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jvngkook97 · 3 years ago

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Suga and Spice

pairing; chef!yoongi x female!reader

genre; fluff, humor, smut, established relationship, domestic au, chef au

warnings; mainly just wholesome fluffy content with a sprinkle of spice in the form of shower sex

rating; 21+ MINORS DNI

w/c; 3,588

a/n; missing my other bias and wanted to give him some lurv so here ya go. like + reblog if you enjoyed. feedback is always appreciated and helps keep this writer motivated. <3

networks; @ficscafe, @thebtswritersclub, @kflixnet

Your head was tilted back, eyes closed, and mouth gaping like a fish out of water. A moan that was on the borderline of being a whimper could be heard within the silence of the room as your partner gave out a sigh of content and on the verge of begging for more—

—he shoves another spoonful of the delicious and perfectly cooked food into your mouth to silence your whining that he knew was coming.

“You’re ridiculous, y/n.”

You opened your eyes to gaze into those of your lover’s and gave him a loopy Cheshire grin.

“How are you even real? Are you secretly AI? Is that how you’re so indescribably good at cooking?”

He pinched the bridge of his nose and shook his head with mock annoyance, though the slight quirk of the corner of his upper lip said he was thoroughly amused by your shenanigans.

“You know what you should do, Yoongs?”

Dropping his hand to land flat on the table, he gives you his full undivided attention.

“What’s that, y/n?”

“You should marry me.”

He gave you a deadpan expression, and wordlessly grabbed your left hand with one of his own, holding it in front of you with your fingers splayed and used his other hand’s pointer finger to emphasize on the dainty but custom made engagement ring he slipped on your finger only two weeks ago on your birthday.

“Well I’ll be! Would you look at that?”

You leaned over the short distance to give him a chaste kiss on the lips, one he returned in kind without a thought, the action now second nature to the male. Never one to express his inner feelings, he only hopes that through his gestures and actions alone you’re able to feel what he might never say out loud.

Which you do, of course. Especially when you taste his delectable foods that he puts his entire heart and soul into.

“Did you still want to bake tonight? If not, we can just watch a movie or whatever.” He placed his hand over yours on top of the table, thumb mindlessly running over the groves of your knuckles as he asked, his eyes not once leaving yours.

Another thing you loved about Yoongi, that with you, he always maintained eye contact whenever possible. More of his love language coming out for you only.

“Sure! What did you have in mind for tonight, Chef Yoongi?”

He snorted at the formal words that inwardly made him swell with pride when you were the one saying them.

“Let’s make eclair’s. It’s considered a romantic dessert with the added bonus of it uses a lot of eggs so I can go through the extra carton you bought.”

“It was an accident! This is why I tell you it’s better if we shop together for groceries!” You whined childishly, making him crack a grin.

“I was only joking, y/n. But the recipe does call for quite a bit of eggs so it works out.”

Good enough for you. You’ve never made eclairs before, so Yoongi teaches you the ropes. This kind of pastry dough requires near constant mixing, so you trade off when your arms get tired. You eye his strong, toned arms dubiously as he mixes with a serious look of concentration when it’s his turn yet again.

“Do you even need to switch?”

“Maybe. Or maybe I just enjoy watching you work.”

You don’t miss the little smirk he gives as he says this and you narrow your eyes at his when he gives the whisk back to you. He leans on the counter next to you in what is clearly meant to be a seductive pose. He blatantly rakes his eyes over your figure as you painstakingly begin whisking again.

Deciding to give him a show, your own form of revenge to his snide remark from earlier, you lift the whisk out of the bowl and lick it as seductively as you can. This actually gets Yoongi to break, of all things.

“Gross! You’re still using that!”

“What? Afraid of a little bodily fluid?”

You’re talking about saliva and you both know it, but he’s never one to back down from an innuendo. So, he resumes his prior sexy stance and waggles his eyebrows.

“You know I’m not. The more, the merrier.”

It’s so absurd, yet true when it comes to him and his kinks that you can’t decide whether you want to laugh or jump his bones right then and there. Your thighs unconsciously rub together as your mind shifts from the innocence of baking, to one’s not so innocent.

Eventually, all the eggs are incorporated into the dough, so it’s ready for the oven. Just moments after the oven door is shut and a timer is set, you hear a loud crunch followed by something wet and cold on the top of your head.

“Oopsie.”

You gasp with wide eyed disbelief.

“You did not just crack an egg on my head, Min Yoongi!”

“I didn’t.” He shrugged off casually, before continuing smartly. “I specifically smashed an egg on your head – there’s a difference. My way includes egg shells.”

You feel some egg white drip on the shell of your ear and your body shivers involuntarily. You can’t help yourself any longer. You leap after him but he shrieks with laughter and dodges out of your grasp. The sound is like music to your ears with how rare it occurs.

Filled with a wild frenzy, you chase Yoongi all over the kitchen and into the living room when he flees there. He’s quick, and no matter how fast you run he always seems to be just out of your reach.

Instead, you go for a different approach. Scooping some of the egg from your hair, you hurl it at him. It lands square in his neck with a satisfying wet plop and you let out a whoop of victory.

“What? Is that all you got?” He taunts you, not phased in the least bit when he wipes the egg white onto his shirt without a care. Now he’s in competition mode, but so are you.

“Not even close.”

You take another scoop and rub the eggy mess between your hands until they’re nice and gooey. Then, you reach your arms out towards him in a signature zombie pose.

He laughs, eyes crinkling and gummy smile on full display as he maneuvers back into the kitchen. Using the farther side of the kitchen island as a barrier between you two, he stares you down, both hands splayed on the marble countertop trying to predict your next move.

Your eyes zero in on the egg carton placed dangerously close to him that was left wide open when he used one against you; that was your mistake. He follows your line of sight and instantly snatches the carton into his hands, holding it in a vice grip.

“I don’t think so, hon—.”

In an impulsive move, you juke him to the left but run around to the right, barely managing to corner him between the fridge and one of the counters. Yes! You plant your still grimy hands on either side of his shoulders boxing him and the egg carton in.

You’re completely out of breath, and as you realize this, you see Yoongi’s eyes dart to your lips and back. You mimick his line of sight and notice he’s panting just as heavily. Belatedly, you realize – you are incredibly turned on. Judging from the look on Yoongi’s face and the way he’s currently licking his lips, so is he.

In an instant your arms are wrapped around him and you’re kissing, the nearly empty egg carton dropping between you both and only making a slight mess on the white flooring, not that either of you really cared at the moment. His hands roamed the curve of your spine before landing underneath the curve of your ass instead. The kiss becomes more heated and intense, the bulge pressed against your lower stomach let’s you know exactly how into this your lover is, the fact only turning you on more.

It’s amazing. It’s blissful. And it’s hot as hell.

And then it’s ruined by you feeling yet another glob of egg drop from your hair and this time into your neck, the mucus like consistency makes your whole body cringe into the kiss and makes Yoongi reluctantly pull away from your impromptu make out session early.

“You okay?” His words are low, and you can hear the amount of desire he still feels for you in his voice. The tapping of his fingers on your ass let’s you know that he’s also clearly impatient and wants to continue.

“Yeah. Just, you know. Covered in egg is all.”

“And? So is the floor? Doesn’t seem to mind that we’ll just be cle–,” Yoongi pauses, considers something with a faraway look on his face, and then a devilish glint passes through his eyes. “You know, I may just have a solution for that.”

“Oh? Pray tell.”

“It’s obvious we could each use a shower, a good cleaning. And guess whose shower is big enough for two people?”

The idea sends a thrill through your entire body, and you wordlessly take Yoongi’s hand and lead you both to his master bathroom’s shower.

Not wanting to waste any time, Yoongi let’s go of your hand to make himself busy with turning on the water. While it’s warming up, both of your clothes come off in haphazard piles on the floor only a few feet away from the entrance to the shower. You barely even think about it, mind too consumed with the idea of what’s about to happen, but when you catch sight of Yoongi you have to pause.

You’re absolutely breathless.

His naked body is strong and taut, and even under the fluorescent bathroom lights he’s absolutely breathtaking. For a moment, you think back to the first day you two met, and it brings a warmth into your chest when you see just how far you two have come from that fateful day. You don’t know how you got so lucky to find a man like him, but you know you’ll never take him or what you two have for granted.

When he notices you staring, he gives you a sultry smirk.

“See anything you like?”

“Not sure. I need to look a little more.”

He takes a step closer to your now nude form and grabs your hand in his, gesturing for you to take a little twirl of your own so he can soak in the beauty that is your own body in all it’s perfectly imperfect glory, and you do, with a small giggle passing through your lips.

A woman is a mystery a man just can’t understand. But he’ll spend the rest of his life trying to figure out the mystery on how you somehow chose him of all people to spend the rest of your life with. His heart yearns to always be by your side and his soul wants nothing but to please you and give you a life you deserve.

To him? You’re his soulmate. His forever.

“You’re quite the treat yourself, you know? Dare I say, even more mouth watering than the eclairs.”

He gives you a loving forehead kiss, knowing those are one of your favorites, and steps closer to you to reach around you and feel if the temperature of the water was good. As he leans against you, you can’t help but run your fingers down his chest, nails only lightly scraping the unblemished skin you’re so envious of, the action making his chest rumble underneath your hands as he lets out a low growl. The sound shoots straight to your core.

Deeming the water good enough, he leads you into the shower and underneath the ridiculously large rainfall shower head that at this moment, your body is grateful for as it sags in euphoric relief. Yoongi chuckles at your reaction and realizes it’s better to actually get cleaned up before your little shower sex session.

So, first things first, you both make quick work of cleaning the egg off of each of your bodies. You take turns dunking your heads under the water, scrubbing at your hair with shampoo and conditioner, and neck with soap as you do. Yoongi does the same.

After you’ve rinsed your hair out for the last time, do Yoongi’s arms snake around you. Though, more importantly, you feel his body flush against your front, the contact of your now hardened nipples against his chest only spurs both of you on even more.

Feeling handsy, you grasp his butt, his hips, and then ever so slowly you trail your fingertips down his ‘V’ line. You hear his breath spike as your hand finds it’s place between his legs.

His own hands roam across your body and down until his hand slips between your legs and you can’t help but groan at the contact. Your eyes have maintained contact this whole time so you’ve been fortunate to witness the steady progression of the hunger that’s deep within as it makes its way to the surface.

Then, his mouth is on yours and you’re all in. The water runs over your bodies as you hold each other under the stream. You brace yourself against the shower wall and the tile is cool under your palm, your leg is wrapped around his waist and you’re basically standing on your tip toes with your other foot to accommodate him. You let out a low whine when you feel the tip of his cock tease your opening, your eyes falling closed reflexively from the simple amount of pleasure it brought you.

Yoongi is focused on your face the entire time when he fully sheathes himself inside of you and lets out his own little grunt of content. He gives you a moment to adjust before you’re tapping his ass with the heel of your foot to signal the go ahead. Then, his body is moving and you’re meeting him with each thrust of your own hips, the sound of wet skin slapping against one another reverberates within the enclosed space along with the rhythmic pattern of the water still falling on the shower floor around you.

Opening your eyes, knowing that Yoongi yearns for it, especially during sex, you have to bite your lip and will them not to close again when he does a particularly sharp thrust that has you parting your lips to reward him with a loud moan. The water has plastered his hair to his forehead, so you push it away, eyes locking in a deep gaze. They’re wild with desire and you know that yours aren’t any different.

His breathing is starting to get heavier, and you can feel him tensing under your hands. He forces himself to slow down his pace in order to prolong his release long enough to give you yours first, an unspoken rule that he’s created for himself, you being none the wiser.

With one hand holding himself up from crushing you against the wall, he holds his other hand underneath the stream of water around him for a second, and before you have time to register what he’s going to do, his expert fingers are already slithering their way down your stomach and finding a new purpose on your swollen bud. Your entire body arches into his from the unexpected contact that has your mind reeling with a few colorful words, some falling from your lips in a low chant that soon get quieted by Yoongi’s own words of praise.

“Does that feel good, baby?” A rapid nod of your head is all you can give in the current moment, eyes still locked with his. “Are you going to be a good girl and cum for me?”

Your back arches, boobs pushing into his chest even more, with your hips picking up their own brutal pace against his as you chase your release with a fervor. He knows when your thrusts start stuttering and slowing down that you’re getting very close.

“That’s it. You’re doing so good. You’re almost there.” He dips his head into the crook of your neck to whisper the words into your ear, feeling your walls clench around him in a vice. He gives a moan of his own and it’s all you need as you let out a cry of relief once you reach your starry orgasm.

With a few more quick and deep thrusts it doesn’t take him long himself to find his own as his hips still against yours, his whole body weight leaning into yours has you squished between him and the wall with a breathy whine coming from you – both from the sudden weight and you still coming down from your high.

With what little strength he has left, he slowly lowers your leg so you’re standing on both, but makes sure he has an arm secure around your waist just incase you needed a moment to collect yourself and regain your own strength to stand on your own as he pulls his weight off of you.

“Sorry, needed a minute. Are you okay?”

His worried eyes flicker between your half lidded ones as you let out a breathy laugh at his question, though internally your heart swelled at his immediate need to make sure you were okay.

“I’m more than okay, actually. That was fucking amazing. Ten out of ten, would definitely recommend doing again.”

He chuckles, but doesn’t disagree with you. Pressing a kiss to your awaiting lips, he caresses your cheek before pulling away to turn the water off. Thus, ending your shower session. You detangle from one another to carefully step out into the now very cold air of the bathroom, the steam from within the enclosed shower no longer keeping your bodies warm.

He hands you your favorite robe that he makes sure is always clean incase you need to use it, and you take it with a wide grin, immediately shrugging the fluffy material on your nude body as you snuggle into the collar with a sigh.

He just smiles lovingly at you, and there’s a beautiful moment of post coital silence between you while you dry off, but then—

“Oh, shit. Oh no. No, no, no–,”

He runs from the bathroom, and for a second you’re confused on his rushed behavior, before your eyes widen in realization. The eclairs! Did the timer go off? You didn’t hear it.

Securing the robe around your body tightly, you briskly walk out of the bathroom, down the hall, and into the kitchen. You’re just in time to see Yoongi, stark naked except for a pair of oven mitts, pulling a slightly smoking sheet pan out of the oven. The smoke causes a brief cloud to linger above the kitchen and you hurry over to the kitchen window to open it and let the smoke naturally clear out.

You turn back around as he carefully sets the hot sheet pan onto the grill of the stove, then leans back against the counter next to it with his head tilted back, eyes closed, and a deep sigh emitting from his parted lips.

The corner of your lip quirks up at the sight, and you can’t help but let out a cheeky remark.

“I like this look on you.”

He spares you an affectionate, closed mouth smile as he opens his eyes to give you a mock glare. You walk closer to the male to see the extent of damage your shower sex caused. It wasn’t too bad, you don’t think. But you’re not the expert here. Focusing your attention on Yoongi, you see he’s already looking at you and your body fills with warmth knowing he’s never ashamed of being caught staring at you.

“Are they okay?”

He clicks his tongue, but his expression is neutral.

“A little burnt, but honestly could be worse.”

You nod in response. Okay. Crisis…averted? Mostly. Great!

He leads you back to his master bedroom where he fishes out some of your favorite clothes of his to wear for the night and you take them with a kiss to his lips. In the process, he finds some for him as well and you two get dressed in no time. Checking the clock on his wall, you both come to the conclusion that there’s still time to finish the eclairs.

Once again, you’re back in the kitchen and working on picking out the least burned buns, but other than that it’s pretty painless. Pastry crème in a piping bag, fill the buns, drizzle with chocolate – easy!

You triple check that the oven is off and there’s nothing else you’ve forgotten about, and then you and Yoongi sit down at the kitchen table to enjoy the fruit of your labor. It’s definitely a little over cooked, but who cares? Yoongi is glowing and you don’t think you’ve ever seen anyone more beautiful.

The dessert is amazing, but how could it ever compare with the man sharing it with you? The rest of the night passes by in a blur of kisses, cream and chocolate. Then you let yourselves fall asleep in each other’s arms in your shared bed and it’s bliss.

You could definitely get used to this. And you will, considering you had the privilege of the rest of your life to do so.

*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*

a/n; send me an ask if you’re interested in being in a taglist for anything pertaining to this series (if there is one) or all of my future works in general (or if you wish to be removed). be sure to specify when you apply.

taglist; @mwitsmejk

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garecc · 3 years ago

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About Sudowrite

I have been seeing people panicking about sudowrite, and I have decided to write a small information post to hopefully clear up some common misconceptions I have been seeing.

Elon Musk is involved.

No. This is blatantly false. Elon Musk was involved with openai - NOT SUDOWRITE - when it was founded. He co-founded the company with a 1 billion dollar investment in 2016, 2 years later in 2018 he left the company. According to this Bloomberg article, he left because "Musk has to focus on “a painfully large number of engineering & manufacturing problems” at Tesla & SpaceX, he said, adding that he hasn’t “been involved closely” with OpenAI for more than a year. Musk left the company’s board in February [2018].

Why is when he left important?

The first gpt paper was published on June 11th 2018. This is 4 months after Musk left the company, and over a year since he said he stopped being involved. He has not been involved with gpt whatsoever.

What is Sudowrite

Sudowrite is, to my understanding, in the most basic terms a word processor with a generate text button.

Sudowrite operates with a gpt-3 model. This is the third gpt model. Gpt is a text-generation program created by the aforementioned openai. Not sudowrite. Basically, gpt is a transformer model. There is a complicated way of putting this, but in short it generates human-like text.

Why can it generate fanfic?

From 2011 to October 2019, an internet crawl was done to train an ai on the entire internet. This includes most websites. This includes ao3. Gpt is trained on this data. From my understanding, no new data is being added to gpt from websites like ao3. Privating your fanfic will do nothing against what is already collected and in use, as the collection of data is already finished, and not current. Please stop panicking.

What is sudowrite trained on?

Thankfully, for this we have a simple awnser.

In this faq (which you can find at the bottom of this page) it is stated that the sudowrite copy of gpt-3 has the models data, (the common crawl, web text, wikipedia, etc) and 10s of thousands of books. As it states here, again, there is no new data being collected. It is from 2019. Privating things will do nothing.

What else can I do to be informed?

I am begging everyone to read this article. It breaks down what gpt is, what the training data is, and everything you might want to know. Please read it.

#ai #ao3 #archive of our own #sudowrite #ai writing #elon musk #fanfiction #fanart

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radramblog · 4 years ago

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Top 5 Games, ever...?

This was sort of on my mind, considering the recent GOTY post I made. Come explore the hyperfixations that managed to stick around long enough to be my top 5 list.

5. Uhhhhhh

So turns out I haven’t figured out what number 5 is yet. I suppose instead I’ve got to split it among the honourable mentions, huh.

Kirby Super Star Ultra is probably the best game from the GBA/DS era of the series and is just a blast to play. It introduced Masked Dedede, and all the banging music and memes that come with it, and probably deserves a spot here just for that.

The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth removes all the awkward Flash Stuff from the excellent original, and adds so, so much more content- the game’s final expansion still isn’t out yet as of writing but even now there’s just so much to unlock. While some aspects of the game can be pretty unforgiving, you probably aren’t going to be exposed to the worst of it unless you get into it pretty hardcore, and if you do, you’ll get used to it. It’s a roguelike, after all.

Speaking of roguelikes, FTL: Faster than Light is chaotic yet serene, brutal but fair, and a bunch of other pretentious dichotomies wrapped into a neat little bow. It takes some getting used to the mechanics, but once you get the hang of it, building your little ship up and up in the face of all odds is extremely satisfying. Have fun dying hopefully not too many times.

SPEAKING of permadeath, Realm of the Mad God gets a spot here just out of sheer hours I’ve spent with it. After a messy few years with a not-so-great owner lead me to dropping the game, it seems finally to have recovered and has devs and community that actually freaking care about it, which is nice. Also, it’s free, and the recent transition to unity has the game looking better and playing smoother than 12-year-old me could ever have dreamed of.

Terraria isn’t just 2D Minecraft btw, its actually more of an RPG/Metroidvania thing, you probably know at this point, but its pretty good hey. Still haven’t fully dove into 1.4 but considering I thought Red was done at 1.1 I’m not complaining with what I have played.

4. Fallout: New Vegas

(...ish??)

