30+ Best Android Apps & Games: January 2013
by Antonio Wells
Feb 1, 2013 2:00 PM –
Get busy watching and downloading the best Android apps & Android game recommendations of the month. Reviewed by the experts at AndroidTapp in January 2013, we delve into best recommended app collections like; photo editing, puzzlers, dating and even Hollywood movie magic making apps. They all are vetted for superior quality and we only list apps & games rated 4.0 and higher out of a 5.0 star scale. Download or buy these top apps with convenient one-click tools below:
Watch on Mobile | Watch in HD
Keep up with our Best of the Best Android apps!
Best Android apps reviewed January 1, 2013 – January 31, 2013.
Apps
Games
Productivity
Notif - control your Notifications with text reminders, pictures & to-do lists
Free, $0.99
Notif is a functional and slickly designed little app that allows you to play customized notifications in your status bar. It takes the Jellybean ‘rich’ notification functionality and lets you create your own content, including text, photos and lists. As with any notifications, these can be swiped away or fixed. It’s a handy app that’s great for productivity and simple to use. Be warned though, you need to have Android 4.1 Jellybean or higher for it to work. Price: Free or $0.99 for the Pro version
Zime (BETA) To-do and Calendar - try this stylish 3D calendar app with Google sync
Free
Zime (BETA) is a beautiful and innovative calendar and to-do app that is a practical, elegant and original way to manage your productivity. The key feature of the app is its user interface- a crisp 3D wheel of dates that allows you to conceptualize your week in a new way. You can also add events and tasks in addition to easily skipping forward and backwards. If your Google Calendar feels a little boring, Zime might just be the remedy. Price: Free
↑ Back to Top
Photo Editing & Filters
Pixlr Express - great app for photo editing with tons of effects, frames & filters!
Free
Pixlr Express is a great photo editing application that would seem to be a follow up app to the popular Pixlr-o-matic. The app offers a massive range of effects, frames, filters and enhanced editing features. It’s an incredibly powerful tool that includes no ads, a highly developed user interface and is completely free. Price: Free
↑ Back to Top
News Read To You
Umano: News Read to You by Real People
Free
Umano: News Read to You is a new app with a massive difference. Instead of you reading the latest stories on it, it reads them to you! Not only that, stories are read in a friendly and ‘human’ way, unlike the awkward robotic tones we are used to. Great then for people who would like to catch up on full news stories while on the go- and especially great if you absorb information quicker via audio. Price: Free
↑ Back to Top
Movie Magic
FxGuru – awesome Android app to create Hollywood visual effects in your videos!
Free, In-app Purchases
description: FxGuru allows you to create amazing Hollywood visual effects in your videos on your smartphone! There are nearly a score of special effects you can use that include UFO’s, mech robot attacks, satellite crashes, flamethrowers, Molotov cocktail explosions, rocket launchers and much more. Impress your friends with “big budget” video effects on your camera phone with FxGuru app for Android!
↑ Back to Top
Mobile Security & Antivirus
Avast! Mobile Security - ultimate all-in-one Security & Anti-virus app
Free
Avast! Mobile Security is a thorough and user-friendly security app for your Android. It comes with a wide range of features that go far beyond simple anti-virus scanning, and even offers additional functionality to rooted users. While Android is a relatively secure environment anyway, there is perhaps no harm in having an extra level of security for your mobile device. Price: Free
↑ Back to Top
Novelty
↑ Back to Top
Dating
↑ Back to Top
Live Wallpapers
↑ Back to Top
Puzzlers
Tupsu - The Furry Little Monster. A 'Must Play' sticky-eyed physics puzzler!
