It's time for our weekly roundup of the best new Android apps and games to have emerged on the Google Play store.
As ever, prices are correct at the time of writing, but may have changed by the time you read this. (Free + IAP) means in-app purchases are used within the app.
Want more apps? Browse previous Best Android Apps roundups on The Guardian. And if you're looking for iOS apps, browse the archives ofBest iPhone and iPad apps roundups instead.
APPS
American Interior (£2.99)
American Interior is the new album from Super Furry Animals’ Gruff Rhys, but it’s also a book, a film and an app. It tells the story of adventurer John Evans’ quest to find a fabled Welsh-speaking tribe of native Americans, using a mixture of text, video and music split into 100 “messages”. Read The Guardian's interview with Gruff Rhys for more on the app, and the story behind it.
Yahoo News Digest (Free)
Yahoo bought British startup Summly last year and promptly shut down its news aggregation app. However, its summarisation technology has returned in Yahoo News Digest, which sucks in news from a range of sources, summarises it in short "atoms" of quotes, images, videos and background information, and delivers it as a package twice a day. A handy way to catch up on the day's news.
Waygo (Free + IAP)
Waygo felt like magic when it first launched on iPhone: an app that you pointed at foreign language signs to see English translations overlaid. Now there's a version or Android, initially focusing on Chinese and Japanese. It works the same way, displaying translations on-screen, including "pinyin" pronunciation of words. If you travel regularly to one or both countries and need a little linguistic help, it's well worth a look. You get 10 translations a day for free, and can upgrade via in-app purchase to the unlimited version.
Yahoo Sports (Free)
Another app from Yahoo, and although it isn't new as such, it's new to the UK. It's a sports-tracking app offering news, scores and stats from a host of sports and leagues, including football (both varieties), tennis, golf and pretty much every US league you can think of. Features include event alerts to keep you posted on specific games, and personalisation to set your favourite teams in the various competitions.
Spoticast (Free)
If you've got a Chromecast dongle and a premium subscription to streaming music service Spotify, Spoticast is well worth a look. It's a simple way to cast music from Spotify to your Chromecast, signing in to your premium account first. It's very much a work in progress – "pause/play are fragile at best," notes its Google Play listing – but in the absence of Chromecast support in the official Spotify app, it may find a decent audience.
ESPN FC Soccer & World Cup (Free)
As Roy Hodgson gears up to announce England's World Cup squad (or, at least, announce the bits of it that weren't already announced before the planned announcement) we're seeing the start of a flurry of football apps planning to capitalise on the tournament. ESPN's is fresh out, for example, promising news, analysis and data from the competition and beyond – it'll also work for major leagues around the world next season. If you're in the US, meanwhile, the app will also provide video highlights of the World Cup.
Transformers:Age Of Extinction (Free)
With a new Transformers film on the way, there's an official app from Hasbro. It's mainly promotional: trailers, interviews, character biographies and so on – oh yes, and obviously the toys – but there's also a gaming element. Weekly "missions" will play out over the coming weeks, as fans earn points for staying engaged.
Dr Panda’s Toy Cars (£1.29)
The Dr Panda series of children's apps has been getting increasingly ambitious, with Dr Panda's Toy Cars the latest sign of developer TribePlay's desire to become a brand as familiar to parents as Toca Boca. The idea here is that kids get to drive eight vehicles around a cartoon town, including police cars and cargo trucks. It's a mixture of exploration and play, with each vehicle having its own interactive aspects for children to roleplay.
Mubi (Free + IAP)
Mubi is an interesting app for film buffs: a subscription service with a firm focus on "cult, classic, independent or award-winning" movies. Every day, a new flick is added to its collection with a 30-day viewing window, meaning that at any one time, 30 are available to watch. You can stream or download the films to watch offline, with the monthly subscription costing £2.99. An intriguing alternative to Netflix, with the small-but-constantly-refreshing catalogue a spur for experimenting with films you might not otherwise have tried.
Jiggster (Free)
If you're looking to sell secondhand games (as in console/PC, not mobile) there are already a couple of options in the UK with Android apps: Music Magpie and Zapper. Now there's another: Jiggster, which has launched its app in beta to buy, sell or swap games that you've finished with. The swapping may be its most useful aspect: you can text-chat to other users to negotiate deals, then either meet up or send games in the post once you've successfully haggled.
