This past year has been a great year for gaming in general – just ask any of your “gamer” friends and they’ll tell you so. I’d consider myself a big gamer as well and while I play more on the PC and the Xbox then I do on the mobile side of things, there’s no denying that 2012 has been a big year for gaming all over the place and not just on the console/PC side of things. Android is becoming more and more of a force in the mobile gaming world and I’m sure that there is only more to come in 2013.
Here at Android Headlines we try our best to get these things right and to please as many readers as we can. With that said, we’re not experts – as much as we try to be so, we welcome discussion in the comments! Just keep it clean, yeah?
Let’s face it, some of the best games we’ve ever played have been the most simple games and that’s not a bad thing. In fact, a simple game is often the best way to go to get some real fun gameplay. Simplicity allows the user to challenge themselves and see how good they can get at any given task, without all these pesky controls in the way there’s more room for geniuine difficulty and the infuriating challenge to keep going one further each and every time you play. From the folks that bought us Fruit Ninja – man I love that game – Jetpack Joyride is a simple game to pick up and play and it’s one that you’ll have fun playing but, you’ll be fantastically frustrated trying to master it.
Another game that relies on the simpler side of things, Temple Run was a game that launched first on iOS and when it came to Android it enjoyed a whole new wave of success. I’m not sure how much fun I think the game is myself but I see women, children and older folk playing this game all over the place – must be a big hit for casual gamers then? Casual gaming is one area where Android excels in and thanks to the ever growing size of smartphones it’s easier than ever to enjoy simple games like this. If, for some reason, you haven’t given Temple Run a go then now is a perfect time to give it a go – what’s the worse that could happen, you break your thumb?
Ask any big player of Call of Duty and they will often point to the Zombies feature being one of the better parts of the games. Black Ops players have enjoyed this fun add-on for the game in their droves and it got so popular that Treyarch through it in Black Ops II as well. However, when it comes to the mobile side of things, Call of Duty fans on Android had been mostly left in the dark until earlier in the year. First an exlusive on Sony devices, this mobile port by Glu is now open to all. It’s not quite what we were expecting but it’s good enough and if you’re the type to play anything with a Call of Duty badge on it then, here’s one more title for you!
Last year bought us a full version of GTA III to play on our Android smartphones and tablets and it was pretty awesome. Not only because it was the full game brought down to suit smaller screens but because it was made for Android devices. It wasn’t a straight port, it was optimized and ran a little better than I remember it doing on my Pentium III machine. Vice City’s turn soon came around and while it was slightly marred by problems at its initial launch it’s still a brilliant game. It’s still pretty damn awesome to be able to play a full-fledged PC/console game of this caliber on a smartphone or at least, I certainly think it is. When all is said and done, this is still Vice City and that’s good enough to make this list on its own.
We all love Angry Birds and try as you might to deny it, we don’t believe you. With Angry Birds: Star Wars, not only did they make yet another great game but they also tugged hard on the heavy strings of nostalgia that lie deep within us all. From a game mechanic standpoint there isn’t much different about this latest addition in the franchise but, there is enouugh different to make this a worthwhile title. With updates already coming for the game it looks like Rovio are more than happy to keep the Star Wars wing of their game going for a while now.
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