I’ve gotten the sense from podcasts in the past year or so that Android is not a priority for SirlinGames’s development team. As awesome as Yomi or any other SirlinGames game would be on Android, I understand that the team has limited resources for development, and is now focusing on the development of Fantasy Strike (which I’m all for!), so I’m not holding my breath for Yomi on Android.
But where does that leave an Android tablet owner looking for a good SirlinGames-esque game? Not knowing the answer, I’ve instead tried getting the new Plants vs. Zombies Heroes, but for some reason it’s incompatible with my Galaxy Tab A. I downloaded Magic: The Gathering 2015 (as unSirlinGames-esque as it is), because it’s available and compatible and free-to-play. It’s scratching that card-game itch for now, but probably only because I have not yet hit the wall where I have to start paying to progress.
For someone who loves Yomi, Flash Duel, and Codex, what are some good Android games to try out?
Android is kind of a wild place when it comes to most games, considering that piracy is so rampant that a lot of smaller companies don’t find it worth developing for. I’m in the minority of people who actually purchase apps and games for their android phone to encourage good games and ports for the platform, although it certainly helps that Google Rewards offsets a fair chunk of what I spend.
In terms of card games, your best bet is probably Star Realms, although there’s still a huge luck factor in that game. There’s skill in choosing how to build your deck from the available options, though. Enough to be considered competitive to a good degree.
Honestly, the few types of games that thrive on Android are remade classic RPGs such as Final Fantasy or Dragon Quest, and a couple of shmups with Dariusburst Second Prologue being the best by far (Downwell is shmup-esque but I highly recommend it, especially if you use a controller). Not terribly Sirlin-esque in the long run though.
In the same vein as Star Realms, I find Ascension to be a pretty fun card game. It’s a little too swingy to take seriously IMO, but it’s still a good time. It supports async multiplayer, so I always have several games going on with friends at any given time.
That’s about all I got for card/strategy game recommendations, though. I’d like to find more good ones as well.
FWIW, my favorite game on Android is Cytus, which is a rhythm game.
I know a lot of people of the extended FS.com community were recently playing Summoner Wars (not to be confused with the FTP grindfest Summoners War). I picked it up and played through the tutorial and an AI game or two, but it didn’t really click with me. There is definitely some deeper strategy in there somewhere, but I don’t have the time to devote to learning it at the moment.
Thank you for the suggestions everyone. I tried a pile of these and others I found on Google Play. Ultimately, I wound up sideloading Plants vs Zombies Heroes to find it works fine on my tablet, and I’ve been finding that game has been scratching my CCG itch.
Has anyone else tried PvZ Heroes? Any thoughts on it? I find a few features of it interesting: the 10 plant heroes can only be matched up against the 10 zombie heroes (so no plant vs. plant or zombie vs. zombie). Zombie turns are broken up into 2 parts, whereas plants have only 1 part to their turn. Attacking occurs in 5 lanes to match the 5-lane setup of the PvZ games. Amphibious, usually restricted to one of the 5 lanes, is the game’s parallel to flying.