By Ryan Scott | 09-15-2012 | 3:30PM
Mobile gaming is bigger than ever, and that comes with some ups and downs. On one hand, it means lots of increasingly awesome games that give even proper console heavy-hitters a run for their money; on the other hand, it means a lot of subpar choices to wade through on Google Play. In this weekly roundup, we've got you covered: Here are five Android games that are worth your precious time (and in some cases, even your money!).
Abduction!
by Psym Mobile (Free)
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Abduction! is one of those adorably cutesy platform games that finds you tilting your device to direct a delicate avatar up a series on increasingly precarious platforms. Fall, die, start over, rinse, repeat. It's got a whole alien abduction theme that has you rescuing kidnapped friends as you make your way up the mountain, and snagging power-ups to aid your ascent. It's a very Doodle Jump-esque sort of game; if you dug that, you'll dig this, too.
The Game of Life
by Electronic Arts Inc ($4.99)
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Hey look, it's the Game of Life! Get your college degree, find a career, make your way up the corporate ladder, find yourself a nice spouse, argue with your wife over the couch color, get married, run into awkward political situations with your coworkers, get laid off, change careers, have kids, go on paternity leave, leave your nice job to join a risky start-up, get some stock options that you later come to find out don't really mean anything, worry about health insurance, get marriage counseling, take a vacation, get laid off again because this economy is not improving, get into arguments with your parents because you really don't call enough, work on your Masters degree in your off-time, be really judgmental about the jerks your daughter dates, watch some terrible primetime TV, and make sure you're paying active attention to that 401(k). Or, you know, just play the mobile version of that dumb board game you used to like as a kid.
The Impossible Game
by FlukeDude ($0.99, plus optional $0.99 level pack)
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The Impossible Game is impossibly simple: Guide a self-propelled cube across an obstacle-laden path, tapping the screen to leap and bound over roadblocks and across precarious platforms. Collide with anything, and you're back to the beginning of the abnormally long level. With a mere two levels (plus another three off the optional add-on pack), The Impossible Game might seem a bit bare -- but good luck getting through even these few levels, and you deserve a medal if you can do it in one go. For the rest of us, optional checkpoint flags let us respawn at the inevitable problem points ad nauseam.
Organ Trail: Director's Cut
by The Men Who Wear Many Hats LLC ($2.99)
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Our schoolteachers didn't realize it at the time, but we never actually learned anything from The Oregon Trail (well, except that dysentery was a real killer for those hapless pioneers). Organ Trail: Director's Cut will teach you even less, but that's OK; it's a loving, retro recreation of that classic journey to the Willamette Valley, but it substitutes undead and broken-down station wagons for bears and actual wagons. Your crew might still come down with dysentery, but they can also contract fatal cases of zombie-itis -- fatal, that is, because you can just shoot the infected bastards dead.
Spider Solitaire
by MobilityWare (Free)
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No, Spider Solitaire isn't some creepy-ass game involving terrifying bugs. For those who are unfamiliar with the variant, it's essentially just a bunch of cards sorted into more piles. You can also go crazy with multiple decks, but let's not get into that. MobilityWare makes some of the best mobile solitaire games around, and this is a great version for anyone who's ever been addicted to the pack-in Windows version (or, you know, the actual, physical card game).
