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hellomynameiseril · 4 years

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New games in the second-tier network: Satoshi Nakamoto's game calls for the Lightning Network to brand-new heights

The Bitcoin Layer 2 network is appreciated for its speed and scalability, looked after really helps to implement some interesting new smart contract features. In this respect, the micro-transaction feature has also inspired electronic asset holders to develop and adopt Lightning System Programs (LApps). These apps possess subverted content material tokenization (using Y 'alls and LNCast) to privacy-friendly texts (such as LnSMS and Receive Text message). Although these earlier applications were mainly utilized as proof-of-concept prototypes, they did not have many advantages over centralized user-friendly applications. They produced new ways to circumvent the rules and conventions of the older entire world. Through these apps, personal privacy and sovereignty have been amplified as never before, and it is only a matter of time prior to the snowball effect and getting the focus of mainstream interest. At the Magic Crypto conference, Lightning Labs CEO Elizabeth Stark praised the vigorous growth of LApps in her panel debate, and she emphasized the most basic difference with similar DApps: LApps possess a faster consumer base growth, that leads to faster app speeds. "The quickness of development is certainly shocking. I didn't expect it to happen so fast. I like to see individuals build related apps on the Lightning System. In other communities, they're all'developer, developer, programmer' It's a slogan, but nobody is actually making use of Dapp. On the Lightning System, people are deploying it, and everyone will participate and interact." Moreover, because the development quickness of Lightning Network technology often exceeds the quantity of information which can be processed at once, it is very important to possess high-quality applications inside Lightning applications. Furthermore, there might be "killer apps" on the Lightning System which are needed through the entire Bitcoin field. I am hoping that at least one product in this evaluation can attract everyone's attention. Satoshi Nakamoto's game If we assume that Atari's former video game programmer Hal Finne is Satoshi Nakamoto (Satoshi Nakamoto) is behind the pseudonym, then the creator of Bitcoin may also develop pixelated artwork similar to Satoshi Nakamoto's game content. In short, Satoshi Nakamoto's game is friendly to the Lightning Network. The game is similar to flash game websites such as Miniclip, Pogo and Newgrounds. The game is easy but addictive. Many of these video games imitated Super Mario World (Super Mario World) Mario World, Minecraft, the Legend of Zelda Zelda), "Bejeweled" (Bejeweled), "Agar" and "Flappy Bird" and other game mechanics. Carlos Roldan (@whiteyhat), the programmer of Satoshi Nakamoto's game, told us: "Satoshi Nakamoto's game is special since it reminds gamers of the past." "Presently, retro arcade video games aren't so common or even popular. If you combine these nostalgic video game elements with Bitcoin and the lightning environment, you can get a match up manufactured in heaven. This is a programmer in the 1980s and 1990s What we dream of." Thoughts is broken asked to cover the entrance charge of 1 1,000 satoshis, the novelty of the LApp becomes apparent. Even if you are unwilling to cover and only desire to try quite a few totally free versions of the game, it is possible to immerse yourself within the text-structured adventure story "Legend of Satoshi Nakamoto", and test your survival abilities through the Bitcoin version of Minecraft (BCraft) (This is actually the 2D version of Minecraft), or it is possible to explore the sky of alien planets. Unfortunately, these are the only real two Bitcoin-themed video games, because the other two video games ("Skulldude" and the golden axe-inspired "the Lair) does not have any narrative or visible adaptation to imply that they are related to Satoshi Nakamoto. When you have a recharge cards with thousands of Satoshi, you will discover more interesting games The true fun is to begin by paying 1000 Satoshi and steadily explore the advantages of becoming a true member. This is not investment guidance, and you'll even regret investing your BTC. Nonetheless, what you purchase can support a small development group to invest a lot of time and energy in this project. Users can use Lightning Wallet, Joule web browser extension or even Blockstack common login cleansing to complete the required small transactions. LApps become interconnected by giving mutual support, which is very worthy of attention, which collaborative approach may also promote the entire wave of technological innovation. It only takes a couple of seconds to complete a small transaction (during writing, the worthiness of a small transaction is 11 cents), as soon as you become a real member, a retro-looking dashboard can look. Here, it is possible to set your own nickname, purchase a different account picture, or become a senior supporter with voting rights and the proper to use tournaments (more upon this later). It is possible to certainly spend several satoshis to make custom results, but if you are like me, you can be wanting to explore the top features of advanced games. Maybe, you just want to play mini video games, then you can certainly visit a replica game of "Jewellery Array" with the theme of Bitcoin mining, one imitating "Flappy" Bird" game, or a game adapted from "Super Mario World" where Satoshi Nakamoto changed Princess Beech, etc. The win or lack of the game depends on how well an individual plays. The charm of the game itself is not in the form of expression or technical realization, but in a novel perspective. In the two video games listed, being truly a good player can help you have more Bitcoin benefits. And given that they provide very different functions and mechanisms, they're most likely the best reason to pay to become a member (I eventually spend lots of time enjoying them, therefore i will get many additional benefits). For example, in "Super Bro", one game point equals one satoshi. Like many readers, I was raised playing Nintendo's super video games. In this respect, "Super Bros." is a superb retro game. It offers some textures, backgrounds and computer animation techniques that will enable you to get back to the times of enjoying "Super Mario World". Conceptually, the game is easy: After the user passes all the cards, the rest of the bitcoins and the adventure rewards collected during the game will undoubtedly be delivered to the wallet within small bitcoins. I spent a lot more than 20 hours doing offers and listening to music. During this period, I had been rewarded with about 20,000 Satoshis.

