New Android Games On Google Play October 8, 2013

Regular Modojo readers will know that we like to bring you a round-up of all the new iPhone and iPad games that hit the App Store when the clock strikes midnight each Thursday. What about you Android gamers out there though? To which new games should you turn when you're next killing time?

We've picked out some of the most notable new releases on Google Play from the last week or so - a mix of paid, free, old and new games that we think you should know about. Stay tuned for regular updates on the latest new Android games as they're released.

TMNT: Rooftop Run

History's taught us that you should probably wait for a mobile re-imagining of a childhood classic to get a price-drop before splashing out any cash, but TMNT fans will want to get stuck in straight away.

TMNT: Rooftop Run - Review | Cheats And Tips

Download TMNT: Rooftop Run - Android | iOS

Terraria

One of our favorite exploration games makes the leap from PC to iOS and Android. Minecraft nuts will not want to miss out on this wonderful title.

Terraria - Review | Cheats And Tips

Download Terraria - Android | iOS

Shadowrun Returns

Powered by Kickstarter, this game set in the Shadowrun universe is sure to tickle the fancy of any tactical RPG fan.

Terraria - Review | Cheats And Tips

Download Shadowrun Returns - Android | iOS

Final Fantasy V

The series that needs no introduction. The release of Final Fantasy V for Android is very welcome - not to mention overdue, considering the iOS version was released more than six months ago!

Download Final Fantasy V - Android | iOS

Time Surfer

Time Surfer not only looks great, it plays great too, and it was more than deserving of the 4.5 out of 5 star we gave the game in our review. Now Android gamers can get stuck into the action too.

Time Surfer - Review

Download Time Surfer - Android | iOS

Deer Hunter 2014

Some people who watch Bambi shed a tear at the senseless slaughter. Others crave to be the huntsman. You monsters. Deer Hunter 2014 won't be too everyone's tastes, but there's no denying it's a very solid shooter.

Deer Hunter 2014 - Review | Cheats And Tips

Download Deer Hunter 2014 - Android | iOS

Giant Boulder of Death

If you like your games to come with plenty of silly, Adult Swim Games always - always - has you covered. This new game is no exception.

Giant Boulder of Death - Review | Cheats And Tips

Download Giant Boulder of Death - Android | iOS

MotoHeroz

Another game to take its sweet time getting to Google Play is MotoHeroz, the tricky physics racer from the creators of Trials. Worth waiting for.

MotoHeroz - Review

Download Motoheroz - Android | iOS

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iOS And Android Game Of The Week: September 27, 2013

by Chris Buffa, Modojo, Posted Sep 28th 2013 9:30AM

Free-to-play sports games often smack players upside their heads with excessive micro-transactions designed to inhale money from their wallets. Not so with today's game, which is superb on both iOS and Android. Considering the same publisher dropped the proverbial ball with Madden NFL 25's excessive in-app purchases, it's great to see this title avoid a similar fate.

FIFA 14 is so good we can't believe it's free. EA Sports essentially shoehorned a console-quality game onto smartphones and tablets while at the same time adapting the experience to those devices with user-friendly and thoroughly entertaining tap and swipe controls. The result is an intuitive experience that caters to newcomers in need of instant gratification, as swiping to score goals feels natural. Beyond that, the game includes more than 600 licensed teams and 16,000 players, along with Ultimate Team and online modes. The option to make a purchase is there, but you'll never feel pressured to spend, which makes FIFA 14 the best mobile sports game you'll play. Just make sure you have the 1.35GB of hard drive space to download this monster.

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5th Planet Games launches Dawn of the Dragons for Android

Game developer 5th Planet Games today launched Dawn of the Dragons for Android in North America (and worldwide later this week). The social MMO has come along way for the indie developer who first launched the title on Facebook back in May 2010, and later released for Kongregate and Armor Games.

We first heard about Dawn of Dragons flying its way to mobile for iOS in January, and then the game hit the Apple App Store weeks later in February (review). Chief mobile officer Rob Carroll told us that there’s no differences between the iOS and Android versions, but users can play simultaneously with other players on either platform. As for cross-platform play between the mobile offerings and the web-based versions, 5th Planet Games decided to not let the mobile and web versions talk to each other due to the game being developed in Adobe Air and to allow the mobile version to have its own exclusive content. Carroll also adds the Android port was published in partnership with 5th Planet Games by an unnamed publisher (the studio will announce details about the publisher soon).

