3 Great Games for Android Honeycomb Tablets

When people think games for Android, Angry Birds is unfortunately always one of the first games to come to mind. For owners of Android 3.1 Honeycomb devices, there are many great games that are more fun and offer much more entertainment value then Angry Birds. I own a Motorola Xoom, and it is a great gaming machine. Tegra 2 Tablets, like the Motorola Xoom or the Asus Transformer offer great speed, fantastic resolutions, and intuitive play mechanics. Yes, I do play games on my Motorola Xoom - Angry Birds is just not one of them.

While not all Android Games are built for large Honeycomb tablets, and some of them are not compatible, many game developers are releasing tablet verions of their games, and several are even optimized for the NVidia Tegra 2 Chipset. With the wide range of genres and a good mixture of epic and casual games, Android Honeycomb Tablet owners can have much more fun than simply flinging some disgruntled avians at some perturbed porkers.

The Five Best Games for Android Honeycomb Tablets

Battleheart

Developer: Mika Moible
Price: $2.99
What Makes it Good: Battleheart is reminiscent of Final Fantasy Games of old, and it offers decent real-time fantasy based party combat game. In Battleheart, you get to assemble a party of four adventurers from a wide selection of character classes that includes pirates, wizards, barbarians and monks (my personal favorite). As your party adventures through the kingdom, you have the opportunity to fight a wide selection of bad guys and bosses. along the way you will earn money, experience and loot which you can use to improve your party's abilities and equipment. The formula is pretty standard, but individual levels are completed quickly which is great for mobile gaming.

New bad guys, equipment and abilities happen often enough to keep you engaged, and the fact that there are multiple character types should keep players engaged for a while. Honestly, it is hard to add replay value to a fantasy/strategy game on a mobile platform, but Mika Mobile has done a very competent job. The game does get pretty difficult quickly, so you end up having to go back to previous areas to gain experience and "level up," and this is very reminiscent of Final Fantasy Games as well. Granted, the storyline is shallow, and the graphics are stylized as like other of Mika Mobile's unique animated titles , but those are my only real complaints. My current game save has about 6 hours logged, and for an Android Tablet game, that is pretty good.

The game is optimized for tablet screens, and so the graphics remain very sharp and clean. The button and menu layout is also well-planned for tablet screens. The game is highly recommended for both great development and great game play.

Grave Defense HD

Developer: Artofbytess
Price: About $2.90 (depending on exchange rate)
What Makes it Good: Tower defense and zombies are a great mix, and really, this game does not need anything other than that. The Tower Defense genre of games is one of my personal favorites, and Grave Defense does it very well. Essential, with Grave Defense HD, you get a great collection of levels (I am on level 22, and I am not to the end), a wide variety of attacking undead, and a collection of weaponry that varies from level to level. Every level has a unique design and challenge, so the replay value is high. One thing I don't like about Tower Defense games, is that the weaponry choices are so predictible and you can learn "tricks" that help you out, but in Grave Defense HD, you are restricted on some levels from certain tools, weapons, and strategies. This unique twist helps to keep the game challenging and interesting.

This game can be very challenging. In fact, on some levels, I have been tempted to toss my tablet out the window, but that is a good thing. Too many tower defense games are simply too easy and boring. Also, every level has a specific beginning and end which means that levels will not drag on endlessly. You can pick it up, play it, feel accomplished, and walk away. Artofbytess does a great job of making Grave Defense HD work on a mobile platform.

The game is designed from tablet screens, but the graphics are not stellar. They are, however, very appropriate for the genre and style of game play. The audio can get a bit repetitive, but you can easily mute it and play music from any music application on your tablet including Pandora or the built-in music application. Grave Defense HD is recommended because of the challenging take on a standard genre and the inclusion of zombies.

Pinball Deluxe

Developer: GreenCod
Price: Free
What Makes it Good: Pinball is fun, and the game is free. Seriously, I love pinball, and I used to play it all of the time, but dropping a quarter or more for five minutes of flashing lights is such a waste of money. Pinball Deluxe on my Xoom is a fairly decent representation of pinball, and the price cannot be beat. There isn't much to explain in the way of game play, but if you enjoy pinball, you will enjoy it here as well. You do get a selection of five different pinball machines, and each one has unique challenges and a well thought out theme.

Graphically, the game is simple, but it is just a pinball machine. Great care was taken to represent the actual physics and motion involved in playing pinball, and the camera follows and tracks the pinball very well. The game is recommended because it does pinball very well and for the right price.