Free
Tupsu – The Furry Little Monster is a gorgeously cute physics-based puzzle game where you have to guide little Tupsu towards an end of level portal. The challenge lies in the fact that you don’t actually move Tupsu, rather you use his sticky eyes as grips that you can stick to the nearby environment; move, hang, swing and- with the help of things like air streams and physics- jump! The game is easy to play, looks beautiful and loads of fun. If you like the style of games like World of Goo and Contre Jour, you’ll love this. Price: Free
Little Things Forever - what can you find among thousands of little things? (Download)
Free
Little Things Forever is an incredibly cute finding game that is lots of fun for both children and adults. The game presents a rich tapestry in the form of a star which, when the game zooms in it is made up of all kinds of random items. For each level you play a new item is further zoomed in on to reveal lots more items. At the side of the screen you have a list of things to find and the game rewards you if you are able to do so quickly. Price: Free
Word to Word - hey Wordies try on this addictive word association game
Free, $0.99
If you like word puzzles, Word to Word might quickly become a new favourite. It is essentially a word association game so you have to partner one word from the left of the screen to one on the right. The game becomes challenging when associations are more abstract or more than one word can be associated. The game is beautifully designed, fun to play and great for all ages. Price: Free or $0.99
Cogs – fantastically challenging Apparatus building game puzzlers will love!
Free, $2.99
Cogs is a fantastically challenging puzzle game where you have to solve rich 3D puzzles to ensure a particular contraption works. You move the cogs (and other apparatus) around to link them together with a clear goal in mind; this might be blowing up a balloon, making a propeller rotate, ring a bell, turn and handle, power a larger cog and so on. If you like canny logic puzzles with a steampunk twist, definitely check this out.
Galactic – a ‘Must Play’ gravity bending physics puzzler!
$0.99
Galactic is an impressively challenging space-based puzzle game that blends physics-style gameplay, with ‘Asteroid’ controls. It’s an engaging game that’s also both tricky and fun. The game features two very different modes of gameplay which are great to alternate between to keep the game fresh and it’s an altogether intelligent and engrossing puzzler.
Lexathon Word Jumble - try this addictive word game with a twist!
Free, $2.99 In-app Upgrade to Pro Version
Lexathon Word Jumble is an addictive word game where your goal is to find as many words as possible from 9 letters. Simple right? Well the only catch is that you must use the center letter in every word plus you are under a timer. How many words can you find in a short time… read more in this review! Price: Free
Animal Flow - a sugary cute themed copy of the popular Flow Free puzzle game
Free plus In-app Purchases
Animal Flow is a cutesy puzzle game designed for children. The simplest way to describe the game is that it’s essentially a themed version of the popular Flow Free game where you link two squares together on a grid. In Animal Flow you create a path for an animal to reach its home. Ensure you include every square on the grid and find a way for all animals to get home. It’s fiendishly challenging the further you progress and comes with stupidly addictive gameplay! Price: Free plus In-app Purchases
↑ Back to Top
Action Adventure
Eufloria HD – experience this Beautifully Orchestrated Strategy game to grow, colonise, expand & explore
Free Demo, $4.99
You pretty much know that when you open a game for the first time and it suggests you wear headphones that it’s going to be an immersive ‘experience’ rather than ‘just a game’. Well, this is exactly what happens in Eufloria HD and it’s wholly justified. The game is, in short, a beautifully crafted game with subtle, yet important, strategy elements that you really do experience holistically, rather than just casually play. Even shorter, its mobile touch-screen gaming at its utter finest.
Sailboat Championship – race the tall ships with breathtakingly gorgeous 3D graphics!
$3.99
Sailboat Championship is a thoroughly absorbing sailing game for Android which, while optimized for the Samsung Galaxy S3, looks fantastic on any reasonably powered device. Race sailboats through a variety of courses, collect awards, better your times and take part in regattas. OK, so it’s not the watery adrenaline rush of Shine Runner and Riptide GP, but gameplay can be just as thrilling as you coordinate steering and your sail to race at speed.