“We decided to intentionally not link the two versions,” he says. “There’s some different gameplay modes and unique content on mobile that we’ll be rolling out.”

We spoke in-depth with 5th Planet’s co-founders Robert Winkler and Steve Pladson a couple months after the launch of the game in 2010. Winkler revealed some impressive monetization figures with only a small user base (28,638 daily active users at the time of the story), seeing average revenue per paying user of $26.24.

Desipite Zynga laying off nearly a fifth of its staff today, other social and web game developers like 5th Planet Games are still seeing success on those platforms. Carroll says the company is still very successful on the web and heavily focused on web games for Facebook, Kongregate and Armor Games.

According to our traffic tracking service AppData, Dawn of Dragons for Facebook currently has an estimated 20,761 daily active users (DAU) and 144,056 monthly active users (MAU). On iOS, the game isn’t currently ranked on either the top free or top grossing apps chart.

Carroll says 5th Planet has plenty of new content in the works for future mobile updates, including new guilds-related content, unique world raids, and epic quests.

5th Planet’s president and chief operating officer Braden Moulton will be speaking on the Developing Cross-Platform Games panel at our Inside Social Apps conference this Thursday. Get your last minute tickets here.

Mediabistro Event

Get personalized advice from industry insiders at Facebook, Deloitte, Chartboost, Tango, and more at Inside Social Apps, this Thursday and Friday in San Francisco. Newly added speakers include Val Bauduin of Deloitte & Touche, LLP and Doug Purdy, Director of Developer Products at Facebook, so don’t miss the chance to add these valuable contacts to your network. Tickets are available onsite.

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Ticket To Ride out now on Android

by John Bedford, Modojo, Posted Jun 5th 2013 2:20PM

Ticket To Ride is now available to download from the Google Play service. The popular strategy boardgame has enjoyed considerable success on the iOS App Store, and now Android gamers can get a piece of the railroad strategy action too.

Ticket To Ride features solo and online play on the game's original USA map, while additional Asian, European and Swiss maps are available from the in-ap purchase store. There's cross-platform play support too, so you can challenge your iPhone-owning friends to a battle of wits.

Download Ticket To Ride (Android)

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Difference Games brings its Haunted House of hidden objects to Android

Fans of casual hidden object games might have heard of Difference Games' Haunted House, as the casual game has been available for play on the developer's website for some time. Now, the company has released an Android version of Haunted House, bringing the same hidden object scenes to the mobile space.

Haunted House contains 10 different environments, and allows players to choose from a variety of hidden object formats in each scene. Gamers can choose to find items based on their exact pictures, their silhouettes, or by spotting items based on words on a list, and both timed and non-timed options are available.

While the game's timed mode should offer more relaxing hidden object gameplay, the timed mode also contains bonus rounds that aren't available otherwise. Plus, the expected hint system will pull you out of a jam if you have a hard time finding one or more items in a scene.

In addition, the game's Challenge mode looks to offer just that - a challenge - to more experienced players, as it offers rotated items, words that are missing letters, and double score bonuses to reward you for sleuthing skills. Haunted House is now available to download for free on not only Android, but also Nook. Check out the screens above for more.

Download Haunted House on Android >

Have you tried Haunted House or other Android hidden object games? How do you think Haunted House compares? Sound off in the comments!

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Unleash the power of trains on a horde of the undead in Zombies & Trains, now on Android

After being released on iOS at the beginning of February, Norwegian developer Dragonhead Games has brought Zombies & Trains to Android, allowing millions of additional gamers to get in on the fun of smashing zombies with, you guessed it, trains.

Zombies & Trains is a twist on the tower defense genre that sees a prize being placed somewhere in the level, and train tracks surrounding it. By tapping on the rail lines, you'll be able to send trains left, right, up, or down across your Android or iOS device's screen, killing all of the zombies that happen to be wandering on the rails at the time. As you might have guessed, the object of each game is to protect your prize or base from the zombies while also fulfilling each mode's particular requirement. Zombies & Trains comes with multiple gameplay modes, from the classic Arcade mode that asks you to simply survive for as long as possible to the Crossing mode that asks you to survive for just a single 60 second period.