"Super Bros" actor and Casa CEO Jeremy Welch is remarkably similar. This game will need you by way of a random journey and knowledge varying levels of difficulty. Occasionally your game is as simple as strolling in the recreation area. At other moments, you can be attacked by a band of goomba divided by many deadly traps. This adaptation of "Super Mario World" is fun and addictive-plus, you have a strong financial incentive to return and play it every day. Basically, gamers can wait for Satoshi factors to accumulate during the break, and simply earn back the entrance charge of 1 1,000 Satoshi. In fact, it is easy to suppose gamers in establishing countries might find a income source in "Super Bros.", just as some players nevertheless grow coins in "Wow." The distinction is certainly that BTC units are usually scarce and may become more valuable over time. However, games aren't all of candy or bitcoin benefits. The handle of the game is much worse than what you saw in the original Nintendo game in 1991. The jumping mechanism can sometimes become your worst enemy, and different levels can quickly become boring. Although "Super Mario World" is much more interesting than "Super Bros", it isn't built on a cutting-edge payment system that can provide financial benefits. You can find always trade-offs.

Lightning Network Edition Golf ball Battle

Just like the power struggle within the Netflix hit "House of Cards", Agar.io is a multiplayer video game adapted from "Taking in Crazy". It borrowed the system of "big seafood eat small seafood, small seafood will grow larger", and finally transformed it into circular particles moving on a big world map. On the other hand, the ball-to-ball battle on the Lightning Network is a challenge game where users must pay 1000 online Satoshi involves purchase membership. If you happen to eat another participant, you then will receive a prize of 750 Satoshi-so if your goal is to make BTC through the game, after that you have to eat at least two gamers on the map. From a technical point of view, there is absolutely no difference between Agar.io and Lightning Online. The only two main differences are reputation (the free game version is popular, with hundreds of players constantly competing) and financial incentives (that is more of a credit card applicatoin and growth concern). Once individuals understand the simpleness of the LApp, they will definitely become more ready to accept additional challenges. Some financial incentives can be used to unlock their abilities.