GAMES
Icebreaker: A Viking Voyage (£0.69 + IAP)
A big hit (in critical acclaim at least) on iOS, Icebreaker is now available on Android too: a well-crafted puzzle-action game with a viking theme. Your job is to free the Norse warriors by solving 140 physics-puzzle levels, with controls somewhere between Fruit Ninja and Cut the Rope as you chop through ice and other obstacles. Head-scratchingly challenging in places (in a good way) with a welcome dash of humour.
Magazine Mogul (£2.99)
Japanese developer Kairosoft made its name in the west with Game Dev Story: a cute pixel-art simulation of the games industry. It's since rolled out a host of similarly-addictive sims, and now this based on the magazine industry. It sees you building a team, launching issues and researching new topics, with finely-balanced mechanics for levelling up characters and expanding your business. It's a real battery-chewer, as you won't want to stop playing.
Aliens Drive Me Crazy (Free + IAP)
One of the most characterful action games on Android this year, here, with Rebel Twins' side-scrolling game. You have to run, shoot AND drive your way through the game, seeing off aliens and their bosses across a series of colourful levels. Variety comes in the form of new cars and weapons, with explosions galore and impressive animation.
CastleStorm - Free to Siege (Free + IAP)
Android is super well-served for tower defence games, but CastleStorm has enough to make it stand out from the crowd. Not least because you're on the attack – trying to destroy your opponent's castle – as well as defending your own. All this is handled with a well-worked system of buying and upgrading weapons and units, with four campaigns to work your way through, and in-app purchases that aren't too aggressively pushed at you.
Word Monsters (Free + IAP)
This fun and accessible word game involves swiping words off the screen, competing against friends from social networks, and comes from Angry Birds maker Rovio's publishing division. The core word puzzles are fleshed out with different themes – reminiscent of Draw Something and SongPop – and monster personalisation. In-app purchases are used to unlock this, but the game can be played happily for free without them.
Toy Defense 4: Sci-Fi (£1.20 + IAP)
More tower defence, this time from a series that's now into its fourth game on Android. This one's based on science fiction: all robots and spaceships across its 72 missions, where you defend your bases from enemies including stormtroopers. The gameplay is a familiar blend of resource management and careful tactics, with its upgrade system providing lots of scope for building the perfect defence force. Or, indeed, one that folds miserably at the sight of a tank, if you play badly.
MLB Perfect Inning (Free + IAP)
Cricket has proved a problematic genre for game developers on all platforms, but baseball has been far more favourable. Gamevil's new game is the latest polished take on American rounders, with an official licence and very slick graphics in its favour. There's a comprehensive choice of modes and gameplay options too: plenty of depth, although obviously it's best if you're starting with some knowledge of baseball.
King's League: Odyssey (£1.19 + IAP)
This started as a popular Flash game on the web: a fantasy game involving building an army and sending them out to war. As on iOS, its mobile incarnation has been designed to work well with a touchscreen rather than a mouse: with lots of depth once you get into the strategy of balancing the various units. Meanwhile, its in-app purchases aren't used for the actual in-game currency: you can't buy your way to success, in other words.
QuizTix: Pop Music (Free + IAP)
Trivia games are increasingly-big business on mobile, as the rapid rise to fame of QuizUp has shown. Developer QuizTix is hoping to get in on the question-answering action with its own series of social trivia titles, with its Pop Music game offering plenty of questions, daily challenges and Facebook and Twitter-fuelled social features. And if the app appeals but its topic doesn't, try QuizTix: Movies instead.
1849 (£2.94)
Finally, a game for anyone with a liking for the city-management strategy genre. Here, the setting is gold rush-era California, as you build Old West towns up across a range of scenarios. The fact that the real-life history wraps itself around the gameplay through its campaign mode is a nice touch, while that gameplay looks deep enough to attract fans of the genre who fancy something new.
Those are our picks, but what have you been enjoying on Android this week? Post your recommendations (or feedback on these) in the comments section.