I’d argue that between the primitiveness of the original Fallout games (I’ve tried to get into them, but I just can’t) and how…meh… the other Bethesda ones are, New Vegas is the only one in the series to stand up strong. Obsidian’s excellent writing and tweaks to the gameplay of 3 make New Vegas feel like an actual world, rich and characterised, which was something I found lacking in previous open-world RPGs I’d played up until that point (which admittedly might just have been Skyrim). It’s a game that challenges you to make choices that actually matter for more than the mere moments of an altered dialogue tree, both in dialogue and character building, which helps make the game actually replayable. It is also the first game in a long time that really sold the idea of DLC on me, seeing as each of the game’s 4 expansions adds an entire new region of world with its own stories and unique gameplay, tying together with the main plot but standing on their own. I am excluding Gun Runner’s Arsenal from this for obvious reasons, though it isn’t like GRA is a bad DLC or anything- on the contrary, the sheer scope of modifications and munitions makes playing a repair/science-based character incredibly fulfilling- but it just isn’t at the same scope as the other 4 (Courier’s stash barely counts seeing as its just oops! All preorder bonuses).

New Vegas is one of the few games I have actually 100% completed, achievements and all, but I’m still pretty sure there are bits I’ve missed, paths I haven’t taken, characters I haven’t talked to. Despite its inhospitability, the Mojave is always a comfortable place to return to.

3. VA-11 Hall-A

(Hey look, my phone background)

Vallhalla is a masterclass in storytelling, atmosphere, and aesthetic. Like all good cyberpunk dystopias, you get themes of class and transhumanism and artificial intelligence, but they aren’t the point of Vallhalla. Through the window and lens of cyberpunk and PC98 nostalgia is focussed a surprisingly human story centred around the protagonist, Jill, which through multiple replays still hits me in the feels just so. Of course, Jill’s story is not the only one being discussed, as every single patron of the bar has their own life going on, and the glimpses we get imply a rich, often interconnected, world. Glitch City is, frankly, a shithole, and it’s not like you don’t get some assholes coming into the bar while you’re working it. The first patron you serve, in fact, is a great example of this- Donovan D. Dawson, essentially a parody of J. Jonah Jameson, is a colossal prick and knows it- but its clear he has his own system of morals and it is mentioned that he’s excellent at his job, much as he gripes about it. He’s rude and more than a little sexist, but frustratingly charismatic and authoritative, and he’s just one of many people who show up throughout the game. Vallhalla is the perfect game to sit down, grab your preferred beverage, and just relax with.

2. Total Annihilation

(This image is on the steam page for this one, despite blatantly not being from vanilla TA)

I think I actually need to explain this one. Total Annihilation was a game released in 1997 made largely by Chuck Taylor, who would later go on to produce spiritual successor Supreme Commander. It’s an RTS game featuring exclusively robotic units with a fairly chunky aesthetic, allowing the visuals to age better than some, and a fully orchestrated soundtrack by Jeremy Soule, who would later go on to do work on a whole bunch of stuff, most notably Skyrim.

Total Annihilation is an intensely nostalgic game for me, being one of the first games I ever got to play as a kid outside of edutainment stuff, and I’d argue still holds up today (especially with the excellent Escalation mod). What it lacks in story (it’s pretty basic, but functional) it makes up for being miles ahead of its time mechanically, being the first (?) RTS to function in 3 dimensions- heights of things actually matter, hills exist and certain units climb them better than others, shooting down airplanes is difficult without anti-air but possible if you aim *just* right. While appearing pretty similar and having largely analogous units, the two factions of Arm and Core are well fleshed-out in terms of aesthetic and playstyle- Arm preferring fast and cheap equivalents to Core’s slow but powerful- and the unit variety is sufficient that strategies can vary wildly based on the map. Both campaigns as well as those from the game’s expansions are challenging, but satisfying, limiting the units you can produce to force exploration of different playstyles.

Total Annihilation isn’t something I tend to binge play for hours anymore, but I’ll pick it up for a bit every so often, and I don’t see that stopping for a long time (especially due to the recent steam release).

1. Pokémon Emerald

(At the top, where it belongs)

Yeah, this was inevitable. Pokémon is my favourite series ever; Emerald is my favourite in the series. Go figure.

Emerald, being the final game for the franchise’s days on the Game Boy, reflects everything Game Freak had learned in the first 3 generations of the series’ history. The game’s balance is challenging but fair, never spiking so tough that it is insurmountable but never holding your hand either. The AI opponents are throwing odd combinations of mons and moves at you from every corner, double battles are everywhere but rarely mandatory, and the variety of available mon both before and during the postgame is excellent. The added features on top of Ruby and Sapphire are great- Battle Tents serve to replace 3 of the contest halls (they should have all been under one roof to begin with) and provide a taste of what would later be available in the Battle Frontier. The Frontier is probably the single most expansive and challenging postgame in any Pokémon game, providing the game with a longevity that is sorely needed due to the inaccessibility of Pre-DS multiplayer. The game also manages to tie together the plot of both Ruby and Sapphire into something that feels natural, and provides the series’ first ever actual cutscene, which felt a lot cooler at the time than it sounds now. The return of animated sprites gives the Pokémon a level of life far beyond the static sprites of RSFRLG, and in my eyes wouldn’t feel the same until Black and White several years later. The return of the Pokégear phone in the form of Match Call, as irritating as it is to some, makes the world feel alive in a way that Sinnoh and Kanto probably never will, in addition to making grinding a fair bit less tedious and more beneficial. It is, altogether, probably the perfect Pokémon experience, and in my opinion only one other game comes close (its Platinum).

Oh also, they got rid of the font from Ruby and Sapphire, thank fuck, that shit is atrocious.

#ramble #video games #pokemon #retro games #lists

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mischiefandspirits · 5 years ago

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Iron Legion (20/?)

Never let it be said that Tony Stark ever does things by half. He might have grown up with little family, but he wasn’t about to keep it that way.

Tony Stark was seventeen when his first child was born, and that was just the beginning.

For Masterpost, Timeline, AO3, and Fanfiction

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Arachne Mark II, Part 3

Tony was not having the best day. Ross the Lesser had called in a meeting with the Avengers, including him despite his arguments that he wasn’t an Avenger anymore. Pepper’s stay in Moscow had been extended. He’d had to push back his weekly call to the Keener gang. He wasn’t going to have time to check in with Peter once he got back to New York. And now there was this.

His name was Charlie Spencer.

“She doesn’t know what she was talking about, Boss. She’s just grieving,” F.R.I.D.A.Y. said softly, her hologram appearing in the seat next to him.

“She wasn’t completely wrong.”

The AI crossed her arms and shook her head. “V.I.R.G.I.L. caused Sokovia. The only other people that can share the blame are HYDRA and the witch. None of that was your fault. You and the others did everything you could to stop him and save everyone. You worked to evacuate as many people as you could before the attack started and you helped save a lot of others while assisting the relief foundation.”

Tony sighed. “I know, but -”

“Should I bring up the list?”

He shot her a glare. “Alright, you and the doc aren’t allowed to talk about me anymore.”

“I have no idea what you mean,” she said with blatantly faux-innocence.

“‘Remember those you’ve lost, but don’t let the grief control you and keep in mind those you saved’,” he said, closing his eyes.

“Good advice.”

Tony snorted and stood up. “Check our arrival time with the pilot and send it to Ross the Lesser so he can meet Nebula and me at the mansion. I’m going to go take a nap before you decide to sell out my sleeping schedule to the doc too. Or worse, Pepper.”

“I would never.”

“Liar.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Tony. You are being uncharacteristically non-hyper-verbal.”

“It’s because he’s already made up his mind.”

Tony considered pointing out that he had made up his mind. That he, alongside Drew and Nebula, had been keeping a careful watch on the UN’s meetings that had led to the Sokovia Accords and had been working to oust Ross the Lesser from his self-imposed place on the panel for this exact reason. That he had signed the accords alongside Drew nearly a month earlier because they could see the way the tide was turning and wanted to start building breakwaters before the first wave hit.

Instead, he just said, “Boy, you know me so well.”

“Do you know why Father announced who he was to the world when he first became Iron Man?” Nebula asked, dragging the Avengers’ attention to her as he stood up to find something to wash down his pain meds to alleviate his Rogers and B.A.R.F. induced headache. “Accountability. Ever since he returned from Afghanistan, accountability has been his number one priority. He made Stark Industries accountable for its tech by putting in extra security and checks. He made Iron Man accountable for his actions by letting everyone know who he is. Since establishing the Avengers, he has tried to make you all accountable as well using his government contacts and the Stark Relief Foundation, but that can only go so far.”

“The Avengers need to be put in check,” Tony agreed once he’d swallowed the pills. “We all do. If we can’t accept limitations, if we’re boundary-less, we’re no better than the bad guys.”

“We can’t just give up because -” Rogers started and Tony cut him off.

“Who said we’re giving up?”

“We are if we’re not taking responsibility for our actions. This document just shifts the blame.”

“That is the most idiotic thing you’ve ever said.” Tony barely held back a snort at Nebula’s blank comment. “The accords don’t shift blame. If anything, they do the exact opposite. They make you accountable for your own actions.”

Rogers gave her a look that reeked with condescension and Tony bristled. “Listen -”

“Careful how you speak to my kid, Capsicle. She can beat you to the ground and I’d gladly watch,” Tony growled.

Everyone except Rhodey, Vision, and Nebula gave him disbelieving looks.

“Ditto,” Rhodey agreed, sending them a glare.

“I would have to agree as well,” Vision added, not noticing the pout Maximoff gave him at the statement. “Nebula’s training and abilities make her a match for the captain, even excluding the additional weaponry Mr. Stark has equipped her with.”

When the others still looked unconvinced, Nebula shrugged. “If you want proof, we can go down to the gym and spar. Maybe I can knock some sense into you while we’re at it.”

“I’m not going to fight you,” Rogers huffed. “We’re getting distracted from what we really need to talk about.” He turned to Tony. “What you did with your company, you chose to do that. If we sign this, we surrender our right to choose. What if this panel sends us somewhere we don’t think we should go? What if there is somewhere we need to go, and they don’t let us? We may not be perfect, but the safest hands are still our own.”

“You know,” Nebula started and the coldness in her voice had Tony and Rhodey stiffening. That voice never led to anything good for the one it was directed at. “I once met a man who thought his hands were the best ones to know how to protect a planet.” She held up her hand and it pulled apart to reveal the repulser inside. “He ended up taking my arm and more. Took so much, I can’t even remember his face.”

Finally catching on, Vision shot forward to place himself between her and Rogers. “Nebula,” he said softly.

She dropped her hand, letting it close. “I’m done with this,” she growled, turning to leave.

“I’ll take you home,” Tony said after sending the dumbfounded Rogers a glare.

“What was she talking about?” he heard Wilson ask once they were in the hall.

“Something private,” Rhodey answered. “Drop it.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Harley whistled. “I’m surprised she didn’t blast him in the face. And a little disappointed. It would have been hilarious.”

“I don’t condone violence, even against super soldiers who can take it,” Tony said before lowering his voice, “but yeah, it would have.”

“I heard that,” Tori called, appearing behind her son. “Stop encouraging violent behavior in my kids.”

“Hey, Valley Girl’s all yours. Her violent behavior has nothing to do with me!” Tony pointed out.

“Harley taught her and you taught him,” she shot back.

“She’s got you there,” Harley chuckled.

“Traitor.”

“Boss, I would suggest turning on the news,” F.R.I.D.A.Y. announced.

“News?” Harley asked and Tony saw him move into the living room. “What station?”

“Any will work, Country-Bro. They’re all talking about it.”

That caught Tony’s attention. “Well, bring it up for me, Fri.”

His stomach sank as he watched.

“Mind your language,” Tori said distractedly when he let out a curse. “Oh, those poor people.”

“Cap’s going to freak,” Harley added as Barnes’ face appeared onscreen.

“Yeah, he is,” Tony agreed, running a hand over his face. “Guys, I’m going to have to call you back later.”

Tori gave him a look over Harley’s shoulder. “Don’t go getting yourself in trouble for him, Tony. He ain’t worth it. He’s caused enough trouble as is.”

“Don’t worry, just got to call Ross and Rhodey. Hopefully, we can get a handle on this before Rogers does something stupid.”

They couldn’t.

By the time Rhodey and the CIA were able to move in and Tony convinced them not to just kill Barnes, Rogers had already picked a fight with German Special Forces alongside Wilson, Barnes, and -- surprisingly -- the Prince of Wakanda.

Once he got the news, he immediately sent Vision a message telling him that he and Maximoff needed to stay at the mansion. The last thing they needed was one of their haters causing a scene that could quickly escalate given the girl’s temper or could result in her visa coming into question.

Then he climbed into a Quinjet and set off for Berlin.

When Rogers reached them, Tony and Romanoff were set up in a room to wait, so they got to watch them get brought in through the security feeds.

“What’s going to happen to him?” was, of course, the first thing out of Rogers’ mouth when he approached Ross and his lackey.

“Same thing that ought to happen to you,” Ross stated. “Psychological evaluation and extradition.”

“This is Everett Ross, Deputy Task Force Commander,” the lackey said.

“We’ve met,” Rogers said, nodding to her before refocusing on Ross. “What about a lawyer?”

Ross chuckled. “Lawyer, that’s funny.” He turned to the lackey. “See that their weapons are placed in lockup.”

Romanoff stood up and Tony closed the feed. “I’m going to go talk to him.”

“Good luck,” Tony hummed as he decided to finally let Ross the Lesser off hold.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Is Pepper or Nebula here? I didn’t see them?”

Tony stared blankly at the attempt to change the topic. “Pep’s in Romania helping Rhodey clean up your mess and Nebula has a life. I did too, you know. A few years ago, I almost lost the love of my life so I trashed all my suits. Then we had to mop up after you and HYDRA, and then there was V.I.R.G.I.L. It just never stops, and I’m starting to think you don’t want it to. You’re just like the old man.”

“I knew Howard, he was a -”

“Oh really?” Tony stood up and went to the chair he left his jacket in. As he fixed himself and put it on, he said, “You two knew each other? He never mentioned that. Maybe only a thousand times.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“I’m getting you a bodyguard.”

“Nebula -”

“No, we should have done this the moment Uncle Happy was promoted.”

“I’m Iron Man. I can take care of myself.”

“Your black eye says different.”

“It’s not a black eye, and no normal bodyguard could have helped against Barnes.”

“Maybe I’ll recruit someone from your little next-gen lineup then.”

Tony rolled his eyes. “I’ll set the new guy up with an interview as soon as we bring in Rogers’ little gang.”

“New guy? You’re going to contact one of them to help?”

“Romanoff seems to think we’re understaffed.”

“She’s got a point. Who are you thinking?”

“Someone with just the right skills to pin those three with minimal property damage.” Tony pushed Nebula’s video chat to the side and brought up the Reborn Algorithm. “Fri, give me what we’ve got on Queens.”

Files filled the screen; videos and pictures of the enhanced alongside plans for a suit Tony had designed to replace their onesie, just in case.

“Queens? You mean that spider-guy that’s been flying around recently?”

“We’re looking at super strength, speed, and flexibility, and the tensile strength of that webbing they use is off the charts. It should be able to hold the super bros.”

“Who are they?”

Tony shrugged. The algorithm kept any personal details it discovered under lock and key. He wasn’t about to pry unless he had to. “Let’s find out. Fri?”

There was a moment of silence where no new files opened.

“F.R.I.D.A.Y.?”

“It appears the personal file has been wiped clean. There’s nothing there.”

“Wiped clean? By who?”

“Well, evidence would suggest… There aren’t any signs of outside tampering and the only ones with access to the files are myself and…”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Today was a good day.

He didn’t miss his train, he nailed his Algebra test despite not getting a chance to study because of a bank robbery the night before, and Flash was less of a jerk than normal. Everything had been great.

Then Peter got home and saw his dad and Nebs standing in the living area looking angry.

“Hey Dad, you’re back in town! That’s great!” He looked between the two. “Um, what’s going on? Nebs, shouldn’t you still be at work?”

“Sit,” Dad said, pointing at the couch. “We need to talk.”

Peter hung up his backpack and shuffled over. “Talk about wh-”

He cut off when he spotted his suit laying on the coffee table.

“Sit.”

Peter obeyed immediately. “Dad, I can explain!”

“Oh, you can explain?” Dad sat down in front of him on the coffee table. “You can explain why you’ve been sneaking out and hiding things from me and your sister? You can explain endangering your life? You can explain dragging your brother into this mess? This I’ve got to hear.”

Peter flinched and ducked his head. “Jay told you?”

“I forced it out of him, and that’s part of the problem. He should have told me at the very begging. Better yet, he shouldn’t have had to. You should have told me.”

Peter’s hand came up to fidget with the zipper on his jacket. “I know, I just… If I told you, you would have freaked out, and then I would have freaked out, and -”

“You’re right, I would have freaked out, but not as much as I’m freaking out now!”

“I had everything under control!”

“You most definitely did not have everything under control! You are fourteen and you were picking fights with criminals!”

He held out his arms. “I’m fine! Nothing happened! Jay would have told you if something happened! That was our deal!”

Dad threw his own arms up in the air and started to pace. “And what would have happened if something did happen, but it was too late for Jay to call for help?”

“I’m not doing anything big!” Peter said, and yep, they were both freaking out. He knew this would happen.

“You shouldn’t be doing anything at all! Again, you’re fourteen! When I was your age -- Okay, you definitely shouldn’t be doing what I was doing at your age, but you shouldn’t be running around in a onesie either!”

“It’s not a onesie,” Peter huffed. He and Jay put a lot of work into his suit. It was no Iron Man armor, but he was proud of it. “And I have to do something! I… The things that I can do… If I don’t use them, and something bad happens, then that’s on me.”

Dad’s mouth gaped open and closed, then he pinched his nose. “Of all the things you could have inherited,” he said softly before moving over to sit next to Peter. “Kid, no. That’s not on you. Just because you can do something, doesn’t mean you should. Especially if it would put you in danger. It’s good that you want to help people, but you need to be safe about it. And before you say something, either of you,” he added, pointing at Nebs. “I’m a dad. Do as I say and all that.” He focused back on Peter. “Piccino, I am proud of you, but this isn’t what you should be spending your teenage years doing. You should be going out to watch your geek movies with Ted -”

“Ned,” Peter muttered. “You know it’s Ned.”

“- or going to parties or drooling over crushes or… whatever else it is teenage boys do. Sports?”

“I have asthma.”

“Not anymore.”

“But I did, so I can’t now. Everyone would know something was up.”

“That doesn’t stop you from not wearing your glasses,” Dad snorted, tapping him between the eyes.

Peter blushed and swatted his hand away. “No one really notices. And if they do, I just say I got contacts. Besides, I do wear glasses at school most of the time. Jay and I made some that have lenses that shift to help me not get overstimulated.”

Dad’s eyes lit up. “Those weren’t in the files Jay showed me. What else did you -”

Nebs cleared her throat.”

“Right, no, I’m mad.” Dad’s face went serious again. “We’ll talk about that later.”

Nebs shook her head. “Your grounded,” she said.

“Yeah, I figured,” Peter sighed. He bit his lip and stared at his suit. “What about Spider-Man?”

“Spider-Boy is grounded too,” Dad said.

“Spider-MAN, and you’re not going to take the suit away?” Peter asked hopefully.

“Oh, I’m definitely taking it away. You and Jay did a good job, but there are quite a few updates that need to be made. They’re basically pajamas right now.” Nebs cleared her throat again. “But we’re going to have a very long talk about safety and hiding things and turning your siblings against me on top of the grounding before you even get to think about going out to the city in costume again.”

Peter threw his arms around his dad. “Thank you!”

“Yep, I’m the best dad ever. Also, I know you. You’re too much like me. Working with you to put up some restrictions is way easier than trying to stop you flat out. Pepper taught me that.”

Peter gave him another squeeze before pulling back. “So, why were you bothering Jay about me in the first place?”

Dad groaned and stood up. “I’ll tell you on the plane, I still need to get some things together. Pack your bags, we’re going to Germany.”

“What?” Nebs hissed. “You’re still going to bring him?”

Dad waved Peter towards his bedroom. “Unfortunately, he’s still our best bet. He’s not going to fight -- never wanted him to even before I realized he was a fourteen-year-old, let alone my fourteen-year-old. He’ll keep his distance and web them up. And who knows, hopefully it won’t even turn into a fight.”

“Web who up?” Peter asked as he backed away towards his door. He stopped, eyes widening and bouncing in place. “Wait, is this an Avengers mission? Am I going to be an Avenger?”

“No,” Nebs and Dad said at once and Peter deflated.

“Then what’s going on?”

