Welcome to the roundup of the best Android games that went live in the Play Store or were spotted by us in the previous week or so. Today's list is broken up into several segments, ranging from best, average, to mediocre. So whether you're looking for the best games of quality or are simply looking for the latest free-to-play gacha titles, you're covered. This week I have the arrival of a fresh version of PUBG, a straightforward yet enthralling skateboarding game, and Sega's latest Football Manager sim. So without further ado, here are the new and notable Android games released during the last week.

If you're looking for older posts, here's where you can find our previous game roundups.

Best Games

Titles that offer fair pricing, enjoyable gameplay, polished interfaces, or are intriguing

PUBG: New State

Android Police coverage: PUBG: New State is finally available for Android, off to a pretty rough start

It's been a banger of a week, with tons of quality releases, so I figured I'd start today's roundup with the most popular game to drop this week (10-million installs already). That game is PUBG: New State, and it hardly needs an introduction. This is the latest version of PUBG, and it comes from Krafton. It is not an offshoot, but it's not a sequel either. It's more or less PUBG with a new engine and some slight gameplay tweaks. This means it is a skill-based game, and since there is no way to pay to win, the competition is balanced well. Sure, the cosmetic store is still here, and it does get pricey, but you can also ignore it if you just want to shoot some fools. There is no controller support, you will have to play with the touchscreen, and the game can be demanding for low-end phones. But beyond that, it looks great and runs fine on high-end hardware. While the launch was a little rough, Krafton has been busy squashing bugs.

Monetization: free / no ads / IAPs from $0.99 - $99.99

NEW STATE Mobile Developer: KRAFTON, Inc.
Price: Free
3.8
Download

The Ramp

Android Police coverage: I've found the best skateboarding game on Android and you have to try it

Hands-down, The Ramp is my favorite skateboarding game on Android, and it was just released. First of all, this is a premium title that anyone can try. The first stage is free, and you can unlock the other three stages for $2.99 if you like what you see. The Ramp is a relaxing game. There are no timers, no high scores, no goals to speak of, just a bunch of skating. The touch controls work well, and controllers are supported, which is my preferred way to play. All around, it's clear this is a game created with love, a passion for skateboarding even, and it comes across every second you spend in the game. Don't miss out on this one, folks. It's a surefire hit.

Monetization: free / no ads / IAPs $2.99 apiece (single unlock)

The Ramp Developer: Crescent Moon Games
Price: Free
3.8
Download

Football Manager 2022 Mobile

Android Police coverage: Football Manager 2022 Mobile launches with a fresh set of mechanics to jump into matches faster

Sega has clearly found a niche with its Football Manager franchise, with yearly releases across a multitude of platforms. The latest version for mobile is now available, offering new mechanics to help people get into matches faster, along with new leagues and scouting tools. Oddly enough, the Mobile version used to land with a Touch version in tow, but it would appear the Touch version is now relegated to the Nintendo Switch only. Luckily Football Manager 2022 Mobile offers support across a wide range of hardware, including tablets and Chromebooks.

Monetization: $9.99 / no ads / IAPs from $0.99 - $16.99

Sparklite

Android Police coverage: Sparklite is a gorgeous Zelda-inspired roguelike, and it's 30% off in celebration of its mobile launch

Sparklite is the latest port published by Playdigious, and it's an adventure roguelike styled after Zelda's early games. There's a sense of whimsy throughout the in-game world, with 2D pixel art graphics that would fit with any game from the SNES library. The gameplay consists of fighting enemies and solving puzzles, a typical Zelda setup, but since this is a roguelike, death is a constant, though it's hardly punishing, making for a breezy game. Controllers are supported, and the touch controls work well. Plus, the game is currently on sale in celebration of its release, so now is the best time to snag a copy. Luckily you can try before you buy since there's a free trial up to the first titan. All around, Sparklite is a fantastic port, and since it's a shorter roguelike, it suits bite-sized mobile play well.

