Everyone can name a decent tower defense game, but how many Android users can rattle off the title of their favorite tower offense game? Anomaly Warzone Earth HD flips the old format on its head and creates a fun strategy-based game in which players plan an attack on a position rather than protect it.

The premise of Anomaly HD, available for $3.99, is that aliens have invaded planet Earth and a commander must lead a group of units through fields of enemies to complete tactical missions. That can range from cutting through alien forces to rescue trapped comrades, re-taking military facilities, or going on recon missions to learn more about the invaders and acquire weaponry that will lead to ultimate victory.

Along the way, players will see the familiar features of a tower game: destroying adversaries earns money to acquire new units and purchase upgrades, tactical rewards can heal fighters or provide an advantage in battle, and waves of attacks will determine your chance for survival. Players can make changes to their attack plan – including route and sell vehicles to get more money for upgrades or changes – in the middle of an attack.

The main problem with Anomaly is actually the installation process. The app requires an additional 180 MB of game data to function and it took me 3 days before I finally managed to get the entire filed downloaded without crashing. Once I did, I found that the graphics weren’t mind-blowing, but the other aspects of the production value were very good. Support staff provides audio updates about missions and alerts users when they need to perform repairs or consider alternate routes. There’s also a good story and three levels of difficulty that can be changed for each mission. At $4.99, this is a game that I can see people enjoying when they pick it up, put it down when they have to, and come right back to find the same level of enjoyment.

Here’s a video showing some action from the game.

I’m going to skip talking about the Xyboard name for as long as I can. Ok. The name is ridiculous; I’m moving on. As Verizon’s newest tablet, the Xyboard has a lot of weight on its shoulders from the Xoom and Galaxy 10.1 debuts. Motorola has certainly impressed me recently, but can their smartphone success translate into tablet success? Is this a worthy successor to a less-than-one-year old tablet? If you’re looking for a 4G LTE tablet, absolutely, and here’s why.

Hardware

The look and feel of the Xyboard is one of Motorola’s highest efforts over the past few months. With shaved corners and a very thin exterior, the Xyboard feels almost like an 8″ tablet. Unlike the Xoom, the frame is solidly constructed throughout and it can rival the Galaxy 10.1 for thinness, though it is heavier than the Galaxy 10.1. Thanks to Motorola’s consistent foresight in adding a mini-HDMI output, you can play the Xyboard on your big screen which you can’t with the Galaxy 10.1.

The rest of the Xyboard’s exterior is minimalistic with a black/silver aluminum frame and a power and volume rocker on the back instead of the sides of the device. I do like what Motorola does with these buttons, and I definitely think this is a more natural positioning for your hand. However, the buttons are too flush with the back and don’t offer a satisfying click whenever they’re pressed so you may miss them or not press them if you’re not paying close attention.

Screen/Camera

The high-res screen is beautiful, as it should be, but I didn’t think it was anything overly spectacular. It could get very bright, but the automatic brightness wasn’t the most intelligent sensor so I was stuck with a blinding light while reading at night. Unlike the RAZR but similar to every other tablet I’ve tried, the screen can get very smudgy. I was wiping it off with a cleaner every other day just to make it look respectable. The colors and overall screen seem better than my Transformer too.

With the camera, I have been fairly impressed with Motorola’s latest offerings. You don’t expect to have the greatest camera on a tablet, but on the Xyboard it is more than serviceable.  The photos can speak for themselves:

While not the sharpest photos ever, they are some of the better I’ve taken with a tablet. I even got a little artsy with these.

Software Performance

Even coming from Ice Cream Sandwich on my phone, the Honeycomb bugs and lags are more evident than ever to me now. While these two versions of Android are very close to each other, ICS offers a host of new features that make you wonder why it wasn’t included on the Xyboard. The launch window for this tablet wasn’t rushed like the Xoom’s was, and I think Motorola could have pushed back the launch to make the Xyboard the first tablet with ICS instead of being the Xoom 2.0. All that being said, Honeycomb runs smooth on the Xyboard even with the bloatware from Motorola and Verizon.