“On the plane. Pack. We don’t have much time left.”

Peter nodded and slipped into his room.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Where’s Dad?” Peter asked, leaning over the front seat to talk to Uncle Happy.

“Seatbelt,” was all his uncle said.

“Father is still at the tower,” Nebs explained, typing on her tablet. “He’ll meet us in Germany.”

“I thought he was going to explain on the plane.”

“He will. Now hush, I need to get this done for work.”

Peter sighed and nudged Uncle Happy. “Do you know what’s going on?”

He pushed him back. “Seatbelt.”

“But -” Peter cut off with a huff when his uncle hit the button to roll up the divider. He dropped back into his seat, putting on his seatbelt. He then pulled out his phone and texted Harley.

Me: Do YOU know what’s going on in Germany

No, I’m Texas!: You mean with cap

Me: What about cap

No, I’m Texas!: Where’ve you been

No, I’m Texas!: Caps gone rogue!!!!!

No, I’m Texas!: He trashed a freeway or something in Romania then escaped from the cia in berlin and is on the run with bird boy and buck boy

Me: They found the winter soldier

No, I’m Texas!: Duh!!!!

No, I’m Texas!: Seriously where have you been

Me: Some of us actually pay attention at school

No, I’m Texas!:

Me: Ok I got distracted working on this new idea

Me: I can see you typing shut up!!!

No, I’m Texas!: Your such a nerd

No, I’m Texas!: Make me ring!!!!

No, I’m Texas!: Runt

Me: RING

No, I’m Texas!: Shut up loser

No, I’m Texas!: Why are you asking about Germany anyways

Peter thought about what his dad had said and what Harley had told him.

Me: I think dads going to fight cap

Me: And I think I’m coming with him

No, I’m Texas!: Sweet!!!!

No, I’m Texas!: Can you ask him if I can come too

No, I’m Texas!: Wait

No, I’m Texas!: Who is he bringing you

No, I’m Texas!: Why!!! DONT YOU EVEN START!!!!!

Me: Sure thing mr owl

No, I’m Texas!: Just shut up and tell me why he’s being you

Me: Spider-Man vs Thugs Youtube

Me: Me

He waited for a response.

He waited some more.

He was just about to send another text when his phone rang and he saw it was Harley calling.

“Hello?”

“Peter, what the f-”

“Harley Nathaniel Richards!” Peter heard Aunt Tori snap.

“Sorry, mom!” Harley called out. “Petrie, tell me your kidding!”

“Nope.”

He heard a door shut before Harley whispered, “Since when did Dad let you have a super-suit!? I want a super-suit!”

“Dad didn’t exactly let me have it,” Peter chuckled and Nebula looked up at him with narrowed eyes.

“Who are you on the phone with?” Nebula asked, grabbing the phone and turning it on speaker.

“Hey!”

“Did you build a super-suit without Dad knowing!? Why didn’t I think of that!?”

“Don’t even try it, Harley,” Nebula growled.

Harley groaned. “Why didn’t you tell me she was on the line too?”

“She just grabbed my phone.”

“If Peter gets to be a superhero so do I!” Harley announced.

“Grow some superpowers, then you can ask Father,” Nebula said.

“Wait! You’ve got superpowers? I thought that was just the suit!”

“Nope.”

“So that web stuff -”

Peter blushed. “No, th-that’s the suit. But I’m strong and sticky and -”

“Sticky,” Harley laughed.

“Shut up!” Peter huffed. “I can stick to stuff.”

His brother just kept laughing. “Sticky-Boy strikes again!”

When Nebs’ lips twitched up, he sent her a glare and grabbed the phone to hang up on Harley. “You guys are jerks.”

Nebula just went back to her work.

His phone chirped and he looked down to see he got a text.

No, I’m Texas!: Are you going to fight cap?

No, I’m Texas!: Punch him in the face!!

No, I’m Texas!: And record it!!

No, I’m Texas!: Peter?

No, I’m Texas!: I know you’re seeing these!! Stop being a baby!

No, I’m Texas!: I won’t call you sticky-boy again if you record it

Me: Fine 😠

No, I’m Texas!: 😀

Me: 😠

#iron family #ca: civil war #tony stark #peter parker #nebula

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fantabulosogamedev · 8 years ago

Text

Midweek Update: Stylish Shamrocks

Hey everyone,

As you might be able to guess from the late posting of this MU, this week was a tough week in terms of getting work done due to the severity of the aforementioned personal issues. However, I still got a sizeable amount of work done, and I’m hoping that I’ll be able to rally my work ethic and get back to normal summer content for next week.

(full size here)

The Shamrock Fort is mostly completely detailed now! Both windows and doors have been added to the buildings, improving their general appearance and livening up the area. Before the demo, I’ll also add a number of even more fine-detailed and likely destructible objects -- cannonball piles, carts, crates, and more! Furthermore, a couple of interesting structures have been added: a road, a fountain, and a gate.

(full size here)

The road and the fountain are simply more detailing; the fountain is just a fountain, while the road leads from the gate to the main mountain base. This gate will, in the demo, be unopenable by Capboy -- it leads to the staging area that the Shamrocks use to reach the Fightyplace, a cliffside along the northeastern coast of Fantaria. Perhaps Capboy will eventually find a way to open it with something later on in his adventure?

(full size here)

I’ve also begun work on a more combat-oriented window. I’m not happy with its appearance yet, and will tweak it until it looks better, but I figured it was worth mentioning.

(animated)

The Floatatron has now been animated as well. The bobbing may be removed if I can’t get enemy AI to work properly on it, but I’ll try my best to find a workaround before scrapping it entirely, as I know that the effect adds a lot to the animation.

(full size here)

Finally in terms of new content, although it’s in an extremely rudimentary state, here’s the current work done on the exterior of the mountain base. Of special note is the elevator on the small arch over the river: this elevator will be a shortcut that Capboy can activate from above, to help speed up his ascent if he dies or falls down on the way up -- though there’ll be an effigy at the very top of the mountain, mini-checkpoints will be the only things (if anything) that keep his progress partway through, thus the need for a shortcut.

One last thing: I’m considering switching the shaders again. Those who have been following the project for a long time will know that about a year ago, I decided to forgo cartoony shaders in favor of Unity’s more realistic Standard Shader. As the game’s evolved, I’ve decided that I’d prefer cartoony shaders -- but not the original implementation, because I simply don’t have the shader talent to make it look good. As a result, I’m considering purchasing the package Toony Colors Pro 2 -- using the free version, I made some mockups of the new shaders’ appearances below (no full sizes included since they don’t really add all that much detail):

Capboy is the most blatantly improved thing about these shaders -- the rim lighting and generally toony aesthetic do wonders for his simple, untextured design. It would also be further improved if I were to get the paid version, as it features a very interesting halftone effect -- something that would synchronize very nicely with the plan for cutscenes.

These 3 images all show the same approximate scene -- the first is the current shaders, the second is the toony shaders applied to everything, and the third is the second + Unity’s okay outlining system. This is where the weaknesses of the free version show themselves -- the walls are far flatter as the free version has no bumpmap support. However, the paid version supports bumpmaps, substantially better outlines, water, and a number of other items.

The reason I bring this up is I’m looking for general feedback: I don’t want to bother implementing an entirely new shader system if people don’t like it. As such, I’m running it by everyone right now to get general opinions before taking the plunge -- feedback is accepted anywhere, be it here, my twitter, the discord, or somewhere else entirely! Any feedback on the shaders is more than welcome, thanks in advance!

My plans for next week are basically the same as my plans from last week: work on finishing the general structure of the level, round 2. If I finish that early I’ll move on to the inventory system, or if response to the new shader is positive implementing the paid version globally. Thanks for reading everyone, and I’ll see you next time!

Last Week: Shamrocks and Stat-ues

Next Week: A Half-Ton of Halftoning

#Midweek Update #the fantabulous game

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dvtsr · 8 years ago

Photo

// WHT IS A REFLECTION?

if(reading == reflection){

please listen to (Han-Tyumi and The Murder of the Universe); else (experience great boredom, following reflection is long winded);

}

THE POST-DIGITAL PROTOTYPE

With a project (//brief) this open it was hard to decide where to begin, the post digital was such a colossal topic it was easy to get lost in SPRINT tunnels where you would start fifty micro projects only to abandon them all and be left with nought.

Having grown up with my nose in a book, specifically Sci-Fi epic’s and dystopian thrillers, this studio option was an easy pick. When given the brief, rather than a solid idea I had a feeling I wanted to encapsulate. A pseudo Orwellian future in which we are monitored constantly, not menacingly but very blatantly. 14 year old me would have been disappointed by the mediocralypse we are living through. Instead of a cold judge Dredd / Robocop patrolling the streets it is Siri watching us, reminding us to take an umbrella less we catch a cold.

When I got my new iPhone [TM(TM) TM] I turned off all the regular ad/ tracking settings only to find within a few weeks that without me having ever set anything, it knew where work was, when I was working and when I was coming back home. This was on by default, hidden in settings be-riddled with sudden jargon.

(the setting was frequent locations) INITIAL BRAINSTORMING:

With all the aforementioned in mind I chose to focus on “looking at screens works both ways.” For the first part of this task I initially wanted to create a book out of paper that would dissolve under certain conditions, or create a publication that reflected my sentiments that I would expand upon in this final segment. However as I continued my research on the “post digital,” I began to think about my own future as both a designer and individual. The design industry is simultaneously competitive and collaborative. I thought a lot about what kinds of clients I wanted to attract, sectors I wanted to work in and what set me apart as my own designer. There are enough/too many Frankie magazine designers already, regurgitating the same grid patterns and shallow works, printing the same idea month after month.

This is A Magazine, Compendium #3 “Chaos Happens.” Shown work by: Flutro-Creative Services Unit

It was from here that I realised that I personally couldn’t make another perfect bound print publication as my own interests didn’t align with this. To expand my practice I decided I needed to buckle down and do something I had little experience in. This is how I landed on coding. Whilst a daunting task I really do believe to evolve and stay ahead of the AI-designer-DoomBots who will inevitably replace us, it’s imperative we learn thy enemy. To bring something other than roast, peas and mash to the dinner table.

In the same way we swapped traditional waterfall methods in our ideation/prototyping phase I wanted to SPRINT my own portfolio and make use of the opportunity to work on a concept driven design as opposed to a finished work. Whilst AI can mimic human semantics and create pretty websites it is yet to learn to think of it’s OWN ideas and it is this that is perhaps our best asset as flesh and bone. On the same tangent, I wanted to explore the popularity of computer companionship. With the Mac OSX Sierra update, ‘Siri’ also lives in your desktop. Amazon released ‘Alexa’ and Google retaliated with ‘Google Home.’ All bots designed to assist your livelihood by taking over rudimentary tasks such as adding items to cart, checking the weather or playing music. The real appeal in these bots is not their ability to tell you what time it is in Denmark but their capability for relatively smooth, realistic conversation. How is it in a world more connected than ever, we feel isolated enough to require a live at home robot companion?

youtube

Like a housewife from the 50′s, only Alexa can’t stick her head in the oven!

It was from here that I began looking into the feeling of loneliness in the post digital scape. Looking through my phone I found screenshots I had taken from a twitch stream of two google home bots set up such that they could converse with each other (side note: the rise of streaming culture/ Instagram live is an interesting foray into how we consume media and how rapidly it’s changing!! Saving it for another post!!) .

V: “what date” E: “the date you’re going to take me on.” V: “I don’t know we’ll have to see” Too real google, too real :----(

“If you don’t want to talk about Harry Potter I’m leaving”

Which reminded me of my own experiences chatting with bots. Cleverbot was super popular while I was in primary school as were portable offline versions of this with devices like 20Q. Our romanticism of talking to an algorithm is evidently nothing new. As AI ultimately reflects our own speech, is wanting to imbue human qualities in a string of data the ultimate form of narcissism? Or is it our collective cry for help, to save us from our own loneliness. This theory culminated when I read through/devoured The Age of Earthquakes: A Guide to the Extreme Present by Shumon Basar and co. (thx for lettin’ me borrow it Andy).

Growing up with video games it wasn’t until recently I’d noticed how isolated games that weren’t MMO or server based made me feel. Disconnected almost. Even open world games like the Witcher never truly asked:

Thus they never responded to my most current emotional needs. It was from there that I decided I wanted to create my own solution to this. I started with idea of collecting meta-data to fill in variables in a block of text. After strenuous research I realised with the time available and my lack of prior experience the code required to string this together was far too complex. From there I dug into machine learning some more, finally discovering Amazon Web Services (AWS). AWS is a corporate orientated tech service which provides servers and API’s to aid in a vast range of analytic type applications. It was pay-per-use however as I was not sending it 10,000 hits at once it was a couple of cents per request. Unfortunately the AWS Rekognition software (which is infinitely cool, able to recognise objects, faces, expressions, age, gender and gestures with a certain amount of certainty) was region locked to North America and very buggy through my VPN :--(

I did get it to work a few times. Ultimately this was weeks of learning python and wrangling with Terminal down the drain. Deflated I wasted a few too many nights out/at bars trying not to think about my impending failure for this assignment. It was from there that I found Microsoft Azure, a similar service to AWS it provided the same recognition and the added promise of analysing “emotion.” Again I put in my credit card details only to find that the API was locked to North American servers and also too complex to incorporate for my own uses. In my growing list of abandoned ideas, I’d hoped to incorporate the raspberry pi into my project mostly because I really wanted to play with it. I loved the appeal of it’s blank canvas nature and the anarchy within creating your own systems as opposed to simply absorbing what is fed to you. At this point I’m losing a lot of sleep over /getting it done./ I’d watched hour upon hour of Java and then Python tutorial hoping to build this damn application. I then came upon openFrameworks (OF). Similar to Processing, OF is an arts-engineering toolkit, like well fertilised soil is to plants oF makes the coding process easier. However it is still just a nursing ground and to plant and grow your project you still need a firm grasp on the basics and semantics of C++. It was at this point I discovered http://www.facetracker.net, an Open CV2 library for ~ tracking dat face ~ Developed by Jason Saragih, it was wrapped for openFrameworks by Kyle McDonald. Most of the resources used in this project ended up being Frankenstein-ed together as I found most online tutorials were either lacking or 7 years old. Equipped with a source code I was still inept at writing a code to utilise this library. This project was like trying to solve a puzzle where all the pieces are made of bubbles and the instructions are in Russian. Luckily for me I love puzzles. I went on self loathing wiki-hole after wiki-hole trying to find help. I had all the parts I just didn’t know how to make them work together.

* note time stamps * Luckily openFrameworks came with a small library of tutorials which sent me in a better direction. It was 4 am and I was getting delusional when I finally stumbled upon a template Dan Wilcox had developed around FaceTracker for students at Carnegie Mellon Universities School of Art Faculty ( In Pittsburgh USA). This became the skeleton which I broke and rebuilt and furthered to build my own monster.

I changed the colours on my compiler (Xcode) so I felt more like hackerman B--) From there I did far more math than to my liking to integrate my facial structure into the algorithms:

If I had been more apt at coding I would have liked to have actual face recognition as opposed to tracking. Baby steps, perhaps for my next project. I started with the idea of the book changing large volumes of text depending on expressions, however it was too difficult to maintain one expression for any extraneous period of time. Coming back to my initial research ( with content driven on current emotional needs) I decided to use poetry. For each relevant emotion I assigned a poem/snippet which I both cherish and relate to a feeling.

The emotions and poems I ended up with are as follows: Happy: -> smiling Yes Yes, Charles Bukowski Angry: -> brows furrowed and eyes squinted Snippet of The Divine Comedy - Inferno, Dante Alighieri Shocked: -> mouth open Alone with Everybody, Charles Bukowski Tired: -> close to the screen Rhapsody on a Windy Night, TS Eliot

Confused: -> Far from screen Jabberwocky, CS Lewis

As emotions are never singular, neither are the outputs. If you show signs of multiple emotions they will clash and play at the same time. The fluidity of the text on screen mirrors the unanchored nature of thoughts and feelings. I also initially did not have the little face on screen, however found it more charming/uncomfortable to see a visual reminder of your constant surveillance. Whilst un-menacing it is slightly disgruntling to know you are being watched. Some test screens (as in the opening GIF):

Now armed with a deliverable software, my next hurdle was submission. I wanted to incorporate a physical art element that grounds the project as something tangible whilst maintaining the romanticism in the playful app, i.e I didn’t want to have it simply downloaded from a boring dropbox or CD as the prototype relies on “ inspiring a hope for a future outcome. ” To physical represent both my Frankenstein-ed code (which has been passed down forward and tweaked by four generations of people to get to this!! In the spirit of open source I will also upload my version to GitHub) I deconstructed an old hard drive and replaced its casing with old mobile phones. Another technology rapidly evolving and leaving behind carcasses. Building new through old, forging future with the bones of the past. It also includes a charger noose to remind viewers of the potential perils of living entirely online. This is countered by cute stickers and a smiley face to also remind viewers that things moving forwards doesn’t have to be scary.

In conclusion this Studio was like an incredible buffet in which I took way too much food but enjoyed all of it none the less. The book club meetings were incredibly rewarding and a pleasant change of pace from other classes. I’ve learnt so so much from class discussions and just being surrounded by super super suppppperrrr work. These are all concepts/skills/thought processes I’ll carry forward into future works both in academia and beyond. Honestly though my favourite part has just been absorbing other peoples works. Through and through my favourite class ( and the only class I’d come to uni at 9 am for.) 💖🌸💕💗 Thank u everybody for an incredible semester!

#i guess this is a book #the end #they all lived happily ever after #sorry its so long oops

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hafizhamza313 · 6 years ago

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The best Android games

There are loads of great games available for Android, but how can you pick out the gems from the dross, and amazing touchscreen experiences from botched console ports? With our lists, that’s how! We cover the best titles on Android right now, including the finest racers, puzzlers, adventure games, arcade titles and more. We've tried these games out, and looked to see where the costs come in - there might be a free sticker added to some of these in the Google Play Store, but sometimes you'll need an in app purchase (IAP) to get the real benefit - so we'll make sure you know about that ahead of the download. Check back every week for a new game, and click through to the following pages to see the best of the best divided into the genres that best represent what people are playing right now. Android game of the week: Rush Rally 3 ($3.99/£3.99/AU$6.99)

Rush Rally 3 brings console-style rally racing to Android. For quick blasts, you can delve into single rally mode, with a co-driver bellowing in your ear; or there’s the grinding metal of rallycross, pitting you against computer cars apparently fueled by aggression. If you’re in it for the long haul, immerse yourself in a full career mode. None of those options would matter a jot if the racing weren’t up to much. Fortunately, it’s really good. The game looks the part, with very smart visuals and viewpoints, whether belting around a racing circuit or blazing through a forest. The controls work well, too, providing a number of setups to accommodate a range of preferences (tilt; virtual buttons) – and skill levels. All in all, it’s enough for the game to get that coveted checkered flag. The best racing games for Android Our favorite Android top-down, 3D and retro racers.

Horizon Chase (free + $2.99/£2.79/AU$4.09 IAP) If you're fed up with racing games paying more attention to whether the tarmac looks photorealistic rather than how much fun it should be to zoom along at insane speeds, check out Horizon Chase. This tribute to old-school arcade titles is all about the sheer joy of racing, rather than boring realism. The visuals are vibrant, the soundtrack is jolly and cheesy, and the racing finds you constantly battling your way to the front of an aggressive pack. If you fondly recall Lotus Turbo Esprit Challenge and Top Gear, don't miss this one. (Note that Horizon Chase gives you five tracks for free. To unlock the rest, there's a single £2.29/US$2.99 IAP.)

Need for Speed: Most Wanted ($4.99/£4.99/AU$7.99) Anyone expecting the kind of free-roaming racing from the console versions of this title are going to be miffed, but Need for Speed: Most Wanted is nonetheless one of the finest games of its kind on Android. Yes, the tracks are linear, with only the odd shortcut, but the actual racing bit is superb. You belt along the seedy streets of a drab, gray city, trying to win events that will boost your ego and reputation alike. Wins swell your coffers, enabling you to buy new vehicles for entering special events. The game looks gorgeous on Android and has a high-octane soundtrack to urge you onwards. But mostly, this one’s about the controls – a slick combination of responsive tilt and effortless drifting that makes everything feel closer to OutRun 2 than typically sub-optimal mobile racing fare.

