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From first-person shooters packing console caliber visuals to some of the most enjoyable indie titles fit for the entire family, Google Play features a vast and constantly growing library of games in every genre. And NVIDIA’s next-generation SHIELD Android TV is the latest and greatest in SHIELD hardware offering some of the best gaming experiences you’ll find on Android. In the following guide, we take a look at 11 recently launched games you shouldn’t miss on NVIDIA SHIELD—separated into different genre categories for your convenience.
Dirty Rotting Scoundrels – Undead Options A-Plenty
Unkilled
Whether you’re rocking a SHIELD Android TV system in your sitting room, or travelling with your SHIELD Tablet K1, there’s one game that can satisfy both your craving for zombie-blasting action and your desire to show off your hardware. Unkilled is a frenetic and tongue-in-cheek take on the zombie invasion theme that really puts NVIDIA’s Tegra technology through its paces. The player is tasked with clearing New York City of an influx of undead abominations, but rather than focusing on horror and tension, this is all about action and insane bad guys. Enemies include the Minesweeper, a massive, rotting lump of hatred with a naval mine sticking out of his gut and Butcher whose right hand has been replaced by a massive blade. It boasts stunning visuals and hilariously off-the-scale gore.
Resident Evil 5
This one is for SHIELD Android TV gamers only and leverages the device’s Tegra X1 technology to bring Capcom’s PC and console survival-horror epic into your lounge in all its gory glory. Taking place five years after the events in Resident Evil 4, Chris Redfield and partner Sheva Alomar are sent to the African province of Kijuju to track down an illegal bioweapons trader only to find the place overrun by a population infected by a parasite that turns them into marauding killers. Taking narrative and control cues from the previous games in the series this chapter focuses on combat with players able to stun the infected before engaging them in close-quarters combat. It’s a fine addition to a much loved franchise and a must-own game on SHIELD.
Sporting Chance – SHIELD Games for Competitive Players
Alto’s Adventure
It’s not often you get to chase a herd of goats down a mountainside on a snowboard, but Alto’s Adventure offers you precisely that opportunity. As the pastel backdrops drift gently by all you have to do is cut through the powder on your board and attempt to gather up all your errant goats. Sounds idyllic, right? And it is a very relaxing take on endless running, but you also have to avoid obstacles and pull off jumps, tricks and grinds to maximize your total score. It’s gaming with a meditative aspect. A Zen-dless runner if you’ll pardon the awkward pun.
Stickman Soccer 2016
The UEFA European Championship is in full swing right now across the pond so what better way to celebrate than with Stickman Soccer’s latest iteration. You can take part in US, European and women’s leagues, dip in and out of one-off games and even take part in a virtual version of France 2016 featuring 24 teams, three rounds and knockout stages. The gameplay itself is a wonderful combination of simple pass and shoot play mechanics and more tactical team play.
Skateboard Party 3
Legendary goofy-footed skate hero Greg Lutzka joins Ratrod Studio Inc’s deck based franchise and the results are awesome. In Skateboard Party 3 on NVIDIA SHIELD, you can choose from 16 radical skaters, each with their own personalities while upgrading their outfits, boards, trucks and wheels. There are 70 challenges to work through in the game and you can also play against a friend to see who can land the baddest trick.
Android’s Tactical Strike – Strategy Gaming Par Excellence
Crush Your Enemies
You have to admire a bunch of creative folk who look upon what has gone before and rather than build upon it, instead decide to strip it back to its constituent parts and deliver something new and irreverent. That’s what developer Vile Monarch has done with Crush Your Enemies. It’s a real-time strategy game in which you deploy peasants, warriors and archers and aim to capture territory, buildings and be victorious in battle. Words fail us, but perhaps the game’s trailer might better explain what to expect from this brilliantly anarchic project.
Space Hulk
Games Workshop has been providing fantastical tabletop strategy experiences to escapists for decades and their tactical wargaming classic Space Hulk comes to SHIELD players. Space Hulk is a tactical turn-based affair in which Space Marines – the Blood Angels – are sent aboard a starship to rid it of invading Tyranid Genestealers. The corridors of the ship are narrow and claustrophobic so players have to carefully determine the best places from which to launch attacks on the genestealers without getting penned in. Space Hulk is a great sci-fi strategy experience worth checking out even if you’re unfamiliar with its dark fantasy universe it’s spun from.
Puzzles, Platforms and… Time Travel!
Afterloop
This sweet little puzzler is a definite favorite of ours. It’s very similar to the classic puzzle game Rush Hour in which you have to move vehicles around in order to get your trapped car to the exit except here your car is a cute little robot and the obstructions are collections of colored blocks. An added layer of complexity comes in the form of multiple unconnected blocks that can be used to shunt other blocks around, plus there are three stars on each level that you can also attempt to collect. Afterloop is simple, beautifully designed and a lot of fun.
MetaBall
MetaBall is an incredibly addictive puzzle-based experience that will put your reflexes to the test. All you have at your disposal is a shiny metal ball and your own digital dexterity as you try to guide said ball around a series of more than 40 floating mazes in order to reach the gemstone at the exit of each level. Some floor tiles bounce you hither and yon while there are also moving tiles and lifts to further complicate matters. As there are no walls to the maze you are also constantly in danger of falling off the stage. MetaBall is challenging but it does succeed in goading you into just one more attempt to beat your previous high score.
Ultimate Chicken Horse
This game offers some of the most fun you can have with a SHIELD device and a bunch of friends. Ultimate Chicken Horse is a multiplayer platforming experience where players actually build the levels they race through. Here the building of the levels is an integral part of the gameplay. Each player takes it in turns to place game objects onto the level. These include platforms, conveyor belts, bombs and even buzz saws. Then all of the players simultaneously race through the levels gaining points for managing to stop one of the other players with their traps. Plus the fact you all play as cartoon animals for absolutely no reason whatsoever is a chucklesome bonus.
Lost Echo
If you like your adventures with lots of narrative twists and turns you’re going to love Lost Echo’s sometimes bewildering storyline. You play the part of Greg, a would-be inventor who, while buying his girlfriend Chloe an ice cream in the park, witnesses some sort of electrical disturbance. He then wakes up in a hospital bed, only to discover that there is no record of his girlfriend ever having existed so he sets out to solve the mystery. As Greg uncovers more details of the event he gradually realizes that he may himself have played a part in what happened. The near-future setting is beautifully realized with clean, straight lines and muted colors that give the whole experience a dream-like quality. The story is a fascinating one and the key scenes are punctuated with a scattering of intriguing puzzles.
All the amazing SHIELD offerings above are now available to download on NVIDIA SHIELD via Google Play.
About the Author
Andy has been writing professionally for 25 years beginning his career on a magazine for the now practically antique Commodore 64 before going on to write for, edit and launch a number of games titles. More recently, as a freelance copy writer he has been making words on subjects as diverse as weddings, cross-stitching, home improvements, accountancy, architecture and chimney sweeps. Video games remain his favorite topic to write about, though.
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