Power-ups can cause the trains to light the rails on fire for a short amount of time, while bombs may kill all zombies on the screen if they get too close to the prize. These items are unlocked with the coins you earn while playing, but they can also be purchased using real world money. As we've said time and time again, it seems wrong for a developer to charge for a game and then add in microtranscations, but that's a trend we don't see stopping anytime soon.

Either way, if you've got a buck to spare and own an iOS or Android device, you can now purchase Zombies & Trains for $0.99.

Download Zombies & Trains on iOS for $0.99 >

Download Zombies & Trains on Google Play for $0.99 >

Have you tried Zombies & Trains on either iOS or Android? What do you think of this bizarre combination of enemies and weapons? Sound off in the comments!

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EA gives Scrabble an overhaul on Android

With so many Android devices available on the market, it's not uncommon for games to run differently on different devices. In an attempt to make Scrabble a more streamlined experience for all kinds of Android gamers, Electronic Arts has overhauled the game, creating a version that can now support over 50 additional Android devices, including tablets like the Google Nexus 7 and Google Nexus 10.

What's more, the game has been specifically optimized for these new tablets, allowing for gameplay in both portrait or landscape mode, depending on your personal preference.

In addition to this technical upgrade, Scrabble now comes with a "Super Chat" feature, allowing friends and strangers to gossip from right within the app using emoticons. Of course, the rest of the game remains relatively unchanged, giving you the same cross-platform play across iOS and Facebook as you work to create the best word possible with your limited letter tiles.

This update may not seem like a huge one, but it's great to see EA supporting an "older" mobile game, bringing it to new audiences that may not have had the chance to play it before. Stick with us for more EA news, as we'll make sure to let you know if the developer / publisher updates any additional apps in a similar manner.

Download Scrabble on Android >

Have you tried Scrabble on any of these newly supported phones and tablets? How do you think the Super Chat mode handles? Sound off in the comments!

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Pocket Gems and W3i expand Android monetization partnership

Social mobile game company Pocket Gems announced it’s expanding its existing partnership with W3i. Under the expansion, W3i will provide monetization solutions for two more of Pocket Gems’ Android games, Tap Paradise Cove and Campus Life.

W3i will also provide monetization solutions for Pocket Gems’ other Android games and Pocket Gems will expand the use of W3i’s Offer Exchange. The Offer Exchange provides offers courtesy of an offer wall and featured alerts. Ad units, meanwhile, include videos and app installations, which means Pocket Gems can implement advertising in its Android games without having to integrate offer networks into its titles.

Tap Paradise Cove originally came out for iOS in March 2012 and is still going strong. Our AppData traffic tracking service shows the game is still the No. 39 top grossing app, the No. 25 top grossing iPad app, the No. 28 top grossing iPad game and the No. 37 top grossing game. Campus Life is performing even better: it’s the No. 32 top grossing app, No. 21 top grossing iPad app, No. 30 top grossing game and the No. 17 top grossing iPad game.

Pocket Gems continuing W3i’s partnership on the Android side of mobile monetization will probably make the former even more tempting for third-party developers to publish their games with. While the iOS versions of these games are clearly monetizing well, we regularly hear from developers with similarly strong free-to-play titles that the Android audience doesn’t monetize nearly as well (back in July, GameDuell told us iOS users outspend those on Android four to one).

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ngmoco hopes lightning strikes twice with Legend Cards on Android

After ngmoco's mobile card-battling game Rage of Bahamut became, well, all the rage on the Google Play store for Android (and then on iOS), the social games tycoon has partnered with gloops International to do it again with the launch of Legend Cards on Android. Legend Cards is already a huge success overseas, having a user base of over 1.5 million players in Japan alone. Now, you'll be able to construct another powerful army within Legend Cards, all for free.

Legend Cards sees you traveling across uncharted lands recruiting different kinds of creatures / entities into your army. You'll interact with "humanoids," machines, monsters and more, all set in the world of shonen manga. Gameplay is fleshed out with the ability to evolve different cards to make your deck stronger, and of course, you can use your ever-expanding card collection to take to battle against other players worldwide.