We played on the Lightning Network version of the ball game for about one hour, and there have been only two other players around. Soon, I eliminated one of these. After eating so many vibrant dots, I grew to become an unstoppable whale. Considering its multiplayer character, the game is quite boring if you have no competitors. You may occupy 25% of the game map, but you'll be looking forward to challenges and enjoyment. For me, this is an interesting lesson concerning the necessity of capitalism and competition (Once, I deliberately put into multiple circles to help other gamers eat my smaller sized part, and I could become bigger). Privileged function If Satoshi Nakamoto's video games become your day-to-day habit, and you desire to unlock the functions, then you have to pay a supplementary 500,000 Satoshi. After paying, you'll get the proper to vote for potential future development, and you'll be allowed to take part in tournaments, you can earn more bitcoins, and you will become a first-class citizen in the game kingdom. Paid users may also receive many customization features that distinguish consumer profiles from other profiles. On the one hand, users provide more support for developers, in exchange, users will get more rights. Furthermore, in "Super Bros", users will have 3 extra lives at the beginning of each game (in any other case each life will cost 500 satoshis), buying 1000 satoshis can increase the final quantity of bitcoin benefits. For example, usually you can earn 500 satoshis by the end of the game prize accumulation, so right now your Bitcoin accumulation prize should raise to 2000 satoshis. Somewhat, your expense in reduced account makes sense only if you are ready to spend lots of time enjoying LApps games. Interested friends can visit: My prediction Nakamoto's game is not commendable since it is a personal game based on creating consumer experience. Due to the complex platform supplied by LApps, interesting economic incentives, and the willingness to integrate other apps such as Joule and Blockstack, the LApps series has earned a location in the spotlight. There is sufficiently content to please make sure to everyone who likes retro video gaming, and you can find enough reasons for you to return to the past every day and go through the feeling of returning to the early 1990s. Furthermore, the survey shows that you will have more content in the future, and the community will determine the priority of developers. The LApps series is certainly not perfect. However, when you are in the Super Brothers or Lightning Golf ball Battle game, you will discover enough fun to overlook some bugs that require to be fixed. There is also a competent error reporting system, that i found to end up being quite responsive: I also exchanged some text messages with developers to provide feedback. Obviously, enough time I spent testing LApps is effective to both events: I got a small amount of Bitcoin benefits, and the platform has obviously become better. Gaming can be a multi-billion dollar industry that can take advantage of the integration of fast, secure, and personal payments. It is good to possess at least one LApp in a big company, but in the end the achievement of a project like Satoshi's game directly depends on our participation as a neighborhood. We use our period and satoshi to vote, and the dynamics of the change accordingly. Roldan said: "You want to build a more scalable platform that will allow us to meet up the higher needs of video game developers who want to add their work to Satoshi Nakamoto's game. Furthermore, we simply added our project to Product In Hunt, this will require some neighborhood support. Your responses can fundamentally influence our potential future in a very positive way. For those who have time to try these platforms, you should do so. Just like keeping a pet, you can have some longer fun and create the investment pay off ultimately. "

#free bitcoin game #my crypto heroes #rpg token maker #how to get free cryptocurrency

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davidegbert · 7 years

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40 fantastic free Android games

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Craig Grannell

The best free games for Android | Stuff

There are hundreds of fantastic games available for Android, and a lot of them are available for absolutely nothing.

Whether ad-supported or based on a (boo and indeed hiss) “freemium” model, these titles are free – and guaranteed to make your morning commute a little less painful.

To help you find just the sort of thing you're after, we've grouped the games into sections. First up is racing games, then sports, followed by platformers and endless runners, then shooters and strategy and word games, next up is puzzle and match games, and finally arcade games. Phew!

If you can't find something you like in all that lot you must already be dead.

Fun doesn’t have to require funding. Got an Android phone or tablet? Then these are the greatest games… gratis!

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Racing and sports games • Platform games and endless runners • Strategy, word and shooting games • Puzzle, match and arcade games

Racing games

Best free racing game for Android: Ridge Racer Slipstream

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Namco’s racer sits at the midpoint between Asphalt 8’s demented arcade larks and Real Racing’s overly earnest simulation leanings. Like its coin-op ancestors, though, Ridge Racer is still all about barreling along at insane speeds, and having fun — you just have to work at success a bit more than in Asphalt.

Here, driving like a total idiot will likely mean you’ll lose a race. Instead, you should only drive like a part-time maniac, slipstreaming the opposition, drifting through bends, and boosting past rivals. It looks great, sounds suitably meaty, controls really well, and even the IAP’s subdued enough that the game won’t constantly be doing wheelspins on your bank account.

Download Ridge Racer Accelerated

Asphalt 8: Airborne

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Given that this is the eighth title in the Asphalt series, it probably comes as no surprise Gameloft's got a bit bored having sports cars merely zoom along at breakneck speeds and drift for ludicrous distances.

As this game's name suggests, Asphalt 8 now also regularly finds your vehicle catapulted into the air, whereupon it can perform crazy aerial stunts that are entirely not covered by your insurance plan. As ever, the hyper-real tracks are faintly barmy too.

Download Asphalt 8: Airborne here

Big Bang Racing

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All those sci-fi thrillers about aliens invading on receiving our telly broadcasts, and it turns out they were thirsting for danger of the trials kind all along.

And so it goes in Big Bang Racing, your little green man tackling hazard-laden courses, trying very hard not to get electrocuted or crushed. It’s all rather jolly, with colourful visuals and smart controls.

Once you tire of solo play, you can pit your skills against other racers, battling their ghosts to the finish line. And once you tire of that, you can make your own courses and share them online.

