Overjoid

• There’s so much content on offer! Reckless Racing 2 boasts a comprehensive career mode, over 40 challenges to complete, 24 tracks, 18 cars with a whole host of customisation options.
• The career mode itself is a great addition. Winning races earns you money to buy new vehicles and upgrades.
• It looks fantastic, with some of the best graphics and details seen on Android. Although not jaw-droppingly epic, the attention to detail is impressive, and the game is a joy to watch in action.
• It plays brilliantly, and each car has its own handling and characteristics to conquer.
• Online multiplayer and leader boards should satisfy your competitive streak.
• The dynamic difficulty, which constantly changes depending on your ability, means the game is always challenging.
• There are so many options to customise the controls, so everyone should be able to find one that’s perfect.
• The “chase camera” is a great perspective, and the cars are easier to control with this view over the standard one.
• There's a good variety in the game modes; straight races, time trials, and eliminations.

• For all its polish and refinement, it has perhaps lost some of the character of the original. The hillbilly theme seems to be sent into the background, and it’s more of a straight racer.
• There’s a large download after initial install. This is not a bad thing as such, but the game doesn’t tell you how big the download is before it starts (it’s about 110mb). Useful information for those trying to conserve data allowance!
• The price. At £3.15, it's one of the more expensive games out there, and although the amount of content justifies it to some extent, the inclusion of further in-app purchases seems a little... cheeky? Granted, you don't have to use this feature, but it's not what you'd expect for a paid game.
• The game suffers from slow down on occasion, so the less-powerful devices may struggle.

Reckless Racing 2 improves on the original in every possible way. The amount of content on offer is staggering, and the game looks and plays brilliantly. It’s not just a great racing game; it’s probably the best racing game currently available on Android. This does come at a cost, however, and the price is sure to put a few people off.

The game was reviewed using a Samsung Nexus S running Ice Cream Sandwich, and an HTC Flyer running Honeycomb.

Additional Information

Price: £3.15 | Size: 8.4mb | Transferable to SD card? Yes

It's a bit like magic squares - you have a limited set of numbers to place in squares in order to make the rows and columns add up to the correct values. Although some are obvious, as the game progresses, you have to use more logic to figure out which numbers go where.

It sounds ever-so-simple, but it really is a challenging game that makes you put your thinking cap on. Overjoid – What we like

• It's nice to see a puzzle game on the Market that isn't physics-based.
• The game really makes you think. It certainly gives your brain a workout.
• With four difficulty levels, you're sure to find a level that challenges you, and provides you with scope to improve.
• If you're in to beating your times, the game keeps a very comprehensive record!
• Simply presented, which suits the game perfectly.

• The timing can be distracting at times. It's sometimes nice just to take the puzzle at your own pace, and the constant reminder that you're being timed can be off-putting.
• There's little variety in the gameplay.
• The sound effects are quite annoying (but there is the option to turn these off).
• At £0.69, the game is relatively expensive for what it is (although the developer has informed us that 10p of every purchase will be donated to a children's hospice in the UK).

Additional Information

Price: £0.69 | Size: 6.5mb | Transferable to SD card? No

You begin with meagre dwellings, and must progress through a series of tasks and objectives in order to develop new buildings, resources, and tools to assist you. Collecting rent provides income, but building structures takes time and energy. As you progress, you will gain items that can be combined to make new tools to help you, and magic to make things a bit easier.

With a story involving Merlin and Morgana, the game is not just about city building, and by completing story-related missions, you can ensure that calm is restored to the kingdom. Overjoid – What we like

• Building your kingdom is addictive. There's always something to build and unlock.
• The storyline adds some depth to the game. It's not all build, build, build!
• The game has a great tutorial, which eases you into the game and guides you through it.
• The graphics are nice, and bring the realm to life.
• Collecting items and making new tools is rewarding.
• The sheer number of buildings and crops is staggering.

• The controls can be a bit fiddly at times, especially on a phone. This leads to inaccuracy and frustration.
• The game gets a bit hectic at times, and there's a great deal going on at once.
• The game is perhaps to directed at times, and lacks freedom.
• Although the addition of the story is good, it's not executed particularly well. It could be more interesting.
• Collecting energy, crystals, and harvest takes a long time, which pushes you to use in app purchasing to help. It's a tad demoralising.

Additional Information

Price: FREE | Size: 26mb | Transferable to SD card? Yes

Numbered discs appear at the top of a grid, and you must drop them down into one of the columns. If the number on the discs represents the number of discs in that column (or row), the disc disappears.

Sounds easy enough, but blank grey discs scatter the grid, and to get rid of these, you have to uncover their number. Every time a numbered disc disappears, it destroys part of a blank disc in an adjacent square. Once the blank disc has been destroyed completely, the number is revealed and the disc can be removed as normal. Overjoid – What we like

• The gameplay is unique and challenging. It's refreshing to find a game that makes you think this much without being inaccessible.
• We love the simple, yet stylish look and feel of the game.
• The three variety of game modes are great. Normal is perfect for a long play session, whereas hardcore is great when you have a few moments to spare.
• Pulling off combos (either by skill or by fluke) is oh so satisfying.
• It's incredibly addictive. You can easily lose hours of your life playing it.
• The game saves your highest scores, but also your average score - two ways to track your performance!

• The tutorial is pretty bad. Hint to devs: if you use words like "contiguous" when explaining a game, it's going to frustrate a lot of people.
• The random nature of the game will lead to scenarios where it's impossible not to eventually die. An introduction of powerups and bonuses could put an end to this, whilst keeping the core gameplay.
• The saving of high scores seems a bit hit and miss at times - can be a bit frustrating as the draw to keep playing is to better yourself each time you play it.
• Although the game preserves its state if you leave it (like answering a call, etc.), it would be good to have a manual save feature, especially in the longer Normal mode.
• The game is relatively expensive.

Additional Information

Price: £1.90 | Size: 4.3mb | Transferable to SD card? Yes

But to call it an Angry Birds clone is unfair. Whilst the objective is the same (you must hit all the pigs scattered around the level to progress), the way you go about it is quite different.

With multiple cannons scattered around the levels, you have a choice of ways to reach all the pigs. Although each cannon can only be fired a set number of times, you can use them to traverse the levels, being fired from one to the other, Donkey Kong Country style. You can attack the pigs from all angles, and using the different powerups, you can be as destructive or tactical as you like.

• Although it's hard not to compare it to Angry Birds, the game manages to differentiate itself with the multiple launchers.
• There's a good variety in the levels; small, large, simple, complex - the game keeps fresh as it progresses.
• The cheat system has promise - earn enough coins and you can unlock a random reward to assist you in a level.
• With each level having multiple difficulty ratings, there's good replay value. It means there's about 144 levels.
• The levelling up and coin mechanics are a nice additions, and keep you playing.
• The "three little pigs" theme is well implemented throughout.
• It's free!

• Adjusting the angle and power of the cannon can be fiddly at times, especially in the larger levels when zoomed out.
• The scrolling and looking around levels could be a bit smoother.
• The larger and busier levels makes the game slow down. We used a Nexus S for this review.
• The game itself looks lovely, but the menus and graphics outside of this look a bit rough around the edges.
• You unlock later levels with coins earned during the game. You can buy more coins through in-app purchasing, and as the cost of unlocking levels is quite steep, the temptation is too great. It almost puts you off trying.

Additional Information

Price: FREE | Size: 20mb | Transferable to SD card? Yes