"We are always looking to expand our lineup with premium titles that have universal appeal," said Neil Young, CEO, ngmoco and Director, DeNA, via a company press release. "Trading card games are a huge phenomenon in Japan, and we are leading the charge in bringing top hits like Legend Cards to players worldwide."

Legend Cards is now available to download for free on the Google Play store for Android, and the game will be released on the Apple App Store "soon." Stay tuned for more on the game's iOS release.

Click here to download Legend Cards on Android --->

Have you tried Legend Cards on your Android device, or are you too busy playing Rage of Bahamut to take a break for anything else? Sound off in the comments!

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Game Insight reveals MMO Dragon Eternity for iOS, Android and web

Game Insight today revealed its newest free-to-play title, a Facebook-enabled massively multiplayer online game called Dragon Eternity planned for iOS, Android and the web.

Dragon Eternity is a fantasy-themed MMO in which players are cast as adventurers working for the opposing countries Vaalor or Sadar; the two nations are at war, while the countryside is filled with monsters, criminals and dungeons housing other evil powers. Players are tasked with quests from in-game characters, which they have to travel around the game world to accomplish. Most of these quests involve battling enemies and collecting items they drop.

In order to enter a battle, all one has to do is click on a character wandering around the game map and then select the attack option. Players are then brought into a turn-based battle, where they choose have a limited amount of time to select a type of battle stance to use in their attack; stances have different effects like delivering extra damage, improving defense or replenishing magic.

Dragon Eternity also contains non-combat focused professions, player clans, an in-game auction house where players can buy and sell items and player-versus-player combat. Game Insight says the title will feature synchronous cross-platform compatibility, so players will be able to game with other users regardless of whether they’re playing on a mobile device or the web.

Game Insight tells us Dragon Eternity has been in development for over two years. The company hasn’t revealed a launch date for the Android and iOS versions of the game, but Dragon Eternity is currently in open beta on the web. There are no current plans to make a Facebook-only version.

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Game Insight announces cross-platform MMO Dragon Eternity for iOS, Android and web

While it might be commonplace for puzzle and word games to offer cross-platform play across iOS and Android devices, Game Insight has something a bit more ambitious in mind with its upcoming cross-platform MMO Dragon Eternity. Not only will Dragon Eternity be playable for free on both iOS and Android platforms, but a free-to-play web-based version is also thrown into the mix.

The web game of Dragon Eternity already has more than 1 million beta testers, as players are thrown into a world containing elements from both player-vs-player battles and non-combative roles (like those focusing on crafting and/or item collection, for instance). Via this storyline of war and struggle, players will choose to support either the side of Vaalor or Sadar in the formerly lush, beautiful world of Adan, which has been torn apart during the war. On top of battling other real-world players, Dragon Eternity's warriors will be challenged by a variety of monsters, bandits and more through gameplay that sees them exploring both open landscapes and deep dungeons.

Even in this pre-release state, Dragon Eternity already sports hundreds of quests, allowing users to take on thousands of enemies, including boss characters. Their item collections can grow over time, with rarity-specific items and even companions to take into battle, such as a fire-breathing dragon.

As with most MMOs, Dragon Eternity can immediately be compared to the likes of World of Warcraft, but the cross-platform play across mobile devices and traditional PCs is definitely interesting. Only time will tell if the mobile versions can deliver on the complexity promised by the existing web version of the game, and we'll make sure to let you know when you can get your hands on those mobile versions as soon as they launch.

Are you excited about the possibility of an in-depth free-to-play MMO on your iPhone, iPad or Android device? Sound off in the comments!

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E3 2012: Scrabble finds its niche on Facebook, iOS and Android

Scrabble has been around for a long time on Facebook--like, about four years now. Unfortunately, the classic board game never morphed into the digital tour de force that EA hoped it would. Words With Friends filled that void rather nicely a year or two back, and still does to this day. The publisher slash developer looks to change that, however, with a cross-platform update.