The overall layout from Honeycomb isn’t changed by Motorola which is a blessing considering Samsung’s Touchwiz overlay, and despite the custom ROM on my Transformer and at least triple the apps, the Xyboard is faster changing through screens and doing other normal OS functions than other tablets I’ve used (Transformer, Tab, Xoom). It is a bit overclocked at 1.2Ghz, but with an OMAP processor instead of the Tegra like in the others. Still, I have to question the reasons not to add the newest Tegra 3 since they should have a good relationship with Nvidia after the Xoom opened the floodgates for multi-core processors.

App Performance

Like I mentioned, the Xyboard has a little faster processor out of the gate than my Transformer, but it by no means blew the Transformer out of the water (with a lot less installed on it too). Angry Birds and Osmos were a second or so faster than my Transformer. Games like Rock’em Sock’em Robots, Shadowgun and Osmos ran wonderfully, and I noticed very little lag when switching between all of these at the same time. I thought it was interesting that the Xyboard kept apps running in the background instead of shutting them down after a while. When I went to pull up Osmos for the second time, the Xyboard brought it straight up to the menu screen instead of starting the whole game over again. Very convenient although I don’t know if this is the Xyboard itself or my Transformer shutting down the app too quickly.

The problem with Motorola devices on Verizon, usually, is the plethora of useless bloatware because both Motorola and Verizon believe heavily in it. Motocast, V Cast, VideoSurf, Slingbox, Netflix, and Blockbuster all come pre-loaded. Will you use one of these apps? Maybe, maybe not. But you certainly won’t use two or more because they all directly compete with one another! I know each company has deals with other companies, but directly competing apps that you probably don’t want shouldn’t be on the same device.

Final Thoughts

My first thought with these devices is usually, “Who is this made for?” With the Xyboard, I really can’t decide. It’s not for early adopters because they already bought the Xoom, and it’s not for power users because the Transformer Prime has a quad-core processor. It’s a slim device but without the weightlessness of the Galaxy 10.1, and only Verizon’s LTE makes this a stand-out device. While I didn’t see many flaws with the Xyboard (great design, runs smoothly, mini-HDMI), I also don’t know what makes someone want this instead of a cheaper Xoom or even iPad from Verizon.

If the Xyboard would have been released when the Xoom was, it could have blown most of our expectations away for a first-gen Android tablet. However, it’s launch is in the middle of an Android OS upgrade and a processor power-battle. The Xyboard’s design and slimness make it a great upgrade from the Xoom, but for Motorola’s next tablet, I want them to make a device that will usher in the next generation of tablets instead of releasing the best tablet at the end of the era.

Coming out of the gate, the HTC Rezound had a tough battle. The Motorla Droid RAZR had already been released, and rumors of the Verizon Galaxy Nexus release date were in full swing. To make the Rezound stand out in this crowd, HTC partnered with Beats by Dre and added a few more of its trademark wine-red accents to make a sexy phone with a mass-marketable feature. I’ll breakdown whether the Rezound can stand up against the thin onslaught from the RAZR and Nexus, and if you should give it serious consideration.

Hardware

After handling the RAZR and buying the Nexus, the Rezound felt like brick. It’s almost double the size of the RAZR, and although I know HTC devices are generally bigger devices, I don’t know exactly why the Rezound had to be so big. With a device like the Thunderbolt, you could give HTC the benefit of the doubt. But if the RAZR can stick a dual-core processor, 8MP camera, and a 4G LTE radio inside its thin frame, you have to believe HTC fumbled with the Rezound’s design a bit.

