It’s Comic-Con weekend!
Did you already know that? If so, you might be interested in this week’s
release of the official Star
Wars app, surely
timed to release alongside the annual pop culture event. And if not, perhaps
the week’s other new and freshly updated Android apps will strike your fancy.
For example, Microsoft’s
Tossup offers an inventive solution for polling friends, and Fleksy’s
predictive keyboard dropped its price tag to zero, making it easier than ever
to turn nonsensical tapping into actual human language. If it’s games you want,
meanwhile, the very clever Alphabear blends word games with ever-growing
fuzzy creatures, while Splendor brings a recent board game smash to
mobile for pass-and-play strategizing.
You might be surprised to
find that Disney didn’t have an official Star
Wars app until this
week, but it’s true—and with the franchise mounting a huge return this year
with The Force
Awakens (Episode
VII), it was high time to build some enthusiasm on Android. While
there’s nothing particularly mind-blowing about the free app, it’s a nice
compendium of fan-centric diversions.
For example, you can take
a selfie as Princess Leia alongside Darth Vader, with your face fitting nicely
between her hair buns—or mix and match with other characters. There’s a
soundboard, daily trivia bits, a themed weather report (“It’s like Endor out
there”), countdown clocks for the upcoming films, and even an augmented reality
lightsaber game. It’s a well-executed tie-in that could become even more handy
as the movies start hitting theaters.
From Spry Fox, the maker
of free-to-play smash Triple
Town, comes a clever new game that blends word puzzlers with
adorable cartoon bears. Alphabeardrops
a handful of Scrabble-like
tiles on a board, and as you make words from them, the space-filling bears get
larger and generate more points. Problem is, each tile only remains usable for
a few turns until it turns to stone.
So you’ll need to
prioritize certain letters over others, but as the bears expand, more and more
new tiles pop up around them, making your task even trickier.Alphabear is a little hard to explain, but it
only takes a few moments for it to make perfect sense, and the game really is
equally charming and smart. And the bears aren’t just window dressing in this
free game: they’re also power-ups that can affect your play style and strategy.
Tossup
Microsoft keeps bringing
more and more of its apps to Android, but the company isn’t simply porting over
its Windows Phone favorites—it’s also testing the waters with new and
interesting concepts. Following releases like Bing Torque and Picturesque Lock Screen, the latest is Tossup, a
free app that lets friends and colleagues vote on group queries.
Essentially, it’s
designed to save you the hassle of a lengthy text or email chain, as someone
can create a question, pick set responses or leave it open-ended, and then
invite friends to participate. The next time you need to pick somewhere to meet
for dinner, it might come in handy. Then again, it has a rather limited focus,
and do you really want to download another app just for that? Guess we’ll
see.
Splendor
Splendor was one of last year’s most celebrated board/card games, earning
a nomination for the prestigious Spiel des Jahres award and racking up more
than 200,000 copies sold in the meantime. And now it’s available on Android,
letting you take the role of a Renaissance-era merchant as you use your wealth
and influence to… well, amass the most wealth and influence, unsurprisingly.
Playable against the A.I.
or in a four-player pass-and-play mode,Splendor ($6.99) finds
you building up prestige points while you collect gems and structure cards. It
looks like a pretty close approximation of the physical version, and although
the lack of online play is disappointing, at least it has an array of
single-player challenge scenarios included for when friends aren’t near.
Fleksy + GIF Keyboard
Fleksy isn’t new, but for
a long time, the keyboard had a price tag attached if you planned to use it
beyond the initial trial period. As of this week it’s free, with the company
hoping you’ll spend a little cash within to pay for upgrades. Licensed themes (Frozen! Hunger
Games!) are available for a couple bucks apiece, plus you can add
various extensions to your keyboard, with extra slots sold for a dollar each.
Luckily, anyone who paid
for Fleksy in the past gets perks, while all users benefit from the updated
navigation and enhanced GIF and sticker discovery interface. Beyond themes and
easy access to GIFs, Fleksy’s hook remains its strong prediction engine, which
does a very admirable job of figuring out what you meant to type rather than the gibberish you
actually entered. Now that it’s free, there’s little reason not to check it out
if you’re seeking a new input option.
No comments:
Post a Comment