The best Android games this week - Heroes and Castles, Trials: Frontier, and OTTTD
Heroes, castles, towers, and trials
Every Friday, Pocket Gamer offers hands-on impressions of the week's three best new Android games.
Heroes and Castles
By Foursaken Media - buy on Android (£1.49 / $1.99)
Foursaken Media has a habit of making games that are kind of ugly and terrifically complicated. But that unwelcoming exterior often hides some smart, addictive, and deep strategy gameplay.
Take Heroes and Castles, for one. This is an abstruse mix of hack 'n' slash actioner and tower defence strategy game. And it all looks like the efforts of a 7 year old trying to make Skyrim in Unity.
"But spliced together, along with the game's frenetic pace and impressive sense of ebb and flow, Heroes and Castles somehow becomes more than the sum of its parts," our reviewer man Mundy said.
He dubbed it a "tough and rewarding genre mash-up" in his Bronze Award review of the iOS original. Now Android gamers can try it, too.
Trials: Frontier
By Ubisoft - download on Google Play (Free)
Trials: Frontier is not really about navigating a lumpy bumpy obstacle course on a stunt bike. It's actually about spinning slot wheels, completing chores, and nursing a fragile fuel tank.
And reviewer Harry agrees, saying that "Trials: Frontier isn't quite as deep an experience as you might find in the less mobile versions of the game, and it lacks the hardcore, razor sharp edge that made the series so popular."
But while Trials traditionalists will turn their noses up at this one, Frontier does "deliver meaty chunks of wonderfully well-balanced physics-based motorbike platforming" that will please newcomers.
OTTTD
By SMG Studio - buy on Android (£1.99 / $2.99)
If you've been looking for a high-quality tower defence game to play after finishing Kingdom Rush (and its sequel), you need look no further.
OTTTD ("Over The Top Tower Defence") is a polished little strategy game that's overflowing with content. It's also lots of fun, with a ludicrous plot, self-aware dialogue, and barmy monsters to fight off.
And it's not just about plopping down turrets. Like in Kingdom Rush, you'll control mobile units that can whir around the battlefield to fight enemies and repair turrets here.
So, while it might not be anything spectacularly new, "given how much the game oozes style and entertainment, we can forgive that oversight," reviewer Matt said.