Download Big Bang Racing

Final Freeway 2R

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In the 1980s, cars gleamed red, and everyone belted along multi-lane sunlit highways — oddly always in the same direction, while listening to cheesy rock music. At least if you were playing OutRun.

Final Freeway 2R is a modern take on Sega’s classic arcade racer. You get all the good bits — insane speeds, road forks, car flips on crashing — but also modern tilt controls and a pause button for when some idiot calls when you’re about to zoom away from a rival.

This is breezy no-nonsense fun of the kind that’ll smear a grin across your face (unless you’re dead inside); and if you can’t stand being a cheapskate, there’s a paid ad-free version for 79p.

Download Final Freeway 2R here

Real Racing 3

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Real Racing 3’s console-level visuals look so good that we’re still amazed we can play it on our smartphones. Throw in the easy-to-use motion-controlled steering (which actually works and doesn’t make us want to throw our phones at the wall in frustration) and you’ve got yourself one of the most polished racers in the Google Play Store.

Its freemium model, which involves having to take large breaks between races unless you pay to speed things up, got plenty of criticism on its release, but once you've got a few cars in your garage it's not a big problem. Besides, it's well deserving of a little of your cash.

Download Real Racing 3 here

Sports games

Best free sports game for Android: Super Stickman Golf 3

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Super Stickman Golf 3’s ancestor is the same Apple II Artillery game Angry Birds has at its core, but Noodlecake’s title is a lot more fun than catapulting birds around.

It’s a larger-than-life side-on mini-golf extravaganza, with you thwacking balls about giant forests, moon bases, and metal-clad courses with a suspiciously high deadly saw-blade and laser count. The single-player game’s fun, but SSMG 3 really comes into its own in multiplayer, whether you’re taking the more sedate turn-by-turn route or ball-smacking at speed in the frenetic race mode.

Download Super Stickman Golf 3 here

Flappy Golf 2

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Given that it was conceived as a joke, riffing off Flappy Bird, Flappy Golf was a surprise hit. Despite being utterly stupid, it proved a compelling experience as you tapped to flap a winged ball around courses from Super Stickman Golf 2.

Flappy Bird 2 is a moderately more serious affair, in the sense it has a bit more polish. This time, you’re flitting about courses from Super Stickman Golf 3. As ever, sinking the ball in relatively few shots nets you stars, used to unlock more courses. The best bit, though: the absurd, fast and furious multiplayer race mode.

Download Flappy Golf 2

Dunkers - Basketball Madness

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The clue’s in the title with Dunkers, in that it’s unhinged – although it does at least bear some resemblance to basketball. Cartoon characters face off, and you must score as many points as possible before your opponent dunks for glory.

The nuttiness mostly comes by way of weirdly floaty physics and oddball controls – you get a button for moving backwards and another for leaping forwards. Also, the players never stop maniacally spinning their arms, and there’s – for some reason – occasionally a trampoline on court. It’s a far cry from the likes of NBK, but a lot more silly, and loads of fun – especially in same-device two-player mode.

Download Dunkers - Basketball Madness

Score! World Goals

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At the dawn of smartphone gaming, path-drawing titles became hugely popular, the most famous having you land planes. Score! World Goals is more grounded, and also immerses you in a little history: you attempt to reproduce the path of balls during some of the greatest goals of all time.

It sounds like a mundane task, but it's compelling to work your way through so many dazzling moments, and the game's smart enough to realistically scupper any attempt to go off-plan and do your own thing.

Download Score! World Goals

New Star Soccer

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New Star Soccer reimagines the beautiful game in an abstract and not entirely realistic fashion that owes a lot to ancient management games for the C64 and ZX Spectrum.

There's no FIFA-style TV-like action here; instead, you get a selection of mini-games, giving you chances to score and pass during matches and increase your skills during training. The remainder of the game is about balancing life, keeping your boss, team and partner happy, while occasionally sneaking out to the casino and buying the odd fighter jet. Hey, we said 'not entirely realistic'.

Download New Star Soccer here

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Racing and sports games • Platform games and endless runners • Strategy, word and shooting games • Puzzle, match and arcade games

Platformers

Best free platform game for Android: Super Cat Bros

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There’s more than a whiff of classic platform-game action in this moggie-infused title, what with its leapy gameplay, varied settings, coin collection, secret areas, and chunky graphics. But the big win in Super Cat Bros is the controls, which are specifically designed for touchscreens.

Two thumbs are all you need, to have your cat run, jump (double tap off a platform’s edge), and wall-jump (tap the opposite direction to the wall you’re clinging from). At first, your brain will argue with your thumbs; before long, you’ll want all virtual joysticks banned in favour of systems as smart as this one.

