Top 10 best Android games of April 2014

April was another strong month for Android games.

Admittedly, pretty much all of our favourite titles were iOS conversions. And some of them were mighty late at that. But frankly, it's difficult to care.

This conversion process effectively works to curate the games we get through. Most find themselves on Android on account of strong reviews and / or sales of the iOS version, which means they tend to be pretty good.

April's batch certainly fits into that category.

The two games topping the following list actually started life on PC and home consoles, but both feel brilliantly at home on mobile. Yep, you can pretty much count us conversion converts.

The Walking Dead: Season One
By Telltale Games - download on Android

Two years it's taken for The Walking Dead to shuffle onto Android. Lots of things have changed in the world of mobile gaming during that time.

Fortunately, the quality of Telltale's storytelling and player engagement skills is strong enough to survive a zombie apocalypse, let alone the fickle affections of gamers.

Styled after the point-and-click adventures of old but with the emphasis on narrative and meaningful player decisions over tricky puzzles, The Walking Dead: Season One is one of the finest examples of interactive storytelling on Android.

XCOM: Enemy Unknown
By Firaxis – buy on Android

Charging more than £7 for a game on the Google Play Store typically means that you're either brave or stupid. The developer of XCOM: Enemy Unknown is neither.

Firaxis has simply created a stunning 3D squad-based strategy game that started out life wowing the console crowd. It then made its way to mobile with a bit of a visual downgrade but precious little in the way of meaningful compromise.

Console conversions don't tend to work well on mobile. This one most certainly does.

Starship Traveller
By Tin Man Games - buy on Android

What's this? Another Fighting Fantasy Choose Your Own Adventure game from Tin Man Games? How boring.

It's not boring at all, of course. But it's easy to take them for granted, such has been the regularity of their appearances.

This one's got a Star Trek vibe to it, as you seek out new life and new civilisations in the far future. It's got a great interface, all-new illustrations, and a rip-roaring yarn of a story.

Download it now, you ingrates.

Shivah
By Wadjet Eye Games - buy on Android

You may remember Wadjet Eye Games for porting the superb sci-fi point-and-click adventure Gemini Rue over to Android at the end of 2013.

Now, it's done the same with Shivah, a brilliant whodunnit with an unlikely protagonist. Rather than a grizzled detective or an amnesiac teen, you play here as a rabbi.

Grounding the 'action' within the modern Jewish faith already makes this a highly refreshing game, though it's the intelligent puzzles that actually make you feel like a detective that really impress.

Mikey Hooks
By Noodlecake Studios - download on Android

Mikey Shorts only surfaced on Android in February, but here, already, is the sequel. We would ideally have liked a little more space in between the two, but it's hard to complain about the availability of two of the finest mobile-focused platformers around.

Mikey Hooks is very similar to the first game, with the goal being to dash to the end of each compact retro-themed level as quickly as possible. But there's one noteworthy twist.

Here, you see, you can swing from suspended hook points dotted throughout each level, thus maintaining airborne momentum and increasing your options. It's a fabulously simple addition to a fabulously simple game.

Polymer
By Noodlecake Games - buy on Android

Noodlecake really does deserve praise for its Android efforts. As well as giving us Mikey Hooks this month, the publisher gave us this forgotten gem.

Polymer is a stylish abstract puzzler all about forming gloomy shapes. It's built around the classic sliding picture puzzle concept, so you shift around rows and columns of a cut-up sequence of coloured shapes.

Back in April 2012, we called Polymer "that rare thing - a puzzle game that feels new and fresh". And do you know what? It still rings true two years later.

Impossible Road
By Pixels on Toast – buy on Android

When reviews of your game tend to mention Super Monkey Ball, Mario Kart, and Super Hexagon as reference points, you must know you're onto a good thing.

That's the case with Impossible Road, Pixels on Toast's maddeningly difficult ball-rolling endless-runner.

You guide a white ball along a twisting, descending road in a sparse Tron-like void. You proceed to fail miserably and threaten to throw your Android device across the room. You then promptly give it a hug and apologise to it.

Just me?

Shattered Planet
By Kitfox Games - buy on Android

The ongoing trend for roguelikes (punishing action-RPGs with randomly generated levels and permanent death) doesn't appear to be anywhere near saturation point yet.

That's because games like Shattered Planet keep turning up.

This is a superbly constructed isometric sci-fi RPG that has you mapping out a hostile alien world. Combat is turn based but lightning quick, and the subtle sense of hard-worn progression will keep you playing for hours.

Bardbarian: Golden Axe Edition
By TreeFortress Games - buy on Android

We love how difficult it is to find a game that sticks with a single set of genre conventions these days. Most games seem to incorporate a range of playing styles and systems, and the best make it seamless.

Consider Bardbarian as one such example. It sees you taking control of a lute-wielding barbarian and summoning acolytes to ward off the goblin horde that attacks your village.

Is it an RPG? Is it a shooter? Is it a lane defence game? The answer is that it's all of the above. And yet it hangs together as a cohesive and original experience.

Clarc
By Golden Tricycle - download on Android

You can never have too many clever and good-looking puzzlers on mobile. Here's another in Clarc.

It's set in a charming futuristic comic book world that's part-Borderlands, part-WALL-E. You guide a little worker robot (that's 'Clarc') around solving simple spatial puzzles.

Most of these puzzles are of the simple block-sliding variety, but it's the charm and invention present in the game's design that will win you over.

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Top 10 best Android games: March 2014
Top 10 best Android games: February 2014
Top 10 best Android games: January 2014
Top 10 best Android games: December 2013
Top 10 best Android games: November 2013
Top 10 best Android games: October 2013