Riptide GP: Renegade ($2.99/£2.99/AU$3.99) The first two Riptide games had you zoom along undulating watery circuits surrounded by gleaming metal towers. Riptide GP: Renegade offers another slice of splashy futuristic racing, but this time finds you immersed in the seedy underbelly of the sport. As with the previous games, you’re still piloting a hydrofoil, and racing involves not only going very, very fast, but also being a massive show-off at every available opportunity. If you hit a ramp or wave that hurls you into the air, you’d best fling your ride about or do a handstand, in order to get turbo-boost on landing. Sensible racers get nothing. The career mode finds you earning cash, upgrading your ride, and probably ignoring the slightly tiresome story bits. The racing, though, is superb – an exciting mix of old-school arcade thrills and modern mobile touchscreen smarts.

Mini Motor Racing ($2.99/£3.19/AU$4.49) Mini Motor Racing is a frantic top-down racer that finds small vehicles darting about claustrophobic circuits that twist and turn in a clear effort to have you repeatedly drive into walls. The cars handle more like remote control cars than real fare, meaning that races are typically tight – and easily lost if you glance away from the screen for just a moment. There’s a ton of content here – many dozens of races set across a wide range of environments. You zoom through ruins, and scoot about beachside tracks. The AI’s sometimes a bit too aggressive, but with savvy car upgrades, and nitro boost usage when racing, you’ll be taking more than the occasional checkered flag.

Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit ($4.99/£4.99/AU$7.99) Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit exists in a world where the police seem to think it’s perfectly okay to use their extremely expensive cars to ram fleeing criminals into submission. And when they’re not doing that, they belt along the streets, racing each other to (presumably) decide who pays for the day’s doughnuts. It’s a fairly simple racer – you’re basically weaving your way through the landscape, smashing into other cars, and triggering the odd trap – but it’s exhilarating, breezy fun that echoes classic racers like Chase H.Q. And once you’ve had your fill of being one of the nitro-happy fuzz, you can play out a career as the pursued as well, getting stuck into the kind of cop-smashing criminal antics that totally won’t be covered by your car manufacturer’s warranty.

Final Freeway 2R ($0.99/79p/AU$0.99) Final Freeway 2R is a retro racing game, quite blatantly inspired by Sega’s classic OutRun. You belt along in a red car, tearing up a road where everyone’s rather suspiciously driving in the same direction. Every now and again, you hit a fork, allowing you to select your route. All the while, cheesy music blares out of your device’s speakers. For old hands, you’ll be in a kind of gaming heaven. And arguably, this game’s better than the one that inspired it, feeling more fluid and nuanced. If you’re used to more realistic fare, give Final Freeway 2R a go – you might find yourself converted by its breezy attitude, colorful visuals, and need for truly insane speed.

Rush Rally 2 ($1.49/99p/AU$1.99) Rush Rally 2 is a curious rally racer, in part because it at first comes across as an unforgiving and simulation-oriented affair. It initially feels too easy to crash, and you too often find yourself pointing the wrong way or rather inconveniently having embedded your car in a tree. As ever, though, Rush Rally 2 is about clicking with the feel of the game. Slow down a bit and take a touch more care and you’ll figure out how the physics works, and the layout of the courses. The game will reveal its fun side – an arcade edge that won’t allow you to zoom along without ever using the brake pedal, but that nonetheless is quite happy for you to use other cars in rally cross skirmishes for slowing down instead. For the tiny outlay, it’s a bargain.

Motorsport Manager Mobile 3 ($3.99/£3.99/AU$6.49) Motorsport Manager Mobile 3 is a racing management game without the boring bits. Rather than sitting you in front of a glorified spreadsheet, the game is a well-balanced mix of accessibility and depth, enabling you to delve into the nitty gritty of teams, sponsors, mechanics, and even livery. When you’re all set, you get to watch surprisingly tense and exciting top-down racing. (This being surprising because you’re largely watching numbered discs zoom around circuits.) One-off races give you a feel for things, but the real meat is starting from the bottom of the pile in the career mode, with the ultimate aim of becoming a winner. It’s all streamlined, slick, and mobile-friendly, and a big leap on from the relatively simplistic original Motorsport Manager Mobile. The best Android adventure games Our favorite Android point and click games, RPGs, fictional stories, choose your own adventures and room escape games.

The Wolf Among Us (free + IAP) Telltale has made a name for itself with story-driven episodic games and The Wolf Among Us is one of its best. Essentially a hard boiled fairy tale, you control the big bad wolf as he hunts a murderer through the mean streets of Fabletown. Don't let the fairy tale setting fool you, this is a violent, mature game and it's one where your decisions have consequences, impacting not only what the other characters think of you but also who lives and who dies. Episode One is free but the remaining four will set you back a steep £9.59 / $14.99 / around AU$18. Trust us though, you'll want to see how this story ends.

80 Days ($4.99/£3.99/AU$5.99) Of all the attempts to play with the conventions of novels and story-led gaming on mobile, 80 Days is the most fun. It takes place in an 1872 with a decidedly steampunk twist, but where Phileas Fogg remains the same old braggart. As his trusty valet, you must help Fogg make good on a wager to circumnavigate the globe in 80 days. This involves managing/trading belongings and carefully selecting routes. Mostly, though, interaction comes by way of a pacey, frequently exciting branched narrative, like a Choose Your Own Adventure book on fast-forward. A late-2015 content update added 150,000 words, two new plots and 30 cities to an adventure that already boasted plenty of replay value — not least when you've experienced the joys of underwater trains and colossal mechanical elephants in India, and wonder what other marvels await discovery in this world of wonders.

Her Story ($2.99/£2.69/AU$3.99) In Her Story, you find yourself facing a creaky computer terminal with software designed by a sadist. It soon becomes clear the so-called L.O.G.I.C. database houses police interviews of a woman charged with murder. But the tape's been hacked to bits and is accessible only by keywords; 'helpfully', the system only displays five search results at once. Naturally, these contrivances exist to force you to play detective, eking out clues from video snippets to work out what to search for next, slowly piecing together the mystery in your brain. A unique and captivating experience, Her Story will keep even the most remotely curious Android gamer gripped until the enigma is solved.

Oceanhorn (free + $5.49/£4.99/AU$6.99 IAP) There’s more than a hint of Zelda about Oceanhorn, but that’s not a bad thing when it means embarking on one of the finest arcade adventures on mobile. You awake to find a letter from your father, who it turns out has gone from your life. You’re merely left with his notebook and a necklace. Thanks, Dad! Being that this is a videogame, you reason it’s time to get questy, exploring the islands of the Uncharted Seas, chatting with folks, stabbing hostile wildlife, uncovering secrets and mysteries, and trying very hard to not get killed. You get a chapter for free, to test how the game works on your device (its visual clout means fairly powerful Android devices are recommended); a single IAP unlocks the rest. The entire quest takes a dozen hours or so – which will likely be some of the best gaming you’ll experience on Android.

Milkmaid of the Milky Way ($4.49/£3.39/AU$5.99) Initial moments in point-and-click adventure Milkmaid of the Milky Way are so sedate the game’s in danger of falling over. You play as Ruth, a young woman living on a remote farm in a 1920s Norwegian fjord. She makes dairy products, sold to a town several hours away. Then, without warning, a massive gold spaceship descends, stealing her cows. Fortunately, Ruth decides she’s having none of that, leaps aboard the spaceship, and finds herself embroiled in a tale of intergalactic struggles. To say much more would spoil things, but we can say that this old-school adventure is a very pleasant way to spend a few hours. The puzzles are logical yet satisfying; the visuals are gorgeous; and the game amusingly provides all of its narrative in rhyme, which is pleasingly quaint and nicely different.

Samorost 3 ($4.99/£3.99/AU$6.49) Samorost 3 is a love letter to classic point-and-click adventure games. You explore your surroundings, unearth objects, and then figure out where best to use them. Straightforward stuff, then (at least in theory – many puzzles are decidedly cryptic), but what sets Samorost 3 apart is that it’s unrelentingly gorgeous, and full of heart. The storyline is bonkers, involving a mad monk who used a massive mechanical hydra to smash up a load of planetoids. You, as an ambitious space-obsessed gnome, must figure out how to set things right. The game is packed with gorgeous details that delight, from the twitch of an insect’s antennae to a scene where the protagonist successfully encourages nearby creatures to sing, and starts fist-punching the air while dancing with glee. Just two magical moments among many in one of the finest examples of adventuring on Android.

Love You To Bits ($3.99/£3.79/AU$5.99) Love You To Bits is a visually dazzling and relentlessly inventive point-and-click puzzler. It features Kosmo, a space explorer searching for the scattered pieces of his robot girlfriend, bar the lifeless head that’s still in his clutches. Which is a bit icky. Don’t think about that too much, though, because this game is gorgeous. Through its many varied scenes, it plays fast and loose with pop culture references, challenging you to beat a 2D Monument Valley, sending up Star Wars, and at one point dumping you on a planet of apes. Now and again, you’ll need to make a leap of logic to complete a task, and puzzles mostly involve picking things up and using them in the right place – hardly the height of innovation. But this game’s so endearing and smartly designed you’d have to be lifeless yourself to fail to love it at least a little.

Thimbleweed Park ($9.99/£8.99/AU$13.99) Thimbleweed Park is an adventure that sends you back to the halcyon days of 1987. Mainly because that’s when it’s set, in the titular Thimbleweed Park, and there’s been a murder. But also, this game recalls classic PC point-and-clicker Maniac Mansion, in everything from visual style to interface. That doesn’t mean this is a crusty old relic. Industry veterans Ron Gilbert and Gary Winnick have written a winning script (which gets increasingly weird as you play), and come up with dozens of cunning, tricky puzzles to keep your brain fizzing throughout the game’s 15-to-20-hour length. Now and again, it perhaps gets a bit too obtuse. But mostly, this is a game that knows it’s a game - and that also wants you to know it’s a take-no-prisoners puzzle title. One that features plumbers who are also paranormal investigators, dressed as pigeons. (We did say it was weird.)

Bury Me, My Love ($2.99/£2.99/AU$4.99) Bury Me, My Love is another game in the Lifeline mold – a branching narrative akin to a Choose Your Own Adventure book, which plays out in real time. What’s different is this game’s narrative draws from the real-life stories of Syrian refugees. You play Majd, whose wife Nour is trying to reach Europe. She contacts you via a messaging app, and you respond with advice – which may have a very big impact. This kind of adventure can be tense, leaking into your real life as you await responses, but Bury Me, My Love takes this to the extreme – for example, when it’s been 24 hours since you heard from Nour, who was heading to a heavily armed border. This kind of topical subject matter won’t be for everyone, but if you want a game that will make you think a bit, it comes recommended.

Superbrothers Sword & Sworcery ($3.99/£3.49/AU$5.49) Superbrothers Sword & Sworcery is an adventure game that’s about discovery and exploration. It’s a relentlessly beautiful experience, with rich retro-infused artwork and a lush soundtrack. The game encourages you to breathe everything in, take your time, and work at your own pace. Unlike most adventures, which tend to be obsessed with inventories, Sworcery is mostly concerned with puzzles that are confined to one screen. Solutions are frequently abstract, involving manipulating your environment or even time itself. You may free woodland spirits with musical prowess, or discover a solution requires playing at set points during the lunar calendar. It might come across as a bit worthy at times, and there are some missteps, such as the awkward, ungainly combat, but Sworcery is evocative and expressive, and full of pay-offs that tend towards the magical, unless you happen to be dead inside.

Minecraft ($6.99/£6.99/AU$10.99) Minecraft on Android is the hugely popular sandbox PC game based around virtual blocks, right in the palm of your hand. Sort of. In effect, it’s a stripped-back take on the desktop version, although you still get different ways to play. In creative mode, you explore and can immediately start crafting a virtual world. With survival mode come the added complications of gathering and managing resources during the day – and then battling against enemies during the night. Although it’s a mite more limited than the full desktop release, Minecraft on Android still gives you plenty to do, and the randomly generated nature of the world provides potentially limitless gaming experiences. It’s certainly more than just a load of blocks.

The Room: Old Sins ($4.99/£4.99/AU$8.49) The Room: Old Sins finds you investigating the disappearance of an engineer and his wife. The trail leads you to a spooky attic. On getting the lights working, you see a strange dollhouse, which then sucks you inside. You discover the toy is in fact a full reconstruction of a mansion, with a side order of Lovecraftian horror. Unraveling the mystery at the heart of the game and its impossible world then happens by way of devious, complex, tactile logic puzzles. Old Sins looks and sounds great, and moving around is swift – there’s none of the dull trudging you find in the likes of Myst. Of course, if you’ve played The Room, The Room Two, and The Room Three, you’ll know all this already. If you haven’t, grab Old Sins immediately – and its predecessors, too. They’re some of the finest games on Android. The best arcade games for Android Our favorite Android arcade titles, fighting games, pinball games and retro games.

Thumper: Pocket Edition ($4.99/£4.59/AU$7.49) Thumper: Pocket Edition is a bit like Guitar Hero crossed with a roller-coaster, set in some horrific Lovecraftian hell where everything is encased in metal. And if the thought of that breaks your mind, wait until you play the game. You careen along a track. Keeping your metal bug alive relies on performing gestures and taps at precisely the right moments, in time with an ominous and booming tribal soundtrack. If that wasn’t hard enough (and it really is), bosses sporadically show up, threatening you with their massive teeth and plentiful tentacles. Thumper isn’t for the faint-hearted, and it’s easy to become frustrated with the sometimes brutal difficulty. But there’s no doubting this is one of the most polished and arresting games of its kind that’s ever come to mobile.

Power Hover (free + IAP) There's a great sense of freedom from the second you immerse yourself in the strange and futuristic world of Power Hover. The robot protagonist has been charged with pursuing a thief who's stolen batteries that power the city. The droid therefore grabs a hoverboard and scythes across gorgeous minimal landscapes, such as deserts filled with colossal marching automatons, glittering blue oceans, and a dead grey human city. In lesser hands, Power Hover could have been utterly forgettable. After all, you're basically tapping left and right to change the direction of a hoverboard, in order to collect batteries and avoid obstacles. But the production values here are stunning. Power Hover is a visual treat, boasts a fantastic soundtrack, and gives mere hints of a story, enabling your imagination to run wild. Best of all, the floaty controls are perfect; you might fight them at first, but once they click, Power Hover becomes a hugely rewarding experience. (On Android, Power Hover is a free download; to play beyond the first eight levels requires a one-off IAP.)

Forget-Me-Not ($2.49/£2.39/AU$3.89) At its core, Forget-Me-Not is Pac-Man mixed with Rogue. You scoot about algorithmically generated single-screen mazes, gobbling down flowers, grabbing a key, and then making a break for the exit. But what makes Forget-Me-Not essential is how alive its tiny dungeons feel. Your enemies don't just gun for you, but are also out to obliterate each other and, frequently, the walls of the dungeon, reshaping it as you play. There are tons of superb details to find buried within the game's many modes, and cheapskates can even get on board with the free version, although that locks much of its content away until you've munched enough flowers. If there were any justice, Forget-Me-Not would have a permanent place at the top of the Google Play charts. It is one of the finest arcade experiences around, not just on Android, but on any platform - old or new.

Captain Cowboy ($0.99/£1.09/AU$1.39) Coming across like a sandbox-oriented chill-out ‘zen’ take on seminal classic Boulder Dash, Captain Cowboy has your little space-faring hero exploring a massive handcrafted world peppered with walls, hero-squashing boulders, and plenty of bling. Much like Boulder Dash, Captain Cowboy is mostly about not being crushed by massive rocks – you dig paths through dirt, aiming to strategically use boulders to take out threats rather than your own head. But everything here is played out without stress (due to endless continues) and sometimes in slow motion (when floating through zero-gravity sections of space). The result feels very different from the title that inspired it, but it’s no less compelling. Tension is replaced by exploration, and single-screen arcade thrills are sacrificed for a longer game. As you dig deeper into Captain Cowboy’s world, there are plenty of things awaiting discovery, and even tackling the next screen of dirt and stones always proves enjoyable.

Edge ($2.99/£1.99/AU$2.99) There’s a distinct sense of minimalism at the heart of Edge, along with a knowing nod to a few arcade classics of old. Bereft of a story, the game simply tasks you with guiding a trundling cube to the end of each blocky level. Along the way, you grab tiny glowing cubes. On reaching the goal, you get graded on your abilities. This admittedly doesn’t sound like much on paper, but Edge is a superb arcade game. The isometric visuals are sharp, and the head-bobbing soundtrack urges you onwards. The level design is the real star, though, with surprisingly imaginative objectives and hazards hewn from the isometric landscape. And even when you’ve picked your way to the very end, there’s still those grades to improve by shaving the odd second off of your times. Still not sure? Try out the 12-level demo. Eager for more? Grab Edge Extended, which is every bit as good as the original.

Super Samurai Rampage ($1.99/£1.69/AU$2.79) Super Samurai Rampage is a manic swipe-based high-score chaser, featuring a samurai who has - for some reason - been provoked into a relentless rampage. Said rampage is dependent on you swiping. Swipe left and you lunge in that direction, slicing your sword through the air. Swipe up and you majestically leap, after that you can repeatedly swipe every which way, fashioning a flurry of airborne destruction akin to the most outlandish of martial arts movies. Along with dishing out death, you must ensure you don’t come a cropper yourself. And attack is your only form of defense, because when you’re moving, you’re also deflecting incoming projectiles. You’re also likely racking up quite the body count, which accumulates in bloody retro-pixel form at the foot of the screen. It’s of course entirely absurd, and without much nuance; but Super Samurai Rampage is an arcade thrill that’s entertaining, and where repeat play is rewarded with gradual mastery – or at least lasting a few seconds longer before your inevitable demise.

Part Time UFO ($3.99/£3.99/AU$5.99) Part Time UFO is a physics-based stacking game featuring a cute UFO that has crash-landed on Earth and now has to eke out a living. That’s right – in this era, aliens aren’t sent to Area 51, and instead scour job ads to earn some cash. Fortunately, this little UFO is made of stern stuff and has a massive claw to pick things up. This proves handy for part time jobs, doing everything from stacking deliveries on a truck, to assisting a circus elephant’s grand finale – balancing on a tightrope, with five animals precariously plonked on a pole. Since Part Time UFO embraces the frustration of claw machines, it can infuriate – not least when you topple a structure as the clock ticks down. Mostly, though, this is a charming and very silly game that’s loads of fun.

Pumped BMX 3 ($3.99/£3.49/AU$5.49) Pumped BMX 3 might initially give you the wrong impression. Colorful visuals and basic controls have it initially come across as a casual take on a BMX trials outing. But pretty rapidly, it bucks any complacency from the saddle and leaves it a shattered mess on the floor. Whereas Pumped BMX 2 (also recommended) went for a more relaxed take on hurling a BMX into the air with merry abandon, this sequel is all about mastery. Try to wing it and you’ll be crushed, but properly learn course layouts and timings, and you’ll gradually work your way through each level. That’s rewarding enough, but with confidence you can start peppering your runs with stunts to boost your scores, with routines that would make even seasoned BMX pros break out in hearty applause.

Holedown ($3.99/£3.99/AU$5.99) Holedown is an arcade shooter that has you blast strings of balls at numbered blocks. When blocks are hit enough times, they blow up, allowing you to dig deeper. Some blocks hold up others, and should be prioritized – as should grabbing gems that allow you to upgrade your kit (more balls; new levels; a bigger gem bag) when you run out of shots and return to the surface. The mechanics are nothing new on Android – there are loads of similar ball bouncers. What is new is the sense of personality, polish and fun Holedown brings to this style of game. This is a premium title and a labor of love. There’s still repetition at its core, but Holedown feels hypnotic and encouraging, rather than giving you the feeling that it’s digging into your wallet – in contrast to its freebie contemporaries.

Osmos HD ($2.49/£2.19/AU$3.39) Osmos HD is a rare arcade game about patience and subtlety. Each unique level has you guide a ‘mote’, which moves by expelling tiny pieces of itself. Initially, it moves within microscopic goop, eating smaller motes, to expand and reign supreme. At first, other motes don’t fight back, but the game soon immerses you in petri dish warfare, as motes tear whatever amounts to each-other's faces off. Then there’s the odd curveball, as challenges find you dealing with gravity as planet-like motes orbit deadly floating 'stars'. It’s a beautiful, captivating game, with perfect touchscreen controls. And if you can convince a friend to join in, you can battle it out over Wi-Fi across six distinct arenas.