Aside from the thickness, the Rezound is, of course, well-made. HTC added a rubber back cover with grip to the phone so it wouldn’t scrape and slide on a hard surface like almost every HTC phone has before it. Around the phone the Rezound comes almost bare with a headphone jack, volume rocker, power button, and, very fortunately, a look-a-like proprietary USB port (it tricked me when I first looked at the cable). My only real gripe about the physical hardware is I would like the volume rocker and power button to stick out of the phone more. It’s hard to find these buttons if you’re fumbling around with the phone and even harder to press them once you do find them. The buttons are a rubbery black which makes them hard to see unlike other HTC phones that have a gunmetal or shiny black finish to make them easier to see.

Screen/Camera

Beautiful. I wanted a 4.5″ screen, but HTC finally made a rock-solid display. The brightness, even when set to its highest, is more muted than my Nexus and blacks won’t blend into the background, but the pure 720p resolution of the screen makes apps and details look great without the pixelation of a Pentile display. I know a lot of people dislike anything above a 4.3″ screen, and I believe HTC lucked out somewhat in that the RAZR and Nexus are both big phones. A lot of people will be able to look at all three phones simultaneously and decide whether or not they can handle the bigger phones or opt for the only similarly-spec’d phone, the Rezound. I’ll also say that smudges are much more noticeable on the Rezound’s screen than either the Nexus or the RAZR.

Wow. The camera application on the Rezound is far and away the best I’ve used on a phone. With tons of features (panorama, action burst) and even more effects (dots may be the coolest effect ever), the Rezound has all these features conveniently located. The camera itself takes very quick pictures, and the pictures are gorgeous.

Software Performance

In a word – stale. HTC’s Sense UI overlay has gone through several iterations, all bringing improvements, but with the same look and style. If we look at Samsung’s Touchwiz, we see a marked improvement in speed, style, and enhancements. But Sense, aside from the lockscreen which is great, has the same look, feel, and flow that it has always had. While it does have speed improvements, it’s still the same curved dock at the bottom, the same personalization settings, and the same jerky app drawer. With the Ice Cream Sandwich (ICS) upgrade due the Rezound, I’ll be very intrigued to see how HTC will change the look and feel of Sense. I hope they freshen it up because it is the best of all the manufacturer overlays, but ICS looks beautiful on its own too.

I’m also pleased to report that the Verizon bloatware has been diminished a good bit. Instead of City ID or Tetris, you’re upgraded to Hot Pursuit and a barcode scanner. I genuinely enjoy HTC’s widgets, and I don’t really consider them bloatware, but with 3 e-mail apps bundled with the phone, it becomes a little extraneous. However, all of this didn’t seem to bog the phone down in the slightest as the Rezound is just as zippy as the RAZR when flying through screens or getting in and out of menus and apps. The battery life didn’t take much of a hit either. Without the LTE radio, I could see getting over a day of medium usage (but who wants to turn off LTE when you’re getting 20MB/s download?!).

App Performance

HTC makes really nice apps (the camera) and widgets (Friendstream), and I would recommend these almost as highly as third-party apps. For games and such, I put the Rezound up against my Nexus in speed and multi-tasking tests, and it fared pretty well. Like I said, neither Sense nor Verizon’s apps really slowed this phone down, and the Rezound was able to come away with a few wins against the Nexus.

My LTE speedtest showed consistently that the Rezound’s radio is better than the Nexus. I got at least a few MBs faster downloads than the Nexus almost every time. In multiple tests opening Angry Birds and Jelly Defense, both phones were neck and neck, but the Nexus edged the Rezound out 7/10 times. Finally, I wouldn’t worry about those intense games like Shadowgun or Heavy Gunner either. They work without lag or stutter, but I did miss the bigger screen for these types of games.

Final Thoughts

So what exactly makes the Rezound stand out? Sure, there’s Beats by Dre and the smallest notification light possible, but with the overbearing natures of the RAZR and Nexus, does the Rezound do anything they can’t? It’s thick body stands out, but aside from that, there are more compelling reasons to buy either the RAZR or Nexus. Maybe you want a smaller screen, HTC’s durable contruction or you even want Sense; but if a consumer is asked if they want a paper thin phone or ICS or neither, the consumer will usually choose either of the flashy features of the RAZR or Nexus, and I don’t have any compelling arguments against them.