Download Super Cat Bros

Swordigo

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Before all games had to be 3D by law, the 2D adventure-platformer reigned supreme. On touchscreens, these games are usually a bit rubbish, due to iffy design and even worse controls, but Swordigo bucks the trend.

You get a huge magical realm of monsters to fight, treasures to find, and towns to explore. Any whiff of nostalgia is rapidly expunged as you become engrossed in the plot, give giant spiders a serious kicking, and do your best Harry Potter impersonation with the aid of enemy-troubling spells.

Download Swordigo here

Bean Dreams

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This deceptively simple platform game strips the genre right back, placing a firm emphasis on learning levels, timing, and exploration. Your jumping bean never stops bouncing, and you simply guide it left or right.

The usual platform-game tropes are evident: monsters to jump on; fruit and gems to gather. But Bean Dreams cleverly adds replay value by way of missions that can’t all be completed on a single run: sticking to a bounce count; finding hidden pet axolotls; and collecting all the fruit.

What first seems simple and reductive is really a big challenge, but the straightforward controls are perfect for touchscreens, rather than you spending most of your time battling a hideous virtual D-pad.

Download Bean Dreams

Beneath The Lighthouse

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Nitrome has a habit of unleashing ostensibly ‘casual’ titles that hide a ferocious underbelly. Beneath The Lighthouse is perhaps the developer’s finest, largely through doing something different and being a perfect fit for mobile.

The conceit is the lighthouse has failed, forcing you to search the caverns beneath for your lost grandpa. Each room is a circular death trap, rotated by turning an on-screen wheel. Your rotund character then moves by way of the magic of gravity. With luck, he’ll make the exit; if not, he’ll probably be nastily impaled.

The level design is smart and rapidly becomes challenging, especially if you want to win speedrun medals. The game’s freemium nature is fair, too. You get three lives per stage, which can be refreshed by watching an ad; £3.59 removes ads and life limits forever.

Download Beneath The Lighthouse

Mos Speedrun

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Mos Speedrun is a platform game with the need for speed. It’s a kind of stripped-back Mario, where you leg it left and right, leaping about, trying to find the exit before a strict timer runs down. Beat the clock and you win a badge. Badges are also awarded for grabbing all the coins littered about the place and finding a hidden skull.

Cunningly, you can’t do all these things at once. You’re therefore properly rewarded for repeat play, carefully picking through levels rather than belting along. At least until the final few, where Mos Speedrun merrily bludgeons your confidence to a bloody pulp while wearing a manic toothy grin.

There are minor niggles on Android — the controls are (very) occasionally a touch suspect — but Mos’s retro charms, fast pace, and smart level design win it a place on our best-of list. And there’s a sequel too, which is more expansive (albeit less focussed) and, if anything, even more likely to leave you a gibbering wreck, due to its brutal nature.

Download Mos Speedrun here

Endless runners

Best free endless runner for Android: Disney Crossy Road

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Endless Frogger meets Disney in a rare example of an indie dev/movie house tie-up that works perfectly.

The mechanics will be familiar to anyone who’s played the excellent original — tap and swipe to have a blocky protagonist weave through traffic and deftly jump across rivers. But the addition of Disney characters finds you battling your way through retro versions of famous animated worlds, dodging tumbling blocks in Toy Story, filing memories for bonuses in Inside Out, and avoiding a psychotic suit of armour in Haunted House.

Download Disney Crossy Road

Alto’s Adventure

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Having made a graceful leap from iOS to Android, Alto’s Adventures now enables many millions more to enjoy the escapades of the titular Alto.

In theory, he’s supposed to be catching escaped llamas. But mostly, this is a game about messing around on snowy slopes, blazing through mountain villages, performing stunts, collecting hovering coins, and trying to stay ahead of spoilsport elders with sticks, angry at Alto’s maverick nature and distaste at sitting in a pen that smells of llama poop.

Download Alto’s Adventure

Tomb of the Mask

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This one feels like someone tried to recreate an endless Pac-Man starring a hyperactive flea trapped inside a ZX Spectrum. As you swipe, your little tomb-raider leaps from surface to surface, trying to outrun an encroaching wall of doom, avoid spikes, and grab all the bling.

