Sometimes I get a really simple game or a remake of a notoriously know game for review. It can turn up to be a great piece and therefore I am not quick to judge. In this case, it is a newest addition to the connect three genre with a classic diamond visuals.

Jewels Combo from Micri-M is exactly what is seems to be. If' you have ever played any of the similar games before, you will immediately know what to do.

Well, it's not that hard to be honest. Simply tap areas where more than three diamonds of the same shape and color line up to remove them from the game. New diamonds will fall from the top to fill the gaps. Get as many points as you can in a short time limit.



So what does this game bring new to the genre? It seems that there is nothing. Apart from the gems there are a few power tiles that can break a whole line or a cross and add time, but that's it. It goes back to basics.

The game visuals are sort of outdated as well. Players used to Candy Crush Saga will certainly feels like this game is a downgrade. There are the necessary sounds and a nice tune playing in the background.

Summary

Jewels combo is a remake of a classic game that unfortunately doesn't bring anything new to captivate the players.

Google play link

What sounds like a title of a B-movie is actually a nice little MMO game from Umz Games. Umz specializes in multiplayer and such games can be a lot of fun given you get somebody to play with. Because the main focus of the game is on skirmishes between ant colonies, Killer Ant Empire stands and falls on the number of people playing the game.

The single player part is quite simple. Grow your colony by foraging food and killing prey. Some prey is docile and easy to get rid of, some fight back.

There are many different types of food, but they work pretty much the same. After your scouts automatically discover food, send a number of foragers to the food source. The more foragers you have, the faster you can gather the food. There's also a limit of foragers on a single food item.

Tiny Helicopter by Micri-M is a simple game that can be categorized as tap-to-fly horizontal scroller. It is very small and starts very fast without any splash screens or menu screens. Right in to the game as you would expect from a simple game like this.

The game itself probably doesn't need any further explanations. But just in case it's the first time you've ever played tap-to-fly game, the rules are very simple. You pilot a tiny helicopter through a horizontally scrolling level full of stalactites and stalagmites. The helicopter flies right on its own and it's up to you to control the vertical movement. You have to tap the screen to propel it upwards, and it falls downwards thanks to gravity. Crashing in to the pillars, floor or ceiling means game over.

Up 'n' Down by CheersBros looks like an entertaining arcade with neat graphics, funky music and simple fun idea. The added mutliplayer on single device is definitely a plus. So let's see how this one plays...

The game starts with an advertisement, which probably immediately deters some of the potential players and it's a shame, because the game is not bad. Unfortunately at least on my phone the ad takes some time to load. First it interrupts the music and shows a black screen for just about enough time that it almost looks like the game hangs at the beginning.

Pocket Fishing by PageNet throws you right into the middle of the action as soon as the game starts. No delays, just tap the screen and you are sitting in the middle of a lake with a fishing rod ready to cast.

Unless you are going for some special fish in the middle of Amazon rain forest or trying to get a huge sailfish from a speedboat in the middle of the sea, real fishing is a relaxing time where not much is actually happening. Unfortunately this doesn't work well with games in general, so let's see how Pocket Fishing deals with the lack of action.

Most of the fishing sim games are quite complex and offer a plethora of options and settings to compensate the fact that there's not much happening in the game itself. Pocket Fishing has to deal with another caveat and that is the small screen and limited resources of mobile phones.

2048 is another game that established its own sub genre. The newest member of the club is 2048 by ezStudio.

2048 is an easy game to play, but quite difficult to beat. Unless you have been hiding under a rock last three months, you are familiar with the rules. What you might not know its predecessor was 1024 :)

The game is played on a 4x4 field. Two 2s appear randomly. By sweeping up, down, left or right you move all the occupied squares to that direction. If two numbers of the same value collide, the add up. After each swipe another 2 appears. Repeat until you get 2048 or you can't make any more moves. Which happens a lot more often than you think :)

4 Pics 1 Football Player by CybernetX is a variant of 4 Pics One Word trivia game for all those football (or soccer if you prefer) fans out there.

The rules of the trivia game are quite straightforward. You are given four visual hints - slightly obfuscated portrait photograph of a famous football player and three others such as the footballer's position in the field, his current league's or club's logo, his home country's flag or something special about the player. Your task is to guess the player's name by choosing the letter from a limited set which makes the job a little bit easier.