However, the Rezound is another solid phone in HTC’s lineup, and you won’t regret this phone in the slightest (it will get ICS in the coming months). It has similar hardware as its competitors, and you know exactly what you’re getting with the hardware construction and Sense. Beats by Dre does sound great, much clearer than the competition, but it’s not as much of a game-changer as ICS or unimaginable thinness. For audiophiles or even Beats by Dre lovers, this is definitely the phone for you. With Verizon’s LTE and a shockingly fast 1.5 dual core processor, the Rezound is no slouch, and may be the best phone out, if you can stay away from the flash and style of the RAZR and Nexus.

You can get the Rezound at Verizon for $300 on contract, at Amazon for $150 on contract or at Wirefly for $150 on contract.

I fear turn-based RPGs may have gone the way of the dodo, but I am finding a little relief in the exploding market of action/RPGs. Exitium is one of the newer of these hybrid games on the market, and I was pleasantly surprised at the amount of detail, polish, and overall mechanics of the first game from Minoraxis, Inc. From the moment you are literally thrown into the beautiful world of Vardonia, you will control four heroes with whom you can take the reigns and steer the future of the Arkan and Abylonian kingdoms.

Before you begin any of the storylines, you are given the choice to play as Kiron, a fierce brute warrior, Jasen, a paladin with a mix of martial and magical powers, Galen, a warrior-wizard, and Alia, a priestess. Each has their own storyline and backstory along with unique sets of attacks, skills, and weapons. Every character is a soldier on one side of the war or another, allowing you to gain a unique perspective on their beliefs on the war and their civilization. The two magicians were more difficult to use because of their spell attacks so if you want more of a challenge start with either of them.

Exitium’s gameplay is very reminiscent of Destina. You travel through multiple environments to fulfill quest requirements all the while fighting monsters and leveling up. There are no breaks in battle as monsters constantly reappear, though you can change equipment, use items, and save anytime you’re in a hostile setting. Fighting and using spells are easier than in Destinia, mainly because you have less spells to use, but you aren’t constantly switching menus to find the right spell. All the controls are at your thumb-tip making it easy to cast a spell or use a potion.

The story is a little linear for an RPG game. I don’t mean there aren’t plot twists or turns, there are, but there’s not really any exceptional dialogue or intrigue for the characters. The whole story is told to you without actual happening to you (it’s the show vs tell argument). While, thankfully, it is easy to find quests and your next objective, you can almost foresee what you will be told to do and what will happen. Obviously with four characters there are four different interesting paths and stories to choose from, but the basic quests and missions are a bit too predictable.

As I mentioned, gameplay is fantastic, and I think the simpler, but just as rich, inventory/forging/skills is the best approach. There are thousands of weapon and armor choices to find or create or upgrade at your whim so you don’t ever have to be stuck with the same equipment. Menus are easy to navigate, and Exitium allows you to simply and quickly drag and drop items. While forging and upgrading equipment was easy, selling was time-consuming as you have to input what price you want to sell the equipment for.

Despite a few hiccups like continuing running in a direction after I stopped pressing or some lag when facing many enemies (albeit on my fading Xperia Play), the amount of polish and detail in this game are astounding. The world is completely filled with subtle background objects like bones or cracks that would normally go unnoticed. Vardonia is a visually rich world, and the character details are magnificent. The art quality is worth the price of admission alone.

For a 20+ hour campaign along with hundreds of quests for multiple characters, Exitium is one of the best “bang for your buck” games. Vibrant environments, multiple story arcs, and a plethora of quests and weapons mean there are few games that can match the quality and scope which Exitium displays. In a market craving RPG-type games, Exitium is a gem that can truly stand out and say mobile RPG games are the best and strongest of all the nostalgic forces in gaming.

*Unfortunately, the developers just informed me that Google has blocked this game for unknown reasons. Check back soon for more information.

