One of my favorite games when I was growing up was Xevious.  It got me started on what has become an addiction on really well done top down air combat shooter games that have been a staple of arcades and home systems ever since.   One of the best I've found for Android is Air Attack HD.  It's an award winning graphically intense next-generation game that will make you remember how good an arcade type game can be.  Even better, this game includes enhanced graphics and capabilities for Tegra devices like the Motorola XOOM.   Here's some sample gameplay footage so you can see how great Air Attack HD is.


Now this game has it all.  There's 10 great missions featuring 64 different enemy types and 3 different player aircraft.  There's a ton of different upgrades and enhanced weapons you can earn to make your craft more powerful.  The lighting and special effects are simply phenomenal with a definite cinematic quality to them and the orchestral score makes you feel like you're in the middle of a great War epic.  There's real time physics, animated and destructible bridges, buildings, vehicles, air and spacecraft and more.  The levels are chock full of beautifully rendered landscapes and environments using 3d lightmaps and specular lighting that adds a really cool sense of depth to the game.  Finally there's TEN awesome Bosses to defeat so what else could want for just $2.99!  Download it today at the link below.

Turn the tried and true tunnel defense genre on its head with Anomaly Warzone Earth HD!  You take control of the attacking force and send your well equipped warriors against the defensive towers of the opposing alien horde.  You determine where and in what order your troops attack with the object being the destruction of the enemy turrets so you can reach your goal.  'Anomaly' features gorgeous top-down graphics with alien bases and landscapes galore as well as beautifully animated aliens, monsters and weaponry.  Great dynamic lighting effects as well.   Take a look at the video below and get a dose of what you're in for. 

Features:

- Experience a new type of tower defense game where you're the attacking side
- Think tactically and choose the right squad, route, special weapons, and plan to guarantee success in Tower Offense strategy
- Gather resources strategically to buy and upgrade new and more powerful units
- Play for hours on end in engaging modes of play: Story Campaign and Squad Assault modes
- Immerse yourself in the cutting-edge graphics and atmospheric soundtrack

Now I really like this game.  I've played just about every tunnel defense game there is and frankly I've always wondered when someone was going to turn the tables and let us be the invading force instead of the defender.  It's really great because you get to try out all kinds of reverse strategies that you've probably thought of the enemy 'should' use when playing the defensive side.   Except now you have a chance to put it in action as the offensive force.   You select the path, the number, the weapons and combination of invaders.   You can choose what turrets and towers to attack and in what order.  If you're a big tunnel defense fan you love it.  Tehre's two distinct modes of play:  Story Campaign and Squad Assault Mode.  You gather resources and strategically build up the power of your forces but don't take too long to invade or the defense will be able to build up strong towers and hamper your invasion.  'Anomaly Warzone Earth HD' is a really terrific game and very high quality.  Well worth the $1.69 in Play.Google.com.  Grab it at the link below.

We love mashups.  Peanut butter and chocolate (or jelly), a romantic comedy that's also a zombie thriller, a ballad that's also a hard rock thrasher.   There's something about taking two seemingly incompatible ideas or elements, throwing them together and presto:  the magic ensues.   Well ladies and gents that's basically what Rigonauts:  Broadside turns out to be.  A mashup between a physics based  'let em fly' game and a robot fighter construction type game not unlike Minibash.   The result is an interesting combination of strategy and all in, fight till the death combat that we're looking forward to playing when it's released in May.  Developer 'Engient' has been hard at work on this one and promises a boatload of cool screens and challenges.   Take a look at the video below to see what's in store for us and we'll continue after the break.


In Rigonauts:  Broadside, you play Rigo who has to lead his minions in battle against the Komandants.  The story goes that your ship was destroyed and now you have to take all the pieces that have been blown to bits and reassemble them into a host of different machines that's best able to fight against an army of robot opponents.  You choose between different combinations of engines, gears, wheels, propellers and of course weapons and you design your bot to do battle in one of 30 levels.  Now some of these adversaries can be pretty tricky and sometimes just building a rig isn't enough...you have to figure out how best to use it to defeat the enemy.   Rigonauts won 2nd place in the Activision's Independent Games Competition and games this complex and innovative don't come around that often so we're looking forward to it.   We'll post a link as soon as the game goes live but it should provide hours of entertainment on your ZOOM or Xyboard tablet.