The colours might be eye-searing, but they also provide a great sense of clarity regarding what you should and shouldn’t collide with. And, although the speedy gameplay might irk when you end up getting regularly impaled, Tomb of the Mask has plenty of replay value, whether high-score chasing in the endless arcade version or working through fixed challenges in the newer map mode.

Download Tomb of the Mask

Barrier X

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There’s fast and there’s fast, Barrier X is blink-and-you-die gaming, rather like if someone took ALONE…, remade it in 3D, and then strapped a rocket-booster to its already blazing along frame.

The aim is simply survival, avoiding the many barriers some idiot’s left dotted about the sparse landscape. You move left or right, avoiding death by a whisker, and wonder whether your rapidly drying eyes will blink when you finally come a cropper.

Manage 30 seconds and you’ll feel like a gaming giant, at which point Barrier X wryly adds to the challenge by way of new rules and enemy craft that you somehow have to shoot – all while avoiding slamming into an endless number of walls heading your way at stupid m.p.h.

Download Barrier X here

Looty Dungeon

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Yes, we know – this one looks an awful lot like another Crossy Road, only in a dungeon. But while the visuals are as chunky as a Lego Yorkie bar, the floor keeps falling into the void to urge you onwards, and the controls are the same old swipe-y business, Looty Dungeon is a very different beast.

In this game, the aim’s always to escape the current tiny dungeon. Mostly, you avoid traps. Sometimes, you have to kill all of the things. Occasionally, you battle mean, blocky bosses. It’s like a retro-infused and brutally stripped-back Diablo on fast-forward – and for that, it’s an essential download.

Looty Dungeon

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Racing and sports games • Platform games and endless runners • Strategy, word and shooting games • Puzzle, match and arcade games

Strategy and word games

Best free strategy or word game for Android: Clash Royale

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This mash-up of RTS and card collecting has you battle opponents online in single-screen arenas. Individual, varied units are plonked on the battlefield from your deck, each costing elixir that refills as you fight. Wins come by clocking an opponent’s strategy, and countering with cunning combos.

Clash Royale’s freemium, so obviously designed to mug your wallet, but canny players can progress for free; and it’s hugely compelling, so although your bank balance might be safe, your free time won’t be.

Download Clash Royale

The Battle for Polytopia

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Essentially a miniature Civilization, Polytopia has you command a tiny tribe, aiming to discover new technologies, expand your empire, and duff up anyone who gets in your way.

The visuals are bright, the little isometric worlds are suitably claustrophobic, and the simplifications over Civ are smart, keeping things fluid without robbing Polytopia of strategy and depth.

One of the best bits: although there is a standard ‘kill everyone else’ mode, Polytopia also offers a ‘be the best within just 30 moves’ option. On the easiest settings, this is a cinch – but crank up the difficulty level and such limitations prove to be a stern challenge.

Download The Battle for Polytopia

Solitairica

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Evil Emperor Stuck has nicked all the hearts from the land of Myriodd, and it’s your job to get them back. In your way: quite a few enemies to defeat using… solitaire. No, really.

In this oddball world, you try to remove chains of cards from the wall before you, through matching those higher or lower than whatever you currently hold. Some cards unleash energies, which can be used to cast spells. In return, your enemies give you a kicking using spells and attacks of their own.

This might sound baffling, but Solitairica proves an immediate, entertaining and compelling card game with a dash of fantasy RPG.

Download Solitairica

Alphabear

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This strange word game is about making the biggest bears. Every turn, letters spring up from the ground, with countdown timers that decrease during subsequent moves. Space cleared by using letters is filled with grumbling bears. But when a letter hits zero, it turns to stone, thwarting any truly mega-bear expansion that’d net maximum points.

The game’s underpinned by a slightly irksome freemium model (although you can permanently remove the timers with an IAP) and a baffling power-up based on a collection of bears. Said bears can be activated to adjust letter counts or scores in your next game. Some players will probably coo at the adorable bear in the duck costume before catching themselves and frantically trying to find a game with guns and explosions. (But you’d be best off playing more Alphabear, because it’s really good.)

Download Alphabear

Plague Inc.

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There aren’t many games where you get to play the bad guy, and in Plague Inc you get to play the baddest guy of them all: a virus that kills off (if you play your cards right) the entire human race.

Choose where your plague starts and develop it to spread at the correct rate – all the while keeping one step ahead of those working on a cure – and chuckle to yourself as the world descends into absolute chaos and awfulness. The apocalypse has never been so much fun.

