The best Android games this week - Monument Valley, JoyJoy, and Tiny Dice Dungeon

Every Friday, Pocket Gamer offers hands-on impressions of the week's three best new Android games.

It's been a particularly great week for Android games, so we wanted to give honourable mentions to Half-Life 2 and Portal on Nvidia Shield, and the recent Android port of Summoner Wars.

Monument Valley
By ustwo - buy on Android (£2.49 / $3.99)

Artful indie adventure Monument Valley is all about toying with architectural puzzles and twisting them to find new pathways for wandering princess Ida - even if those paths should be completely impossible.

Because whatever you see from your isometric perspective becomes reality. Even if two platforms are metres apart, they become one contiguous walkway if you can twist them in such a way that they look like they've lined up.

It's inspired by Escher paintings, and each screen looks like a painting in its own right. And Monument Valley is consistently surprising you with inventive and ingenious twists on its clever mechanic.

Harry gave the iOS edition a shiny Gold Award and said that "the polish and poise that's gone into the final product speaks of a project made with the utmost of care and passion, and in an age of clones and cash grabs that's something to champion."

Tiny Dice Dungeon
By Kongregate - download on Android (Free)

There's an element of randomness to any RPG. This game takes it to a whole new level, though, by having you simply roll dice to determine your attack power.

But there's more to it than that. Tiny Dice Dungeon has a clever mechanic about pushing your luck, where you can keep rolling dice to boost your attack power but you run the risk of landing a '1' (which causes you to miss the enemy entirely).

There's also a meta-game where you fix your demolished town and you can catch a team of allied monsters to help you fight.

Peter gave this one an 8/10 on iOS. He said: "A deep game with a rich and humorous tone, this spin on a classic formula is a must-see for RPG and tabletop gaming fans."

JoyJoy
By Radiangames - buy on Android (£1.49 / $1.99)

JoyJoy is a game about blasting the butts off of rampaging enemy dots in a furiously tense fight to the death. But it looks and sounds like a pleasant relaxation DVD. It's odd.

It's a nice little twin-stick shmup, though, with a whole bevy of difficulty settings and control modes to satisfy everyone from Geometry Wars greenhorns to Robotron veterans.

Harry gave it a Silver Award and said that "if you're looking for a satisfying arcade score-chaser with a little more depth than your average twin-stick shooter, then JoyJoy is well worth further examination."