Advisor-bar

Android games for mobile devices with bigger screens

Posted June 18, 2010 8:12am by Kristen Nicole Tags: Android, Games

The gamer scene for Android is getting hot, with more devices emerging all the time.  This past week brought the exemplary HTC Evo, which presents a big screen and speedy processor, both of which are great for mobile gameplay.

News of ZodTTD’s upcoming PS3 emulator has heightened the anticipation around Android games as well.

Emulators

If you were lucky enough to get an HTC Evo this week, you may want to try Nesoid.  The $3.98 Nintendo game emulator was designed with such a phone in mind, offering a large screen and faster processing. Any games added to the emulator will look better on the Evo or similar phones.

ZodTTD has announced plans to launch a PSX Emulator for Android, making it the first of its kind. Already popular on the iPhone, ZodTTD’s mobile apps introduce new options for console game lovers that would like to go mobile with their favorite titles. The announcement reminds us of the changing landscape of  the Android games market.

In anticipation of having a PSX emulator on your Android device, why not try the PS3 Trophies and PS3 Friends PRO app?  At $1.99, you can add a widget displaying when gamer friends are online, as well as their statuses.  Share scores and track friends’ progress.

Action games

Growing in popularity is Heavy Gunner 3D, a shooter game that’s set in the future; your job is to kill all the aliens before they invade your station. The graphics-driven game will cost you $2.99, but it may be worth it if you’d like to see its full details on an Evo screen.

Vendetta Online’s MMORPG is headed to an Android device near you, starting with the Nvidia Tegra tablet.  The space adventure game is already popular on the Web, and its move to the mobile industry is a big step for developer Guild Software.

Casual games

ClingMarks, the team behind Pair Up, has greatly widened its reach with the release of the version of Pair Up for Android 1.5.  This free puzzle game requires you to match cards, but only through an eligible path.  There are several difficulty settings, and global leader boards for showing off your high SAT scores.

Just like a game of Risk, Dice Wars Online Beta pits you against four players to see who will be the last man standing. The real-time gameplay makes for exciting rounds, and the colorful imagery is actually quite pleasant. Free, this new dice game also tracks player progress, adding a social layer.

Bunny Mania Lite has seen some good growth recently, after having launched this spring.  The free game takes you on a lemming-like adventure, where you are faced with the obstacles of leading the bunnies to safety.

Matt515c

N38303606_34485636_4541

Although the games may be designed for bigger screens that really won't change the fact that iPhone will have a much better resolution. Until an Android phone comes out with a similar resolution I think iPhone is going to have a better user response.

Reply to comment Posted June 14, 2010

Stocklone

Missing

You do realize that the iPhone has a smaller screen? Higher resolution but less area. Thus less room for your fingers to move around. I've played with the Evo and it is an absolute joy to navigate with it's 4.3" screen. The keyboard is also a huge improvement over my 3.2" screen with the extra space. I don't think this insanely high resolution over a smaller space is going to make as huge difference over 800x480 of 4.3" Android phones as people think. Great marketing by Apple though. They even gave it a special name so people can think it's magical.

Reply to comment Posted June 15, 2010

Matt515c

N38303606_34485636_4541

I've heard that the EVO's battery life is terrible and if you want to have a battery charger constantly in tote it may be great, but I think with the new phones that are coming out prior to the iPhone release Apple is going to be facing a lot of competition. Here are some specs for the new DROID 2 and DROID Xtreme's.
http://www.iphone-droid.com/droid-xtreme-specs.aspx
http://www.iphone-droid.com/droid-2-specs.aspx

Plus Apple obviously has impressed a lot of people with the iPhone 4 because the pre-orders had to be suspended because they didn't have enough product to meet the demand. I don't disagree with the Android based phones being extremely usable and great phones, I just think the iPhone 4 is a much more polished interface without 3rd party companies junking up the design like Android based phones.

Even the comparisons are relatively close, but its all going to come down to the software and what the users prefer:

Incredible vs iPhone 4
http://www.iphone-droid.com/iphone-4g-vs-droid-incredible.aspx
EVO vs iPhone 4
http://www.iphone-droid.com/iphone-4-vs-htc-evo-4g.aspx

Posted June 20, 2010

Doc_Martin

Missing

Matt, I have the EVO and if you know how to work your phone, the battery life should get you through the day. As far as the resolution, it's going to be an issue for tech and hardware geeks along with Apple marks that will eat up anything Apple throws out. I prefer a bigger screen to a smaller one with a higher resolution, and it's served me well so far. I've got SNESoid on my phone and it runs beautifully. The size of the screen is perfect, and resolution isn't an issue for SNES and NES emulators or even the upcoming PSX emulator because the games that are run don't even come close to challenging the EVO's resolution capabilities. That's like saying a super computer would run Microsoft Word better than a netbook because of it's superior processing ability, it just doesn't make sense.

As far as Apple's supply issues, the major issue is production speed. Of course demand is high because people buy the Apple hype, but it's my belief that Apple will have to push harder the next time around, or they're going to be swallowed up by their increasingly critical fan base. Android doesn't have the recognition iPhone does, but when the features Apple refuses to allow become more well known (as well as Android awareness increases) Apple will lose their stranglehold.

Reply to comment Posted June 24, 2010
Facebook Activity