Monetization: free / no ads / IAPs $4.99 apiece (single unlock)

Sparklite Developer: Playdigious
Price: Free
4.5
Download

QB Planets

If you've ever dreamed of playing a game that offers the fun of a Rubix Cube while also offering a cute story and exceptional graphics, then look no further than QB Planets. Your goal is to find a safe route to your ship. And to get there, you'll twist the blocks in the puzzle to line things up. At first, this is easy, but things grow challenging fast, but this is what keeps the gameplay exciting. Plus, there's an AR mode for those that want to show off their puzzle-solving skills to their friends and family in a real-world setting.

Monetization: $4.99 / no ads / no IAPs

QB Planets Developer: Madowl Games
Price: 2.99
4.6
Download

Wingspan: The Board Game

If you're big into board games or birding, then you should probably check out Wingspan: The Board Game. This is a strategy card game for one to five players, and it's a hoot. The goal, of course, is to attract the best birds around by chaining card combinations in your habitats. Like most strategy games, familiarity is the key to success, so those who have played the physical version will have a leg up over those playing for their first time. Luckily you can play solo to brush up on your skills before you take on a round with live players.

Monetization: $9.99 / no ads / no IAPs

Multiplication Kingdom

Multiplication Kingdom is a math game for kids, and it's monetized appropriately for this target audience. The gameplay is built around improving the player's multiplication table skills, where cute stories will play out as you help Akilan the Dino find all kinds of treasures in the Kingdom's castle. The tables from 0-10 are free so that you can get a feel for the game and whether your child will enjoy it, and if you like what you see, you can unlock the rest of the title through a single in-app purchase.

Monetization: free / no ads / IAPs $4.99 apiece (single unlock)

Average Games

Titles that may not be the best-of-the-best, but still offer fun and interesting mechanics

Final Fantasy V

Android Police coverage: Final Fantasy V pixel remaster hits Android with a fresh new 2D look

Square Enix has released the fifth pixel remaster for its Final Fantasy titles, and just like the last four entries, the game is overpriced and missing standard features. There's no controller support, none, it was removed from the mobile version, and yet the game is $18. While the new pixel graphics are nice, and the touch controls are fine enough, Square's track record on mobile is awful, to the point that it removed the old Final Fantasy titles when releasing these remasters, which were mostly abandoned, to begin with. So it's hard to excuse the price for yet another port from Square Enix when history has proven the company simply does not care to offer adequate support to keep its games working after we buy them. So even though this port runs fine and offers enjoyable gameplay, it's hard to excuse the high price when support and features are nowhere to be found. In order to sell a premium game, people expect a premium experience. Too bad Square has yet to learn this lesson and instead relies on abusing the nostalgia of an ever-shrinking fanbase.

Monetization: $17.99 / no ads / no IAPs

FINAL FANTASY V Developer: SQUARE ENIX Co.,Ltd.
Price: 17.99
4.1
Download

Casting Away

I'm a big fan of fishing games, and since Casting Away is a new fishing game, I just had to check it out. While the act of fishing is fine enough, things move at a snail's pace, and there are ads everywhere. Timers are also a problem, though at least the dev allows users to skip the tutorial. You can pay to remove the game's ads, but this will cost you $7.99, which is simply too high for a grindy fishing game filled with timers. Sure the graphics and presentation are excellent, but the uninteresting town-building mechanic shows this game was designed to keep people coming back instead of being designed around enjoyable gameplay. Sure, it's not all a wash, especially if you don't mind the typical inconveniences of mobile games, which is why this title is in the average section.

Monetization: free / contains ads / IAPs from $0.99 - $7.99

Casting Away - Survival Developer: Nexelon inc.
Price: Free
4.3
Download

Joy Tracks

Joy Tracks is a cute collection and decoration game from HyperBeard, a studio that has certainly found its niche as it pumps out kawaii games. The goal is to build out your train while also decorating its interiors. You'll travel from station to station meeting interesting characters, which helps you earn the currencies you can use to expand your train. It's a simple loop that can be fun in short bursts, but I worry that the monetization will worsen as the game moves from early access to the official release.

