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Welcome to the 464th edition of Android Apps Weekly. Happy holidays, and here are the big headlines from the last week:
- Our own Andrew Grush took a good, hard look at gaming on a Chromebook. He found that it was actually pretty decent, and there is some hope for Chrome OS as a gaming platform. However, there are still some kinks to work out, as noted in his article linked above. Give it a read.
- YouTube announced that it was partnering with the NFL to distribute NFL Sunday Ticket on YouTube TV. Google is reportedly paying $2 billion per season for the deal, so we hope plenty of people find it interesting. This is a huge deal for YouTube TV as it improves the platform’s sports selections dramatically. Apple was considered the favorite to win the contract. We guess the NFL decided to side with Google for this one.
- A surprising number of our readers use Chrome OS. We posted the poll last week, and over 50% of respondents said they use Chromebooks every day. However, we also think that Chromebook owners were more drawn to the article than users of other platforms. Still, it’s encouraging to see that Chrome OS is alive and well among our readership.
- Our own Kaitlyn Cimino wrote an article this week about sleep tracking data. It’s a good read, especially since people stress out so much over such data. Her advice is, essentially, to stop worrying about it and let the chips fall where they may. A good night’s sleep is important, but you can’t get a good night’s sleep if you’re always worried about getting a good night’s sleep.
- Elon Musk posted a poll on Twitter this week. He asked if he should step down as the head of Twitter, and then said he would abide by the results of the poll. The poll ended with 57.5% of respondents saying that they would like him to step down. Hit the link for more details, but if he can’t find someone to take over the job, he probably won’t step down.
Miko Era
Price: Free to play
Miko Era is an MMORPG, and it has some potential. You start the game as the strongest Miko Envoy, and you’re tasked with raising the other Mikos. The gameplay is okay. You walk around an open world, interact with NPCs, defeat bad guys, and do your thing. The graphics are also fairly average. It doesn’t look great, but it doesn’t look horrible either. On the plus side, it does have a manual option for folks who are sick of all of the auto-play MMORPGs that have come out lately.
It’s free to play like most games in the genre, and it’s honestly too early to see which way this one is going. It could be good, or it could flop. We do know the developer should probably fix all of the lag issues that many players are experiencing.
reWASD Junior
Price: Free / $7-$40
C. Scott Brown wrote about his experience with reWASD this week. For the uninitiated, reWASD is input mapping software that lets you remap buttons on basically anything to do basically anything else. It comes with an Android app that, as long as you’re connected to the same network as your PC, lets you remap your stuff using your phone. The features are vast and too plentiful to list here, so check out the article linked above to learn more about it. The app isn’t new, but it’s still cool.
North Kingdom
Price: Free
North Kingdom is a tower defense game. Players build a wall to keep the enemies out so the archers can take out the bad guys. It’s not the most complicated game, and there are multiple ways to win each round. You can upgrade your towers as well, which adds a bit of depth. The game also features no in-app purchases, no ads, and offline play. It’s not the most in-depth tower defense game on mobile. However, it’s definitely the best free tower defense game with no ads or in-app purchases that we’ve ever seen.
Expiry Date Reminder
Price: Free
Expiry Date Reminder is a simple app with a simple premise. You input things in your pantry, fridge, etc., with an expiration date on them. The app then reminds you when the expiration date hits. The app lets you add an infinite number of items for free, and the UI is reasonably easy to use. You can also use it with medicine, subscriptions, food, and anything else you can think of. It’s a brand new app by an independent developer, so we don’t know how stable it is on every phone, but it worked okay with our test devices.
1 Bit SurVivor
Price: Free / $2.99
1 Bit SurVivor is a roguelike with survival horror elements. It uses low res graphics and frenetic action to keep the player engaged. Your goal is to survive for 28 days and save your pet cat. Some of the game features include offline play, three unlockable character classes, and no microtransactions. In terms of gameplay, it’s similar to many other roguelikes, except this one uses first-person animations for some of the player actions. It’s not much, but it adds a bit of visual flair. The game is cheap, and we think it’s pretty good.
If we missed any big Android apps or games news or releases, tell us about it in the comments.
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