Overwhelmed
by the App Store? Think Google Play’s too clunky? With so many mobile
games being released every week, finding the ones worth a download can
be a daunting task. Most often that means sticking to the top-grossing
charts, but you’ll often miss some great stuff if you don’t dig deeper.
Rather
than have you do the digging, though, we’re more than happy to handle
the shovel. Here are the 10 best new mobile games of February 2015, and
be sure to check back next month for an updated list.
Few genres have been driven into the ground like the endless runner, but Alto’s Adventure
proves there’s still plenty of life left here. This side-scrolling
snowboarding game features stylish visuals, haunting music, and spot-on
controls. Pause it at any moment and you’ve got yourself a gorgeous
desktop background. Not to be missed.
Outside of Minecraft,
open-world games haven’t been very popular on mobile devices. It’s
mostly been a hardware issue, as rendering detailed, massive
environments was a tall task for older mobile processors. Radiation Island
shows off how far things have come, letting you traverse a dense
tropical landscape while crafting and looting your way to success. The
controls could use a little work, but as a demonstration piece, Radiation Island will floor your friends.
Fans
of role-playing games can appreciate how much the genre has changed
over the last 30 years. Well, imagine experiencing those three decades
of progression in the same game. Evoland starts you off with
simplistic, black-and-white pixel graphics and eventually graduates to a
fully 3D RPG. It’s a bizarre, wholly original concept that plays out as
both a clever homage and a legitimately fun game.
Auro’s
graphics may appear a little childish, but look past the adorable
cartoon mice and you’ll find a deep tactical strategy game. Set on a
hexagonal grid, Auro is tough. You’ll get crushed if you don’t
plan ahead. But a well-executed plan is tremendously satisfying and will
reward you with even more adorable monsters to kill on the next level.
Try to ignore the hammy voice acting in AG Drive’s trailer and just appreciate how ridiculously fast you’re able to go in this game. Obviously inspired by classics like Wipeout and F-Zero, AG Drive focuses on futuristic racing and zero-gravity tracks that twist through Blade Runner-esque environments. It’s gorgeous, speedy, and staggeringly smooth for a game of this nature running on a mobile device.
Mind-bending puzzler Okay? is as minimalist as it gets.The
objective: summon a ball from thin air and send it flying into white
blocks. The idea is to take out all the blocks with just one ball,
requiring a precise series of ricochets. Sounds easy — and at first it
is — but it quickly gets crazy. While the game itself is neat, the
pricing model is even cooler: Pay what you want!
Even though Space Miner
launched five years ago — a mobile-game eternity — it remains one of
the best games ever made for the platform. If you’ve never experienced
it, now is a great time to start, as a Platinum Edition of the game was
just released, updating the graphics and adding a host of new content.
And if you’ve played it already, the update’s free, so everybody wins!
Dark Echo
imagines a world through sound. The only way you can see walls is by
emitting noise, which creates waves that bounce around the area and
eventually back to you. That’s creepy enough, but did I mention that
you’re being chased by a monster you can’t see? It’s scary, memorable
stuff.
A supercute vampire is the star of Lamp and Vamp, but don’t let the playful looks fool you. Calling to mind mobile classics like Hoplite, Lamp and Vamp isa roguelike strategy game, so it’s all about dying, starting over, and learning from your mistakes. As with Auro, there’s really no room for error as you progress deeper within Lamp and Vamp. But it’s all for a good cause: a precious castle for your precious bloodsucker.
Following in the weird footsteps of games like PaRappa the Rapper comes Planet Quest.
This free (ad-supported) rhythm game has you commanding an alien
spaceship as it attempts to abduct costumed humans scattered throughout
the galaxy while bumping serious techno funk. Stray from the beat or
suck up a flower (seriously), and you’re toast.
Here are 9 reasons why I say this: 1. Get a head start When you wake up at 5am, you start your day earlier than 99.9% of the world — hence giving you a head start in your day. This creates a feel-good factor, which, while psychological, creates a host of positive effects (especially for reasons #2 and #3 in the list). After all, a good start is half the battle won. It will motivate you to stay ahead so you can maintain or even widen the lead. For example, my modus operandi when I wake up early is to work on the high-impact tasks right away, as opposed to the small, easy but unimportant tasks. I will also think and work effectively, and strive to end my day earlier so that I can have an early sleep, wake up early the next day, and continue my “head start.” On the whole, I’d say that I’m more forward thinking and proactive in managing my tasks — since I have a head start in my day, I naturally think about how I can be ahead in my work too. On the other hand, when I wake up
NASA unveils seasonal dust storm pattern on Mars Improving the ability to predict large-scale, potentially hazardous dust storms on Mars would have safety benefits for planning robotic and human missions to the planet's surface. NASA's Mars orbiters have unveiled a pattern of large regional dust storms occurring at about the same times each year, an advance that may help predict these hazardous events during future robotic and human missions to the red planet. After decades of research to discern seasonal patterns in Martian dust storms from images showing the dust, but the clearest pattern appears to be captured by measuring the temperature of the red planet's atmosphere. For six recent Martian years, temperature records from NASA Mars orbiters reveal a pattern of three types of large regional dust storms occurring in sequence at about the same times each year during the southern hemisphere spring and summer. Each Martian year lasts about two Ea
2 iPhone Apps to Manage Expenses and Budget Efficiently Ads by Google While budgeting might not be one of the most exciting things to do (I’m sure a lot of people consider it boring and tedious), it is an extremely important activity that every household should undertake. With budgeting, you are able to plan your financial life and afford things you need and like. In short, proper budgeting lets you enjoy life to the fullest through sound financial planning. And while the task might indeed feel a bit like a chore for some, the good news is that you don’t need to make this a complex process. In fact, there are several apps out there that help people take care of their finances, and some of them allow you to do it in a very simple way, without creating complex online profiles or adding your bank accounts if you don’t want to. So if you want to know more about two such iPhone apps, read along. Pocket Expense Created by developer Appxy, Pocket Expense lets yo
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