Hakitzu Elite aims to teach children to code, using giant robots.
It's time for our weekly roundup of brand new and notable apps for
Android smartphones and tablets. It covers apps and games, with the
prices referring to the initial download: so (free) may mean (freemium)
in some cases. The equivalent iOS roundup will be published later today.
There's a new structure based on feedback from readers of previous
posts. The non-game apps are listed first, followed by the games. Read
on for this week's Android selection (and when you've finished, check
out previous Best Android apps posts).
There's a lot of talk at the moment about encouraging children to
learn programming skills, and a growing number of apps aiming to help.
Hakitzu Elite is one of the most intriguing ones: it teaches kids
JavaScript by getting them to build and battle giant (virtual) robots
against their friends. The game uses a virtual credits system: they can
be earned and/or bought, then used to customise the bots.
Cover is billing itself as a "smart lockscreen" for Android
smartphones, replacing Google's own lockscreen to provide speedy access
to your most useful apps, flick quickly between them, and a "peek"
feature to glance at what's new before opening an app fully. Its use of
context is the main appeal: the app aims to understand where you are and
what you're doing, then display the apps most likely to be needed.
This is an official app from Google: its standalone Device Manager
app for Android devices that fulfils the same function as Apple's Find
my iPhone / iPad feature. That means it'll keep tabs on your device's
location, and if it gets lost or stolen, can remotely enable you to
reset the screen-lock PIN or wipe all its data. The kind of tool you
don't regret not having until it's too late.
This is the official app from stock photography service Shutterstock,
providing a simple way to search its library from your Android
smartphone either by browsing categories and curated collections, or
searching for specific keywords. The app can then be used to cue up
image downloads from a computer, if you're a Shutterstock customer.
More coding, this time from Microsoft – an app based on its
"touch-friendly editor" for creating apps. This is the Android version,
although it would be more accurate to call it a companion for the web
version of the service, which has more features. The app requires you to
have Google's Chrome browser installed.
Something else from Google now: its annual Santa-tracking website has
an Android app this year, for children (and, in truth, parents getting
over-excited about the festive season). On Christmas Eve it'll track
Santa's supposed progress around the world, but until then it functions
as an interactive advent calendar, with something new to play with every
day. Chromecast support is a neat extra.
If your fridge door is as overloaded with children's artwork as mine,
you may see the appeal in Keepy. It's an app for storing photos of your
kids' pictures, homework and plasticine monsters, and sharing them with
family and friends. Everything is tagged for later reference, and can
be synchronised to Dropbox if you're worried that Keepy will (as so many
appy startups are) get acquired and shut down in the future.
CircleMe's Google Play listing is a bit buzzwordy – "an innovative
social way to collect all the things you love and discover new ones
through smart serendipity" – but it's an interesting idea nonetheless.
You tell it your interests and hobbies, see who else shares them, and
join in conversations, while checking out "plants" of useful events and
locations related to that activity on a map.
Finally, a potentially useful took for anyone with a wardrobe stuffed
with clothes, and the desire to boast about them to friends. The idea:
you take photos of your clobber, cut them out and then group them
together in whatever outfits you like. Sharing to Facebook, Twitter and
Pinterest is supported.
The latest Angry Birds game is controversial for its enthusiastic
adoption of pretty much every free-to-play gaming mechanic going, from
timers that make you wait to play once you've had a few races through to
coins, sponsored power-ups and a kart costing £34.99. However,
underneath that is a genuinely impressive karting game with smooth
handling, well-crafted tracks and a sense of fun.
Developer Six to Start made the innovative Zombies, Run! fitness
game, which got people jogging while pretending to be chased by zombies.
This follow-up takes similar basic principles, but it's less athletic:
using your walking steps as part of the gameplay rather than requiring
you to run. That may also make it more mainstream, which the NHS – a
partner – will be hoping for. The storyline involves walking the length
of the UK with a package that "could save the world".
Fantasy gaming fans will love Small World 2: based on a popular board
game, it's a colourful and engrossing strategy game that sees you
taking on AI opponents or real people over the network with your band of
fantasy creatures. Funded through Kickstarter, its strongest appeal
will be to fans of the board game, but the mobile version is good enough
to hopefully win new fans too.
In theory, Adventure Time is a children's cartoon. In practice, there
are a lot of parents enjoying it too, so this game could cross over to
both age groups. It sees the stars of the Cartoon Network show sliding
down hills on their bottoms to evade avalanches, pulling stunts as they
go. It looks to have captured the quirky charms of the show perfectly.
This brand new Tekken game popped up quietly in the Google Play
store, although it's a different take on the venerable beat 'em up
franchise, to say the least. Pitched as "the first social strategy RPG
featuring Tekken", it sees you training up a character and battling
rivals from around the world, with gameplay influenced as much by Mafia
Wars and other free-to-play games.
Another big console publisher is jumping into the free-to-play waters
here: this time 2K Games. Sensei Rules is a fighting/strategy game that
sees you building a Dojo, attacking enemy bases and training up an army
to defend yourself. If that reminds you of Clash of Clans... Well, yes.
Although the selling point here is that the battles are in more
console-like 3D.
Knightmare Tower made its debut as a game for the Android-powered
Ouya microconsole earlier in the year, but now it's available for a much
wider range of Android devices. It was one of the highlights on Ouya: a
knight bouncing his way up a tower laying about him to kill monsters,
while picking up power-ups. It's very moreish.
Another game designed for more hardcore gamers to get their teeth
into, this is a science-fiction themed massively multiplayer RPG with a
healthy dash of Star Wars in its DNA. Expect lots of questing, fighting
and levelling up as you try to save the Princess LeiaIllaria character from her alien enemies.
Sega's Sonic the Hedgehog has suffered a few gaming indignities in
recent years, but this latest Android port of one of his classic games
isn't one of them. It's a lovingly-remastered version of Sonic the
Hedgehog 2 – the one with Tails the fox – complete with the famous
Hidden Palace Zone that was left out of the original Mega Drive game.
A game to make you think as well as play, this: developer Psyop is
working with charity the Against Malaria Foundation to raise awareness
and funding for its work. The game itself sees you wooshing through the
bloodstream of a girl with malaria, avoiding creepy mosquitos while
saving "stranded teddy bears" (no, I don't remember those from Biology
GCSE either) over 21 levels.
Finally a good, old-fashioned roleplaying game in the
party-of-four-heroes vein, taking turns to explore, battle and loot in
the time of "humanity's last settlements". If you grew up on this kind
of game, you'll love it, with bags of depth in character development and
customisation.
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