Shown off-site during this week's E3 in Los Angeles, the new-and-improved Scrabble for Facebook is ready to go as of this writing for most players. There's more at play with this new rendition of Scrabble, namely stuff for the hardcore fans of the game on tabletops and elsewhere. Features like a new built-in dictionary (that doesn't effect your turn) and a list of all the eligible two-letter words in Scrabble only serve to up a player's game.

It's the way in which said game is tracked, however, that makes the experience true to the Scrabble phenomenon. For instance, Scrabble now tracks every move made and creates a log for players to consult whenever they please. As for social play, rankings are now displayed in everything from "Most Bingos" to "ELO", the standardized scoring system used for games such as chess and, of course, Scrabble.

You won't see stuff like this in your Words With Friends anytime soon. That wasn't even the point to begin with. Zynga's word game aims at an entirely different audience, one focused more on casual play and connecting with friends. While Scrabble is tailored to offer that experience to players, its strengths lie even more in serving the fans of Scrabble that have always been there ... and maybe those that felt it didn't have that edge offered by a sharp wooden tile.

The new-and-improved Scrabble is available now (for most) on Facebook, and updates that mirror these changes will hit the iOS and Android versions in the coming weeks. Maybe a new direction is just what Scrabble needs to reclaim (at least a leg of) its rightful throne.

[DL Image Credit: TG Daily]

Are you excited about the new Scrabble changes on Facebook? Is this what you had in mind when you first played? Sound off in the comments. Add Comment.

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E3 2012: Where's My Water meets Phineas and Ferb on iOS, Android

by Joe Osborne, Posted Jun 5th 2012 2:25PM

How do you make Disney's most popular mobile game even more popular? Disney looks to be on a tear this year in the mobile and social space, now slapping its Phineas and Ferb onto its mobile hit, Where's My Water. Charmingly titled Where's My Perry, this essentially sounds like a palette swap, slapping a Phineas and Ferb likeness onto the puzzling play hook of Where's My Water.

Of course, this release stars Perry the Platypus as he guides flowing pipes of water to help him escape from a predicament of subterranean proportions. To mix things up, this version of Where's My Water--let's just call it what it is, people--introduces new power-ups known as "Crazy-inators" that can turn water into steam, ice or back to liquid again.

We look to have more on Where's My Perry along with all the rest of Disney's E3 catalog (like these recently-announced games) later this week as we scramble across the show floor. Where's My Perry is slated to launch on the App Store and Google Play later this month.

Are you psyched for a new take on Where's My Water? Is this not original enough for Phineas and Ferb? Sound off in the comments. Add Comment.

Tags: disney, disney mobile, disney social, e3, e3-2012, phineas and ferb, phineas and ferb android, phineas and ferb ipad, phineas and ferb iphone, wheres my perry, wheres my perry android, wheres my perry ipad, wheres my perry iphone, wheres my water

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Dino Life brings the FarmVille of old to Android exclusively

by Joe Osborne, Posted May 1st 2012 10:40AM

Is that simplifying things too much? Well, the years B.C.E. were a simpler time, and looking at the first screen shots of the first Android exclusive game (by GREE's San Francisco studio) in the West certainly lead us to the conclusion. Dino Life is a free-to-play simulation game in which players run a prehistoric village that sees cavemen and dinosaurs living in perfect harmony.

Who cares if it's unrealistic on several counts--it's downright adorable. Players get to breed over 60 types of dinosaurs and soon will be able to cross breed the giant lizards to create unique combinations. (Please, please let us make Tyrannadactyl?) Of course, players' progress is guided by various quests to build a thriving tribe of Cretaceous citizens. But why the Android exclusive?
"GREE is excited about the recent advancements in Google Play and its potential to expand the free-to-play ecosystem on Android. Dino Life is our first Android title and exemplifies our commitment to offer unique gameplay mechanics, great social features and highly-stylized art in each game," says Eiji Araki said in a release. "This game is another step towards creating an ecosystem of games free from geographic or operating system restrictions and is limited only by the imagination of the gamer and the developer."

Based on those words, you'd think the soon-to-be-global mobile social game network would be over platform exclusives. Alas, if you want this prehistoric place-builder in your life, you better have Android.