Ninja Volley 2 by ReixaCode is a 2D volleyball sport simulation game played by ninjas. And the game is even more awesome than it sounds!

The rules are quite simple. Basically it's beach volleyball rules (two players in the field) in different settings. The fact that it is played by ninjas works really well not just beause ninjas are simply cool, but also because they appear and dissapear as needed making the game clear and the ball easier to follow. There are also RPG elements in the game. You need to gain experience to make your team stronger  and make money to buy them better equipment.

Naradja: Garuda Nest Resque by Mechanimotion Entertainment is of course not a Flappy Bird clone, which is obvious from the screenshots alone. It is something like a mix of good old Paperboy and Temple Run. So why does it reminds me of it? Because it's hard, it's fun and and the fun comes from the difficulty.

Garuda is a mythical bird in Hinduism and Buddhism and your task in this game is to feed little Garuda hatchlings after their parents mysteriously dissapeared. You play as Naradja, who is also a main character of an Indonesian novel and animated series.

The game is presented in 3D and you run from left to right. To control the character, you need to sweep up and down and tap two buttons: Throw (seed) and Jump. Sounds easy, but since the game is played in landscape mode as opposed to the portrait mode of similar runner games and everything moves quite fast, it takes some time to get used to it.

Golf! (Masters Time) is a quiz game created and published by an indie developer Chris Nowell. It was released just before the Masters tournament starts in April.

The game is a simple quiz where you are supposed to answer ten questions about the Masters golf tournament and its participants. The questions deal with the tournament's history and present.

The questions are challenging for a person with only a basic golf knowledge but getting a perfect score should be easy for golf enthusiasts.

The whole app is pretty basic. There's no music, no sharing of scores, just the ten question. Each question is accompanied by a golf related illustration.

As a reviewer I have a unique chance to play great games that I would normally miss. And I am glad that CLARC was submitted for review by its makers from GoldenTricycle, because it's absolutely awesome.

CLARC is a puzzle game about a little robot (called CLARC) that can pick up and move boxes around using a tractor beam. The description makes it sound very easy. But soon you will realize that this game will stretch your brain to the max.

The puzzles are smart and the difficulty increases exactly at the right pace. First your task is to simply move a box from A to B, then you need to maneuver yourself into a narrow passage while carrying the box...

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

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...

RetroShips by TLD GAMES is an oldschool vertical scrolling shoot 'em up game. It features retro graphics, great music, very simple controls and ... bullets. Lots of bullets.

The setup is pretty simple - you have a ship equipped with a cannon and there's a lot of things looking forward to destroying you. But there's more - you start with a basic single bullet gun, but by killing the mini-bosses you can get cool upgrades ranging from double barrel cannon, guided rockets to the ultimate kill-them-all megablast. You have only a very limited supply of lives - it takes just five hits to destroy your ship - and even on easy difficulty you will have to push your ship to the limits to survive.

The graphics are really cool. The retro feel of the ship, enemies and bosses goes very well with the special effects like smoke and nebulas. Explosions are pixelated but you won't mind, because it just feels like you are playing on that old machine in an arcade...



The enemies are moving in defined patterns. Whenever you fail to finish a level, you can learn it, go back and do better. This always made replaying the games so worth it! And if nothing helps, there's always the megablast...




Each stage is divided into eight levels, where the eighth level is a boss fight. This plays very well on mobiles, when you might not have enough time to finish the whole stage at once. The boss fight is really challenging and thanks to the saved progress, you can go straight to it. The in-game currency system allows you to upgrade weapons which helps with the harder levels, too.



The epic music playing throughout the game nicely adds to the action atmosphere. You will find yourself humming the tunes after you finish the nasty boss ship!

When it comes to controls, RetroShips use only one finger. It takes some time to get used to it, because the ship is controlled by moving your finger over the screen. You need to find a position where you can comfortably move your ship without obstructing the view. But as soon as you find it, playing the game anywhere is a breeze.

The game is free, supported by ads that popup here and there when you pause or exit the game - so no accidental ad click when you are just about to finish the boss...

Summary

RetroShips is a great addition to the oldschool shoot 'em up genre. If you like similar games, you will like this one too. The simple controls and the arrangement of levels and stages make it easy to play the game anywhere, but the "hard" and unlockable "insane" difficulties greatly improve the replayability.

The game is free, you can download it from Google Play store.