Looking for an action packed title with tower defense elements along with great graphics, sound and gameplay?   Then look no further than 'Meltdown on Mars THD' a new title that is available exlusively for Tegra  devices and offered on the Tegrazone.com website as well as GooglePlay.  You're the last surviving human colonist on Mars and your job is to fend off the relentless horde of aliens to save the human outpost.  You earn cash by killing aliens and then purchase new weapons, gun turrets, barricades, mines and other assorted weaponry.


'Meltdown on Mars THD' has been specially optimized to take advantage of the Tegra 2 processor and the graphics really pop.  You can see great detail and lighting effects all around and gameplay is silky smooth.  I especially like how the enemy hordes can come out in mass numbers and the gameplay doesn't slow down a bit.  'Meltdown on Mars THD' will set you back $3.99 and you can grab it at the link below or at Tegrazone.com

Wouldn't it be great if you could play your favorite full version games that you normally could only play on your high powered desktop or laptop...on your tablet?   Well with 'OnLive Mobile' that's exactly what you can do.  How is this possible you ask?  Well 'OnLive Mobile' uses similar technology to remote desktop apps to allow you to virtually play your games on your tablet even though the processing is being done on 'Onlive's' powerful cloud servers.  What this means is that while you control the action on your mobile device the 'heavy lifting' of rendering and processing the graphics and play of the game is taking place off of your tablet.  The experience is amazing.  The 'OnLive' service offers many of the bestselling titles in gaming like Batman Arkham City, L.A. Noire and Assassin's Creed: Revelations and a growing library of others.  You buy the game once through 'OnLive' and then can play it on any mobile device you have including laptops, phones and tablets.  Just take a look at some of the features of 'OnLive Mobile':

On Demand Gaming
No big downloads, no limits on performance. With OnLive, gamers have instant access to console-class games, running on OnLive’s powerful servers in the cloud, and streaming video to your tablet or phone. You can start playing a high-end game within seconds of signing on. Even if you don’t own any games, OnLive provides free demos of nearly all games offered on the service.

Access Everywhere
Play OnLive games anywhere, anytime on almost any OnLive-compatible device, whether tablet, phone, TV or computer. Your games, saves and user profile are always stored in the cloud so you start a game on one device, and continue where you left off on another—even multiplayer gameplay is cross-platform. Build your library without taking up any space on your Android device.

Unique Game Platform Experiences
Watch live games being played worldwide in OnLive’s exclusive massive spectating Arena, find your friends and set up multiplayer matches, or post Brag Clip™ videos of your greatest moments to your OnLive profile or Facebook wall. With OnLive you never have to worry about game updates, backups or the performance capabilities of your local device. Just play games. Instantly.

Play with Touch or OnLive Wireless Controller
Play OnLive’s growing library of touch-compatible games on your Android tablet or phone, or get the Universal OnLive Wireless Controller (check compatibility list above) at www.onlive.com/store for a full hands-on console experience compatible with most OnLive games.

You can even use a special OnLive Wireless Controller to play that makes your tablet into a true arcade experience.  Social networking like Facebook is integrated into the gaming experience so you can post on the fly.  OnLive is free to download but each game is priced separately.  You can also get the OnLive Viewer for free and watch games in progress in 'spectator mode'.  If you're a fan of gaming...and let's face it these days who isn't...then I definitely recommend you give 'OnLive Mobile' a try.  It really does raise gaming on your tablet to a whole new level.