Download Plague Inc here

Shooting games

Best free shooting game for Android: Galaxy On Fire 2 HD

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A spaceship shooter with a 20-hour campaign and some of the best visuals Android has to offer, Galaxy On Fire 2 is about as close to Elite as you can get in a modern mobile game. Yes, there are ads and in-app purchases, but neither spoils the experience of making your way through this grand space opera.

Download Galaxy On Fire 2 HD here

Time Locker

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If you thought vertical shooters would be a mite easier if you could freeze the action, Time Locker suggests otherwise. In this dazzling low-poly world of heavily armed critters, everything moves only when you do – bar a relentlessly encroaching all-devouring darkness.

This is initially disorienting, but the action nonetheless feels fresh from the off. And Time Locker really grabs hold as you learn to play with time, slowing down to weave between swarms of enemies, carefully manoeuvring to pick off gun emplacements, and risking blazing ahead when bosses and the deadly abyss are in hot pursuit.

Download Time Locker

PewPew

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We’ll forever be grateful to Geometry Wars for bringing back the magic of twin-stick classic Robotron and dressing it in neon. And, indeed, the superb Geometry Wars 3 is available for Android.

But if you’re determined to spend no money whatsoever, PewPew is excellent for scratching your SHOOT ALL OF THE THINGS itch. Your little ship is plonked in tiny arenas, fending off all manner of vector nasties. You dodge with your left thumb, aim with your right, and blame them both when inevitably getting killed.

The frame rate is silky smooth, the music’s head-noddingly good, and there are four additional and very different modes (Dodge! Chromatic Conflict! Pandemonium! Asteroids!) should you tire of the original.

Download PewPew here

Pixel Craft - Space Shooter

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There’s a pleasingly silly vibe at the heart of this shooter: the soundtrack is absurdly urgent, while the dinky pixel graphics look like they’ve escaped from 1980s arcade games and are desperate for a scrap. Your aim, as ever, is to SHOOT ALL OF THE THINGS – until one of them shoots you.

Actually, Pixel Craft isn’t quite that unforgiving. It’s three-hits-and-you’re-dead rather than one-shot-to-kill, and you can continue your go by agreeing to watch an ad (which neatly doesn’t start until your game is over).

If our experience is anything to go by, the oddball foes (including a boss that appears to be an ancient console spitting Tetris blocks) will tear your face off again and again - but Pixel Craft has such manic energy that you’ll immediately clamour for another go.

Download Pixel Craft - Space Shooter

Hectic Space 2

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The visuals in Hectic Space 2 might evoke retro-gaming, in all their lurid and chunky single-colour glory, but this side-on shooter is a far cry from the fare you got on steam-powered consoles and computers. Instead, this is modern-day bullet-hell, with you weaving a ship between a spray of projectiles.

You start off with a few lives. They won’t last long. But over time you’ll learn when best to use power-ups against the semi-randomised waves of foes, before inevitably getting blown to pieces by bosses such as a massive skull that spews fire.

Hectic Space 2

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Racing and sports games • Platform games and endless runners • Strategy, word and shooting games • Puzzle, match and arcade games

Puzzle and match game

Best free puzzle or match game for Android: Threes! Free

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In Threes!, you move cards around a four-by-four board, merging pairs, which then double in value. The snag? Every time you slide your finger, all cards on the board move in that direction, assuming they’re not blocked. The other snag: after every move, a new card shows up in a random empty spot on the board edge you dragged from.

Threes! therefore becomes a delicate balancing act: you must think several moves ahead, because your game’s done when no more moves are available.

Cloned like crazy shortly after release, Threes! nonetheless shone compared to the countless cheap rip-offs, through its breezy personality and tighter rules.

This free version is identical to the paid release, bar having to watch video ads to get extra goes. And, yes, you can queue up a load if you’re going to be offline for a while.

Download Threes! Free

Imago

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This one initially comes across like a Threes! rip-off, given that you’re sliding tiles around a board. But the mechanics are unique enough to make for a very different — yet equally compelling — experience.

The aim here is to merge tiles of the same size and colour to form large blocks (four by four or, later, eight by four). These then ‘explode’ back into individual squares, each retaining the score of its parent. Savvy planning and chain reactions can quickly see your score leap into the many millions.

There’s some weird IAP lurking (such as the game begging you to pay for extra moves once you run out), but ignore that and Imago’s one of the finest puzzlers around.

Download Imago

Perchang

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Perchang is a great game for making you feel like a colossal idiot. In theory, it’s brain-numbingly simple – all you need to do is get some marbles into a hole. This is done by prodding red and/or blue buttons to activate bits of machinery (ramps, fans, magnets, and the like) dotted about the place, which can help get the metal folks home.