Point and touch games are fairly popular, and when I saw The Passenger Episode 1 for 99 cents, I picked it up. The gorgeous hand drawn graphics and puzzling nature initially attracted me to the game as this isn’t normally my area of gaming expertise. I took the dive though, and, well, I’m now awaiting Episode 2 for more than one reason.

If you’ve ever played Braid, The Passenger has the same graphic art style which is simply amazing. The game opens and periodically plays small movie clips to fill you in on the back story of our hero, The Passenger. From there, you hop off the train and walk around finding and investigating clues. Instead of having a first-person view of the room, this mystery game lets you see the character and direct him around the environment. It can become a little easy because The Passenger highlights what is interactive and what you can do with the items.

The Passenger’s gameplay is similar to The Secret of Grisly Manor or, if you’re more PC inclined, Machinarium. The point and touch adventure is easy and casual enough that anyone can get sucked in with the right amount of imagination, and The Passenger looks to take hold of that theme. With its somber atmosphere and gray but amazingly vivid color palette, the story is set up perfectly for an unknown Passenger on a train whose family has left him behind. This first episode doesn’t give too much away, but it leaves you wondering what might happen, and that’s great for an episodic story/game. Finally, the music revels in the rain soaked train station pavement. Half-dozing with one hand in pocket and your eyes closed, you can imagine, just from the music, the setting of The Passenger.

The Passenger is more than a polished game, but I think the developers overlooked how short this game is. There are only 5-6 puzzles in this game, and they are not difficult enough to leave you stumped and thereby extending the game. The most extensive part is actually making the Passenger walk to and from different environs and objects. Luckily, you don’t have to travel back and forth, but even with the small environments, it felt like it took our hero far too long to cross the room.

I am staunchly of the opinion that $0.99 for a game that can give you hours of satisfaction is nothing. Even if you get a dud of a game, you can’t be too upset. So while I feel The Passenger was far too short, even for a point and touch game, seeing the beautiful style of the game was worth the price of admission. If you love games like Grisly Manor, Aurora, or Amnesia, you will like this game. The Passenger doesn’t have a lot of substance, but it’s simply too pretty to pass up.

I like to drive and travel quite a bit since Indianapolis is in the middle of quite a few Midwestern cities, and since I’m not from around here, I don’t know where I’m going half the time. So I am sincerely thankful for Google Maps and Navigation, but it became increasingly annoying to pick my phone up to look at the map while dodging traffic and finding my destination. Finally, I broke down and bought a Cobra Mini-Mount. A few days later I bought my girlfriend one, and now it’s on all of my family members’ Christmas lists.

The Cobra Mini-Mount doesn’t have a striking feature or really any advanced design that sets it apart, but, to be blunt, it simply works perfectly.  It uses suction and a sticky grip on bottom to hold the mount in place while the arm of the device has a bottom ledge and stickiness to hold your phone in place. It also has an adjustable dial to hold your desired position for the mount in place so if you’re thinking it’s turning a lot whenever you hit a bump, it’s probably because this isn’t tightened enough.

I’ve only tried a handful of docks and most of those were aimed at a specific device. Being a universal device, the Cobra mount is designed to accommodate all shapes and sizes, and so it also has the perception of not necessarily being perfect for any device. I’m here to set that record straight. I’ve tried a couple different devices, and all of them are held beautifully. I’m not going to admit to my “take-a-turn-as-fast-as-possible” driving attitude, but let’s just say under “rigorous” testing none of my phones flew out of the mount.

The Cobra mount does need a little upkeep though. With a simple glass cleaner (my glass wipes in this case work great), you have to wipe down the sticky surface to keep it holding well. I let mine get about a weeks worth of fuzz and hair on it, and it was noticeably less sticky. Before I cleaned it, I turned the mount sideways to watch a video, and the RAZR I had attached fell because I had it charging and the cord tugged at it. You still need to be careful with your devices, but it took quite a bit to get the admittedly unusually shaped RAZR to fall.

