Once you’ve purchased your new smartphone and loaded it up with apps and accessories, you’ll likely want to wind down by spending a few minutes playing a game on your new device. But with hundreds of thousands of games available on the iOS and Android app stores (and a lesser amount on Windows Phone), it’s dififcult to know which games are worth your hard earned dough. IntoMobile’s got you coverered, and with that, let’s take a look at five games that are taking up a significant portion of our lives, and will certainly be welcome additions to your games repertoire as well.
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Introduction – Top Smartphones – Top Tablets – Accessories – Applications – Games
Letterpress
Letterpress launched for iOS about a month ago, and it quickly became one of our favorite games. Letterpress is essentially a 5 x 5 word game where you create words using the 25 letters on the screen with the goal to have the most points at the end of the game. You play a single word each turn using as many letters as you can, then your opponent does the same. Once you use a tile, it turns to your designated color, though it can easily be stolen if the other player uses it. The more you use a particular letter, the more strongly it is in your column and the harder it is to steal. Once all the letters on the board have been used at least once, the game will end and whoever has the most points wins. This one’s an iOS exclusive, though if you do have an iPhone or iPad, it’s a must-download, and best of all, it’s free.
Angry Birds Star Wars
You’ve likely heard of Angry Birds, the runaway success line of games from Finland-based Rovio. Earlier this month, Rovio teamed up with LucasArts for their most ambitious project yet, and Angry Birds Star Wars was born. More than a simple licensing of characters, Rovio completely reimagined the Star Wars universe through Angry Birds, and what you’re left with is Angry Birds with force powers traveling through the Star Wars universe along the same story line as the original movies. It’s easily the best Angry Birds yet, and easily worth the money if you like Star Wars and Angry Birds.
Buy for $0.99 on iPhone | Buy for $2.99 on iPad | Buy for $2.99 on Android Tablets | Buy for $0.99 on Android | Buy for $0.99 on Windows Phone
Ingress
Ingress is an augmented reality game straight from Google itself, and is currently an exclusive to Android. Ingress is currently in a private beta, and users interested in playing the game will have to request an invite from Ingress.com. Ingress in an immersive game where your phone’s camera creates an overlay of the real world around you where you can achieve in-game objectives, capture portals, and gather items to help you in your quest. It’s coming to iOS “soon,” and it’s clear Google is expecting Ingress to go viral in a smartphone world. We haven’t spent much time with Ingress, but it’s clear Google has a potential hit on its hands, and we think you’ll like it as well (once you can get in, of course)
Download for free on Android (requires invitation)
Organ Trail
On paper, Organ Trail is the ultimate mix of everyone’s favorite computer game of the 90s, Oregon Trail, and zombies. In Organ Trail, players take a party of 4 across the country to survive the zombie apocalypse, scavenging for supplies and ammo and hunting zombies along the way. In practice, the game is as amazing as it sounds, and is easily a must-download for the Oregon Trail fans out there. You won’t be disappointed.
The Walking Dead
Based on the comic book of the same name, The Walking Dead game from Telltale Games has quickly become the best game of 2012 on all platforms. Personally, I believe the Walking Dead is the best game I’ve ever played, as it forces you to connect with characters who are ultimately doomed. Every decision you make in the game has an impact on your story line, making each game experience truly yours, and since each playthrough is different, you can go back and make different decisions to see how it all changes. The 5th and final episode of the game was just released this week, so you can play through the game from start to finish once you’ve purchased the app (and first episode), and the additional episodes for $14.99 (total), or $3.99 each.