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The best Android games this week - Block Fortress, Rote, and more

Blocks and balls

The best Android games this week - Block Fortress, Rote, and more

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

Block Fortress
By Foursaken Media - buy on Android (£1.49 / $1.99)

Block Fortress

At a first glance, Block Fortress might look like yet another Minecraft knock-off. It's got the same low-fi aesthetic, and the same obsession with plopping down building blocks.

But this game has more of a set structure, as you've got to put together a scrappy defensive structure to protect your base from incoming foes.

That involves finding a good spot to create your base (look for natural defensive points and lots of nearby minerals to mine), choosing the right turrets and tools, and then jumping into the fray with a handgun to help out.

Reviewer Jon Mundy said of the iOS version, "Block Fortress is an accomplished amalgam of strategy and action elements," but warns that it's "still a slick interface and a fleshed-out action element away from being a true classic."

Bio Inc. - Biomedical Plague
By DryGin Studios - download on Android (Free)

Bio Inc

We kill people in games all the time. A typical video game protagonist racks up a kill count in the hundreds, all with only one half of his shirt tucked in. But it rarely feels as personal as in Bio Inc.

Your job is to murder one specific dude by pumping him full of viruses and infections so he'll die before the doctors can cure him. It's all a little dark and uncomfortable.

But it's also a fun strategy puzzle game. As Harry said in his iOS review, "discovering the different ways you can kill a healthy human with a combination of diseases, incompetence, and life-style changes is strangely compelling."

Rote
By RageFX - download on Android (Free) or buy on Android (79p / $1.30)

Rote

Rote is a cute little game about rolling a scrunched up paper ball from one side of the screen to the other.

But life is never that simple, and your path is obscured by coloured blocks that you can slide in rows by shunting them left and right. The goal is to figure out a way to push these blocks around a cramped area until you can escape.

It gets very tricky, very quickly, and developer RageFX manages to craft some ingenious puzzles within the very small confines of these microscopic levels. There are only 30 puzzles, but you'll be playing them for hours.

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