PAC-MAN Championship Edition DX ($1.99/£1.79/AU$3.09) Since Pac-Man graced arcades in the early 1980s, titles featuring the rotund dot-muncher have typically been split between careful iterations on the original, and mostly duff attempts to shoe-horn the character into other genres. Championship Edition DX is ostensibly the former, although the changes made from the original radically transform the game, making it easily the best Pac-Man to date. Here, the maze is split in two. Eat all the dots from one half and a special object appears on the other; eat that and the original half's dots are refilled in a new configuration. All the while, dozing ghosts you brush past join a spectral conga that follows your every move. The result is an intoxicating speedrun take on a seminal arcade classic, combined with the even more ancient Snake; somehow, this combination ends up being fresh, exciting and essential. The best endless runners for Android Our favorite Android games where you hoverboard, jump, sprint, or even pinball to a high score – or a sudden end.

Boson X ($2.99/£1.92/AU$3.66) Boson X is an endless runner that features scientists sprinting at insane speeds inside particle accelerators in order to generate the high-speed collisions required to discover strange new particles. And if you’re thinking that’s probably not entirely scientifically accurate, that’s true; fortunately, Boson X gets away with this by virtue of being breezy and intoxicating fun. It comes across like Canabalt in 3D, mixed with Super Hexagon, as you leap between platforms, rotating the collider to ensure you don’t plunge into the void or smack into a wall. From the off, this isn’t exactly easy, but later colliders are truly bonkers – abstract and terrifying contraptions that shift and morph before your very eyes. Brilliant stuff.

ALONE... ($1.99/£1.49/$2.63) People who today play mobile classic Canabalt and consider it lacking due to its simplicity don't understand what the game is trying to do. Canabalt is all about speed — the thrill of being barely in control, and of affording the player only the simplest controls for survival. ALONE… takes that basic premise and straps a rocket booster to it. Instead of leaping between buildings, you're flying through deadly caverns, a single digit nudging your tiny craft up and down. Occasional moments of generosity — warnings about incoming projectiles; your ship surviving minor collisions and slowly regenerating — are offset by the relentlessly demanding pressure of simply staying alive and not slamming into a wall. It's an intoxicating combination, and one that, unlike most games in this genre, matches Canabalt in being genuinely exciting to play.

Doug Dug ($0.99/83p/AU$1.39) This one's all about the bling - and also the not being crushed to death by falling rocks and dirt. Doug Dug riffs off of Mr Driller, Boulder Dash and Dig Dug, the dwarf protagonist digging deep under the earth on an endless quest for shimmering gems. Cave-ins aren't the only threat, though - the bowels of the earth happen to be home to a surprising array of deadly monsters. Some can be squashed and smacked with Doug's spade (goodbye, creepy spider!), but others are made of sterner stuff (TROLL! RUN AWAY!). Endlessly replayable and full of character, Doug Dug's also surprisingly relaxing - until the dwarf ends up under 150 tonnes of rubble.

FOTONICA ($2.99/£2.59/AU$3.99) One of the most gorgeous games around, FOTONICA at its core echoes one-thumb leapy game Canabalt. The difference is FOTONICA has you move through a surreal and delicate Rez-like 3D vector landscape, holding the screen to gain speed, and only soaring into the air when you lift a finger. Smartly, FOTONICA offers eight very different and finite challenges, enabling you to learn their various multi-level pathways and seek out bonuses to ramp up your high scores. Get to grips with this dreamlike runner and you can then pit your wits (and thumbs) against three slowly mutating endless zones.

Impossible Road ($1.99/£1.49/AU$2.33) One of the most exhilarating games on mobile, Impossible Road finds a featureless white ball barreling along a ribbon-like track that twists and turns into the distance. The aim is survival – and the more gates you pass through, the higher your score. The snag is that Impossible Road is fast, and the track bucks and turns like the unholy marriage of a furious unbroken stallion and a vicious roller-coaster. Once the physics click, however, you’ll figure out the risks you can take, how best to corner, and what to do when hurled into the air by a surprise bump in the road. The game also rewards ‘cheats’. Leave the track, hurtle through space for a bit, and rejoin – you’ll get a score for your airborne antics, and no penalty for any gates missed. Don’t spend too long aloft though - a few seconds is enough for your ball to be absorbed into the surrounding nothingness.

Run A Whale ($0.99/99p/AU$1.49) Run-A-Whale is a sweet-natured endless runner. Well, endless swimmer, given that its protagonist is a friendly whale giving a lift/thrill ride to a shipwrecked pirate. There’s no tapping to leap here, though; in Run-A-Whale, you hold the screen to make the whale dive. When you let go and he breaks the surface, he soars (very) briefly into the air, before returning to the water with a splash. As ever, the aim in Run-A-Whale is survival – and that in itself isn’t simple. The game’s one failing is it sometimes makes it really tough to avoid hazards, which can include whale-stopping walls someone’s carelessly built beneath the waves. Mostly, though, this one’s a gorgeous romp through beautiful landscapes, grabbing coins, occasionally being fired into the sky by a cannon, and regularly fending off giant crabs and octopodes.

Super Hexagon ($2.99/£2.39/AU$3.79) Super Hexagon is an endless survival game that mercilessly laughs at your incompetence. It begins with a tiny spaceship at the center of the screen, and walls rapidly closing in. All you need to do is move left and right to nip through the gaps. Unfortunately for you, the walls keep shifting and changing, the screen pulses to the chiptune soundtrack, and the entire experience whirls and jolts like you’re inside a particularly violent washing machine. It seems impossible, but you soon start to recognize patterns in the walls. String together some deft moves, survive a minute by the skin of your teeth, and you briefly feel like a boss as new arenas are unlocked. And although complacency is wiped from your face the instant you venture near them, Super Hexagon has an intoxicating, compelling nature to offset its mile-long sadistic streak.

Ridiculous Fishing ($2.49/£2.49/AU$3.69) Ridiculous Fishing is appropriately named, in that it’s – vaguely – about fishing, and it’s certainly ridiculous. The game begins with you bobbing about in your open-topped boat, casting a line into the inky depths. You then tilt your phone to guide your hook, scooping up fish, and avoiding hazards. When you reel everything in, it’s hurled into the air, after that – for some reason – you blast it with a shotgun. It’s all very silly, and there’s a smart compulsion loop: over time, you buy longer lines, and higher-powered weaponry, and can therefore snag more fish. And the more you shoot, the more cash you make. Clearly, in this world there’s a big market for seafood that has been airborne and almost atomized. As we said: ridiculous! The best platform games for Android Our favorite Android platform games, including side-scrolling 2D efforts, exploration games and console-style adventures.

Linn: Path of Orchards ($2.99/£2.79/AU$4.69) Linn: Path of Orchards messes with the conventions of platform games, in that the platforms refuse to stay still. And the doesn’t mean the odd levitating platform – here, levels are akin to strange clockwork devices, all too keen to hurl you into oblivion. The ‘clockwork’ bit is very important – each level has a distinct pattern. Figure that out, and you should be able to grab all the bling and reach the exit in a tiny number of moves. The end result therefore ends up somewhere between turn-based puzzler and single-screen plaformer, integrating the best aspects of each, and fusing it with gorgeous visuals. Not sure? Check out the free version first, although be mindful that it’s infested with ads, which rather detract from the game’s otherwise ethereal nature.

Oddmar (free + $4.99/£3.69/AU$6.49) Oddmar is a mobile platform game good enough to rub shoulders with console-originated equivalents. It features the titular Oddmar, a buffoonish Viking shunned by his fellows, but when they disappear and he snarfs some magic mushrooms (really), he becomes a hero, out to save his kin. The basics are as you’d expect – run, jump, grab bling, and try not to get killed – but Oddmar is far from predictable. The visuals are dazzling to the point it often looks like an interactive cartoon; the pacing is frequently shaken up as you battle giant bosses and tackle auto-scrolling maze-like levels; and although traditional controls are available, the gestural defaults are pitch-perfect. In short, Oddmar sets a new standard for platform games on mobile; and on Android, you even get to play the first few levels for free.

see/saw ($2.99/£2.59/AU$4.29) see/saw hints at the troubles ahead for its protagonists in a note from the professor running a series of tests: “Die to succeed.” The subjects probably shouldn’t have signed up for these trials, frankly, given that they’re sealed in rooms packed with massive spikes and saw blades, and tasked with collecting coins. Black humor abounds when you realize some can only be reached by killing the subject and cunningly hurling their corpse in the appropriate direction. The controls are superb – two thumbs are all you need – and the game feels perfect as well. So whether you’ll crack all 150 levels is mostly down to your dexterity, and whether your inner vicious streak will figure out how to chop and impale your character in a manner that will – posthumously – allow them to achieve their goal.

Spitkiss ($1.99/£1.99/AU$3.69) Spitkiss is a mashup of arcade shooty larks and platforming action, where you aim to get the bodily fluids of one Spitkiss to another. That might sound a bit grim, but this is actually a sweet-natured game played primarily in cartoonish silhouette. Even so, your emission, once it’s hurled through the air and gone splat on a platform, starts to gloop downwards. You can then make it leap again, and – several hops later – splatter on your intended love. Especially on larger screens, Spitkiss works really nicely. The visuals are vibrant, and the basics are easy to grasp. But as you get deeper into the game’s 80 levels, the twists and turns required to win get tougher to pull off – even when you hold down the screen for much-needed Matrix-style slo-mo.

HoPiKo ($1.99/£1.49/AU$2.09) If you've played Laser Dog's previous efforts, PUK and ALONE…, you'll know what you're in for with HoPiKo. This game takes no prisoners. If it did take them, it'd repeatedly punch them in the face before casually discarding them. HoPiKo, then, is not a game to be messed with. Instead, it feels more like a fight. In each of the dozens of hand-crafted tiny levels, you leap from platform to platform via deft drags and taps, attempting to avoid death. Only, death is everywhere and very easy to meet. The five-stage level sets are designed to be completed in mere seconds, but also to break your brain and trouble your fingers. It's just on the right side of hellishly frustrating, meaning you'll stop short of flinging your device at the wall, emerging from your temporary red rage foolishly determined that you can in fact beat the game on your next go.

Limbo ($4.99/£3.88/AU$6.85) The term 'masterpiece' is perhaps bandied about too often in gaming circles, but Limbo undoubtedly deserves such high praise. It features a boy picking his way through a creepy monochrome world, looking for his sister. At its core, Limbo is a fairly simple platform game with a smattering of puzzles, but its stark visuals, eerie ambiance, and superb level design transforms it into something else entirely. You'll get a chill the first time a chittering figure sneaks off in the distance, and your heart will pump when being chased by a giant arachnid, intent on spearing your tiny frame with one of its colossal spiked legs. That death is never the end — each scene can be played unlimited times until you progress — only adds to Limbo's disturbing nature.

Leo's Fortune ($4.99/£4.89/AU$7.49) The bar's set so low in modern mobile gaming that the word 'premium' has become almost meaningless. But Leo's Fortune bucks the trend, and truly deserves the term. It's a somewhat old-school side-on platform game, featuring a gruff furball hunting down the thief who stole his gold (and then, as is always the way, dropped coins at precise, regular intervals along a lengthy, perilous pathway). The game is visually stunning, from the protagonist's animation through to the lush, varied backdrops. The game also frequently shakes things up, varying its pace from Sonic-style loops to precise pixel-perfect leaps. It at times perhaps pushes you a bit too far — late on, we found some sections a bit too finicky and demanding. But you can have as many cracks at a section as you please, and if you master the entire thing, there's a hardcore speedrun mode that challenges you to complete the entire journey without dying.

Rayman Fiesta Run ($2.99/£2.79/AU$4.09) There are varied mobile takes on limbless wonder Rayman's platform gaming exploits. The 1995 original once existed on Android, but was ill-suited to touchscreens and has mercifully vanished from Google Play; and Rayman Adventures dabbles in freemium to the point it leaves a bad taste. But Rayman Jungle Run and Rayman Fiesta Run get things right. They rethink console-oriented platformers as auto-runners – which might sound reductive. However, this is more about distillation and focus than outright simplification. Tight level design and an emphasis on timing regarding when to jump, rebound and attack forces you to learn layouts and the perfect moment to trigger actions, in order to get the in-game bling you need to progress. Both titles are sublime, but Fiesta Run is marginally the better of the two - a clever take on platforming that fizzes with energy, looks fantastic, and feels like it was made for Android rather than a 20-year-old console.

Traps n' Gemstones ($4.99/£3.99/AU$4.99) Harking back to classic side-on platformers, Traps n' Gemstones dumps an Indiana Jones wannabe into a massive pyramid, filled with mummies, spiders and traps; from here he must figure out how to steal all the bling, uncover all the secrets, and then finally escape. Beyond having you leap about, grab diamonds, and keep indigenous explorer-killing critters at bay, Traps n' Gemstones is keen to have you explore. Work your way deeper into the pyramid and you’ll find objects that when placed somewhere specific open up new pathways. But although this one’s happy to hurl you back to gaming’s halcyon days, it’s a mite kinder to newcomers than the games that inspired it. Get killed and you can carry on from where you left off. More of a hardcore player? Death wipes your score, so to doff your fedora in a truly smug manner, you’ll have to complete the entire thing without falling to the game’s difficult challenges.

Chameleon Run ($1.99/£2.09/AU$3.09) You might have played enough automatic runners to last several lifetimes, but Chameleon Run nonetheless deserves to be on your Android device. And although the basics might initially seem overly familiar (tap to jump and ensure your sprinting chap doesn’t fall down a hole), there’s in fact a lot going on here. Each level has been meticulously designed, which elevates Chameleon Run beyond its algorithmically generated contemporaries. Like the best platform games, you must commit every platform and gap to memory to succeed. But also, color-switching and ‘head jumps’ open up new possibilities for route-finding – and failure. In the former case, you must ensure you’re the right color before landing on colored platforms. With the latter, you can smash your head into a platform above to give you one more chance to leap forward and not tumble into the void.

Super Mario Run (free + $9.99/£9.99/AU$14.99 IAP) Anyone who thought Nintendo would convert a standard handheld take on Mario to Android was always on a hiding to nothing. But that’s probably just as well – Nintendo’s classic platformers are reliant on tight controls, rather than you fumbling about on a slippy glass surface. Super Mario Run tries a different tack, infusing plenty of ‘Marioness’ into an auto-runner, where you guide the mustachioed plumber by tapping the screen to have him perform actions. You might consider this reductive; also, Super Mario Run is a touch short, and the ‘kingdom builder’ sub-game alongside the main act falls flat. Still, really smart level design wins the day, and completists will have fun replaying the world tour mode time and again to collect the many hard-to-reach coins.

iCycle ($2.99/£2.99/AU$4.49) Hero of the hour Dennis finds himself unicycling naked in this gorgeous platform game best described as flat-out nuts. In iCycle, you dodder left or right, leap over obstacles, and break your fall with a handy umbrella, all the while attempting to grab ice as surreal landscapes collapse and morph around you. The mission feels like a journey into what might happen if Monty Python’s Terry Gilliam were let loose on game design. One minute, you’re entering a top-hatted gent’s ear to find and kiss a ‘reverse mermaid’ on a levitating bike; the next you’re in a terrifying silhouette funfair that might have burst forth from a fevered mind during a particularly unpleasant nightmare. Some of the levels are tough, and there’s a bit of grinding to unlock new outfits. But if you want something a bit more creative on your Android, you can’t do much better than iCycle.

The Big Journey ($1.99/£1.89/AU$2.69) In platform adventure The Big Journey, fat cat Mr. Whiskers is on a mission. The chef behind his favorite dumplings has disappeared, and so the brave feline sets out to find him. The journey finds the chubby kitty rolling and leaping across – and through – all kinds of vibrant landscapes, packed with hills, tunnels, and enemies. The game comes across a lot like PSP classic LocoRoco, in you tilting the screen to move, the protagonist’s rotundness increasing over time, and several of the landscape interactions (oddball elevators; smashing through fragile barriers). But The Big Journey very much has its own character, not least in the knowing humor peppered throughout what might otherwise have been a saccharine child-like storyline about a gluttonous cartoon cat. As it is, The Big Journey isn’t terribly challenging, but it is enjoyable, whether you drink the visuals in and just dodder to the end, or simultaneously try to find every collectible and beat the speed-run time limits.

Mushroom 11 ($4.99/£4.89/AU$6.49) Mushroom 11 finds you exploring the decaying ruins of a devastated world. And you do so as a blob of green goo. Movement comes by way of you ‘erasing’ chunks of this creature with a circular ‘brush’. Over time, you learn how this can urge the blob to move in certain ways, or how you can split it in two, so half can flick a switch, while the other half moves onward. This probably sounds a bit weird – and it is. But Mushroom 11 is perfectly suited to the touchscreen. The tactile way you interact with the protagonist feels just right, and although your surroundings are desolate, they’re also oddly beautiful, augmented by a superb ethereal soundtrack. There are moments of frustration – the odd difficulty wall. But with regular restart points, and countless ingenious obstacles and puzzles, Mushroom 11 is a strange creature you should immediately squeeze into whatever space exists on your Android device.

Sonic Runners Adventure ($2.99/£2.99/AU$4.49) Sonic Runners Adventure tries to pull the same trick as Super Mario Run, distilling the essence of a much-loved traditional console platform game into a one-thumb auto-runner. The difference with Sonic is that he blazes along at breakneck pace, resulting in a colorful effort that has more in common with Canabalt than the precision leapy nature of Nintendo’s game. That’s not to say there’s no case for care and accuracy though. Sonic Runners Adventure features carefully designed multi-level landscapes, each with its own rhythm. Crack the choreography and you’ll grab the rings, bonk the monsters on the head and give the evil Dr Eggman a serious kicking. If not, you can at least take solace that this game’s mobile-friendly levels aren’t terribly expansive, and so are geared towards immediately having another go. The best puzzle games for Android Our favorite Android logic tests, path-finding games, match puzzlers and brain-teasers.

Pipe Push Paradise ($3.99/£3.69/AU$5.99) Pipe Push Paradise shows not every desert island visitor gets to laze on a beach. For fearless plumbers, time is instead spent getting the entire island’s water supply working. For some reason, this involves you shoving massive pipes around a grid until they’re in the right place. It’s more or less ancient puzzler Sokoban, then, but with new twists that give your brain a good kicking: pipes rotate when you shove them in a certain manner; and some levels contain pits you drop pipes into. That might not sound like much, but these things shake up everything you might know about this sort of puzzler. Challenges that initially look simple turn out to baffle as you try to manipulate sections of pipe around claustrophobic confines. Your brain may spring a leak during tougher tests, but success will make you feel like a plumbing genius.

Snakebird Primer ($7.99/£5.99/AU$10.99) Snakebird Primer features a bunch of snake-like birds, keen to reach a portal. The tiny snag is they live on tiny floating islands peppered with fruit and spikes. Hit a spike and your bird explodes. Wolf down some fruit and it grows – just like in dusty mobile classic Snake – which, depending on the level you’re playing, may help or hinder. Old hands might recognize this game as the follow-up to the superb Snakebird (free + $4.71/£3.69/AU$6.44) – although, in reality, it’s more like a less brain-smashing version of that game, designed for mere mortals. This one’s puzzles are simpler, and far less likely to leave you a sobbing wreck in the corner. Great for kids and casual gamers, then. That said, even though puzzle veterans might blaze through Primer, they’ll still have a blast doing so.

Marching Order ($1.99/£1.99/AU$3.39) Marching Order features the most demanding marching band imaginable, and you’re the stressed-out band-leader bunny who has to keep them all happy. Your ongoing task is to respond appropriately to all the messages the bunny receives on his phone. Each one states where a specific band member wants to be placed within the queue of musically talented anthropomorphic animal critters. Working with the various oddly specific demands – “I perform best when somewhere behind animals with feathers”; “I prefer to stand directly next to the flag” – you must drag and drop the animals, tap the big MARCH! Button, and hope you get the marching order right. If not, everyone falls over. Otherwise it’s on to bigger bands – and the option to do all this endearingly bonkers swapping against the clock.

G30 - A Memory Maze ($3.99/£3.99/AU$5.99) G30 - A Memory Maze is a puzzler that works on multiple levels. At first, it feels like you’re merely playing with dials, to make overlapping shapes resemble each level’s title. But underlying this is a story about memories, someone wistfully – sometimes painfully – battling to recall their past. As you spin dials, the narrative shifts and changes, like thoughts lurking just out of reach. Single words morph into commands, poetry, or reasons to be fearful, giving you a glimpse into the strange and sometimes terrifying world of a cognitive disorder. Where G30 really clicks is with its pitch-perfect balance. The puzzling is fun, and the narrative is meaningful and engaging. The game says something important, while not forgetting it is a game. Like the shapes you play with, G30 is far more than it initially appears.