Monetization: free / contains ads / IAPs from $0.99 - $7.99

Mudoku: Chinese Woodcraft

As much as I want to like Mudoku: Chinese Woodcraft, the game is excruciatingly slow, but not in a relaxing way, just super slow to transition its screens, which is annoying. Once you get beyond the lengthy and wordy intro, you can start wood-crafting. The graphics in the wood-crafting section are pretty good, where the gameplay revolves around removing sections of wood to fit pieces together in order to build your target object. This can be fun, and the controls work well. So here's hoping the developer speeds up the rest of the game's content so that we aren't constantly staring at transitional screens and animations when we aren't solving wood-based puzzles. Oh, and even though the Play Store listing doesn't list the game's in-app purchases, there are a couple, but they are for purchasing extra content, and the prices aren't bad.

Monetization: free / no ads / IAPs from $0.99 - $2.99

Taboo - Official Party Game

Taboo is a word game under the Hasbro brand, and since Marmalade is the studio that digitizes the games for mobile play, it makes sense that this is the publisher behind Taboo - Official Party Game. Much like the physical word game, the goal is to have your teammates guess your word without using taboo words to guess, which is where the challenge comes in. Since we are living in a pandemic, the game offers video chat so that everyone playing can properly communicate without the need to play in person. There's even a two-player mode if you don't happen to have a large group of friends to play with.

Monetization: $1.99 / no ads / IAPs from $0.99 - $11.99

Downhill Legend

Downhill Legend is a simple downhill game where the goal is to make it to the bottom of the hill. It's a bit like an auto-runner, as you'll collect coins as you roll down the hill, which can be used for upgrades, the basis of the game's advancement. As I said, it's a simple game, but it's a fine enough time waster. The game's ads are optional for a few extra rewards, so you don't have to watch them. Plus, you can use a premium in-app purchase to double the currency earned as you play, which means you won't have to watch ads to advance quickly.

Monetization: free / contains ads / no IAPs

Downhill Legend Developer: SisyFox Studio
Price: Free
4
Download

Pearls of Atlantis

Yes, Pearls of Atlantis is a match-3 game, but it also plays a little like the Price is Right game Plinko, seeing that you'll drop balls on an assortment of platforms to match them. This means there are physics in the game, which is what makes it fun to drop balls to see where they will go. While this is still a super casual game that's best in short bursts, it can be fun, and since it is a free download, there's no harm in checking it out. Just be mindful of the advertisements that can't be removed.

Monetization: free / contains ads / no IAPs

Charge Up 3D!

If you're looking for something extremely casual this week, why not try Charge Up 3D? The goal, to move your way up the screen by using your power cord to make your way up each level's walls. It's like a reverse of Downwell, with an enjoyable climbing mechanic. Best of all, this is a fresh release that's yet to be monetized, so now is the best time to check it out before ads or IAPs are shoved into the title.

Monetization: free / no ads / no IAPs

Roll20 Companion

Roll20 Companion is exactly that, a companion app for Roll20. What is Roll20? Well, that's a website that offers a bunch of tools to play virtual tabletop RPGs. So as you can guess, this app ties into the service, though it's currently pretty limited. You can view your characters, but you can't create any with this app, which is odd as the app feels like a PWA, so you'd think it would offer the same features as the website. Of course, this is a fresh release, so it's a work in progress, so perhaps character creation and the other missing features will land in the app at a later date. Still, if you're looking to tote your Roll20 characters with you wherever you go, then this is the app for you.

Monetization: free / no ads / no IAPs

Bowling Ballers

Netflix is apparently serious about its mobile game offerings, and so we have a new release for its catalog this week. This game is called Bowling Ballers, and it's a casual endless runner that offers a bowling theme. A subscription to Netflix is required to play despite the fact the game is listed for free on the Play Store. While I wouldn't call the game great, it's a competent time waster that won't break the bank if you already happen to have a Netflix sub.

Monetization: free / no ads / no IAPs

Bowling Ballers Developer: Netflix, Inc.
Price: Free
4.6
Download

Mediocre Games

Titles that are buggy, unpolished, or offer aggressive monetization

Blue Archive

Leave it to Nexon to create yet another generic waifu collection game. You'd think we'd have hit maximum capacity at this point, seeing that these games all play the same, and yet more and more just keep on coming. It's quite clear the gameplay takes a backseat to collecting military academy students, which is why the Play Store listing neither shows the game in action nor describes how the game is played. While the graphics are okay, the gameplay fails to be interesting, where you'll win everything until you hit a false wall, and then it's time to pay up or grind your days away. Unless you want to collect a bunch of scantily clad anime students, there's nothing redeeming about this release. It's a cash grab designed to appeal to otakus.