Click here to download Dino Life on Google Play Now >

Are you excited about another simulator game for Android? What do you think of simulator games today? Sound off in the comments. Add Comment.

Tags: android, android gaming, dino life, dino life android, dino life google play, google play, gree, gree san francisco, mobile gaming, mobile social games

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Vikings, Aztecs and Chinese warriors take to battle in Swords & Soldiers on Android

Swords & Soldiers may be a name that's familiar to strategy and tower defense fans, as the indie game was originally released on PlayStation Network, Nintendo WiiWare, PC and Mac only to later be ported to iOS on both iPhone and iPad. Now, you have yet another option for jumping into this lighthearted world, as Two Tribes has ported the game to Android.

Swords & Soldiers is a side-scrolling tower defense title, taking you around the world as you control Viking, Aztec and Chinese armies in themed environments with overarching goals in mind. The Vikings, for instance, are on a quest to create the ultimate BBQ sauce, while the Aztecs wish to defend the Holy Pepper from their enemies. Needless to say, the game's humor and charm are pretty apparent, and the gameplay is pretty solid as well.

You'll be able to send your troops from the left side of the screen, using resources like gold to summon them. Enemies approach from the right, and combat takes place automatically where the two meet. In this way, the game is immediately comparable to Playdom's new Facebook game Armies of Magic, but can be played anywhere you go.

You'll be able to earn in-game achievements on your Android phone or tablet, and can download a free version of the game to see if it's something you'll enjoy. If so, you can purchase the full game for $2.99. Take a look at what you can expect via the game's official trailer below.

Click here to download Swords & Soldiers on Google Play now --->

Have you played Swords & Soldiers on any of its previous platforms, or will you jump into the game for the first time now on Android? Sound off in the comments.

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Scam Alert: Android malware masquerades as Angry Birds Space

by Joe Osborne, Posted Apr 12th 2012 2:45PM

Tread lightly, Angry Birds fans. If you downloaded the brand spanking new Angry Birds Space from an unofficial Android market, it could very well have malware tucked inside. Sophos security blog Naked Security reports that Android malware authors have pushed a fully playable (and illegal) version of Rovio's hit sequel to unofficial Android app stores, SophosLabs has found.

The game looks and plays just like the real deal, but is actually a Trojan horse known as Andr/KongFu-L. This malware uses an exploit called GingerBreak to gain access to an Android device's root files and install malicious code. But wait, there's more: The Trojan then uses the phone's wireless connection to communicate with another website to install even more malware.

And if you downloaded this phony app, you're still not out of the woods yet. According to Naked Security, the malware then allows hackers to push certain URLs to your Android phone's browser. At that point, you're basically no longer in control of your own phone--this is serious stuff. So please, just download apps from Google Play or Amazon Appstore already? And if you are a victim of this issue, we'd say hit up Sophos. They seem to know their stuff.

Did you download this bum version of Angry Birds Space? Where do you get your Android apps and games from? Sound off in the comments. Add Comment.

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Scramble With Friends Free discombobulates Android gamers

Android users: Prepare to have your vocabularies sent into disarray. Zynga announced that its second hit mobile social word game, Scramble With Friends, is now on Android devices through the Android Mark--er, Google Play. A mobile, social take on the classic word game Boggle, Scramble With Friends takes that play hook and gives it a shot in the arm with power-ups.

Players have just a short amount of time to string as many words together as possible from a series of jumbled letters in three rounds against their friends (or strangers) to go for the high score. Zynga With Friends' three power-ups do well to mix up the play, too: Players can freeze the game board for a moment, reorient the letters to look for new combinations or have the game inspire them with a free word.

When giving a preview of Scramble With Friends, GM Ya-Bing Chu called the game a fine companion to Zynga's most popular mobile game by far, Words With Friends. And now, Android users have the same luxury of brushing up on their word-finding skills, which should do well to boost the game's 1.7 million daily players, according to AppData. We're told that about 26 billion words have been found in Scramble With Friends to date--expect that number to go way, way up starting ... now.

Click here to downloa With Friends for Free on Android Now >

Are you excited that Scramble With Friends has finally made it to Android? Which is better: Words With Friends or Scramble With Friends? Sound off in the comments. Add Comment.

