Android Apps and Games Roundup (May 2014)

Welcome to the Android Apps and Games Roundup for the month of May, 2014.

I am not going to make bore you with details, so here we go straight to the list.

Apps:

Bright Weather is a new weather widget from LevelUp Studio, the developers of Beautiful Widgets. The app is free, ad supported, and comes with a nice widget. You can also set up the app to display a persistent notification icon, which displays the weather on the status bar.

[appbox googleplay com.levelup.brightweather]

Sunrise Calendar. Yes we do love calendar apps, and this one does impress. This app is hugely popular on iOS, and has been beautifully ported, or should I say re-designed for Android’s UI. So it supports both iCloud and Google Calendar. The widget is a little dissapointing, with no customization whatsoever.

[appbox googleplay am.sunrise.android.calendar]

Yahoo News Digest. A surprisingly useful app from Yahoo (there, I said it). Long story short, it is a news digest and does exactly that. It collects various news articles and puts them into one story, After all, who has the time to read newspapers? Digests are delivered twice a day. The only place where the app lacks are the available editions. There are only four available (U.S, U.K, Canada and International).

[appbox googleplay com.yahoo.mobile.client.android.atom]

Notable Updates:

HD Widgets though old, remains a popular choice amongst users. and it received a major UI overhaul. The new version 4of the app requires Android 4.0.3 & up

[appbox googleplay cloudtv.hdwidgets]

Gmail added support for saving attachments directly to Google Drive, full support for RTL languages (such as Arabic).

[appbox googleplay com.google.android.gm]

Google Camera was updated to add a Timer, 16:9 Aspect ratio, and new Panorama modes.

[appbox googleplay com.google.android.GoogleCamera]

Google Hangouts received an update which allows you to block SMs from specific numbers, set a custom ringtone for each of your Hangouts, and better support for RTL languages.

[appbox googleplay com.google.android.talk]

Google Translate now supportsPhonetic input for many Indian languages: Bengali, Gujarati, Hindi, Kannada, Marathi, Punjabi, Tamil, Telugu

[appbox googleplay com.google.android.apps.translate]

Nova Launcher recently added support for the “OK Google” hotword.

[appbox googleplay com.teslacoilsw.launcher]

Games

Battle Gems (AdventureQuest) is a match-3 RPG where you match stuff to battle the baddies, and yes there are Dragons in it.

[appbox googleplay com.battleon.aqbattlegems]

Dark Lands is an odd mix of RPG and Endless Runners. But you shouldn’t let that fool you, the gameplay is quite entertaining. The game also has an adventure mode with 40 missions.

[appbox googleplay com.bulkypix.darklands]

DexLand was inspired by the gameplay of a popular iOS game dEXTRIS, and the graphics of Badlands. Need I say more?

[appbox googleplay com.tinylabproductions.dexlands]

FlapThulhu, & HodappyBird are two games which were designed for FlappyJam. So if Flappy Bird games are your thing, give them a go.

[appbox googleplay com.noodlecake.hodappybird]

[appbox googleplay com.noodlecake.flapthulhu]

MAGNETOID – Robo Runner, as the name suggests is an endless runner with gorgeous pixel graphics. With a free price tag, good sound track, no ads or permissions, you can’t go wrong.

[appbox googleplay com.Room247.MagnetoidE]

Monument Valley. I was a bit hesitant to include the game in this roundup, because it is a bit on the short side, and when you pay for a game you expect to play it for a while. The graphics and the sound track are top notch, but the puzzles could have been harder.

[appbox googleplay com.ustwo.monumentvalley]

METAL SLUG DEFENSE. While not the greatest of defense games, I am simply including this for fans of Metal Slug, and the game’s free price tag.Watch out for the IAPs.

[appbox googleplay com.snkplaymore.android003]

Push Panic is another iOS hit ported to Android. Tap blocks of the same color, build up a chain, and tap on one of them again to go boom. Watch out for the panic bar, if a block falls out, its all over.

[appbox googleplay com.barrykostjens.PushPanic]

Scurvy Scallywags is another match3-RPG. This one has Pirates. AARRR! What makes it unique, is the board shifts in the direction you make a match. Oh, this one was popular on iOS too.

[appbox googleplay com.beepgames.scurvyscallywags]

Steampunk Tower is a tower defense game, which was popular as flash game on browsers, before making its way on to mobile devices. There is one tower which you have to upgrade with various weaponry to destroy oncoming enemies.

[appbox googleplay com.chillingo.steampunktower.android.rowgplay]

Tiny Dice Dungeon is an RPG where everything depends on the roll of the dice. Your roll decides the amount of damage you do to your opponent. You can craft weapons, collect artifacts and even capture monsters to fight for you.

[appbox googleplay com.kongregate.mobile.tinydicedungeon.google]

Trials Frontier was on limited beta for a while before its global debut recently. You can upgrade your bike and level up your rider. Combine that with 250 missions, and 70 tracks, you have got an entertainer in the house.

[appbox googleplay com.ubisoft.redlynx.trialsfrontier.ggp]

Zombie Road Trip Trials is a sequel to ZRR, and certainly adds a bit of a twist to the gameplay. You can read about the game here.

[appbox googleplay com.noodlecake.zrttrials]

Drop a comment below,and tell us your favorite apps and games of the month.