Monetization: free / no ads / IAPs from $0.99 - $79.99

Blue Archive Developer: NEXON Company
Price: Free
4.3
Download

Eternal Saga : Region Tactics

Gamevil's latest game is a large-scale war-based RPG. It's called Eternal Saga : Region Tactics, and you'll create a group of mercenaries to take on massive battles against large armies. It's nothing we haven't seen a thousand times over, where skill rarely, if ever, matters. Winning or losing feels more like flipping a coin, and since this is a gacha game, it's stuffed with in-app purchases. It's a typical brain-dead gacha game, it's as generic as they come, and there's are no redeeming qualities. A cash-grab, if you will, and it's easily skipped.

Monetization: free / contains ads / IAPs from $0.99 - $89.99

Seven Knights 2

It's a busy week for game releases, and Netmarble has a big one with Seven Knights 2. This is the sequel to the first game, a popular free-to-play RPG, though it would seem the style has changed from anime-like graphics to something a little more realistic. Sadly the game stinks, if you can even call it that. This is yet another autoplay grindfest, a boring gacha game that offers no point. It's no better than an idle game, but of course, it's stuffed with greedy monetization. Honestly, it's amazing games like this can find an audience seeing that there are so many other options that play exactly the same. It's a sad state of affairs.

Monetization: free / no ads / IAPs from $0.99 - $89.99

Seven Knights 2 Developer: Netmarble
Price: Free
3.7
Download

Bub's Puzzle Blast!

It's amazing to me that after the last free-to-play Puzzle Bobble game failed spectacularly, someone made another one. That's right, instead of finally developing a true console-quality Puzzle Bobble game that would be perfect for mobile play, we get yet another brain-dead match-3 game filled with false walls and plenty of in-app purchases to remove those walls. This is why there is a village decoration mechanic, to keep people coming back to grind for town decorations. It's disgusting, honestly, and I, for one, am so sick of nostalgic properties being abused to make a quick buck with the laziest game designs ever. So unless you like wasting time and money on ridiculous skinner boxes designed from the ground up to annoy you into spending money, this is another easy title to skip.

Monetization: free / contains ads / IAPs from $1.99 - $89.99

Bub's Puzzle Blast! Developer: ACT Games Co., Ltd
Price: Free
4.3
Download

Ragnarok Origin

It's a good thing I have a bunch of awesome games at the top of the list today, as the mediocre section is filling up quickly. It must be the week for every slimy publisher to dump its high-profile cash grab on the Play Store or something. As you can imagine, Ragnarok Origin is the latest free-to-play mobile game to capitalize off the name of a single successful MMO from 20 years ago. This release is described as an open-world MMO, but really it's just a strategy game that requires no skill because it's really a gacha game, hence the numerous in-app purchases. Sure, the graphics are nice, but that's the only good thing about this release, that is unless you enjoy playing games where the only thing that matters is that you're willing to grind or pay.

Monetization: free / contains ads / IAPs from $0.99 - $99.99

Ragnarok Origin Developer: GRAVITY Co., Ltd.
Price: Free
3.3
Download

Revived Witch

And the high-profile free-to-play releases just keep on rolling in. Here, we have the latest game from Yostar Limited, the studio behind Arknights and Azur Lane. This release is called Revived Witch, and it's a generic RPG that offers an anime theme. The 2D pixel art mixed with 3D lighting indeed looks great, but this is a gacha game, and so the gameplay outright stinks. Like all gacha games, no skill is required. You either win battles easily or lose spectacularly, with grind walls spread throughout that artificially boost the difficulty, pushing people towards the in-game store. As expected, reviews are filled with five stars left when the game was still unreleased (often referred to as pre-download), which sure is a convenient practice many smarmy devs utilize to boost their review numbers before release to get better visibility on the Play Store. To call this tactic underhanded is an understatement (especially when it's used for games under 2GB, like this release), but then again, it's not like Revived Witch is worth playing to begin with since it's more a skinner box filled with gambling instead of an actual game.​​​​​​​

Monetization: free / no ads / IAPs from $0.99 - $99.99

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