The verykool Spark II does 5MP selfies for $179.89
The San Diego-based smartphone maker verykool wants to ride the “seflie” trend with the newly announced S5015 Spark II. The Android 4.4 KitKat device has a 5MP front-facing camera, which apparently is the minimal amount of megapixels needed to give it a “selfie” smartphone label. The phone has a price of $179.89.
14 best local multiplayer games for Android
Playing video games online is the best way to play multiplayer. You get to play with people all around the world at pretty much any time of day. However, not everyone has a solid web connection all the time and sometimes you want to play with the people sitting next to you instead of people in another country. If that sounds like something you’re looking for, here are the best local multiplayer games for Android.
You may also want to check out the best Android board games, most of which contain local multiplayer modes as well.
6 Takes
[Price: $1.99]
6 Takes is a unique card game inspired by legendary board game engineer Wolfgang Kramer. The premise is simple. You are dealt cards with bullheads on them and the goal is to get as few bullheads as possible by the time the game ends. It supports local multiplayer for up to four players and is good for children and adult of most ages. It’s $1.99 which isn’t that much but do test it inside of the one hour refund time to make sure you like it!
Action for 2-4 Players
[Price: Free with in app purchases]
Action for 2-4 Players is a little on the nose for an application name but it still does what the name says it does. It’s actually a series of three games that can all be played by two to four local players. There is tablet soccer where you engage in a soccer game, tank fight which is a overhead shooter, and car race which is exactly what it sounds like. None of them are overly amazing but together they create some options in a very starved offline multiplayer world. It’s also free to download with in app purchases so you can try it before spending money.
BADLAND
[Price: Free with in app purchases]
BADLAND is an atmospheric platformer that took the world by storm when it was first released. Its muted colors and simple style helped BADLAND become a hit with reviewers. As it turns out, it also has offline multiplayer mode. You can play co-op in the same kind of way you could play Super Mario Bros multiplayer where players take turns on levels. You can also do battle by playing a level and seeing if the other person can get as far or further. It’s been updated several times since release with new levels and you can try it for free before buying the full version.
Battle Slimes
[Price: Free]
Battle Slimes is a free offline multiplayer game where you play as little slimes as you compete against others. You can play against CPU or with up to four players locally. It plays kind of like a simplistic Super Smash Bros where you just need to wail on your opponents. It features one-touch controls which allow you to jump while your character moves and shoots on their own. It’s free to play with no in app purchases, it’s good for kids, and not terrible.
Chess Free
[Price: Free]
Sometimes it’s okay to go with the classics and if you’re down for a good old fashioned game of chess, Chess Free is where the app you want to have. The graphics are simple but the game is solid. You can play offline multiplayer along with a range of single player chess games. It’s free with no in app purchases and comes with eight chess board, seven sets of chess pieces, and a bunch of features to make the experience interesting.
Edge of the World
[Price: Free with in app purchases]
Edge of the World is a game that mimics curling. The goal is to launch your ship and get it as close to the edge of the world as you possibly can. Or you can launch your ships at other ships and knock them off to improve your own chances. It features pass-and-play offline multiplayer and you can play as one of five captains, each with their own set of abilities. It’s good for passing the game with a friend and it’s good for kids and adults.
Gentlemen!
[Price: $4.67]
Gentlemen! is a head-to-head arcade battle game where you and another person must compete to give the other one a thrashing. You play as one of two characters, each with their own abilities, as you rush around the screen trying to defeat the other person. It allows for play of two people on a single screen simultaneously and this is really recommended for people with tablets although it is playable on larger phones as well. It’s fast and ferocious.
Glow Hockey 2
[Price: Free]
Glow Hockey 2 is a virtual air hockey table that features colorful neon graphics. If you’ve ever played a game of air hockey in your lifetime then you know how Glow Hockey 2 works. You control a neon circle and use it to knock the white ball into the other person’s goal before they can block it. It features simultaneous multiplayer so this is best played on tablets or, at least, large phones. It’s simple but captures the fun of a good old air hockey competition.
Minecraft Pocket Edition
[Price: $6.99]
Minecraft is an intensely popular game and it’s one that you can play at home with your friends. Now it is technically local multiplayer but it isn’t offline multiplayer. Your friends will have to connect to your local WiFi router (no web required, just the router connection) so they can all come into your game. Then you can build things, mine things, play around, and otherwise enjoy yourselves. It’s a bit of a stretch but it is Minecraft and it’s definitely worth the trouble.
NBA Jam
[Price: $4.99]
There are many of us who spent countless afternoons sitting in front of the TV with friends playing NBA Jam in the 1990’s and now we can do it again. NBA Jam was among the first games to officially support Android TV and you can play local multiplayer over local WiFi (like Minecraft) or over Bluetooth if you don’t have a router available. It’s a fun game that plays fast and loose with the NBA rules and best of all, no in app purchases!