The Cobra Car mount doesn’t seem highly touted, and I had a hard time tracking it down until Amazon finally started selling it. So you can find it on Amazon or at Accessory Highway for $19.95 and $24.95 respectively.

I don’t buy a copy of Madden or NCAA football every year nor MLB The Show, though they’re my two favorite sports. I buy NHL every year because it’s the most intense sports game. Hockey games have speed, skill, superstars, scoring, offensive/defensive balance, and a thrill of scoring that no other sport game can match.  I was excited when the new Hockey Nations came out for my tablet, and I could put it through the trials of defeated agony and thrilling victory.

You won’t find player’s names or anything NHL official in Hockey Nations, but it does have a majority of the same NHL cities and team colors so you’re not missing out. Hockey Nations, as its name suggests, has international teams, and you are only able to play a full season mode with these teams. Aside from a full blown season, there are exhibition, shootout, training, and playoff modes so you have options to play a quick game or gruel it out over a long season.

The gameplay is a little too simplified for my hockey tastes. The standard shoot, pass, and speed boost buttons are there, but with the screen size on tablets, I think they could add dekes to the on-screen controls. Also, the controls switch too quick from offense to defense. For example, when I think I could get a loose puck rebound from the goalie, and he touches the puck, the controls change from shooting to checking, and I end up getting a roughing penalty, every single time. They added fighting this year too which is a nice feature, but I haven’t gotten the hang of it.

Graphics are really good from the right camera angle. When you’re going along and playing, they are spectacular, but when the camera zooms in to show individual characters, you can really see they’re just polygonal stick men. The puck has a habit of doing strange things like ending up behind the goal when you score; it’s nothing to interrupt the game, but it is noticeable. However, the ice and rink are crystal clear with tons of definition.

I haven’t noticed any bugs or hangups, but I’m using my Transformer to review this so things may be different on phones. I would like for a little better collision detection between the puck and sticks and goalies. Sometimes slapshots just completely miss or I don’t pick up the puck when I skate over it, and goalies have a terrible habit of letting pucks go through their legs, literally. Lastly, I would really like to stop getting accidental roughing penalties.

If you like hockey as much as I do, Hockey Nations is a great time. It’s probably the best sports game I’ve played on Android (maybe a tie with Baseball Superstars), but believe me when I say, hockey video games are just pure fun. They have excitement, they have action, and they have scoring albeit with strategy, defense, and timing. From the Android Market reviews, it looks like you really need a high-end device to run properly so be forewarned before laying down the cash, but definitely pick up the THD copy if you have a Honeycomb tablet.

OrangePixel has an awesome collection of games for Android, and their latest, Stardash, is a true gem if you’re addicted to platforming games. In the vein of Super Mario and Mega Man, Stardash is level upon level of jumps, dashes, and difficulty. Platforming is great, but Stardash turns it up a notch from the cutesy Mario titles so if you’re faint of heart, turn away now.

Stardash has four chapters with ten levels apiece. Don’t worry though, they won’t go quick, and they won’t go painless. The levels are only unlocked upon completion of the previous level so while they aren’t all progressively harder, you get the easier stuff out of the way in the very first level. With added monsters and more complex puzzles, the latter levels seem hard, but if you can run and jump perfectly, they’re really the same in principle. (I hope that eases the crushing difficulty before you play the game.)

I have an Xperia Play specifically for these gaming reasons. Stardash is fortunately optimized for the Play, but with simple controls, playing with them on-screen doesn’t cause to much discomfort either. Run left, run right, and jump. Those are your only options for survival. What we forget, however, is the timing aspect. This isn’t a control per se, but it is the essence of Stardash and you need it (or luck).

I didn’t notice any bugs or any lag despite the speed and nature of the game. That being said, I did have a few dislikes. I understand the “original Gameboy gameplay” aspect, but I would have liked some color or maybe even a negative-type scheme, not just gray. I also felt like the monsters’ area that caused the character to die was bigger than their actual appearance. In places where I felt safe a centimeter away from a monster, I found myself dying a few times. Maybe this was just me. Be careful anyway.

