These are the top 10 games for Android according to the Pocket Gamer team
Robot lovin'
Because we've got a shiny new site, we thought it'd be a good idea to create some lists of our favourite games. We've covered iOS and Switch, so here's the list of what we think are the very best games for Android.
Bear in mind that these are the games that the team has fallen in love with, so there might be some strange, perhaps even controversial choices in there. After all, everyone who works at Pocket Gamer is a little bit strange and a little bit controversial. It's what we look for in new hires.
Obviously we'd absolutely love to hear your suggestions. Do you agree with us? Do you think we should all lose our jobs? Let us know in the comments then! Well, not about that second one. That's just mean.
Thimbleweed Park
A gorgeous-looking point and click adventure with a beating heart with a rhythm of 16bits. There's a whole bunch of story to explore here, and every step you make and choice you take will have consequences somewhere down the line.
When we reviewed it we said "it may look like a normal point-and-click puzzler but Thimbleweed Park is complex, classic, hilarious, and will have you coming back for more," and gave the game a Gold Award. Click here and you can read our Thimbleweed Park review in its entirety.
Hitman Go
Square Enix might have taken a back from its Go series, but there are still three brilliant games out there waiting for you to play them. This is the original, and while Lara Croft Go and Deus Ex Go might have a little more swagger to them, there's a brilliance to this first bite of the cherry that has to be played to be believed.
When we reviewed the game we said "Hitman GO is a smart and satisfying puzzle game, with loads of content and plenty of variation. It's also totally adorable." We ended up giving it a Silver Award, and you can read the whole review by clicking here.
Gunbrick
This list could be made up of Nitrome games and some people at Pocket Gamer wouldn't have complained. If anything though this is the dev at its best. It's a deconstruction of the puzzling platformer genre, and it throws in a whole bunch of action because bricks that are also guns are going to explode.
At review we called Gunbrick "an ingenious, well put together mash up of genres and ideas," adding that "Gunbrick is the first must-buy of 2015." Sure, that was quite a while ago, but the game deserves its Gold Award. Click here to read the whole Gunbrick review and find out for yourself why.
VVVVVV
Another platformer, but this one comes from the same dev as Super Hexagon, so you know it's going to be hard as the hardest nails. Rather than jumping here, you flip gravity around to avoid chunky spikes and find your lost ship-mates. You're never going to feel as connected to some pixels as you do here.
We said "if you've never played VVVVVV before then this version is as good a place as any to start. It feels comfortable, and bouncing from floor to ceiling is smooth and effortless," when we reviewed the game, and gave it a lovely Gold Award. Click here and you can read the whole of that review at your own pace.
Dungeon Hunter 5
We know this one is going to be a controversial choice, but these lists are as much about the games that we love as the games that are going to rock your world. This is a gorgeous-looking dungeon crawler with some chunky action, plenty to do, and some of the old bravado that made the series so exciting.
We weren't super inspired when we reviewed this one, saying that is was "a game about walking around hitting things. If you like the sound of that then you should probably download it." It got a Bronze Award, and you can check out the review in full by clicking on this link.
Super Mario Run
Sure there might have been some controversy around the price point of the game, and some people might have balked at the auto-running, but in the end this is Mario on your smartphone. It's every bit as preened and polished as you'd expect from a Nintendo game, and every bit as enjoyable as you might have hoped.
The conclusion of our Super Mario Run says it the best: "A thrilling celebration of Mario's jump, packed with imagination and sharp level layouts. One of the best auto runners around." You won't be surprised to hear the game got a Gold Award. Click here and you can read every single word of our review.
Kingdom Rush
You might be thinking that the tower defence genre is a bit played out, and you're probably right. In many ways it's Kingdom Rush's fault. The series has managed to capture everything good about TD games, come up with almost all of the good ideas in the genre over the past few years, and above all of that it's still as entertaining as it ever was.
At review we said "Kingdom Rush breathes new life into the tower defence genre, and has a whole lot of laughs doing it," and gave the game a Gold Award. If you click here you can read all of our Kingdom Rush review.
Reigns: Her Majesty
Again, we could have put all of the Reigns games on this list, but that wouldn't have made for particularly interesting reading. So we've gone for the second game, which is probably still the best of the three. It's an adventure in the most static of senses, and you'll want to discover everything it has in store for you.
When we reviewed Reigns: Her Majesty we called it "a clever choose-your-own-adventure game that's going to keep you occupied for a good long while," and gave it a Silver Award. Click here and you'll be able to read our Reigns: Her Majesty review right this second.
Pokemon GO
If there's one game that really shook up the mobile world in the past couple of years, it's Pokemon GO. Not only did it get people outside, but it made long-lasting connections. I could look out of my window right now and I'd probably see a group of strangers trying to catch something on the street outside.
When we reviewed Pokemon GO, our reviewer said "The very personal nature of catching Pokémon in your own neighbourhood - something I've wanted to do since my first steps in Pallet Town all those years ago - made me smile more than any game has for years," and gave it a Gold Award. Click here and you can read the whole of that really rather good review
Clash of Clans
You can hate on Clash of Clans all you want, but there's no denying that it's one of the most successful gaming phenomena of recent times. The way it draws players into the machinations of its meta will no doubt one day be studied by scholars interested in impulse control and dopamine triggers.
We reviewed the game when it first came out (you can read our Clash of Clans review by clicking this link) and called it "a very appealing package with surprisingly deep layers of strategy to dig through," and gave it a Gold Award. A Gold Award it'd still almost certainly receive now.
