Heirs to the feathered throne 2nd edition

You already know that from time to time we try to pick up a few selected games noteworthy for their originality, great gameplay and flawless performance. We try to symbolically award bold developers, go ahead trends and highlight not so well known games well deserved to be given a go. In the end, Angry Birds games aren’t the only with several million downloads, but we’d like to look further and remark those which haven’t achieved absolute success yet, but those which would achieve so instead. Who knows, perhaps none of the games below will never be the new Angry Birds in terms of downloads and economical benefits, but they have what they should. First edition of “Heirs to…” was nearly half a year back, but games presented there are still highly recommendable. Check them out here.

Anyway, Space edition has arrived to town and some voices have hurried up to claim that it’s the best Angry Birds ever. We can agree to some extent whenever we keep in mind that there are a lot of developers out there releasing amazing games well worth to be taken into account. It’s also important not to lose sight of the need for a proper balance between game performance and gameplay. That’s why some wonderful 3D top notch half a Gb games have been left out: it’s about casual gaming, and the more devices support it, the better.

Therefore, without further ado, we’re proud to present our candidates. You can add yours leaving a comment below, as always.

Sprinkle gathers all we can ask for. Awesome physics, challenging puzzles, a lovely plot about putting fires out, it can be played by whoever wants to spare a little while enjoying a great casual game. Sprinkle was released by Mediocre Studios, a Swedish developer, so we might coin a new word and start to talk about Scandi-gaming. In an admirable marketing twist, Sprinkle has a Junior twin suited for kids. In addition, Sprinkle not only was rated 5/5 by our fellow reviewer Emmanuel, but also received the prestigious “Best Casual Game” award in the 8th IMGA ceremony hosted last month in Barcelona within the Mobile World Congress 2012.

Fastest Painter has the merit of renouncing to physics in favor of Art, and exchanging cold blood accuracy for a gameplay where you have to be both fast and precise. Originality may be its main strength and actually emphasizes that maybe the market doesn’t need the next blockbuster be as violent or nonsense as Angry Birds is. By the way, a little History of Art class is always welcome: players can easily recognize each piece of art presented and game’s overall design is really worthwhile. Fastest Painter comes an Italian indie studio called Invektion composed by a computer engineer who loves long exposure photography and a graphic designer fallen in love with masterpiece paintings. Design may not be everything, but you won’t get anything without it.

This time, our last shot is for Train Conductor 2 . It’s everything about gameplay. No firework physics, no over far-fetched ideas, no flashy polygonal stuff. Developer by The Voxel Agents, an Australian company specialized in games thought to be played on the go. This game about bringing trains from the point A to the point B deserves to be remembered as one of the most addictive games so far; it bets for reflexes and the ability to react swiftly and manage what’s happening on the screen, and believe it’s rather a challenge. Further, Train Conductor 2 has something in common with Angry Birds: a great and catchy soundtrack worth to be used as a ringtone.

We’d like, though there may be a technological chasm between it and the aforementioned, to give a special mention to Newton’s War. Don’t expect overwhelming graphics and animations, but a great idea instead. Indeed, we’re absolutely sure that you will recognize the gravity affected shots in this absolutely playable game. We’ve thought it’s right and proper to give some credit to this humble game that, even when it drank from previous games as Worms, it was dare enough to play with gravity the same way that Angry Birds does, with the tricky point of being released time before Space was even announced. Newton’s War was developed by Sertook, a French studio run by a couple of brave college students.

Don’t hesitate to add your own heirs to the feathered throne leaving a comment below. By the way, maybe the true heir to Angry Birds’ success is yet to come: stay tuned because soon we’ll write about some of the most expected previews on Android games and don’t forget to like us on Facebook, follow us on Twitter, subscribe to our Youtube channel and, that would be beyond we can ask for, add us to your G+ circles.

Peter wrote the first “Heirs of the feathered throne article” and proudly has written this the second.

EiC AndroidZoom and proud Angry Birds player.