Pool Break Pro
[Price: $0.99]
Playing digital billiards has always been a delightful experience and it can be done again on Android with Pool Break Pro. This game offers many classic billiards variants as well as other stick-and-ball games like Carrom, Crokinole, and Snooker. Overall, there are about two dozen different games to play. It supports pass-and-play multiplayer so you take a turn then someone else takes the device and plays their turn. There is also online multiplayer so you can challenge them again later when they’re not around. It’s a solid game with a very cheap price tag.
Sea Battle
[Price: Free]
Sea Battle is a variant of the classic board game Battleship. As you can imagine, that means it’s very simple to learn and great for kids and adults. The graphics are hand-drawn which is a nice touch and there are some variants and new tools to make the game more interesting and different from the original Battleship. You can use a pass-and-play style of multiplayer if you only have one device or connect via Bluetooth and play that way. It’s also free.
Spaceteam
[Price: Free with in app purchases]
Spaceteam is a party game that is similar to Simon Says. When it’s your turn, you must say something ridiculous and science-y to describe the action people need to take. There are dials and switches on the device and it may have you using things like the gyroscope as well. Every person playing has to have their own Android and Apple devices and be connected to the same WiFi network (no web is required, but the router access is). You lose the game when your ship inevitably blows up.
Worms 2: Armageddon
[Price: $1.00]
Worms is a classic game where you do battle against a foe to kill all of their worms before they have a chance to kill yours. There are a bunch of ridiculous weapons, strategies, and more that take place in colorful levels. It’s a fun game with a cheap price tag and, of course, it’s local multiplayer using the pass-and-play method. On top of multiplayer, there is a whole bunch more to do so your $1.00 won’t be going to waste with this one.
Wrap up
If we missed any great local multiplayer games for Android, let us know in the comments!
To see our complete list of Android apps and games lists, click here!
“Taken” star Liam Neeson features in latest Clash of Clans ad
The Superbowl experience is about more than just the game itself, the ads playing during that timeframe have become just as big of deal for many out there. This year there were quite a few good ones, including a Clash of Clans advert starring Liam Neeson — the star best known for the Taken series (as well as Star Wars Episode I and many others). If you didn’t catch the ad, you can see it for yourself above.
The ad shows Neeson being defeated by “BigBuffetBoy85”, and from there Neeson breaks into a rage that seems straight out of the Taken series, promising swift revenge against BuffetBoy. The whole scene takes place in a coffee shop with a barista that apparently can’t pronounce Liam’s name right. Not a bad ad at all, though a very pricey one for developer SuperCell, considering 30 seconds of airtime during the championship game runs about $4.5 million, and the ad was a minute long.
Anyhow, enough words — go watch it. If you haven’t tried Clash of Clans for whatever reason, you can grab it through Google Play.
Sony Online’s sale may allow some of their games to come to Xbox One
Today, Sony Online Entertainment announced their parent company Sony had sold off the game development division to the investment firm Columbus Nova. The move could allow for the team’s massively multiplayer games such as EverQuest, PlanetSide, DC Universe Online and most recently the zombie-themed H1Z1 to appear on other platforms, including the Xbox One console.
Ultimate Guide to Google Play
How to get the most out of the Google Play Store
Google Play is the cornerstone of Google’s ecosystem of content and becoming a critical part of Android. It reaches almost all of Android and through Play Services is capable of fixing many of Android’s problems. Google Play also is a content library and ecosystem that is accessible on more platforms than almost any other. Born as the Android Market, it’s grown from just a home for apps and is now the one-stop shop for applications, books, movies, music, TV shows — basically anything and everything that you can buy and use on your Android phone or tablet.
And we can help you get the most out of Google Play across your devices. Stick around and we’ll show you a few new tricks.
Former BlackBerry developer relations chief lands at Microsoft’s venture capital arm
Alec Saunders, formerly the BlackBerry VP of Developer Relations and the QNX, has landed at Microsoft. Specifically, after having left BlackBerry back in October, Saunders is now a “Principal Technical Evangelist” at Microsoft Ventures, Microsoft’s venture capital arm.
Humble Cartoon Network Mobile Bundle is live, it’s a regular adventure
The folks over at Humble Bundle are at it again, launching a new mobile bundle packed full of games. This time out, they have teamed with the Cartoon Network to bring you more than a dozen games for as little as $8. This is the Humble Cartoon Network Mobile Bundle.
The Humble Bundle sales model began fairly simply, it worked in two parts – first, you paid whatever you wanted to gain access to a selection of games, books, and more, but if you paid more than the average price, you would get access to even more media. As the project moved forward, and the bundles of media got better, the team introduced a third aspect to the pay model, setting a minimum price that grants access to even more media in the bundle.
The best part, of course, is that Humble Bundle offers a portion of what they receive to charity, having now given over $51 million to charity, based on the generosity of users.
The latest bundle, the Humble Cartoon Network Mobile Bundle, packs 11 games, with the promise of more games to come soon. The games are based around shows like Adventure Time, Regular Show and more. Let’s see just what’s on deck.
