't THAT kind of game. This is strictly for the Plants vs. Zombies or Cafe World kind of gamer.
As we mentioned, you have to match at least 3 individual pumpkins by color. This will serve as your ammo against those pesky zombies, mummies and other monsters.
When you've matched 3 pumpkins of the same kind, you will need to fling/push that towards your target, the oncoming zombies, in order to kill them.
That's basically it.
Ammo and Enemies:
Green Pumpkins
Orange Pumpkins
The player starts out with green and orange pumpkins. They're "normal" in strength, and will generally be able to kill most of the standard little zombies with just one shot. The tougher zombies, like the pot-bellied ones and the mummies may need 2 shots of the green or orange pumpkins. The horned ones that appear in the Mayan War may take 2 shots as well. The gold-and-pink ones may need as many as three shots of the green and orange pumpkins.
Red Pumpkins
Blue Pumpkins
These two pumpkins are color-coded for what will work best with which kind of mummy. There are two types of Mummies: the Red ones are Hot mummies, while the Blue ones are Frozen mummies. The Red pumpkins mean that they're "hot," so they will work best for Blue mummies. On the other hand, the Blue pumpkins indicates that they're frozen, so they will work best with the Red mummies. With these types of ammo, just one shot is needed for the appropriate mummy. In fact, you will only need 1 Red pumpkin for 1 Blue mummy or 1 Blue pumpkin for 1 Red mummy, so if three Red mummies are lined up horizontally, you can definitely kill them with three Blue pumpkins, in just one shot.
Shooting the mummy with the same color of pumpkins as it is will only make you need to work up another shot with it, even up to three shots, so as much as possible, choose the opposite color of pumpkin for the color of the mummy.
On the other hand, the GREEN pumpkin will work great with the RED mummy. The Orange pumpkin, on the other hand, doesn't work as well with either mummy.
Pink/Lavender Pumpkins
These pumpkins were designed for the blue horned monsters that will appear in the Mayan War, as well as the gold-and-pink particularly strong monsters that will appear in the later stages. You'll find that everything else except for the gray pumpkins will be difficult to use with these two types of monsters, so make sure to stock up on the pink/lavender pumpkins. These pumpkins are rather ineffective for the red mummies, however. But the blue mummies will die pretty well with these pink/lavender pumpkins. It may take an extra shot, but these pumpkins are way better than either the green, orange or blue ones, for the blue mummies.
Gray Pumpkins
These are the so-called "ultimate" pumpkins. They obliterate anything just fine. Though, I notice that the blue mummies will still need an extra shot using these. The pink-and-gold and the horned monsters may also need one more shot, but these are the most versatile/awesome of the lot.
Rainbow Pumpkins
Rainbow Pumpkins can mimic the color of any of the other pumpkins, so you can complete a set of 3 whenever you lack one, using a Rainbow Pumpkin.
These pumpkins, except the Rainbow Pumpkin, can all be upgraded: they cost 1000 coins to get the Level 2 Star, then 1500 coins for the max of 3 stars. Upgrading them makes them more powerful and able to kill monsters with less shots.
Props, Upgrages and Purchaseable Items:
There are items which you will be able to purchase from the game's "store." These items are purchaseable with coins that you can collect when dead zombies drop coins.
These three are the standard:
Shield/Fence Replacement
Landmine
Dynamite
When your fence breaks down due to a zombie munching on it or a mummy hitting it with its head, you can and must replace it with a Shield/Fence Replacement. Unless you kill the monster attacking your fence, you will need to keep replacing it as it breaks down.
The landmine is static when you plant it. It will only explode when a monster makes contact with it. This is most effective for the pink-and-gold monsters, for some reason. This is also effective for the monsters on shooting vehicles, as these add to the blows needed to kill them.
The dynamite kills on contact, and will be best reserved for killing the Bosses or for when you'll get overwhelmed with the onslaught.
Levels and Stages:
Protection of the Territory
The Mummy Returns
Mayan War
Castle Tomorrow
Snow Empire
Bonus: Halloween
The newest version of Pumpkins vs. Monsters now contains the Halloween stage. You will need to have passed The Mayan War before you can unlock this, however.
Each level has 15 stages, and there are 5 standard levels, so that'll be a total of 75 stages to blast monsters through. With the Halloween Level, that's a total of 90.
