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The best Android games this week - Skulls of the Shogun, and more

A duet of death

The best Android games this week - Skulls of the Shogun, and more

Every Friday, Pocket Gamer offers hands-on impressions of the week's three best new Android games.

Skulls of the Shogun
By 17-BIT - buy on Android (£1.99 / $2.99)

Skulls of the Shogun

This cartoon tun-based strategy romp works especially well on mobile. A strict limit of five moves per turn keeps things moving, and cramped battlefields keep the action contained.

It's also good for new players, with a limited pool of units and relatively simply rules. But there are fresh mechanics for veterans, too, like being able to shunt an enemy off a cliff, or the ability to eat downed foes skulls to boost your stats.

And everyone can enjoy its twisted setting, inky art style (even if it does obfuscate the action at times) and irreverent sense of humour.

We gave the Windows 8 version a Silver Award and said "tight, fast, and remarkably fun, Skulls of the Shogun shakes the cobwebs off the turn-based strategy genre with some style"

Duet
By Kumobius - download on Android (Free)

Duet

When you mess up in a game like Super Hexagon or Impossible Road, your failure is brushed off and you're instantly whisked off into a fresh game. But not in Duet.

Your goal is to spin a pair of coloured dots on opposite side of an invisible hoop, so that they dodge obstacles and traps. But if you mess up and hit a wall, the blue and red dots splatter their paint on the stark white block.

It's a punishing reminder of how much you suck. But a feisty incentive to get better and bypass that ink-stained block on your next attempt.

Duet is also available in the latest Humble Bundle where you can pay whatever you want, and get Combo Crew and Eliss Infinity too.

Talisman
By Nomad Games - buy on Android (£4.79 / $6.73)

Talisman

Talisman is a slightly bizarre board game about circling around a castle, over and over again, until you finally wander in. It's like being drunk in Warwick.

This race to the centre of the board is dotted with scraps against marauding beasties and random encounters with roaming nomads. There's an enormous amount of stuff - in the real world version, the card deck is about eighteen feet tall.

All in all, it's a good board game. Though the digital edition isn't without its flaws. We called it a "gorgeous, if somewhat clumsy, version of a narrative rich but overly random boardgame."

And while we moaned at the lack of multiplayer in Talisman Prologue, this final version features both hotseat local multiplayer and real-time online play for two to four die rollers.

Mark Brown
Mark Brown
Mark Brown is editor at large of Pocket Gamer