Top 5 gaming clones on Android

Android hasn’t been particularly well served when it comes to timely conversions.

Things are improving, but it’s still the case that many of the biggest and best names in mobile gaming take an absolute age to make the switch. Mentioning no names (Angry Birds, Fieldrunners, Plants vs Zombies).

All of which has led to the development of an intriguing market for accomplished knock-offs. Games from opportunistic developers that offer little in the way of fresh ideas, and make no attempt to hide their influences.

Of course, many of these are rubbish. A few, though, are very good indeed. Read on to find out our favourites.

If you’re a big-wig mobile developer, by all means take ages with your Android conversions. But don’t expect us gamers to wait when there are decent alternatives like these around.

This early Android release is a pretty shameless copy of the iPhone cult classic Galcon. It swaps the original’s sci-fi setting for a rather more grounded one, but the influence is clear.

Archipelago successfully copies Galcon’s stripped-back take on the real time strategy game, as you direct your forces to take over every last island on the screen.

Galcon has since been released on Android, and is admittedly the superior game of the two. Still, for a good 18 months, Archipelago was a fine stop-gap.

While Archipelago at least bothered to change the look of its 'tribute,' Robo Defense barely even bothers. If you were looking over someone’s shoulder while they were playing it, you’d be forgiven for thinking they were playing Fieldrunners.

Except, of course, Subatomic Studios’s game still hasn’t appeared on the Android market. Seriously, guys, where the hell is it? Even Java owners have a version to call their own.

Not that we’re particularly fussed with Robo Defense installed on our handsets. It might not be as slick or pretty, but it’s a decent approximation of the tower defence classic. It even sneaks in some interesting improvements when it comes to tower upgrades.

Like Archipelago, Crush the Castle’s appeal has been weakened in recent weeks by the release of the game it emulates. It arrived a couple of months ahead of the mighty Angry Birds, helping ease the frustration of that game’s repeated delays.

Despite not being able to match Rovio’s modern phenomenon in any way, Crush the Castle does just enough to warrant examination in a post-Angry Birds Android world.

For one thing it looks totally different, eschewing Angry Birds’s cartoony universe in favour of a mediaeval toy-soldier theme. Tying in with that, the firing mechanic is completely different, relying on a timed release to get its trebuchet working efficiently.

Let’s Golf! wins its lofty position on this list not just because it’s an excellent golf game. It manages to clone a traditional handheld game while making it feel perfectly at home on a touch-driven phone.

Gameloft’s game blatantly cribs from Everybody’s Golf (aka Hot Shots Golf) on PSP, copying everything from that game’s anime-influenced visual style to its simple two-touch swing meter. Even the titles are similar.

We’re not complaining, though. There are no signs of Clap Hanz’s title making its way to Android any time soon (despite last year’s not-particularly-faithful Java version) and frankly, we’d rather just see a decent Let’s Golf! 2 conversion instead.

As hinted at in the intro, one of the most anticipated Android releases is Plants vs Zombies, PopCap’s stunning take on the tower defence genre. We’ve finally had confirmation that it’s coming, but not until some time next year.

In the meantime, you could do a lot worse than check out Leave Devil Alone from Chinese developer Orz Games. While the jolly side-on tower defence gameplay is pure PvZ, it sports a unique Eastern tinge.

Rather than the western horror pastiche of PopCap’s game, Leave Devil Alone uses fantastical creatures from the Chinese underworld. Despite the change in setting, there’s a level of visual polish here that even PopCap would be proud of.

Dodgy translation and technical hiccups aside, Leave Devil Alone is the brightest and boldest clone on Android.