Five games we’d like to see ported to Android

2009 will see the emergence of Google’s Android platform as a fully fledged gaming platform. Its open source nature promises to lead to some thrillingly innovative experiences, as everyone from multi-billion dollar development houses to lone bedroom coders get in on the act.

While fresh IP will be essential, though, it’s going to be the strength of the platform’s ports that will really allow us to judge Android’s capabilities. How will it handle 3D? Will the accelerometer and touchscreen controls be as sharp and responsive for games as the iPhone?

There’ll be some interesting ‘Versus’ articles on Pocket Gamer when the first few retail games appear, that’s for sure.

With this in mind, we thought we’d indulge in a small wish list of some of the conversions we’d like to see on Android. They’re not necessarily our favourite games, but we do feel each of them would play to the system’s strengths in some way.

One thing to note: we know that some of the other Android handsets in development may not be incorporating a full keyboard and trackball, but for now we’re treating the T-Mobile G1 as the definitive Android system. We also feel strongly that both features really should be used as standard in all future Android handsets.

As always, we’d love to hear your thoughts on this.

Five games we'd like to see ported to Android

5. Rolando It stands to reason that we’d like to see a fair few iPhone games ported to the Android thanks to the similarities between the two platforms. So the first game on our list really is a no-brainer. Rolando, in case you didn’t know, is undoubtedly the best iPhone game to be released so far. It’s the only game on the platform to have received our prestigious Platinum Award (10/10), and with good reason. Boasting beautiful graphics and brilliant use of the accelerometer and touchscreen controls, it’s a bone fide classic. And it would fit like a glove on Android.
4. Super Monkey Ball Whilst bringing Rolando to Android would be a case of emulating the iPhone’s best, a version of Super Monkey Ball would be a chance to atone for the Apple platform’s mistakes. Though Super Monkey Ball on iPhone was decent, it should have been an early must-have. The accelerometer control and big screen of Apple’s device is almost tailor made for rolling simians. Not only could the Android G1 version make up for this with some tighter tilt-control implementation and better level design, it could also offer its trackball as a viable alternative input method. A decent version of SMB would be a quick and easy early strike at the start of the iPhone vs Android war.
3. Marble Madness A progenitor of Super Monkey Ball and indeed of all object manoeuvring games, from Mercury Meltdown to Katamari Damacy and its sequels, Marble Madness will have a fond place in the hearts of anyone who started gaming in the 1980s. The aim is to guide your marble down a string of tricky obstacle courses, dodging traps along the way. When it was released in the arcades in 1984, Marble Madness made use of a trackball control system, and many felt that the subsequent home conversions suffered for the lack of a similar device. An updated, fully 3D G1 version could go down as the ultimate version.
2. Space Invaders Extreme Those of you who read our similar article for N-Gage will recall that we would like to see Space Invaders Extreme on Nokia’s gaming platform. But it’s with very good reason that we’re listing it again for the Android. Most obviously, Space Invaders Extreme is an excellent game, featuring as it does a sparkling version of Space Invaders tweaked and updated for a modern audience. The Android’s beautiful screen and processing punch would ensure a real visual spectacle, and the left/right/fire controls would map beautifully to the G1’s keyboard (perhaps ‘A’, ‘S’ and ‘Enter’, respectively). And that’s one thing the iPhone just wouldn’t be able to match.
1. Counter-Strike Valve’s tactical first-person shooter classic Counter-Strike has defined competitive multiplayer gaming over the past decade. It’s a brilliantly tactical game of duck and cover, with a team of terrorists taking on their law-enforcing opponents. Look at an opened up Android and what do you see? Its miniature keyboard and track-ball closely mirrors a standard keyboard and mouse set-up. Now imagine playing CS with your left thumb using 'W', 'A', 'S' and 'Z' for movement and your right thumb using the trackball to aim and shoot. Hop onto a wi-fi spot and you’d have yourself an unparalleled portable multiplayer experience.