The best Android games this week - Dragon Quest I, Hyper Trip, and more
Three to play
Every Friday, Pocket Gamer offers hands-on impressions of the week's three best new Android games.
Hyper Trip
By Bulkypix - download on Android (Free)
Okay, so you're done with rock-hard, twitchy arcade games with neon-dipped visuals, nauseating cameras, and punchy electronic soundtracks. I understand. You are excused.
But for everyone else, try Hyper Trip. This one, a sort of mix between Super Hexagon and Pac-Man, is about keeping a rampaging block from crashing into the walls of a maze for as long as possible.
Once you grasp that you don't always need to be going forward, and you can use the simple controls to explore other avenues or even double back on yourself, devious new strategies emerge.
Dragon Quest I
By Square Enix - buy on Android (£1.99 / $2.99)
It's a good job that the Dragon Quest games are wholly separate entities. In any other series, playing game seven, then four, then one, would make for a seriously complicated narrative.
But while the stories are different, there are common elements throughout the Dragon Quest games like the art style, the turn-based gameplay, and that cute little slime. With this Android port of the NES original, you'll get to see how it all started.
And you also get an engrossing (if simple, by today's standards) RPG, a chunky slice of game for your three bucks, and some nice remade visuals from a Japanese-only mobile phone port we never got to play.
Spider-Man Unlimited
By Gameloft - download on Android (Free)
There's a whole lot to like about this bouncy, energetic endless runner. It moves at a lightning pace, it looks outstanding, and those rare moments where Spidey's swinging through the streets of New York feel perfect.
And it's always chopping and changing, refusing to stand still. You'll be running along the rooftops one minute, hitching a ride on a fighter jet the next, and then BASE jumping off an exploding spaceship after that.
It does have the usual Gameloft guff - an energy system, in-app purchases, and a lucky dip for winning new Spider-Man variants - but stomach that and you'll find a refreshing endless runner, and the best superhero app Gameloft's ever done.