OrangePixel produces games that us 90s kids love. They hark back to a more difficult era with extremely tight gameplay. They are one of my favorite game developers, and Stardash is another notch in their belt. There is no shame in copying Mario or Mega Man, especially if it’s creative and well-done like Stardash.

I went from Touchwiz to LauncherPro to Go Launcher EX, and I am pretty set in my ways. Rocket Launcher, however, gives users a completely different experience. Instead of homescreens, docks, icons, and widgets, Rocket Launcher is one screen with web-like options for convenience. Minimalism at its finest.

From the clock and date circle in the middle of the screen, Rocket Launcher branches into e-mail, text, browser, phone, app, and widget circles to access your information as quickly and conveniently as possible. All of these circles jump straight into the app, no frills or graphics, and the app circle opens to a drawer with a bit more information on each app than usual.

Rocket Launcher is fast. It can open your e-mails and texts before you can blink. However, third-party browsers or SMS apps aren’t as specialized for this launcher. I use Go SMS, and I wasn’t given the option to set it as my default SMS app. I also use Miren Browser, and Rocket Launcher does let you select it as the default, but it always channels through the stock browser first. The app drawer does a good job of displaying your apps conveniently and neatly, though it is a chore to scroll all the way to the bottom for Youtube. Instead, a recent update gives you access to a few of your favorite apps when you select the clock/date circle.

I use every single feature of Go Launcher EX, and Rocket Launcher just cannot do everything I want it to. Widgets are kept on an entirely separate page, missing the point of “information at a glance” completely. Using third party apps is a headache, and getting to some apps in the drawer is harder than it should be. There are very few preferential changes you can make to the launcher itself as well.

If you are a minimalist fiend or want a simple to use, conveniently located homescreen, Rocket Launcher is perfectly suited to your needs. In terms of originality and speed, Rocket Launcher sets itself apart completely. There is no learning curve because it’s so easy. However, if you’re looking for a homescreen replacement that functions like the stock launcher, Rocket Launcher isn’t that. It is a new, original launcher worth a try to see if it fits your needs.

Sleepy Jack is a newly released Xperia Play exclusive game by the makers of Cordy. Luckily, I have a Play, and I can let you in on our top-secret gaming experiences. Sleepy Jack is like Cordy in its simplicity and artistic style, but adds a notch of complexity and difficulty that Cordy never had. While Sleepy Jack is an Xperia Play exclusive as of this writing, I’m sure it will come to the rest of the market after a month or so.

Sleepy Jack is a flying game with lots of Zzz (think “Zees”) to collect and robots to shoot. Did I mention this is all happening in a little boy’s dream? Your objective is to help Jack get a perfect night’s sleep by collecting Zzz or music notes to keep Jack sleeping soundly. Robots and a lack of Zzz will disturb Jack and wake him up prematurely. If only my dreams were this entertaining…

Keeping Sleepy Jack asleep is pretty easy. You fly towards the Zzz or musical notes while barrel rolling or speeding away from enemy robots and their bullets. There are a few jumps and obstacles during the levels, but they are limited in number as Sleepy Jack is catered towards a younger crowd. While there are slight differences in levels, they are all straight-forward with the same gaming elements throughout.

I would like Sleepy Jack to be a touch harder and have more and differing challenges and puzzles. It isn’t the simplistic game that Cordy was, but it is bordering on being too easy. It would also be nice to see the developers up the graphics level and move on to less childish characters (especially for the hardcore gamers who bought the Xperia Play).

In the end, there is a Hard difficulty setting which is a better challenge, and SilverTree Media has shown their thorough knowledge of creating Android Games. Sleepy Jack is another fun game for the Playstation-certified phone to flaunt. So, if you’re in the mood for a new game on your Xperia Play, look for Sleepy Jack to help you fall asleep sans gun-toting robots.