In March Indie game devs were very productive. So many games were submitted that I did not even had a chance to play all of them properly. Partly caused by the fact that I was on holiday :)

I've picked four games that are original, very well polished and fun. I picked three as usual and one special appearance. A game that I would normally not play at all, but a game that is not very well marketed for Android, but made some impact on other platforms.

Umz Mini Games by Umz Games is a collection of seven reaction based games: Mail Sorter, Sprinter, Whacker, Samurai Duel, Balloon Pop, Fencing and Math Game. All of the games are very simple and ideal for a short break or a reaction training. And there's also multiplayer mode which adds another level of fun.

Sprinter is a classic "tap-to-run" game. I found this one very easy to play against the programmed opponents. Competing with a human is a must! Whacker is a variant of whac-a-mole with a few extras - higher point moles, skulls that deduct points and lightnings that kill all moles at once.

The Balloon Pop is a classic too. Some of the Balloons explode in smaller Balloons and some of them are dangerous and take a life. The Math Game is a basic math operation game with a timer. Again, it's much more fun with a human opponent.

The Mail Sorter will test your reaction time and attention to detail. Your task is to sort packages and letters to three pigeon-holes. This game is challenging. The packages and letters don't differ that much...



By far the most interesting game for me is the Samurai Duel. It tests reaction only and it's quite exciting for a game that only needs one tap! Two samurais are standing in front of each other and two red bars start to grow. When they touch, the sword icon will dissapear and reappear randomly on the screen. If you tap it fast enough, you win.



The last but not least is the Fencing game. It challenges your reaction and orientation as well. The goal is to score point by touching the correct green light followed by another green light in a very short time limit. If you make a mistake, you have a chance to parry the opponent's attack. Two mistakes and opponent will score a point.



All the games are quite nice and entertaining, if you like these simple games. The advantage is that you have them all in one game. The addition of bluetooth multiplayer makes the games much more fun if you have a human opponent to compete against. Some of the games in single player could use a difficulty setting. When you master them, thet might get too easy.

Summary

If you want a collection of simple games to shorten waiting in a queue or to make a daily commute more entertaining, try Umz Mini Games. Especially if you can play with someone over bluetooth. The games can also improve your reaction time. There are no ads in the game, it is completely free. Moreover there are more games coming in the future updates.

Google Play store

Please stop submitting new flappy bird clones. I am not going to review any of them.

It worked for a while, but it doesn't work anymore. Seriously, stop making the clones for profit. I believe making a flappy clone at school or as a programming excercise is a good thing. If you are looking for a first game to learn some new engine, go ahead. Flappy Bird is an excellent choice. But do not expect to make money from it.

On a side note, some people are very creative when using the flappy bird craze. Especially now, when Dong Nguyen announced he's going to release a new, better version of his game. Here's an excellent example how to use the phrase "new flappy bird" to attract more attention to the game called 2048.  You will see this link when googling fo the said phrase. And the first paragraph of the article even mentions another famous game: "This latest addictive gaming sensation [2048] is like Candy Crush for math geeks." SEO FTW.

At first sight Magnomaze is a simple labyrinth puzzle, but the gameplay is more complicated than it seems. LUEXA, the studio behind the game, claims the game improves your senses and cognitive abilities and it surely is a smart puzzle.

The first few levels are relatively easy. You control two balls by tilting the device and the main idea of the game is to collect all sparks to open the gate and then meet the two balls to finish the level. However after few levels traps are added and after few more levels, some of the traps start moving. That's when it gets really hard especially because each level has a countdown...

Due to my demanding full-time job and a few part-time activities such as writing a book about AndEngine (it has been published!), I must take a break from writing the tutorial. The game is complete and I actually published it. You can find it in Google Play store.

If you have followed the tutorial and would like to see how the final code looks like, you can. I am offerring the source code for download for 99¢ (that is about $1 :)).

Features

A lot of important features of AndEngine were used. The list includes but is not limited to:

• Resource Management, loading and unloading of resources
• Scene management - Splash, Menu, Loading, Game and Ad Scene. The Loading scene is animated, using asynchronous task
• Sprites, tiled sprites and simple animations. Entity factories.
• Physics, bodies with multiple fixtures, collisions with filtering. Mouse joint.
• Music, sounds.