The First Five Games For My Android Phone

So when it came to getting my Samsung Galaxy S2, one of the things I was looking forward to was being able to play games from the Android app store (previously known as the Android Market, now known as "Google Play"). I'd heard so much about all these supposedly awesome little games available for Android and iPhone- and now I can finally give some of them a try. Here's a quick round up of the first five games I downloaded for my Galaxy S2.

Angry Birds

You could've guessed it really- not only is this game extremely popular and on just about everything these days (I even saw it on sale on a physical disk at GAME for a tenner a few weeks ago), but it's free on Android.

I have to admit that I've basically played like one or two levels on it so far- but even I have managed to play Angry Birds on PSP and Google Chrome. I think I'm kind of over it, if I'm honest- as I'm sure most people are by now.

Tiny Tower


Tiny Tower is a gem of a game- and it's free for you to download for Android or iOS.

Tiny Tower puts the player in charge of their own skyscraper, which they can build from the bottom up by adding different floors with different stores or services in them. You can also include apartments, for the little visiting pixel people (called "Bitizens") to move into if they fancy it, and then give them jobs on your different floors. You simply keep making more money and ultimately play to make your tower bigger and bigger. You must also deliver the Bitizens to the different floors via an elevator which you can make faster by spending your "bux" on it.

It's not something you can sit and play for hours on end or anything, as you will spend a lot of real minutes/hours waiting for your floors to be built or for your shops to restock- but it's a great time waster with a really charming, retro-looking art style. And it's free- so why wouldn't you try it?

Game Dev Story

Game Dev Story is another simple, retro-looking iPhone and Android game- but can get surprisingly deep, and surprisingly addictive.

The premise of the game is that you run your own game development company, which grows and makes more money as you develop and release games and even consoles. It runs in a very accelerated time frame of weeks, months and years, and over the years you will find that the games console companies in the game (companies like "Intendro" and "Senga" taking off Nintendo and Sega, for example) release new consoles which you can develop games for.

You may be tempted just to run head long into developing games, but you have to consider how much money you spend on development, wages, licenses and the improvement and refinement of your staff. I believe it cost me £1.60 on the Android Market/Google Play, which I reckon is a steal for the amount of time you can pour into it.

Need For Speed: Hot Pursuit

I guess everyone needs a motion-controlled game for their smartphone at some point- so here's mine. It's currently one of the best selling games on Google Play, and is only 49p if memory serves me correctly.

I get this feeling that I would really enjoy this if it wasn't for the fact that a) I'm really fond of the steering and b) I don't really get what I'm doing when I'm playing as one of the "Racers" (as opposed to a Cop). But I guess I just need to give it a bit more of a go.

Shadowgun

Yes, this is a game you can get on your iPhone or Android device.

Colour me ignorant, but I really didn't know you could get games that looked like this on a smartphone! Another best seller at the moment, it was 49p, and I simply had to get it, to check out these amazing graphics and to see how an over-the-shoulder shoot 'em up would be with a touch screen.

I'm not enamoured with the controls, as sometimes I find aiming or moving the camera rather awkward. However, much as with Need For Speed, I need to get used to it. Plus I want to see more of these graphics, and I sense the game gets better from here.