The toughest stage in every level is Stage 15, as expected. It's called the "Boss Wave," where you'll be facing a particularly tough and frustrating monster.
You'll need to get through the "Boss" monster to get to the next level, until you finish the whole Pumpkins vs. Monsters game.
Tips and Tricks:
If you can't get through these Stage 15's, I do have one trick to share: gather coins from Level 2, Stage 15, or The Mummy Returns, Stage 15. There, the first wave of zombies is in a perfect straight line from end to end. Flinging a full straight line of pumpkins and getting to kill everyone with one flick will give you quite a number of coins.
With these coins you gather, work up to gathering a total of 3,600 coins. This is the amount you need in order to buy ALL the props: the land mines, the dynamites and the fence replacements. Try as best as you can to save the props for last, as you will need it because the "boss monsters" in the Boss Waves tend to be relentless and extra-tough.
Sometimes, it took me as much as 6 times to repeat the process of gathering coins from The Mummy Returns and then returning to the Boss Wave of the level I'm at, in order to overcome it.
New Additions:
As of today's download, Pumpkins vs. Monsters now has a few more props, and some game additions:
A lavender jewel
A blue jewel
A pumpkin mask
The pink jewel that used to drop with particularly awesome hits and add around 100 coins to your coin count is now a separate in-game "currency." You can use it to buy slot spins in the newly-added Slots sub-game. You will be able to get more coins, more props and other bonuses when you get a winning spin. You will spend one pink jewel per spin.
On the whole, to say that this game is addictive is an understatement. Be warned of playing this game just for sanity's sake, because you may experience the flip side and get stuck playing this game instead.
The music is apt: haunting yet quirky, and matches the mood of the game. The fact that you're dealing with monsters does get you in the mood to get a little frightened, but some of the characters, like the pot-bellied zombie that whacks at the fence, do elicit laughs more than chills of fright.
On the whole, I find that the game is the perfect de-stressor for a busy casual gamer. You don't need to give too much thought to your strategy, but it does give enough of a mental challenge to keep you on your gaming toes. Next to Plants vs. Zombies, this is probably my second ultimate casual gaming fave.
If there's any one game that's been canonized as an Android staple, it must be Angry Birds. Angry Birds may have been made available first on the iOS, but thanks to Google Chrome and the Android Market's free versions, not to mention the wholehearted support by the Google ecosystem, the Angry Birds game is now a Google Android icon.
What's not to love about the Angry Birds? Aside from a simple but compelling gameplay, the main aspect of Angry Birds that keeps a casual gamer coming back for more are the very things that compelled Rovio to build a game around its initial proposal: the characters.
During a game-concept bull session with the game developers, Senior Game Designer Jaakko Iisalo came up with sketches of wingless birds that looked like they needed Anger Management classes. At the time, they didn't know how gameplay would look like, just yet. But the birds were the centerpiece. Eventually, they settled on a petrary physics type of gameplay: tossing ammunition over to the enemy just like they would using catapults in Medieval times. Only, in Angry Birds, you toss the über-cute Angry Birds characters to the foes: originally, the sickly-green pigs.
The sickly-green pigs were inspired by the Swine Flu outbreak that was affecting many in the US at the time. So with cute Angry Birds and annoying sickly-green pigs duking it out on a green field, an addictive game was born.
What gets a player hooked on the Angry Birds, you ask? For some, it's the annoying-but-adorable snickers of the green pigs. Those snickers really compel you to obliterate them. For others, it's the physics aspect of the game. If you've gotten hooked onto Billiards because of the science behind aiming and hitting balls, there's no wonder you got hooked onto Angry Birds. Still, for others, the fact that the Angry Birds really look like they need Anger Management classes (along with the players themselves) that resonates with them. Maybe some players find a certain sense of vicarious release when they obliterate pig after pig in the game. Maybe they're projecting the characters of their real-life enemies on the pigs.
But these are suppositions. Even PCWorld's Jared Newman is just supposing that it's because the game is solid, that's why it keeps a player's attention. Either way, the stats are undeniable: Even back in 2010, iPhone users alone logged in 1 million hours of Angry Birds gameplay EVERY DAY. Seems like a whole bunch of people need rehab for Angry Birds addiction.
