These are the best Android games from November 2015

What is there to say about November? It's the last full working month of the year for most us.

It's the month in which Brits burn stuff, Americans give thanks, and people on both sides of the Atlantic get hoodwinked into spending money on gizmos we don't really want or need.

Fortunately, it's also a month in which a bunch of great Android games have been released.

Take these, for example.

Horizon Chase
By Aquiris Game Studio - download on Android

What's the best arcade racer ever? If you didn't answer 'Outrun,' you're wrong. What, you said 'Ridge Racer'? Okay, we'll give you a pass.

The point is, Horizon Chase borrows liberally from the classic arcade racer rulebook as typified by Sega's Outrun - all prolonged power-slides and bright blue skies. And it's all the better for it.

It isn't the first mobile game to try this, of course, but Horizon Chase is arguably the smoothest, prettiest, and most successful attempt yet.

Call of Champions
By Spacetime Studios - download on Android

Call of Champions is the latest game to attempt to convince us that the MOBA genre can work on mobile. Like Vainglory before it, it's pretty darned successful, but in different ways.

Spacetime Studios has stripped the mechanics of play back to their bare essentials, so you have what amounts to a fantasy-inflected tug-of-war.

Your three-person team must push a ball along a preset path towards your opponent's base, getting into scraps and taking out towers along the way.

Shooty Skies
By Mighty Games - download on Android

How do you follow up a massive hit game like Crossy Road? The answer, it seems, is to take the core principles that made that game work - the simple gameplay hook, appealing aesthetic, and unusually generous freemium spirit - and apply it to a different genre.

That's what Mighty Games (which is made up of two thirds of the Crossy Road team) has done in Shooty Skies. It's applied all of the above elements to the vertical scrolling shoot-'em-up genre.

And do you know what? It's just as impossible to put down as its Frogger-inspired predecessor.

Devious Dungeon 2
By Ravenous Games - buy on Android

This one actually came to Android right at the end of October, so it just missed our round-up for that month. It's too good to slip in between the cracks, though, so here it is.

Devious Dungeon 2 represents another superb slice of retro dungeon-crawling platformer action from Ravenous. Few do such things better on mobile.

Besides the usual water-tight controls and appealing pixel-art graphics, DD2 is simply massive, with three characters to pick from and loads of expertly designed dungeons to plunder.

Football Manager Touch 2016
By Sports Interactive - buy on Android

Earlier in the year, Sports Interactive finally gave mobile footy fans what they wanted - a classic version of its peerless footy management sim build on the foundations of the PC original.

Football Manager Classic 2015 was excellent, but a few glitches and issues kept it from being spot-on. Now SI is back in super quick-time (arguably too quick, given the price) with Football Manager Touch 2016.

Ignore the name change - this is a direct follow-on from FM Classic 2015, with all the depth and the tension that entails. It's by far the best game of its kind on mobile.

Lifeline 2
By 3 Minute Games - buy on Android

This sequel to the well-received Lifeline changes the setting completely from the original, but retains its intriguing real-time storytelling structure.

It's an interactive story, giving you choices over which direction the narrative takes. But the key twist is that it's told in the character's time, with the story beats drip-fed through as and when they occur.

As before, it's a surprisingly immersive way to tell a story. Fortunately, Lifeline 2's story is also a good deal longer than the too-brief original.

Ravenmark: Scourge
By Witching Hour Studios - buy on Android

We almost opted to omit Ravenmark: Scourge from this list, because it took developer Witching Hour Studios four years to bring it across from iOS. Four years.

But there's no denying that it scratches a particular gaming itch for a deep turn-based tactical RPG. On that front Ravenmark: Scourge still delivers, with an intuitive interface, a lengthy campaign, and a deep puddle of fantasy lore.

It wouldn't have won any awards for its graphics in 2011, let alone today, but Ravenmark: Scourge remains a meatily satisfying strategy experience.

Crimsonland
By 10tons - buy on Android

This intense twin stick shooter is undoubtedly the splashiest, goriest, shootiest pick this month.

Each game of Crimsonland is a very simple case of blasting everything that moves. The title is very literal, in that the land around you will soon turn an icky shade of red as a direct result of your actions.

There's a tactile sense of weight, and almost clumsiness, to the controls that make Crimsonland stand out from its more sci-fi flavoured rivals. The game is a crude shotgun compared to their finely tuned laser rifles, and it's all the more fun for it.

Coin-Op Heroes 2
By RedSix Interactive - buy on Android

Coin-Op Heroes 2 is what some people call a 'tapper,' while others call it a 'clicker.' Whichever term you use, the meaning is the same - you partake in battles by hammering a single control.

It would be pointlessly simplistic if its wasn't for all the extras, such as a surprisingly involving RPG element that sees your fantasy forces swelling, and your magic attacks growing in potency.

Then there's Coin-Op Heroes 2's lovingly retro graphics, which make you feel like you're stuck in an arcade game from the late '80s. Which, funnily enough, is precisely the setting for the game.

Last Horizon
By Pixeljam - buy on Android

This lovely, meditative game is all about harvesting resources from planets and moons in your little rocket ship. To do so you must master classic space physics, utilising inertia and gravity to maximise your fuel and minimise collisions.

Last Horizon is a beautiful-looking game, with sharp and stylised yet understated graphics and suitably spacey fonts.

There's also an obvious eco-message at the core of the game, and it's refreshing to find such a retro-tinged space exploration game that doesn't involve any combat.

Want more? View last month's list