Hotels and Motels are so old school.  'In the know' travelers figured out long ago that if you want to get an authentic taste of the country or place you're visiting filled with local knowledge, local architecture and often times enough local food, music and culture to last a lifetime 'Bed and Breakfast's' typically offer much more 'bang for the buck' than national or even regional hotel brands.  But without an easy to use central resource how do you find the best BnB's for the place you want to visit?  and how do you go about booking the trip easily once you do, especially if there are language issues.  That's where 'Airbnb' comes in.   'Airbnb' offers over 100,000 unique one of a kind travel bookings through a few simple mouse clicks.  Whether you want a romantic house overlooking the water in Santorini, a castle in Ireland or perhaps a family style villa in eastern europe, 'Airbnb' links up renters and those offering space better than any other service.  Here's just some of what 'Airbn' offers:

Features & Capabilities:

• Discover unique properties in 19,000+ cities in 192+ countries worldwide
• Stuck without a place to stay? One click lets you search for nearby places available tonight
• Reserve properties using your credit card directly from your fingertips
• Access your itinerary and host details, and get one-click directions
• Check out user profiles, reviews and message prospective hosts and guests
• Snap photos of your space with your camera for instant upload to Airbnb
• Keep track of guest check-in/check-out at your listing
• Confirm reservation requests when you're on the go

'Airbnb' let's you do lots of research on available lodgings in your choice of 19000+ cities and there's tons of useful info including reviews and profiles of locations filled out by past guests.   There's also a new photo linking feature which has quickly become popular so you can see actual guest photos from the BnB you're researching and can compare that with the space's official photos.   Now 'Airbnb' consists of both one-off privately owned space in homes, condos, villas and unique properties as well as 'traditional' shared BnB facilities that operate like private hotels with nearby or live-in hosts and often some meals included.  Personally, I think 'Airbnb' is a terrific research tool in finding the coolest places to stay when away from home both domestically and internationally, but when it comes to actually booking a room I'd probably want to follow up and do it with an actual phone call or at least confirm any reservations made through the 'Airbnb' service.  The 'Airbnb' app can be downloaded for free from the Android Market (link below) and you can also visit the 'Airbnb' website at airbnb.com.

Several days ago some select XOOM owners received an invitation from Motorola to take part in a 'Project' but the company didn't say what this 'Project' would entail but did say it would require some level of non-disclosure as well as feedback from the XOOM owner.  Well we now know that in fact this 'Project' is a trial of the latest version of Android for the XOOM, Ice Cream Sandwich.  Not only that but from the documents above we are led to believe that the rest of XOOM owners will be receiving this software soon unless "there is some extremely serious issue."  Very exciting news for XOOM owners.

You are 'Henry Blake', once a proud member in England's Royal Navy, but now a shattered man, betrayed, imprisoned, your fiancee stolen.  Now all you want is revenge and to claim your once great life back.  Welcome to BackStab HD, one of the most graphically rich, immersive action adventure games available for your XOOM.    Now as many of you know Gameloft, the developer of some of the best games made for Android has had an amazing holiday sale over the past week where just about all their games have been reduced to just 99 cents.   Well we couldn't let the sale pass (today is the last day) without recommending one of our favorite games for the XOOM, BackStab HD.   


Here are some of the features of BackStab HD:

- Discover a blockbuster production with the best graphics, an unprecedented story, and endless content
- Experience an action-packed adventure with open environments, deep combat, platforming, and more
- Master the combo-based combat system to slay anyone standing between you and your prey
- Experience an immersive world through impressive character interactions and lifelike voice effects
- Investigate 4 unique cities to find new quests and secrets

BackStab HD features an 'open environment' where you can explore an incredibly detailed, 3d rendered fully realized world. You can interact with characters and you'll have to fight your way through scene after scene in your quest.  It does feature its fair share of violence and epic swordplay is at the heart of the fighting but what I really loved about BackStab HD is that unlike a lot of hack and slash adventures out there it really has a good story behind it that gets your involved in the game. 

There's a combo based combat system that you'll learn to vanquish your foes and exotic environments like jungles, volcanoes, beaches and awesomely rendered towns and villages That are a feast for the eyes.  If you read the comments in the Android Market you'll see endless raves about this game and just how gorgeous and epic it is.  Don't wait until the price goes up.  Grab BackStab HD now at the link below for only 99 cents today.  You can thank me later.