Slydris 2 ($1.99/£1.79/AU$2.99) Slydris 2 may remind you of Tetris, in that you drop blocks into a well, and aim to create solid lines that vanish, thereby freeing up space for more blocks. However, whereas Tetris on touchscreens is slippery and finicky, Slydris 2 wisely rethinks and revamps the concept as a turn-based puzzler. During each round, several new pieces hover menacingly above the well. You can horizontally slide just one – or a piece that’s already fallen. You must engage your chess brain if you are to survive, thinking several moves ahead to make chain reactions that obliterate many blocks at once. Special blocks that smash shapes into their component parts add further potential for strategy – and luck. It looks, sounds, and plays wonderfully. In short, it’s one of the finest puzzlers on mobile.

Where Shadows Slumber ($4.99/£4.59/AU$7.49) Where Shadows Slumber pulls no punches – and that’s literally the case for the protagonist, who early on finds himself horribly assaulted by nasty bipedal animal creatures who want his lamp. It’s a surprising event – not least given that you might initially assume this will be a sedate puzzler along the lines of Monument Valley. Between the cutscenes, Where Shadows Slumber dials down the unease and engages your brain. You must figure out pathways to exits, often forging them by casting shadows that refashion the very landscape. It’s a clever conceit, and one that never really grows old. Nor does the game’s visual clout, sense of pacing, and ability to surprise with its mix of beauty and darkness.

Gorogoa ($4.99/£3.79/AU$6.49) Gorogoa is a puzzler designed to break your mind. It takes the form of a beautifully illustrated animated picture book, with individual panels telling some sort of story – and yet they don’t appear to be obviously related at a glance. You must find links between everything to literally move the protagonist through the narrative. Early on, this might just require rearranging some panels, but as you head deeper into the game, you end up laying panels over others, or zooming into and out of scenes. To say it’s perplexing is putting it mildly. Gorogoa is also frequently deeply weird. Most importantly, though, it’s a marvel: a wonderfully realized, tactile, unique game that makes you feel absurdly smart when you crack its challenges.

Chuchel ($4.99/£4.49/AU$6.99) Chuchel is an exploratory puzzler that when played comes across like you’re watching a series of a distinctly weird cartoon. The titular protagonist, a ball of fluff, wants nothing more than to get a cherry – but it’s cruelly snatched away the second he gets near. Each single-screen challenge therefore tasks you with finding the convoluted route to Chuchel’s goal. Packed with the heart, humor, and animated smarts evident in previous Amanita Design games, Chuchel is a joy to watch as you tap hot-spots, make decisions, and watch events play out. Some canned animations are lengthy, and logic isn’t always prized, which means it can sometimes get tedious to trudge through a section until you nail the precise sequence to finish it. Still, this is more than offset by a game that frequently surprises and delights.

Persephone ($3.90/£3.60/AU$5.95) Persephone is a puzzle game set in tiny isometric worlds, packed with clockwork hazards, such as spikes and poison darts. Your aim in each is to reach the exit. Often, that involves triggering switches and pushing objects around. Persephone, though, has a rather unique take on how these things are achieved. If you get killed, your corpse remains on the screen and you are reincarnated at the most recently accessed restart point. You can have up to three corpses available at any one time, unceremoniously using them to cross spiked pits, or shoving them into switches so to avoid being shot by a nearby projectile. It’s an amusingly dark comic twist, and one that makes Persephone stand out among a slew of ostensibly similar puzzlers.

Threes! ($5.99/£5.49/AU$8.49) The sort of silly maths game you might've played in your head before mobile phones emerged to absorb all our thought processes, Threes! Really does take less than 30 seconds to learn. You bash numbers about until they form multiples of three and disappear. That's it. There are stacks of free clones available, but if you won't spare the price of one massive bar of chocolate to pay for a lovely little game like this that'll amuse you for week, you're part of the problem and deserve to rot in a freemium hell where it costs 50p to do a wee.

Prune ($3.99/£3.79/AU$4.99) It's not often you see a game about the "joy of cultivation", and Prune is unlike anything you've ever played before. Apparently evolving from an experimental tree-generation script, the game has you swipe to shape and grow a plant towards sunlight by tactically cutting off specific branches. That sounds easy, but the trees, shrubs and weeds in Prune don't hang around. When they're growing at speed and you find yourself faced with poisonous red orbs to avoid, or structures that damage fragile branches, you'll be swiping in a frantic race towards sunlight. And all it takes is one dodgy swipe from a sausage finger to see your carefully managed plant very suddenly find itself being sliced in two.

You Must Build a Boat ($2.99/£2.39/AU$4.19) This is one of those 'rub your stomach, pat your head' titles that has you play two games at once. At the top of the screen, it's an endless runner, with your little bloke battling all manner of monsters, and pilfering loot. The rest of the display houses what's essentially a Bejeweled-style gem-swapper. The key is in matching items so that the running bit goes well - like five swords when you want to get all stabby. Also, there's the building a boat bit. Once a run ends, you return to your watery home, which gradually acquires new rooms and residents. Some merely power up your next sprint, but others help you amass powerful weaponry. Resolutely indie and hugely compelling, You Must Build a Boat will keep you busily swiping for hours.

A Good Snowman ($4.99/£3.99/AU$6.99) It turns out what makes a good snowman is three very precisely rolled balls of snow stacked on top of each other. And that's the core of this adorable puzzle game, which has more than a few hints of Towers of Hanoi and Sokoban about it as your little monster goes about building icy friends to hug. What sets A Good Snowman apart from its many puzzle-game contemporaries on Android is a truly premium nature. You feel that the developer went to great efforts to polish every aspect of the production, from the wonderful animation to puzzles that grow in complexity and deviousness, without you really noticing — until you get stuck on a particularly ferocious one several hours in.

Snakebird ($4.71/£3.74/AU$6.44) You probably need to be a bit of a masochist to get the most out of Snakebird, which is one of the most brain-smashingly devious puzzlers we've ever set eyes on. It doesn't really look or sound the part, frankly - all vibrant colors and strange cartoon 'snakebirds' that make odd noises. But the claustrophobic floating islands the birds must crawl through, supporting each other (often literally) in their quest for fruit, are designed very precisely to make you think you've got a way forward, only to thwart you time and time again. The result is a surprisingly arduous game, but one that's hugely rewarding when you crack a particularly tough level, at which point you'll (probably rightly) consider yourself some kind of gaming genius.

Human Resource Machine ($4.99/£4.59/AU$6.99) Some people argue programming is perhaps the best ‘game’ of all – and a brilliant puzzle. Those might be people you’d sooner avoid at parties, but Human Resource Machine suggests they could have a point. In this compelling and unique puzzle game, you control the actions of a worker drone by way of programming-like sequences. The premise is to complete tasks by converting items in your inbox to whatever’s required in the outbox – for example, only sending zeroes. Like much programming, success often relies on logic, with you fashioning loops, and using actions such as ‘jump’, ‘if’ statements, and ‘copy’. These are arranged via drag and drop on a board at the right-hand side of the screen. That might all sound impenetrable, but Human Resource Machine is in fact elegant, friendly, and approachable, not least due to developer Tomorrow Corporation’s penchant for infusing games with personality and heart.

Shadowmatic (free + $2.99/£2.99/AU$3.99 IAP) That game where you cast a shadow on the wall and attempt to make a vaguely recognizable rabbit? That’s Shadowmatic, only instead of your hands, you manipulate all kinds of levitating detritus, spinning and twisting things until you abruptly – and magically – fashion a silhouette resembling anything from a seahorse to an old-school telephone. The game looks gorgeous, with stunning lighting effects and objects that look genuinely real as they dangle in the air. Mostly though, this is a game about tactility and contemplation – it begs to be explored, and to make use of your digits in a way virtual D-pads could never hope to compete with.

Linelight ($1.99/£1.79/AU$2.89) Linelight is a gorgeous, minimal puzzler that pits you against the rhythmic denizens of a network of lines levitating above a colored haze. Your aim is simply to progress, inching your way along the network, triggering gates and switches, and collecting golden gems. Early puzzles are content to let you get to grips with the virtual stick (one of the best on Android). Soon, you’re faced with adversaries that kill with a single touch. But these foes aren’t merely to be avoided – they must also be manipulated into position to trigger switches that open pathways that enable you to continue. Now and again, new mechanics keep things fresh, as do abrupt changes in pace, such as a memorable several-screens-long pursuit/dance with an enemy towards the end of the game’s first section. In all, Linelight’s an enchanting, vibrant, superbly designed experience – an essential purchase for your Android device.

Monument Valley 2 ($4.99/£4.99/AU$7.99) Monument Valley 2 is the follow-up to landscape-bending puzzler Monument Valley. As in its predecessor, you fashion impossible pathways by manipulating Escher-like constructions in order to reach goals. This is a gorgeous game. The minimalist architecture is dotted with optical illusions. Imagination abounds throughout, and the color palette dazzles, half making you wish you could print every level out as a massive poster to stick on the wall. The actual puzzles are slight and the game itself has been criticized for being short, but thoughts of brevity evaporate when you’re confronted by one of Monument Valley 2’s many spectacular, beautiful moments, such as a side-on level that resembles modern art and a section where trees explode from pots when bathed in sunlight. In short, this is a mobile experience to savor.

Framed 2 ($4.99/£4.49/AU$7.49) Framed 2 follows in the footsteps of Framed – a puzzle game based around rearranging panels of an animated comic book. The story features a mysterious ship, smuggling, and quite a lot of sneaky spies. As you play a scene, something inevitably goes horribly wrong for the protagonist and you must swap frames around to make things play out differently. Like the original, this is all wonderfully tactile, but the puzzles are better this time around, with more emphasis on reusing panels. It’s even fun when it goes wrong. You don’t often get to be entertained when failing in a puzzle game, but here you’ll want to fail each level if you succeed first time, just to see what amusing japes Framed 2’s cast would have got into otherwise.

Zenge ($0.99/£0.59/AU$0.99) Zenge is a sliding puzzle game whose early levels almost insult your intelligence, merely asking you to slide a few shapes into place. Don’t be fooled, though – Zenge is devious in a way that should make even the most jaded puzzle game fan grin. At first, it’s just the cut of the shapes that thwarts efforts to shove them into place, but every now and again, new mechanics enter the mix, such as pieces that stick to each other, or buttons that flip shapes over. All this plays out within a no-stress environment. There are no timers, move limits, shops, points or stars - it’s just you and the puzzles. Zenge’s purity alone would make it interesting, but the quality of the puzzles makes it a must-have.

Hidden Folks ($3.49/£2.99/AU$6.49) Hidden Folks is a hidden object game with a soul. It’s reminiscent of those mass-produced posters where you scour a massive, cluttered scene, trying to find the one person with a silly hat. The difference is that everything here has been made with love and care, from the hand-drawn interactive illustrations to the amusing oral sound effects. The basics are admittedly much as you’d expect: scour the screen to find specific objects or characters, and move on when complete. We realize that might not sound like much, but there’s a charm and humor to Hidden Folks that sets it apart from any of its contemporaries. On a larger Android phone or a tablet, this is a particularly relaxing, absorbing game to lose yourself in for a few hours.

.projekt ($1.99/£1.59/AU$2.59) .projekt is a relaxing and brilliantly designed minimal puzzler that twists your brain by forcing you to think in two and three dimensions simultaneously. At the center of the screen is a five-by-five grid, which you tap to build blocky structures from cubes. The aim is to have the shadows they project match patterns on two visible walls. At first, this is simple stuff, but .projekt subtly ramps up the challenge as you move through its levels. You’re forced to spin the canvas multiple times, and often to destroy your structure and rebuild as an approach turns out to be a dead end. Never does .projekt become a frustrating experience, however. You’re not on the clock, there are no move limits, and there are no IAP lurking. It’s just about you and the blocks, and imagining how an object looks from two points of view.

ELOH ($2.99/£2.99/AU$4.49) ELOH is a puzzle game that wants you to experiment. It’s based around a strict grid that features masks, loudspeakers that emit colored blobs, and goals. The idea is to get the blobs to the goals, ensuring they’re the right color by bouncing them off of relevant masks along the way. That might sound chaotic, but ELOH has a clockwork setup. Everything bounces at precise right angles, and shots are fired to the rhythm of a background soundtrack. But your approach to solving challenges can be like sculpting: set the blobs on their way and you can move puzzle pieces live, just to see what happens. ELOH is therefore a pressure-free but engaging title – there’s no clock, and there are no ads. It’s just you, over 80 puzzles, and some cracking visuals and audio.

Layton: Curious Village in HD ($9.99/£9.99/AU$14.99) Layton: Curious Village in HD (US/RoW) is a slice of gaming history. Originally released for the Nintendo DS, Curious Village was the first Layton game; it sold over 17 million copies, and launched what’s since become a beloved series. Lesser developers would have done a straight port to mobile and be done with it, but Level-5 acknowledges technology has moved on – and the clue is in the title. All of the game’s visuals have been spruced up for modern displays, and augmented with new animations. Of course, the puzzles remain the real draw – and even some of the early ones are proper brain-thumpers. Add to this an engaging story (despite the iffy voice work) and Curious Village is a superb update, one that you should take time with and savor.

In The Dog House ($3.99/£2.99/AU$5.49) In The Dog House is a sweet-natured puzzler featuring a ravenous pooch and a bizarre house with moving rooms, floors, and corridors. Unfortunately for the dog, its dinner’s on the other side of said house, and you need to figure out how to get over there. The mechanics of the game are a classic sliding puzzler, with a few twists. The house’s components can be slid and sometimes rotated, but you also need to use a bone to urge the dog toward the goal. The snag is any room the pooch is planted in cannot be moved. In The Dog House rapidly becomes quite the brain-smasher, and it’s irritating that there’s no level-skip option when you’re stuck. Still, perseverance reaps rewards, because after the more arduous tests you’ll feel like a champ when you reach that bowl.

Dissembler ($2.99/£2.99/AU$4.49) Dissembler is a match-three game with a difference. Instead of presenting you with a wall of gems that’s replenished when you make matches, Dissembler levels are akin to modern art – abstract creations comprising colored tiles. You still swap two elements to try and match three (or more), but here matches vanish. The idea is to end up with a blank canvas. At first, this is easy, but Dissembler soon serves up challenges where you end up isolating tiles unless you’re very careful. This shifts the game more heavily into strategic puzzling territory – and it’s all the better for it. You’ll feel like the smartest person around on figuring out the precise sequence of moves to clear the later levels. And even when you’ve finished them all, there’s a daily puzzle and endless mode to keep you occupied. The best shooting games for Android Our favorite Android FPS titles, twin-stick shooters, scrolling retro shoot them ups and artillery games.

Backfire ($2.99/£2.79/AU$4.59) Backfire is an old-school arena shooter with a difference. In fact, it has lots of differences, but the main one is pretty big: your little ship fires from its behind. Surrounded by terrifying neon foes, you’re robbed of a twin-stick shooter’s ability to spray bullets everywhere, or even being able to blast laser death in the direction that you’re facing. At first, you fight the game, your muscle memory slamming up against years of traditional shooty larks. Soon, though, it begins to click. You dart around, making use of a slo-mo effect as you approach enemies that emit hideous guttural growls. You scoop up souls to later upgrade your ship. And then you’re horribly killed by a massive, ferocious boss. Backfire is far from easy, but persevere and you’ll have many happy hours with this backward but brilliant shooter.

Hyper Sentinel ($2.49/£1.99/AU$3.49) Hyper Sentinel finds you zooming back and forth across a giant dreadnought, blowing up its gun turrets, and weaving between the various ships it sends in your general direction with murderous intent. This is a zippy game – and a vibrant one – which feels and looks rather old-school in nature. That’s perhaps no surprise, as its roots go all the way back to Uridium, a 1986(!) hit on the Commodore 64 home computer. Fortunately, Hyper Sentinel isn’t as punishing as that old game – although that doesn’t mean you have things easy. There are 60 medals to win across its dozen stages, and hard-as-nails bosses to beat. Depth? Nuance? Well, there’s not much of those things, but who needs them when you’re immersed in a dazzling, pumping bout of pure arcade blasting?

Downwell ($2.99/£2.69/$4.19) A young boy hurls himself down a massive well, with only his ‘gunboots’ for protection. There are so many questions there (not least: what parent would buy their kid boots that are also guns?), but it sets the scene for a superb arcade shooter with surprising smarts and depth. At first in Downwell, you’ll probably be tempted to blast everything, but ammo soon runs out. On discovering you reload on landing, you’ll then start to jump about a lot. But further exploration of the game’s mechanics reaps all kinds of rewards, leading to you bounding on monsters, venturing into tunnels to find bonus bling, and getting huge scores once you crack the secrets behind combos. The game might look like it’s arrived on your Android device from a ZX Spectrum, but this is a thoroughly modern and hugely engaging blaster.

Arkanoid vs Space Invaders ($4.99/£4.99/AU$7.99) In the late 1970s, Space Invaders invited you to blast rows of invaders. In the mid-1980s, Arkanoid revamped Breakout, having you use a bat-like spaceship to belt a ball at space bricks. Now, Arkanoid vs Space Invaders mashes the two titles together – and, surprisingly, it works very nicely. Instead of a ball, you’re deflecting the invaders’ bullets back at them, to remove bricks and the invaders themselves. Now and again, Arkanoid is recalled more directly in a special attack that has you belt a ball around the place after firing it into action using a massive space bow. Increasingly, though, the game is laced with strategy, since your real enemy is time. A couple of dozen levels in, you must carefully utilize powerful invaders’ blasts and onscreen bonuses to emerge victorious – not easy when neon is flying everywhere and the clock’s ticking down.

No Stick Shooter ($1.99/£1.99/AU$2.89) No Stick Shooter is a single-screen shoot them up that marries the best of old-school retro blasters with modern touchscreen controls. As its name suggests, there are no virtual D-pads to contend with. Instead, as the aliens menacingly descend towards your planet, you tap their general location to fling something destructive their way. The key to victory doesn’t involve tapping the screen like a lunatic, though. Your weapons need time to recharge, and specific armaments work well against certain foes. In a sense, it all plays out like a strategy-laced precision shooter on fast-forward, with you clocking incoming hostiles, quickly switching to the best weapon, and tapping or swiping to blow them away. There are just 30 levels in all, but only the very best arcade veterans are likely to blaze through them at any speed – and even then, getting all the achievements is a tough ask.

Death Road to Canada ($9.99/£8.99/AU$14.99) Death Road to Canada is a zombie movie smashed into a classic retro game. Little pixelated heroes dodder about a dystopian world, bashing zombies with whatever comes to hand, looting houses, and trying to not get eaten. The road trip is staccato in nature. The game constantly tries to derail your rhythm and momentum. In Choose Your Own Adventure-style text bits, the wrong decision may find you savaged by a moose. Elsewhere, intense ‘siege’ challenges dump you in a confined space with zombie hordes, often armed only with a stick. Handy. These abrupt elements can grate – as can the slightly slippy controls that aren’t always quite tight enough; but otherwise this is an ambitious mash-up of RPG and arcade gaming, with generous dollops of black humor – and BRAIINNZZZ.

ATOMIK: RunGunJumpGun ($2.99/£3.19/AU$4.29) ATOMIK: RunGunJumpGun finds a nutcase blasting his way through corridors of extremely angry, heavily armed aliens, while he himself is only armed with a really big gun. That might sound fine, until you realize the gun is also his means of staying aloft. This means to go higher, he must blast downward, temporarily becoming vulnerable to incoming fire. If he shoots forward, he starts to plummet towards the hard, deadly ground. ATOMIK therefore becomes a manic, high-octane balancing act of finger gymnastics, with the potential to get killed very frequently. On every death, the game rewinds the level so you can try again, and wallow in your failure to complete challenges that are a mere 20 seconds long without dying dozens of times first. But when you crack one, you really do feel like a boss.

Super Crossfighter ($0.99/89p/AU$1.49) Super Crossfighter is essentially a neon Space Invaders played at breakneck pace. Your little craft sits at the foot of the screen, darting left and right, blasting the aliens above. But the foes you face aren’t doddering critters from 1970s gaming – they come armed to the teeth, hurling all manner of instant laser death and bullet hell your way. Fortunately, you’re not wanting for firepower either. Your speedy craft can leap from the bottom to the top of the screen, scooping up gems that can subsequently be used to upgrade the ship in an in-game shop. There’s no IAP, note, for extra cash – this intense blaster is all about the skill you have in your thumbs, and your ability to survive wave after wave of neon-infused shooty action.

