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The 3 best Android games this week - 80 Days, Bang Man!, and more

Around the world with a giant handgun

The 3 best Android games this week - 80 Days, Bang Man!, and more

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

A quick note before we start. We haven't played enough Exiles to know if it deserves to be on this list. We'll have a full review of the game next week. While you wait, you should play…

Bang Man!
By Byronic Games - download on Android (Free)

Bang Man

Bang Man! isn't going to win any points for presentation. It looks it was made with clip art and the audio would make a good advert for ear plugs. But it's all about the inventive idea at its core.

Like an even more simple Super Crate Box, you've got to grab weapons from boxes to kill scurrying enemies. But the kicker comes when you realise that each gun has a different recoil stat.

So you have to be careful that your powerful new hand gun isn't going to blast you off the side of the level and into the abyss - all in the interest of giving this twitchy arcade game a sharp tactical twist.

Tart it up with some pixel art visuals and a chip tune score and this could be the next indie smash hit.

80 Days
By inkle - buy on Android (£2.99 / $4.99)

80 Days

These past few months, gamers on iOS have been sharing their story about how they tried to travel around the world in 11 weeks and change. But, amazingly, everyone's had a completely different story.

Some have visited walking cities. Others have been captured by pirates. One might have solved a murder mystery on a train while another might have taken a harrowing journey on a slaver ship.

This slick choose-your-own-adventure tale is funny and thoughtful, tricky and intuitive, and one of the best examples for how video games can weave truly interactive narratives.

Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars
By Rockstar Games - buy on Android (£2.99 / $4.99)

Chinatown Wars

The gap between iOS and Android is closing. Big games routinely launch simultaneously on both platforms, and indie devs only need a few weeks to port their game to Google Play.

So let's put Chinatown Wars's five year delay down to an anomaly, eh?

Still, it was worth the wait. More so than the Vice City and San Andreas ports, this top-down, rather-retro GTA game feels more at home on mobile. The controls are simpler, the missions are shorter, and it's easier to see on a small screen.

And there's that clever drug-dealing meta game where you schlep acid and pot across Liberty City to exploit the turbulent market. Perfect for a quick blast on the subway.

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