Rovio’s new online combat game Battle Bay is also worth a look, along with premium shooter Neon Chrome, while video-driven recipe app nna might help you whip up some tasty dishes NASA’s Visualization Explorer offers up interesting research-driven stories. Read on for more, then hit the ay Store to try something new this weekend.
Battle Bay
Everyone knows Rovio for its increasingly exhausted Angry Birds series, but the studio is trying something new with Battle Bay. Thankfully free of both cartoon birds pigs, this active online multiplayer game tosses you into 5-on-5 shootouts on the high seas, as each team fights to control a spot in the water while simultaneously trying to eliminate the other squad. Rovio likens it to a MOBA (multiplayer online battle arena) game, but this isn’t ague of gends: the matches typically only last a couple of minutes, you’ll actively fire your cannons while pushing through the churning waves. This free-to-play affair lets you unlock new types of fighters augment your ship with upgradeable weapons, plus you can join a guild fight for something more than just short-term supremacy.
nna
ve spending your spare time in the kitchen whipping up new dishes? If so, then you might get a kick out of nna, a longtime iOS favorite that finally made the jump to Android. This cooking app is video-centric, delivering impressive clips alongside the written instructions. Better yet, many of the recipes videos come from respected celebrity chefs, such as Bayless, Nancy Silverton, Zimmern. On the other h, it doesn’t come for free: you can try it for a month without paying, but then it’s $40 for a full year with no month-to-month option offered. At least you’re paying for quality, thanks to an array of scrumptious-looking dishes, festive holiday-centric themed options, well-shot videos for every one of the 400+ recipes.
Neon Chrome
Speaking of paying for quality: Neon Chrome ($10) is a lot pricier than your average Android game release, but this port of the popular shooter loses little in its move to smaller screens. Neon Chrome finds you scaling a tower floor by floor, blasting everything in sight in a cool, cyberpunk-inspired world teeming with aggressive robotic foes. You’ll use one virtual stick to move your character the other to use your firearm in this top-down shooter, the tough challenge means you’ll probably die frequently at first. However, there’s incentive to keep pushing ahead, thanks to persistent character upgrades enhancements, plus the romized level arrangements mean you’ll face something new with each fresh run. And look at it this way: it’s $5 less than the version.
NASA Visualization Explorer
Space enthusiasts, take note: NASA’s new Visualization Explorer is another way to tap into the agency’s exhaustive output, it’s a lot speedier than browsing the website. This particular app is built around NASA’s space-based research efforts, delivering a stream of news stories from its various space crafts complete with images, photos, charts, videos. Truth be told, the actual app itself isn’t much of a looker: it’s really just a repository for text with some accompanying assets, the same as you’d find on the web. But if you’re into stories about climate change, solar system observations, historical NASA details, then you’re sure to appreciate the approachable writing easy access on your phone. New stories are added every other week, you can dig into the entire archive of 500+ stories for free.