The reality is somewhat different. Although early levels lead you gently by the hand, the single-screen challenges soon use said hand to give you a slap. The contraptions you face become alarmingly complex, requiring some deft timing and juggling for you to not end up losing your marbles (figuratively and literally).

Download Perchang

Sage Solitaire

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This effort from the developer behind the excellent SpellTower rethinks solitaire for portrait mobile devices. Out goes tedious filing by suit. In comes a fast-paced match effort heavily influenced by poker.

Extra depth is found in varying heights of card piles, a rule stating you must use cards from at least two rows in every hand, a multiplier suit for double points, and two trashes that replenish after successful turns.

For free, you get the entire standard game. The single IAP unlocks further modes, stats tracking, wallpapers and card backs.

Download Sage Solitaire

Moveless Chess

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It turns out wizards are massive cheats at chess. Rather than thinking several moves ahead, they use their magical powers to change pieces already on the board. Checkmatio! Or something.

Only, in Moveless Chess, this comes back to bite you, when it turns out your magical energies are severely limited, but your opponent will merrily carry on playing. And in some kind of universal karma, you’re restricted from moving pieces in the usual manner, too. Serves you right.

What we have here, then, is essentially 64 puzzles with a distinctly chess-y flavour, providing a wizard spin on an old favourite. And, no, we won’t apologise for that pun.

Download Moveless Chess

Arcade games

Best free arcade game for Android: PinOut!

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Pinball on smartphones always feels cramped, like someone tried to squeeze a house into a shoebox. PinOut! is different. Its single, massive table stretches far into the distance, challenging you with belting a ball along against the clock.

The table’s divided into short sections, which you get past by successfully hitting ramps. If the ball drops between the flippers, you don’t lose lives, but time.

The entire game’s drenched in neon and synth-pop, like you’ve been hurled into a fusion of Tron, pinball and a 1980s disco. It works brilliantly even on the smallest screen, ramping up the tension as the clock ticks down and your sausage fingers prevent you from reaching the bonuses that temporarily reset the timer.

Download PinOut!

Badland 2

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The original Badland chronicled something of a bad day for a bat-like creature hurled through nightmarish hazard-filled tests. In this sequel, things haven’t got any better for our winged chum, bar his newfound ability to move in both directions.

Yep – whereas Badland was ‘tap to flap’, Badland 2 demands two thumbs, with you directing the doomed critter left or right. That might not sound like much of a change, but it makes for a radically different play experience as the poor protagonist is hurled about dizzying multidirectional roller-coasters before being impaled, fried, or sawn in half.

This bat needs a better agent.

Download Badland 2

Frisbee Forever

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If someone bounded up to you and enthused about an officially licensed Frisbee® game, you’d probably consider them some kind of lunatic, but Frisbee Forever somehow manages to be really good.

It’s essentially a series of on-rails rollercoasters, and you nudge your plastic disc left or right, to collect stars along the way. The scenery is all cartoonish pirate ships and snowy landscapes, more bringing to mind Nintendo than a freebie Android game; and although IAP lurks, it’s not really necessary, since every attempt at a level (including those that end in failure) rewards you with XP for unlocking new worlds.

Download Frisbee Forever here

Silly Sausage: Doggy Dessert

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Doggy Dessert features a stretchy canine attempting to inch his way through a surprisingly deadly landscape of sugary treats. Instead of walking, he expands until reaching another platform. Clinging on, his backside then snaps back into place. A Marvel superhero movie’s surely due any day now.

Until then, you’ll have to figure out the best way to work past spikes and saw blades, grabbing gems along the way that can be used to buy access to kennels that act as restart points. Not got a sweet tooth? Predecessor Silly Sausage in Meatland is equally tasty.

Download Silly Sausage: Doggy Dessert

Spaceteam

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Multi-device party games are usually a bit glib, but Spaceteam bucks the trend with a quirky and oddball take on co-op gameplay. Between two and four players are part of the Spaceteam (red jerseys optional), and must give orders, to try and stop your ship exploding, a ship – naturally – that happens to be attempting to outrun an exploding star.

It's a very silly game, and you can't help but love anything on Google Play that has 'Beveled Nanobuzzers' as an item in its feature list.

Download Spaceteam here

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Racing and sports games • Platform games and endless runners • Strategy, word and shooting games • Puzzle, match and arcade games

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