Pay what you will to receive:
- Adventure Time: Treasure Fetch
- Regular Show: Best Park in the Universe
- Regular Show: Ghost Toasters
- Regular Show: Ride ‘em Rigby
Pay more than the current average to receive:
- Adventure Time: Jumping Finn Turbo
- CN Superstar Soccer
- Regular Show: The Great Prank War
- Ski Safari: Adventure Time
If you pay more than $8, you will also receive:
- Adventure Time: Time Tangle
- Monsters ate my Birthday Cake
- The Powerpuff Girls: Defenders of Townsville
Finally, don’t forget that there will be, at the very least, one more game added to the bundle at a later date. Usually that happens about a week into the campaign.
Humble Cartoon Network Mobile Bundle is active now and runs for the next two weeks. Head on over to the Mobile tab of the Humble Bundle website for more details.
What do you say, are you up for a little Adventure time, or is this bundle a little too, well, childish, for your tastes?
Android 5.0 Lollipop rolling out to Verizon Galaxy S5
When Lollipop first became official, Motorola was pretty much the first player out of the gate, even beating out the majority of Nexus devices. Many other OEMs talked a big game too, such as HTC and LG, who promised quite updates to Lollipop. Samsung on the other hand kept quiet about its plans, leading many of us to believe they would once again drag their feet.
Fast-forwarding to today, we’ve seen HTC announce it will miss its 90 day Lollipop rollout deadline, and while LG has been good about bringing the update to LG G3 users, the same can’t be said for US owners of the device. Seemingly out of nowhere, Samsung has now beat nearly every other OEM to the game by releasing Android 5.0 Lollipop to the Verizon Galaxy S5 in the United States.
It’s hard not to applaud Samsung for pushing the update out in a reasonably quick matter, and it is even more impressive that they got it out to Verizon.
Similar to the LG G3 Lollipop update rolling out, a lot of Lollipop’s biggest changes (Material Design) are almost nowhere to be seen here due to the OEM UI taking precedence. That said, there are still changes including brighter colors, an updated multitasking interface, ART by default, a new lock screen and the priority system for Lollipop. Regardless, it’s hard not to applaud Samsung for pushing the update out in a reasonably quick matter, and it is even more impressive that they got it out to Verizon, a carrier known for slow updates. It is worth noting this isn’t the first Samsung device to receive an update to Lollipop, just the first Samsung device to receive it in the United States, at least officially.
Don’t be surprised if it still takes a few days or longer for the update to reach your device, though you can always try checking for the update by heading into Settings>System Updates. For those that have received the OTA, what do you think so far? For more details, be sure to check out Verizon’s GS5 Lollipop update PDF.
Humble Cartoon Network Mobile Bundle is live, it’s a regular adventure
The folks over at Humble Bundle are at it again, launching a new mobile bundle packed full of games. This time out, they have teamed with the Cartoon Network to bring you more than a dozen games for as little as $8. This is the Humble Cartoon Network Mobile Bundle.
The Humble Bundle sales model began fairly simply, it worked in two parts – first, you paid whatever you wanted to gain access to a selection of games, books, and more, but if you paid more than the average price, you would get access to even more media. As the project moved forward, and the bundles of media got better, the team introduced a third aspect to the pay model, setting a minimum price that grants access to even more media in the bundle.
The best part, of course, is that Humble Bundle offers a portion of what they receive to charity, having now given over $51 million to charity, based on the generosity of users.
The latest bundle, the Humble Cartoon Network Mobile Bundle, packs 11 games, with the promise of more games to come soon. The games are based around shows like Adventure Time, Regular Show and more. Let’s see just what’s on deck.
Pay what you will to receive:
- Adventure Time: Treasure Fetch
- Regular Show: Best Park in the Universe
- Regular Show: Ghost Toasters
- Regular Show: Ride ‘em Rigby
Pay more than the current average to receive:
- Adventure Time: Jumping Finn Turbo
- CN Superstar Soccer
- Regular Show: The Great Prank War
- Ski Safari: Adventure Time
If you pay more than $8, you will also receive:
- Adventure Time: Time Tangle
- Monsters ate my Birthday Cake
- The Powerpuff Girls: Defenders of Townsville
Finally, don’t forget that there will be, at the very least, one more game added to the bundle at a later date. Usually that happens about a week into the campaign.
Humble Cartoon Network Mobile Bundle is active now and runs for the next two weeks. Head on over to the Mobile tab of the Humble Bundle website for more details.
What do you say, are you up for a little Adventure time, or is this bundle a little too, well, childish, for your tastes?
Verizon Samsung Galaxy S5 starts seeing Android 5.0 Lollipop updates
I guess pigs fly and hell is freezing over. In one heck of a shockingly wonderful surprise, it would seem that Verizon is in the process of pushing out Android 5.0 Lollipop to the Samsung Galaxy S5. The update is reportedly coming in two parts, one update to prep the device and one update to […]
The post Verizon Samsung Galaxy S5 starts seeing Android 5.0 Lollipop updates appeared first on AndroidSPIN.
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