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Goodbye Android Market, Hello Google Play

Google has introduced Google Play, which is essentially a unification and rebranding of the Android Market, as well as its movie, music and books stores. Google Director of Digital Content Jamie Rosenberg, who detailed the new service in a blog post, says that Play is cloud-based, which means "all your music, movies, books and apps are stored online, always available to you, and you never have to worry about losing them or moving them again."

In the 'coming days,' Google will rename the Android Market app to the Google Store App and video, book and music apps will be renamed Google Play Movies, Google Play Books and Google Play Music.

This seems like a smart move by Google to make it easier for customers to buy games and other forms of entertainment in one play, and making them available cross-platform via cloud is quickly becoming the standard with digital downloads. Apple launched its cloud service last year, making it somewhat easier to access your purchases from various Apple devices, and Microsoft launched a cloud service for its Xbox video game console as well, which allows players to access game saves from any system.

Of course, what's most interesting to us is -- will this be a gamechanger for mobile games on Google? I often hear complaints complain on how impossible it is to find anything in the Android Store (and how much easier it is to find 'em in iTunes), so this could be something that gives Google an edge over Apple when it comes to apps and gaming.

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Crime City now holds up Android phones and iPhones simultaneously

Now that's one talented criminal mobile game. Funzio has announced that Crime City, its hit gangster game for Facebook, iPhone and Google+ is now available for a number of Android devices. Of course, the game is free-to-play. Better yet, Crime City now sports cross-platform play, meaning Android-based ruffians can stick it to iPhone-loving hoodlums and vice versa.

"The dominant companies five years from now are going to be those that have figured out how to deliver compelling game experiences to people regardless of device, technology, location and regardless of price," Funzio VP of Business Development Jamil Moledina claims. "When I met with the Funzio guys, it was very clear to me that they were driving toward the cross-platform future. And so this is kind of a first step on that road to get there."
Hot off the heels of a Google+ exclusive, Crime City marks Funzio's push for games that are truly cross-platform, and Moledina tells us that he left EA for the developer last year based on his vision of the future of mobile and social games. That said, Crime City for Android isn't merely a carbon copy of what's available on iPhone. This version packs stronger, fairer matchmaking and is optimized for several Android hardware and software configurations.

"The game takes into account a lot of the learnings we had from fielding Modern War on iOS," Moledina admits. "In some ways, you can consider it Crime City 1.5--it's probably the best version of the game that we have."

Click here to download Crime City on the Android Market Now >

Are you a big-time Crime City fan? What do you think of cross-platform play as the future of mobile and social games? Sound off in the comments. Add Comment.

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Temple Run scurries onto Android phones for free on March 27

by Joe Osborne, Posted Mar 6th 2012 10:30AM

If you're into things that are fun and in your pocket (or the Republican primaries), then you already know all about Temple Run. However, only a select group of fun-lovers really know about Imangi Studios' acclaimed free-to-play game: iPhone and iPad fans. Luckily for Android advocates, that will change for the better come March 27, when Temple Run hits the Android Market for free.

Temple Run sees players fleeing frantically from a horde of irate monkeys across the most labyrinthine bridge ever built, turning, jumping and sliding in an endless escape attempt. Hot off the heels of topping the App Store's grossing and free app charts in January, we're willing to bet that Imangi Studios' flagship iOS game will see similar success on Android phones.

"We are excited to finally share the Android release date with our fans who have been so enthusiastic and supportive of Temple Run," Imangi Studios co-founder Keith Shepherd said in a release. "By expanding to more mobile devices, we hope to provide the same addictive and fast-paced gameplay to an entirely new group of players."

The iOS version of Temple Run boasts over 40 million downloads since it landed on the App Store in August 2011, despite some dastardly clones. With numbers like that, we predict that the endless runner on Android will sit right up there with Angry Birds for months to come.

Are you excited for Temple Run's debut on Android phones this month? What other iOS games do you wish would get an Android version already? Sound off in the comments. Add Comment.

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Tags: android, android gaming, f2p, free-to-play, free-to-play games, imangi studios, mobile gaming, mobile social games, temple run, temple run android, temple+run+for+android, temple+run+on+android, templerunforandroid, templerunonandroid

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