Top 10 best Android games of September 2012

Last month, Google Play burst through the 25-billion-downloads barrier. And thanks to Google's hands-off approach to approving apps, we imagine only a billion or so were Megan Fox wallpapers and Family Guy soundboards.

Anyway, The Big G's Android store has come a long way since it opened for business in late 2008. Nowadays, for example, you don't have to wade through layer upon layer of free gunk and cheap clones to find a half-decent game.

So, if you have any money left after the recent outrageously good Google Play 25p sale, spend it all on our pick of September's hottest Android releases.

Rather than make a pig's ear of porting the superb Rayman Origins to touchscreen devices, Ubisoft used Origins's magnificent artwork and its popular bonus stage as the basis for this marvellous one-touch continuous runner.

Each of Jungle Run's 40 levels is crafted to perfection and begging to be replayed in pursuit of that perfect run.

The simple joy of watching Rayman bounce and skip across your 'droid's screen never grows old.

A grumpier man than I - and I can be a right Victor Meldrew at times - might bemoan the fact that Rovio's latest sticks so closely to the firm's physics-puzzler formula for success.

Yet Bad Piggies's half-Angry Birds and half-Amazing Alex design does create a solid foundation for another mega-hit.

Plus, the idea that you are assembling a ramshackle plane from a toolbox stuffed with helium balloons and desk fans to get a pig safely to the finish is brimming with slapstick entertainment potential.

Admittedly, Beach Buggy Blitz isn't as graphically dazzling or full featured as Vector Unit's acclaimed Riptide GP, but it does remain a fun casual spin on the Mario Kart formula.

In this Tegra-exclusive title, you drive a customisable buggy at full pelt across a tropical paradise, aiming to see as much of the island's sights as possible before the timer runs out.

In short bursts, it's a colourful, joyous race-'em-up. Over the long haul, though, you might struggle slightly for inspiration.

Plague Inc.
By Ndemic Creations - buy on Android

Although we reviewed Plague Inc. back in September, some last-minute tweaks (probably bug fixes - geddit?) meant that this Silver Award winner will actually hit Google Play on October 4th. Just in time for flu season, then.

Plague Inc. is actually a refined, touchscreen-friendly version of the Pandemic Flash and iOS series.

So, in this Android strategy title you try to wipe out the world's 7-billion population by unleashing and then gradually modifying a deadly disease.

A puzzle classic in the making with over 400 stages, HueBrix turns a simple grid-filling concept into a mind-bending synapse sapper.

The basic objective is to use coloured lines to ensure no black areas are left.

Complicating matters, however, is a Picross-style number system: colours are only able to fill a certain number of spaces on the grid, for instance. Arrow modifiers, meanwhile, force you to draw in one direction and one direction only.

It might not quite provoke that feeling you get from pulling the parachute cord at the last possible moment in Just Cause 2, but Stickman Base Jumper still offers plenty of death-defying leaps for your money.

The buildings may get higher, and the number of environmental hazards may increase (from planes to cranes), yet the simple timed tap controls mean you'll pick up the basics of throwing yourself at gravity's mercy in no time.

We don't often recommend a freemium social game in these top ten round-ups, but Arcane Empires has a rare gift for keeping you building and battling for days.

This online-only strategy game might suffer as a consequence of its slightly glacial pace due its Korean browser history, but it's easy to get drawn into building up your own military force and then forging alliances with other players to take over the map.

Essentially, this utterly madcap pixel-art point-and-click adventure is what you'd get if you dumped The Secret of Monkey Island and WarioWare into a whisk and hit 'go'.

With only 15 seconds to complete every level, you have to stop a bomb from blowing up the scene - even if it involves removing a stick of dynamite from a hospital patient's colon.

Glu Mobile's second stab at replicating the swipe combat genius of Infinity Blade on iOS is more polished than its predecessor and even features an engaging(ish) revenge storyline.

The main action is still based in an arena - with crowds baying for your blood at every turn - although there is a little more depth this time around thanks to the "Glorious Strikes" system that helps you inflict massive damage on your legions of opponents.

Forget what you think you know about the elderly: Granny Smith is here to prove they're actually all stunt people in disguise.

In a bid to chase down young scamps who've made off with her apples, Mediocre's auto-running octogenarian is able to somersault, smash through windows, and slide down wires with her cane.

All of that makes a for a thrilling, yet often frustrating, pensioner-themed spin on the Trials HD stunt formula.