Jydge ($9.99/£8.49/AU$14.99) Jydge riffs off of Robocop and Judge Dredd, having you control the titular cybernetic law enforcer, eradicating crime in the megacity of Edenbyrg. The game’s no-nonsense approach is typified by the ‘Gavel’ in this case being a massive gun. Jydge’s approach to dealing with bad guys mostly involves stomping about, shooting enemies, pilfering bling, and rescuing unfortunate hostages caught in the crossfire. Initially, something about the game’s visuals and approach may make you play as if entering a neon-soaked outing that’s escaped from stealth shooter master and X-Com creator Julian Gollop’s brain, but really Jydge mostly plays out like a frantic twin-stick shooter. Tactics only really enter the equation when you realize you can nip back to earlier missions and tackle them again with new kit or approaches, in order to meet tricky challenges. Either way, it’s ballsy fun.

Implosion - Never Lose Hope (free + $9.99/£9.99/AU$14.99) Implosion finds Earth having been given a beating by nasty aliens, leaving humans on the brink of extinction. As this is a videogame, humans have pinned all their hopes on you and your natty battlesuit. Fortunately, said suit can dish out serious damage. As you stomp about Implosion’s gleaming environments, you blast, slash, and dash your way through hordes of identikit alien drones. Occasional boss battles then shake things up in terms of pacing and challenge. Between levels, you customize your suit, to unlock new combos. The game’s creators call Implosion a AAA console-style title, and it looks superb and feels the part. Even the complex controls (for a touchscreen game) work well. A sticking point for some might be the price, but you can play six missions for nothing. If you then balk at a one-off IAP for a premium title, don’t subsequently wonder why we can’t have nice things.

Lichtspeer ($3.99/£3.49/AU$5.49) Lichtspeer is a trippy take on tower defense – like a single-lane Plants vs Zombies, only you’re fending off deranged futuristic Nordic and Germanic foes, are armed with an endless supply of glowing javelins (the titular Lichtspeer), and act under the watchful eye of an angry, demanding heavy metal god. So, yes, this one has a veneer of weird, but the underlying mechanics are straightforward enough: aim your spear Angry Birds-style, lob and repeat. Get in some headshots, and the game rewards you. Miss too often and the god’s wrath briefly freezes you, making you temporarily vulnerable. The main downsides to the game are repetition and brevity. However, gradually acquired special moves shake things up (and are a godsend on packed levels), and when you’re in the neon Lichtspeer zone, it has a focused, hypnotic quality – along with a pleasing dash of madness. The best sports games for Android Our favorite Android soccer, tennis, golf and management games.

Football Manager Touch 2019 ($19.99/£19.99/AU$30.99) Football Manager Touch 2019 is one of the most ambitious games on Android, aiming to cram as much of the desktop PC soccer management game into your device as possible. Although a streamlined take on the original computer game, this is still fully-fledged management, enabling you to delve into all kinds of leagues, teams, tactics and set-ups. There is a smattering of automation for people who can’t spend the equivalent of an entire soccer season playing the game; and pre-set tactical styles give you a leg-up to success. Make sure you examine the compatibility list prior to buying; if your device isn’t up to scratch, or you just prefer something simpler, be mindful the impressive Football Manager 2019 Mobile also exists.

Touchgrind Skate 2 (free + IAP) You might narrow your eyes at so-called 'realism' in mobile sports titles, given that this usually means 'a game that looks a bit like when you watch telly'. But Touchgrind Skate 2 somehow manages to evoke the feel of skateboarding, your fingers becoming tiny legs that urge the board about the screen. There's a lot going on in Touchgrind Skate 2, and the control system is responsive and intricate, enabling you to perform all manner of tricks. It's not the most immediate of titles - you really need to not only run through the tutorial but fully master and memorize each step before moving on. Get to grips with your miniature skateboard and you'll find one of the most fluid and rewarding experiences on mobile. Note that for free you get one park to scoot about in, but others are available via IAP.

Table Tennis Touch ($3.49/£2.99/AU$4.79) Table Tennis Touch brings the glory of ping pong to your Android device. You can partake in mini-games for training, or a full career mode, where you aim to smack a tiny white ball past the usual eerily floating bats of your opponents. Visually, the game’s a treat with its gorgeously rendered locations. Most importantly, it feels great, recreating the high-octane nature of the sport, even if you do perhaps eventually get to the point where many matches are won by smashing super-fast shots diagonally across the table. Even so, when you do get that winning point, at the end of a game where the lead’s shifted back and forth between you and an opponent, the game’s never less than invigorating.

Desert Golfing ($1.99/£1.39/AU$2.29) Desert Golfing is an almost brutally minimalist take on golf. You start out in a side-on landscape, featuring a ball and a hole. You drag to aim, let go to smack the ball, and hope your aim is true. One or more shots later, the hole becomes the next tee, and a new challenge is presented. That is basically the entire game. You get a score, although when you’re 50 holes in, it’s hard to know whether the number is meaningful. But the actual playing takes golf to a strangely relaxing and zen place. If you want realism or action, this one’s perhaps not for you; but if you fancy something golf-like to chill out with, Desert Golfing is great.

Football Manager Touch 2018 ($19.99/£19.99/AU$30.99) Football Manager Touch 2018 is an ambitious mobile title, in that it attempts to bring the full-fat Football Manager experience from PC to your Android tablet. (Sorry, phone users – you’ll have to make do with the cut-down Football Manager Mobile). The good news is that this is a hugely detailed, feature-rich game, enabling you to delve into every aspect of your team, watch matches, and get very angry when your team blows a two-goal lead deep into stoppage time. The bad news is that this is a game that will demand many hours of your time. After all, you’re not going to finish and win an entire league during a 30-minute bus ride. A single game in your ongoing campaign, however…

Kevin Toms Football * Manager ($3.49/£2.99/AU$4.89) Kevin Toms Football * Manager is what happens when the man who created the original Football Manager game (the one released in 1982 for computers with 16k of RAM) brings the same pick-up-and-play ethos to Android. It’s crude. It’s simplistic. It’s also – as it turns out – an awful lot of fun. Ultimately, the game mostly involves basic team selection/management, a smattering of tactics, and tense match highlights. It might seem prehistoric to anyone who cut their teeth on modern football management games, but it’s a delight for anyone hankering after immediacy from a management game, rather than something with so much depth it threatens to take over their life. The best strategy games for Android Our favorite Android real-time strategy and turn-based games, board games, card games and map-making games.

Kingdom Rush: Vengeance ($4.99/£4.69/AU$7.99) Kingdom Rush: Vengeance is a tower defense game with a twist. Rather than fending off evil attackers, you are the evil attacker – a wizard out for revenge on those who’ve previously thwarted his cunning plans. This involves plonking down towers, unleashing special attacks, and directing a gigantic hero in order to wipe out waves of enemies. The logical oddness in you using tower defense to attack foes isn’t addressed; presumably, you advance off-camera once you’re done pummeling the enemy. Still, this is all good stuff. The animation is superb, with dinky characters darting about. There’s plenty of variety and scope for shaking up tactics. Sadly, there’s also a slice of actual evil in the game hiding some tower and hero types behind IAP, but Vengeance nonetheless ends up a best-in-class title.

Twinfold ($3.99/£3.79/AU$5.99) Twinfold takes the basic tile-merging mechanic of mobile puzzling classic Threes!, adds a massive dollop of dungeon crawling, and then drops the result into a procedurally generated maze. This mixture shouldn’t work, but it’s fantastic. As you move, so do golden idols and enemies. Munch idols and they replenish your energy, but merge them and they grow in value – all the better for your XP when they’re finally eaten. But removing both in either case causes the entire maze to be redrawn. With regularly spawning monsters and the very landscape being upended on a regular basis, Twinfold certainly keeps you on your toes. And although it can grate when the randomness leaves you in a terrible position, the potential for devising strategies – not least when you roll in regularly supplied power-ups – and longevity is immense.

Lara Croft GO ($4.99/£3.99/AU$6.49) Lara Croft games have landed on Android to rather variable results. The original Tomb Raider just doesn't work on touchscreens, and although Lara Croft: Relic Run is enjoyable enough, it's essentially a reskinned Temple Run. Lara Croft GO is far more ambitious and seriously impressive. It rethinks Tomb Raider in much the same way Hitman GO reimagined the Hitman series. Croft's adventures become turn-based puzzles, set in a world half-way between board game and gorgeous isometric minimalism. It shouldn't really work, but somehow Lara Croft GO feels like a Tomb Raider game, not least because of the wonderful sense of atmosphere, regular moments of tension, and superb level design.

Concrete Jungle ($4.99/£4.79/AU$6.49) A massive upgrade over the developer’s own superb but broadly overlooked MegaCity, Concrete Jungle is a mash-up of puzzler, city management and deck builder. The basics involve the strategic placement of buildings on a grid, with you aiming to rack up enough points to hit a row’s target. At that point, the row vanishes, and more building space scrolls into view. Much of the strategy lies in clever use of cards, which affect nearby squares – a factory reduces the value of nearby land, for example, but an observatory boosts the local area. You quickly learn plonking down units without much thought messes up your future prospects. Instead, you must plan in a chess-like manner – even more so when facing off against the computer opponent in brutally difficult head-to-head modes. But while Concrete Jungle is tough, it’s also fair – the more hours you put in, the better your chances. And it’s worth giving this modern classic plenty of your time.

Mini Metro ($4.99/£4.29/AU$7.49) There’s a disarmingly hypnotic and almost meditative quality to the early stages of Mini Metro. You sit before a blank underground map of a major metropolis, and drag out lines between stations that periodically appear. Little trains then cart passengers about, automatically routing them to their stop, their very movements building a pleasing plinky plonky generative soundtrack. As your underground grows, though, so does the tension. You’re forced to choose between upgrades, balance where trains run, and make swift adjustments to your lines. Should a station become overcrowded, your entire network is closed. (So...not very like the real world, then.) Do well enough and you unlock new cities, with unique challenges. But even failure isn’t frustrating, and nor is the game’s repetitive nature a problem, given that Mini Metro is such a joy to play.

Hitman GO ($4.99/£3.99/AU$6.99) The original and best of the GO games, Hitman GO should never have worked. It reimagines the console stealth shooter as a dinky clockwork boardgame. Agent 47 scoots about, aiming to literally knock enemies off the board, and then reach and bump off his primary target. Visually, it’s stunning – oddly adorable, but boasting the kind of clarity that’s essential for a game where a single wrong move could spell disaster. And the puzzles are well designed, too, with distinct objectives that often require multiple solutions to be found. If you’re a fan of Agent 47’s exploits on consoles, you might be a bit nonplussed by Hitman GO, but despite its diorama stylings, it nonetheless manages to evoke some of the atmosphere and tension from the console titles, while also being entirely suited to mobile play.

Solitairica (free or $3.99/£3.49/AU$5.49) In the fantasy world of Solitairica, battles are fought to the death by way of cards. The foes barring the way to your quest’s goal set up walls of cards before them, which you smash through by matching those one higher or lower than the one you hold. Then there are spells you cast by way of collected energies. Meanwhile, the creatures strike back with their own unique attacks, from strange worm-like beings nibbling your head, to grumpy forest dwellers making your cards grow beards. In short, then, a modicum of fantasy role-playing wrapped around an entertaining and approachable card game. And on Android, you have the advantage of the game being free – a one-off IAP only figures if you want to avoid watching adverts, and have access to alternate decks to try your luck as a different character.

Card Thief (free + $2.99/£2.99/AU$4.99 IAP) If you never thought a solitaire-like card game was an ideal framework for a tense stealth title, you’re probably not alone. But somehow Card Thief cleverly mashes up cards and sneaking about. The game takes place on a three-by-three grid of cards. For each move, you plan a route to avoid getting duffed up by guards (although pickpocketing them on the way past is fair game, obviously), loot a chest, and make for an exit. Card Thief is not the easiest game to get into, with its lengthy tutorial and weird spin on cards. But this is a game with plenty of nuance and depth that becomes increasingly rewarding the more you play, gradually unlocking its secrets. It’s well worth the effort.

First Strike 1.3 ($1.99/£1.99/AU$2.69) First Strike is an oddball combination of territory-snagging board game Risk, and classic defense arcade title Missile Command. You pick a nuclear power and set about building missiles, researching technologies, annexing adjacent states, and – when it comes to it – blowing the living daylights out of your enemies. The high-tech interface balances speed and accessibility, although games tend to be surprisingly lengthy – and initially sedate, as you gradually increase your arsenal, and shore up your defenses. Eventually, all hell breaks lose, including terrifying first strikes, where enemies lob their entire cache of missiles at an unlucky target. If that’s you and your defenses aren’t strong enough, prepare more for ‘the end’ than ‘game over’ as the screen shakes amid all the destruction. It’s thoughtful and clever (and often chilling), but First Strike never forgets it’s a game – and a really good one for real-time strategy fans.

Miracle Merchant (free + $2.99/£2.99/AU$4.99 IAP) Miracle Merchant has you mix potions for thirsty adventurers, fashioned from stacks of colored cards. Each customer asks for a specific ingredient, and mentions another they like. Across 13 rounds, you must manage your deck to ensure everyone goes away happy. Fail once and your game ends. Decisions must be made carefully, because once cards are placed, they can’t be moved. Combinations prove vital for success: pairs of cards boost your score, as does matching cards to the colored icons found on those already in play. There are also ‘evil’ cards with negative values to overcome. The game doesn’t feel as refined as the developer’s own Card Thief, but we enjoyed its elegance. There’s no messing about with special powers and leveling up – it’s just you, cards, and a set of rules. There’s perhaps a touch too much reliance on card counting and luck, but Miracle Merchant’s nonetheless a simple, engaging, unique stab on solitaire.

Card Crawl (free + $2.99/£2.99/AU$4.39 IAP) Card Crawl mixes solitaire and dungeon crawling, and does an awful lot with a four-by-two grid of cards. In each round, an armor-clad ogre deals four cards, which may include monsters, weaponry, potions, and spells. Beneath sits your adventurer’s card, two spots for items to hold, and one to stash a card for later. To progress to the next draw, you must use three of the cards dealt to you. For example, you might grab a sword, use that to kill a demonic crow, and then quaff a potion. Getting through the entire deck requires strategy more than luck. For example, down health potions when you don’t need to, and you may not survive later when weaponless and battling multiple enemies. Generously, the basic game is free; but we recommend buying the one-off IAP to unlock the full set of cards and game modes.

Freeways ($3.99/£2.89/AU$4.49) Freeways is one of those games that doesn’t look like much in stills, but proves ridiculously compelling from the moment you fire it up. In short, it’s all about designing roadways for autonomous vehicles. It comes across a bit like a mash-up of Mini Metro and Flight Control. You link roads together, often by designing monstrous spaghetti junctions, only you’re armed with tools that make you feel like an urban planner drawing with chunky crayons while wearing boxing gloves. The game’s crude nature is part of its charm. It’s more about speed and immediacy than precision, a feeling cemented when you realize there’s no undo. When your road system gets jammed, your only option is to start from scratch and try something new. In truth, the inability to remove even tiny errors can irk, not least when roads don’t connect as you’d expect. Otherwise, Freeways is a blast.

Meteorfall ($2.99/£2.59/AU$4.09) Meteorfall is a ‘roguelike’ role-playing adventure masquerading as a card game. You choose a hero, and then set out on a semi-randomized journey, which largely involves hacking your way through a horde of monsters. Only instead of swiping a trusty sword, or moving about a turn-based grid, your actions, attacks and strategy all revolve around cards. With each card you’re dealt, you choose, Tinder-style, to swipe left or right. Each direction has its own outcome, which may involve smacking your foe in the face, or replenishing energy. Over time, you build up your deck, gradually increasing your strength and skills – until the moment you overstretch and are horribly killed. Given the simple interface, there’s loads of depth here. And with every game being unique, Meteorfall is an Android title that should keep you playing for months.

Reigns: Game of Thrones ($3.99/£3.79/AU$5.99) Reigns: Game of Thrones follows Reigns and Reigns: Her Majesty in marrying kingdom management with swipe-based interaction borrowed from Tinder. Only this time, there’s a massively popular TV show fused to its core. You plonk your behind on the Iron Throne, as one of several major characters from the TV series, and set about imposing your will on the Seven Kingdoms. As you swipe left and right to make decisions, your fortunes with the people, army, church and bank fluctuate. Fill or deplete any one meter, and your reign will come to an abrupt – and likely bloody – end. Given the basic interface, Reigns: Game of Thrones has surprising depth. It also has great writing, loads of content to find, and plenty of puzzles to solve, making it ideal mobile gaming fodder. The best word games for Android Our favorite Android games that involve anagrams, crosswords and doing clever things with letters.

Sidewords ($2.99/£2.89/AU$4.39) Sidewords is a rare word game that isn’t ripping off Scrabble or crosswords. Instead, you get blank grids with words along two edges. You must use at least one letter from each edge to make new words of three or more letters. Each selected letter blasts a line across the grid; where lines meet become solid areas filled with your word. The aim is to fill the grid. On smaller levels, this is simple, but larger grids can be challenging – especially when you realize a massive word (that on discovery made you feel like a genius) leaves spaces that are impossible to fill. Fortunately, Sidewords encourages experimentation, and so you can remove/replace words at will. It’s clever and a bit different; and if you tire of the main game, you can fire up mini-game Quads, which marries word-building and Threes!-style sliding tiles. Two for the price of one, then – and both games alone are worth the outlay.

Dropwords 2 ($0.99/69p/AU$1.25) Dropwords 2 mixes up well-based match games like Bejeweled and word games like Boggle. You’re faced with a grid of letters and must drag out words that snake across the board. When submitting a word, its letters disappear, and new tiles fall into the well to fill the gaps. As ever in this kind of game, speed is of the essence. But also, you can gain extra seconds by submitting longer words – something that becomes increasingly important as you get deeper into the game. Smartly, much of the game can be customized, including the board’s theme; and if you want to just chill, rather than be hassled by a relentless game-ending countdown, there are untimed modes too.

Blackbar ($1.99/£1.22/AU$2.23) Blackbar is fundamentally a game about guessing words. Yet it’s also a chilling commentary on the dangers of a dystopian surveillance society. The game begins with you receiving letters from a friend who’s started work at the Department of Communication. Anything from them considered controversial or negative is censored – a ‘blackbar’ – which you must correctly guess to continue. Over the course of a number of communications, the story escalates in a frightening manner, and you find yourself feeling like you’re beating the system (man), despite ultimately just tapping in words to best a basic logic test. If nothing else, this showcases the power of great storytelling; and filling in Blackbar’s blanks feels a lot more fulfilling than chucking more hours at a run-of-the-mill Scrabble clone.

Letterpress (free or $4.99/£4.59/AU$6.99) Letterpress merges Boggle-like finding words within a pile of letters with Risk-like land grabs. You and an opponent (an online human or computer players of varying skill levels) take turns to tap out words on the five-by-five grid. Letters you use turn your color – and the other player can not flip those you surround during their next turn. Winning therefore isn’t just about big words – not least if its letters are scattered about. Instead, you must carefully protect your territory and gradually eat into your opponent’s land. Battles can become tense and thrilling – not usually concepts associated with a word game. But then Letterpress is no ordinary word game – it’s much better than that.

Supertype ($1.99/£1.69/AU$2.79) Supertype is a word game more concerned with the shape of letters than the words they might create. Each hand-designed level finds you staring at a setup of lines, dots, and empty spaces in which to type. Tap out some letters, press the tick mark, and everything starts to move. The aim is to get the letters you type to the dots. In some cases, the solution may be fairly obvious – for example, placing a lowercase l on each ‘step’ towards an out of reach dot at the top of a staircase, then having a p at the start tip over to set everything in motion. More often, you’ll be scratching your head, experimenting, trying new approaches, and then grinning ear to ear on cracking a solution.

