If you're a fan of physics-based puzzle games and are looking for a new obsession, Holedown is well worth your money! All told, it won't take you too long to max out all your stats in Holedown, but that's mostly because it's so hard to stop playing this game once you start. These upgrades are crucial to completing the later planets and let the earlier levels become more of a mindless distraction for your subway commute.

If the blocks reach the top of the screen, it's game over.Īlong the way, you will collect crystals which you spend on upgrades that give you more balls per shot and more shots per round. This will become quite important as the screen move up one row after every attempt. All the bricks are curved, allowing you to set up tricky bank shots to clear out massive sections of blocks in one go. This pick-up-and-play game is an easy concept to grasp, but you quickly learn there's an amount of strategy and skill involved. Each brick has a number that represents the number of hits needed to destroy it, or you can ruin a supporting block to clear out everything above it. It will have you strategically blasting through to the core of celestial bodies - starting with asteroids and working your way up to the Sun - using the classic gaming formula of bouncing balls off blocks. But that's just one of the reasons why Holedown is a standout game. It's hard to find a fun puzzle game that doesn't try to sell you on power-ups or extra lives or something. This particular JRPG isn't for everyone, but if you're bored of the standard JRPG mechanics, give Final Fantasy VIII a try! It's bound to surprise you. For me, it's not a true Final Fantasy game if the end game isn't completely insane and VIII really delivers on that front. What makes FFVIII special is that it takes some novel turns with its character development, and the story is ultimately truly bananas. So your typical Final Fantasy plot, more or less. It breaks dramatically with the standard JRPG format in a couple of big ways, so keep an open mind when you're approaching this unique title.įFVIII follows protagonist Squall and his motley crew on an epic quest across time and space to save the world. A massive JRPG (the main story alone will take you close to 40+ hours to complete), Final Fantasy VIII is a divisive entry in the long line of Final Fantasy games. But in its defense, you get a whole lot of game for that kind of dough. Final Fantasy VIII is pushing the upper edges of premium mobile gaming at a whopping $21. If you want a good platformer, Symphony of the Night is a must for your Play library. I love seeing old classics ported to modern systems to let younger gamers (or those who never had the chance to experience them in the games' heydays) try them out. This version of Symphony of the Night is excellent and well worth the few dollars it costs. The team behind the port did a great job translating a very old game to a new platform and, while I had some gripes with them, the touchscreen controls let anyone hop in.

The touchscreen controls are fine and certainly workable, but I found the game best played with a controller. However, Symphony of the Night is a classic game from the 90s and, along with Super Metroid, defined a whole genre dubbed 'Metroidvanias,' which we still see today.īesides just the charm and nostalgia, Symphony of the Night plays excellently on Android. You could have knocked me over with a feather when this game dropped on the Play Store out of the blue and with no fanfare. Source: Google Play Store (Image credit: Source: Google Play Store)

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