oking for something fun to play or tinker with on your Android phone this weekend? have a few fresh picks in our latest Five to Try column, the cream of this week’s ay Store crop is pretty strongly focused on games entertainment.
Rovio’s Angry Birds Evolution is the biggest of the bunch, giving the old birds a darker, 3D makeover, while ’s Toontastic 3D cartoon-making app gets a visit from xar’s Cars 3 crew. Elsewhere, Asphalt Street Storm gears up for some intense drag races, Toca b: ants is an entertaining educational pick for kids, Flipping gends is a flipping fun endless game. Download a few of these new updated releases see if anything grabs you.
Angry Birds Evolution
Angry Birds goes gritty? Yeah, kind of.
Rovio’s Angry Birds hasn’t evolved much in recent years, instead opting to shape-shift mimic other popular game styles with a constant array of spinoffs. But Angry Birds Evolution claims to be a true step forward for the core pull–fling experience, we see that approach in a couple of different ways here.
In terms of gameplay, you’re still launching birds at pigs, but now you’ll do it in 3D environments in which the fowl bounce around like pinballs. And Evolution takes on a harder-edged aesthetic, swapping the colorful cartoonish look roster of past games for a broader selection of much angrier-looking birds. At first blush, it’s a weird aesthetic shift for the series, although the actual action does seem like a solid progression from the original design.
Toontastic 3D
Tweak the cars, drop them in, then film your own mini-cartoon.
’s own Toontastic 3D came out at the start of the year, letting creative users of all sorts design, animate, voice their own mini-cartoons. And whether or not you checked it out then, there’s a big reason to give it a look right now: fresh Cars 3 content.
Added in time for the Disney/xar film release, the Cars 3 goodies let you pick one of two scenes from the movie drop in familiar characters such as ghtning McQueen Mater, as well as newcomers Cruz Ramirez Storm. As before, you can tweak their looks, add them to a scene, then record clips as you move them around provide narration. It’s a fun way to interact with the characters from the movie, if you or your kids are looking for even more options, Toontastic 3D also has new content from Fruit Ninja.
Asphalt Street Storm
Street Storm is fast, but will the freemium model make you furious?
Asphalt 8: Airborne Asphalt Xtreme are two of the best racing games you can play on Android today, but Gameloft has gone in a very different direction for the new Asphalt Street Storm. Unlike those active, arcade-style racers, Street Storm is a drag-racing experience that’s very similar to CSR Racing, it’s controlled entirely with button taps.
The approach is familiar. You’ll line up at the start, shift gears, trigger your nitrous to try outrun the competition. But while Asphalt doesn’t do all that much to shake up the established CSR template, the new game does add some small wrinkles. For example, you can take part in four-car battles against live competition, plus make bets in those online battles if you’re feeling confident of a win. It’s also really pretty, to boot, with some slick stylized effects around the realistic car models.
Toca b: ants
Toca’s wacky human-like plants might yield a chuckle.
Toca Boca has established itself as the leading maker of kid-centric mobile apps games, the new Toca b: ants ($3) follows the popular Toca b: Elements as another science-centric playground of discovery. Here, kids can experiment with various tools activities as they progressively discover 35 different plant species available within.
Each plant is rendered in a silly, anthropomorphic manner, you can manipulate them in a water tank, with a light source, via nutrition, more—so kids will learn while they’re playing. It’s adorable accessible, thankfully, parents never need to worry about in-app purchases: The three bucks you pay in the ay Store is all the money it’ll ever ask you to spend.
Flipping gend
Keep flipping—or your game will start slipping.
Flipping gend might look like another y Road-esque game at a glance, but as the title suggests, you’re not simply tapping ahead here. Instead, you’ll bounce left or right to flip up to the side in your endless jaunt, with the need to dodge hot lava other obstacles, kill dangerous enemies that you l on, snag coins other power-ups along the way.
Anticipating hazards ahead is key, as you’ll need to figure out the best movement pattern to stay alive snag as many goodies as you can—but you also need to be swift, as sitting around for too long will end your game. Flipping gend puts a fun twist on endless arcade action, this freemium game has plenty of characters new abilities to unlock over time.