Typeshift (free + IAP) Typeshift rethinks word searches and crosswords. You get a tactile interface of jumbled letters within draggable columns. Your aim is to change the color of every tile – and tiles only change when they’re part of a word you make in the central row. The game occasionally heads further into traditional crossword territory, adding clues to the mix, which you must match to the words you find. Either way, it’s a brain-smashing touch-optimized word-game experience. There are joyfully animated and audio touches throughout, too, and everything feels hand-crafted, rather than you being sent endless algorithmically generated puzzles. Naturally, such polish costs money – beyond the free download, you pay for packs of puzzles. But they’re worth every penny. Read the full article

#androidgames #bestandroidgames #bestgames

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roguenewsdao · 8 years ago

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Stones Are Crying Out (Part 2 of 3)

"I know that after my departing grievous wolves shall enter in among you, not sparing the flock; and from among your own selves shall men arise, speaking perverse things...." -- Apostle Paul, Acts 20:29,30 (American Standard Version)

The previous blog argued the idea that the AI revolution that is currently overtaking the world is just the modern incarnation of a long-running Kabbalist agenda in search of the ultimate power, the dynamism of creation itself. We went through the gradual, centuries-long elitist project of separating us, "the great unwashed," from our right to hold sacred knowledge of our origins. Meanwhile, those same elitists, an actual Babylonian priesthood in the true historic sense of the word, assumed a monopoly for themselves of the use of God's personal name as the "central role" in their quest to achieve the power of self-godship. This issue should be of concern to all people, even if one considers himself an atheist, because, once again, we are coming face-to-face with an unjust conspiracy designed to steal a body of knowledge that was meant to benefit you and not be hoarded by a small powerful cabal.

This blog will take a look at how we know that the elitist knowledge suppression has continued exercising its influence right down to our modern era in the Digital Age. The suppression continued as the Church was hijacked and abandoned the model Christ had set for it. It rolled right on through the Protestant Reformation, even while well-intentioned men made the sacred scriptures available in the common tongue. Once every four years, the public catches a glimpse of that suppression during the oath of office sworn on the event of the presidential inauguration.

Government Built on Dishonest Oaths

When President Trump took the oath of office earlier this year, our live Rogue Media broadcast raised the question about which Bible did the President use while taking the oath. Better late than never, I did follow up with that question and even ordered a copy of that particular version of the Bible for myself.

The President used both the traditional White House "Lincoln" Bible as well as his own personal copy of the Revised Standard Version. That version of the Bible is highly popular among Protestant denominations. The President's copy was one that his mother gifted to him upon his graduation from Presbyterian Sunday school back in 1955.

The copy that I was able to obtain is likely similar, if not identical to, the President's. My copy was published in 1953 by "Thomas Nelson and Sons." If you look at the opening preface of nearly every version of the Bible, you will see that the publisher has included notes pertinent to his particular version. The preface usually explains why the publisher has decided to include, or exclude, the Tetragrammaton from his edition. This copy of the Revised Standard Version is no exception; it also has chosen to comply with Jewish (or rather, Kabbalistic) custom and avoid the usage of the divine name in a book meant to be read by the "great unwashed," the general public. It explains its reasons thus, as copied from a page at Bible-Researcher.com:

A major departure from the practice of the American Standard Version is the rendering of the Divine Name, the “Tetragrammaton.” The American Standard Version used the term “Jehovah”; the King James Version had employed this in four places, but everywhere else, except in three cases where it was employed as part of a proper name, used the English word Lord (or in certain cases God) printed in capitals.

The present revision returns to the procedure of the King James Version, which follows the precedent of the ancient Greek and Latin translators and the long established practice in the reading of the Hebrew scriptures in the synagogue. While it is almost if not quite certain that the Name was originally pronounced “Yahweh,” this pronunciation was not indicated when the Masoretes added vowel signs to the consonantal Hebrew text.

To the four consonants YHWH of the Name, which had come to be regarded as too sacred to be pronounced, they attached vowel signs indicating that in its place should be read the Hebrew word Adonai meaning “Lord” (or Elohim meaning “God”)....

For two reasons the Committee has returned to the more familiar usage of the King James Version: (1) the word “Jehovah” does not accurately represent any form of the Name ever used in Hebrew; and (2) the use of any proper name for the one and only God, as though there were other gods from whom He had to be distinguished, was discontinued in Judaism before the Christian era and is entirely inappropriate for the universal faith of the Christian Church.

Sadly, the Revised Standard Version and thousands of other versions have chosen to place themselves under the thumb of those ancient elitist traditions that dictate who gets to know God and who doesn't. To the two objections noted in the above paragraph, my retort would be the following: (1) The name "Jesus" isn't the Hebrew name that Mary called her son either, and yet you haven't deleted that name. (2) Since when does a Christian Bible publisher bow to the will of a Kabbalah tradition? Jesus didn't. The question you should be asking is "Why did Judaism discontinue it?" Not to mention the fact that early church fathers Jerome and Origen both confirmed that the Tetragrammaton was still known in their time between the second and third century C.E.

So, the above statement by Nelson & Sons that infers that the divine name was "discontinued in Judaism before the Christian era" is blatantly dishonest. However, they are not alone. Most Bible publishers, though not all, have chosen to cower under Kabbalist pressure. By and large, the name of the Creator has been erased from the public's version of sacred knowledge. Any oath of office taken on such a copy is also dishonest. The erasure has made it all the easier for the Priesthood to maintain its monopoly over ancient knowledge. Therefore, any elected official who takes the oath on a Bible that bends its knee to the will of that Priesthood has also bound himself to the will of that Priesthood.

Curiously and hypocritically, many of these Bible publishers do leave the divine name intact in a handful of places, as if they are afraid to cross that red line by erasing it altogether. Since they leave a note in the preface to tell you where they substituted it for the word LORD, the astute Bible reader can just mentally re-insert the divine name into the content whenever he comes across the substitution.

At the end of this blog, I will leave you with a list of a few noteworthy Bible versions and translations that have chosen to restore the author's name in its proper places. I myself chose long ago not to celebrate the Christmas holidays because of the utter travesty that organized Christianity has inflicted on Christ's original teachings, but I know that many of you do. If you want to consider using a Bible that has chosen to comply with Christ's original mission of hallowing his Father's name, now would be a good time of year to obtain your own copy, or at least bookmark their online versions in your browser.

The Illuminati Trinity

Now, what does all of this have to do with modern events? As many RM readers know, we've had many discussions about how the whole world is caught in a gang war between the old, dying Rockefeller empire and the ever-present Old Money Rothschild dynasty. With every passing day, it becomes more evident that President Donald J. Trump was the man chosen by the Rothschild powers-that-be as their tool to achieve the next stage in a millenia-old agenda. Another breadcrumb that Spaceman left for us in the final hour of his final broadcast was a detailed discussion of the alliance that was made in the 18th century by three men destined to manipulate world events down to this year and beyond: Adam Weishaupt (Illuminati, Gnosticism, Hermetica), Jacob Frank (Kabbalah, Sabbateans), and Amschel Mayer Rothschild (money creation, banking, and puppet-mastering).

I could write endlessly in this blog with internet references about all the nefarious deeds of those three men. Spaceman did a good job of summing it up in the final hour of his final broadcast [linked here], so I will leave you with that.

Many years ago, I ran across this page at BibliotecaPleyades.net that listed some of the common sacraments and customs of the Church, showing how these were really Jewish in origin. That should not surprise us. As mentioned in the opening quotation at the top of this blog, the Apostle Paul already saw the trend towards corruption. Christ had warned about it 30 years before Paul, the Apostle Peter likewise warned about it contemporary with Paul, and the Apostle John stated that the trend had already established a foothold shortly before his own death, about 30 years after Paul.

That website above is loaded with archives culled from all over the web and is a highly useful tool if you care to do your own research on the legacy left by these men and by any other secret society that spun off from their lead. There is an interesting quote here from early church father, Athanasius, that betrays a Kabbalist belief that man does have the right to turn himself into a god. After all, so the argument goes, Jesus did.

However, he also taught that the Incarnation of the Word “divinized” human flesh, making it possible for men to become “gods.” “God became man that men might become gods,” wrote Athanasius.

As we stand now on the precipice of the coming year 2018, the whole world is being swept along in a new reality that is being engineered by the corporations, universities, and government structures that those three men left behind. We are witnessing the arrival of the "4th Industrial Revolution" being ushered in on the red carpet delivered by futuristic digital innovations and crypto technology.

In the third part of this blog series, I will pick up on the reference that Dr. Goertzel made to the "golem" of the Middle Ages. We'll explore the very real possibility that the human fathers of the next decade's sentient AI beings are likewise indoctrinating their digital sons in occult traditions.

As promised, here is a partial list of Bible versions and translations that have rejected the tradition of the Babylonian Priesthood by restoring the divine name in its rightful places. Many of these have online versions and apps. I have provided a few links but there are others.

The Jerusalem Bible (1966) uses "Yahweh" in 6,823 places in the Old Testament.

The New Jerusalem Bible (1985) uses "Yahweh" in 6,823 places in the Old Testament.

The World English Bible (WEB) (1997) [a Public Domain work with no copyright] uses "Yahweh" some 6837 times.

Rotherham's Emphasized Bible (1902) retains "Yahweh" throughout the Old Testament.

The Anchor Bible (in progress) retains "Yahweh" throughout the Old Testament.

The American Standard Version (1901) uses "Jehovah" in 6,823 places in the Old Testament.

The New World Translation (1961/1984/2013), published by the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society, uses "Jehovah" in 7,216 places. [App in many languages; Android or Apple]

The Sacred Scriptures Bethel Edition (1981) used by adherents of the Church of God (Seventh Day)

The Divine Name King James Bible (2011) uses "Jehovah" in 6,973 places.

The Lexham English Bible (2012) uses "Yahweh" throughout the Old Testament.

Green's Literal Translation (1985) uses "Jehovah" in 6,866 places in the Old Testament.

The Recovery Version (1999) uses "Jehovah" in 6,841 places in the Old Testament.

The Darby Bible (1890) by John Nelson Darby renders the Tetragrammaton as Jehovah 6,810 times.

The Bible in Living English (1972) by Steven T. Byington, published by the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society

The Names of God Bible (2011,2014) by Ann Spangler uses "Yahweh" throughout the Old Testament.

My Twitter contact information is found at my billboard page of SlayTheBankster.com. Listen to my radio show, Bee In Eden, on Youtube via my show blog at SedonaDeb.wordpress.com.

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hafizhamza313 · 6 years ago

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The best Android games

Snakebird Primer features a bunch of snake-like birds, keen to reach a portal. The tiny snag is they live on tiny floating islands peppered with fruit and spikes. Hit a spike and your bird explodes. Wolf down some fruit and it grows – just like in dusty mobile classic Snake – which, depending on the level you’re playing, may help or hinder. Old hands might recognize this game as the follow-up to the superb Snakebird (free + $4.71/£3.69/AU$6.44) – although, in reality, it’s more like a less brain-smashing version of that game, designed for mere mortals. This one’s puzzles are simpler, and far less likely to leave you a sobbing wreck in the corner. Great for kids and casual gamers, then. That said, even though puzzle veterans might blaze through Primer, they’ll still have a blast doing so. The best racing games for Android Our favorite Android top-down, 3D and retro racers.

Riptide GP: Renegade ($2.99/£2.99/AU$3.99) The first two Riptide games had you zoom along undulating watery circuits surrounded by gleaming metal towers. Riptide GP: Renegade offers another slice of splashy futuristic racing, but this time finds you immersed in the seedy underbelly of the sport. As with the previous games, you’re still piloting a hydrofoil, and racing involves not only going very, very fast, but also being a massive show-off at every available opportunity. If you hit a ramp or wave that hurls you into the air, you’d best fling your ride about or do a handstand, in order to get turbo-boost on landing. Sensible racers get nothing. The career mode finds you earning cash, upgrading your ride, and probably ignoring the slightly tiresome story bits. The racing, though, is superb – an exhilarating mix of old-school arcade thrills and modern mobile touchscreen smarts.

Mini Motor Racing ($2.99/£3.19/AU$4.49) Mini Motor Racing is a frenetic top-down racer that finds tiny vehicles darting about claustrophobic circuits that twist and turn in a clear effort to have you repeatedly drive into walls. The cars handle more like remote control cars than real fare, meaning that races are typically tight – and easily lost if you glance away from the screen for just a moment. There’s a ton of content here – many dozens of races set across a wide range of environments. You zoom through ruins, and scoot about beachside tracks. The AI’s sometimes a bit too aggressive, but with savvy car upgrades, and nitro boost usage when racing, you’ll be taking more than the occasional checkered flag.

Motorsport Manager Mobile 3 ($3.99/£3.99/AU$6.49) Motorsport Manager Mobile 3 is a racing management game without the boring bits. Rather than sitting you in front of a glorified spreadsheet, the game is a well-balanced mix of accessibility and depth, enabling you to delve into the nitty gritty of teams, sponsors, mechanics, and even livery. When you’re all set, you get to watch surprisingly tense and exciting top-down racing. (This being surprising because you’re largely watching numbered discs zoom around circuits.) One-off races give you a feel for things, but the real meat is starting from the bottom of the pile in the career mode, with the ultimate aim of becoming a winner. It’s all streamlined, slick, and mobile-friendly, and a big leap on from the relatively simplistic original Motorsport Manager Mobile. The best Android adventure games Our favorite Android point and click games, RPGs, narrative stories, choose your own adventures and room escape games.

Thumper: Pocket Edition ($4.99/£4.59/AU$7.49) Thumper: Pocket Edition is a bit like Guitar Hero crossed with a roller-coaster, set in some kind of horrific Lovecraftian hell where everything is encased in metal. And if the thought of that breaks your mind, wait until you play the game. You careen along a track. Keeping your metal bug alive relies on performing gestures and taps at precisely the right moments, in time with an ominous and booming tribal soundtrack. If that wasn’t hard enough (and it really is), bosses sporadically show up, threatening you with their massive teeth and plentiful tentacles. Thumper isn’t for the faint-hearted, and it’s easy to become frustrated with the sometimes brutal difficulty. But there’s no doubting this is one of the most polished and arresting games of its kind that’s ever come to mobile.

Forget-Me-Not ($2.49/£2.39/AU$3.89) At its core, Forget-Me-Not is Pac-Man mixed with Rogue. You scoot about algorithmically generated single-screen mazes, gobbling down flowers, grabbing a key, and then making a break for the exit. But what makes Forget-Me-Not essential is how alive its tiny dungeons feel. Your enemies don't just gun for you, but are also out to obliterate each other and, frequently, the walls of the dungeon, reshaping it as you play. There are tons of superb details to find buried within the game's many modes, and cheapskates can even get on board with the free version, although that locks much of its content away until you've munched enough flowers. If there was any justice, Forget-Me-Not would have a permanent place at the top of the Google Play charts. It is one of the finest arcade experiences around, not just on Android, but on any platform - old or new.

Super Samurai Rampage ($1.99/£1.69/AU$2.79) Super Samurai Rampage is a manic swipe-based high-score chaser, featuring a samurai who has - for some reason - been provoked into a relentless rampage. Said rampage is dependent on you swiping. Swipe left and you lunge in that direction, slicing your sword through the air. Swipe up and you majestically leap, whereupon you can repeatedly swipe every which way, fashioning a flurry of airborne destruction akin to the most outlandish of martial arts movies. Along with dishing out death, you must ensure you don’t come a cropper yourself. And attack is your only form of defense, because when you’re moving, you’re also deflecting incoming projectiles. You’re also likely racking up quite the body count, which accumulates in bloody retro-pixel form at the foot of the screen. It’s of course entirely absurd, and without much nuance; but Super Samurai Rampage is an arcade thrill that’s entertaining, and where repeat play is rewarded with gradual mastery – or at least lasting a few seconds longer before your inevitable demise.

Ridiculous Fishing ($2.49/£2.49/AU$3.69) Ridiculous Fishing is appropriately named, in that it’s – vaguely – about fishing, and it’s certainly ridiculous. The game begins with you bobbing about in your open-topped boat, casting a line into the inky depths. You then tilt your phone to guide your hook, scooping up fish, and avoiding hazards. When you reel everything in, it’s hurled into the air, whereupon – for some reason – you blast it with a shotgun. It’s all very silly, and there’s a smart compulsion loop: over time, you buy longer lines, and higher-powered weaponry, and can therefore snag more fish. And the more you shoot, the more cash you make. Clearly, in this world there’s a big market for seafood that has been airborne and almost atomized. As we said: ridiculous! The best platform games for Android Our favorite Android platform games, including side-scrolling 2D efforts, exploration games and console-style adventures.

Limbo ($4.99/£3.88/AU$6.85) The term 'masterpiece' is perhaps bandied about too often in gaming circles, but Limbo undoubtedly deserves such high praise. It features a boy picking his way through a creepy monochrome world, looking for his sister. At its core, Limbo is a fairly simple platform game with a smattering of puzzles, but its stark visuals, eerie ambience, and superb level design transforms it into something else entirely. You'll get a chill the first time a chittering figure sneaks off in the distance, and your heart will pump when being chased by a giant arachnid, intent on spearing your tiny frame with one of its colossal spiked legs. That death is never the end — each scene can be played unlimited times until you progress — only adds to Limbo's disturbing nature.

Marching Order ($1.99/£1.99/AU$3.39) Marching Order features the most demanding marching band imaginable, and you’re the stressed-out band-leader bunny who has to keep them all happy. Your ongoing task is to respond appropriately to all the messages the bunny receives on his phone. Each one states where a specific band member wants to be placed within the queue of musically talented anthropomorphic animal critters. Working with the various oddly specific demands – “I perform best when somewhere behind animals with feathers”; “I prefer to stand directly next to the flag” – you must drag and drop the animals, tap the big MARCH! button, and hope you get the marching order right. If not, everyone falls over. Otherwise it’s on to bigger bands – and the option to do all this endearingly bonkers swapping against the clock.

Persephone ($3.90/£3.60/AU$5.95) Persephone is a puzzle game set in tiny isometric worlds, packed with clockwork hazards, such as spikes and poison darts. Your aim in each is to reach the exit. Often, that involves triggering switches and pushing objects around. Persephone, though, has a rather unconventional take on how these things are achieved. If you get killed, your corpse remains on the screen and you are reincarnated at the most recently accessed restart point. You can have up to three corpses available at any one time, unceremoniously using them to cross spiked pits, or shoving them into switches so to avoid being shot by a nearby projectile. It’s an amusingly dark comic twist, and one that makes Persephone stand out among a slew of ostensibly similar puzzlers.

Threes! ($5.99/£5.49/AU$8.49) The sort of silly maths game you might've played in your head before mobile phones emerged to absorb all our thought processes, Threes! really does take less than 30 seconds to learn. You bash numbers about until they form multiples of three and disappear. That's it. There are stacks of free clones available, but if you won't spare the price of one massive bar of chocolate to pay for a lovely little game like this that'll amuse you for week, you're part of the problem and deserve to rot in a freemium hell where it costs 50p to do a wee.

No Stick Shooter ($1.99/£1.99/AU$2.89) No Stick Shooter is a single-screen shoot ’em up that marries the best of old-school retro blasters with modern touchscreen controls. As its name suggests, there are no virtual D-pads to contend with. Instead, as the aliens menacingly descend towards your planet, you tap their general location to fling something destructive their way. The key to victory doesn’t involve tapping the screen like a lunatic, though. Your weapons need time to recharge, and specific armaments work well against certain foes. In a sense, it all plays out like a strategy-laced precision shooter on fast-forward, with you clocking incoming hostiles, quickly switching to the best weapon, and tapping or swiping to blow them away. There are just 30 levels in all, but only the very best arcade veterans are likely to blaze through them at any speed – and even then, getting all the achievements is a tough ask.

Letterpress (free or $4.99/£4.59/AU$6.99) Letterpress merges Boggle-like finding words within a pile of letters with Risk-like land grabs. You and an opponent (an online human or computer players of varying skill levels) take turns to tap out words on the five-by-five grid. Letters you use turn your color – and those you surround cannot be flipped by the other player during their next turn. Winning therefore isn’t just about big words – not least if its letters are scattered about. Instead, you must carefully protect your territory and gradually eat into your opponent’s land. Battles can become tense and thrilling – not usually concepts associated with a word game. But then Letterpress is no ordinary word game – it’s much better than that.

Typeshift (free + IAP) Typeshift rethinks word searches and crosswords. You get a tactile interface of jumbled letters within draggable columns. Your aim is to change the color of every tile – and tiles only change when they’re part of a word you make in the central row. The game occasionally heads further into traditional crossword territory, adding clues to the mix, which you must match to the words you find. Either way, it’s a brain-smashing touch-optimized word-game experience. There are joyful animated and audio touches throughout, too, and everything feels hand-crafted, rather than you being sent endless algorithmically generated puzzles. Naturally, such polish costs money – beyond the free download, you pay for packs of puzzles. But they’re worth every penny. Read the full article

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