Some are widely known and have been discussed before, some others are new incursions in the app world and are willing to achieve a great success by generating expectations and creating buzz. Anyway, 2012 has actually started and all omens point to the greatest and most wonderful Android year so far, so it shouldn’t strike anyone that apps and games to come will be also the greatest so far, at least of course till 2013. Let’s take a look at them.

Although there is a handful or so of photo editing apps for Android as good or better than Instagram, even when there are apps that offer unbeatable quality on HDR, tilt shift and any odd filter you can imagine, Instagram staff announced a month ago that they’re developing the Android counterpart of their bestselling iOS app. It’s up to them, of course, and we’ll be here to review it and share our thoughts with you. Meanwhile, play around with the keywords “photo editor” on our search bar: there are several 5/5 and a bunch of 4/5 rated apps that work outstandingly. Maybe they don’t have the Instagram community, but it shouldn’t matter as much if you are going to share your pics via Facebook, Twitter or G+ in the end.

If we talk about games. the one that we’re are really expecting Dragons vs. Unicorns, a new casual game in which the name itself already catches our attention. The main theme is that unicorns have been dragon’s enemies for centuries and have launched a battle for supremacy. The game is set in a fantasy somewhat lysergic landscape, enables multiplaying and provides intuitive controls. Beyond an ancient war between  a fluffy brethren and a scaly evilhood, with boxing kittens, pirate turtles, suicide bats and wind-up bunnies involved, we can see what it seems a fun game for nearly all audiences with funny characters and lots of fighting and pinches of strategy.

Friday is probably one of the most expected apps. In the developer’s words: “It captures your life” and you will never forget anything ever again. Apparently, Friday answers questions about your life, friends, locations, writes a diary by itself (although you can add notes and voice memos) and keeps track of your activities with your contacts: how many calls do you make, who sends you mails… It has potential, yes. We hope it can live up to the expectations as it could be the next big thing. Perhaps it may become the start of a new generation of smart assistants that will overcome Siri and the last proof we need about how apps can be extremely useful not only to youngsters and adults, but to oldies as well.

My Brute is a successful iOS game that has achieved success and it’s coming to Android soon (although it was scheduled for this past Christmas). My Brute is a combat fighting game that combines role playing and improving your martial arts’ skills. The game provides many features and tools to use and given the many downloads and reviews, we’re looking forward to try it out and see it for ourselves. As there’s also a browser version, we’ll be talking about an absolute cross-platform game. Oh, and there are pets, too.

Last, but not least we have Zombie Wonderland 2 Outta time!, which seems an entertaining and hyperactive zombie killing game that enhances the first iOS version and brings in more weapons, locations, features and fun. What we can see in the teaser video is a bunch of scenes with many fighting seen from above and great detailed graphics. Definitely, one game to take into account and to demonstrate that all this zombie-stuff isn’t a passing craze. If you’ve paid attention, you should have realized that all these games and those to come attach importance to gameplay above all, the same way that apps will prioritize usefulness alike.