↑ Back to Top
Casual Time-wasters
Autumn Walk – try this fun & quirky game
Free plus In-app Purchases
description: Autumn Walk is a sweet and addictive game in which you walk a Victorian gentleman and his pet dog ‘Colin’ around a park. Admittedly this might not continue your rush of adrenaline if you’ve just been playing ShadowGun, but the game is wonderfully quirky and certainly an original concept.
Ant Raid – amusing 3D infested bug squishing strategy game
$0.99
Ant Raid is a cute strategy game by HeroCraft. In it, you control an army of willing ants in battles with various unpleasant creatures and you are tasked with protecting the nest at all costs. The game blends real time strategy elements with old school bug squishing/whack-a-mole gameplay. If you like either game styles, or just value richly animated and fun-ridden touchscreen games, you will want to give this a go.
↑ Back to Top
Retro
Mythic Diggers – a retro gem dig & collection game with a twist
Free or ~$1.29 for the full version
Mythic Diggers blends retro digging gameplay with fantasy themes to produce a challenging old-school game which is engaging and fun. The game features a large mine to dig and explore with gems, ores, metals and jewels to discover and sell. Also face off rival digging teams to accumulate as much treasure as you can.
Metal Slug 3 – remember this retro Neo-Geo game? Now the scrolling shooter is ported to Android!
$1.99
Metal Slug 3 is a retro gaming port that has found its way to Android- most probably after the success of the original Metal Slug game on the platform. Metal Slug 3 is scrolling 2D shooting game that sees your characters fight a wide range of aggressive enemies as you rescue hostages and destroy everything in your path. Expect earth-shatteringly frenetic gameplay, more weapons than ever before and a diverse range of bizarre enemies. If you like your games explosive, frantic and slightly crazy, definitely check this out.
Luneoids – Space Survival, an addictive tilt control retro game
Free
Luneoids – Space Survival is a cool designed, tilt-controlled space game. You manoeuvre your craft around multiple baddies for as long as possible using your touchscreen and accelerometer. It’s challenging, full of bonuses, sometimes frustrating, but altogether addictive. If you like the simple replay-ability of retro-style games, this is one to check out.
↑ Back to Top
Tower Defense
Defense Zone 2 HD – exhilarating Tower Defense game with excellent graphics, sound & strategy!
Free, $2.99
Defense Zone 2 HD is a blisteringly rendered and action-stuffed tower defense game for Android. While the game system essentially consists of a solid tower-defense model; strategically place towers, with loads of maps, increasingly- tough enemies, three levels of difficulty, tower upgrades and even air strikes, for me it was all about playing such a game with startlingly detailed graphics. Seriously, it’s like playing a TD game using the aerial view of Google Maps…
Toy Defense – play this action-packed tower defense game!
Free
description: Toy Defense is a fun yet magnificently brutal tower defense game. Instead of the characters and towers appearing to be real, everything is instead played with toy soldiers, toy tanks and so on. While the figures are old fashioned, traditional toys, the action remains very intense, creating a highly addictive and beautifully created freemium game.
↑ Back to Top
Sports
PBA Bowling Challenge – battle some of the Best bowlers in the league in lush 3D!
Free, optional In-App purchase for Pins
PBA Bowling Challenge brings the officially bowling league to your mobile in stunning 3D along with tourneys, battles with the best PBA bowlers, more than 30 balls- even some with awesome special powers like the 7/10 splitting ball. Do you have what it takes to mold your skills and compete virtually against the likes of Walter Ray Williams Jr., Pete Weber, Mike Fagan or Tommy Jones in the league?
↑ Back to Top
Tags:
5 Best,
Android App Recommendations,
Android App Reviews,
Android Apps,
Android Apps Recommendation,
Androidtapp.com Android App Review,
Best Android Apps,
Best Android Games,
Best Apps of the Month,
Best Of,
Recommendation App,
Top 5
Categorised in: Android Advice, Apps Blog, Featured, News
Submit apps for review,
promote apps, get more installs with better
app videos.