Smooth. How many shoot’em ups (shmup) have there been for Android? A few top-down shooters and a few side-scrollers to be sure. Now, how many of those ran without hiccups? The last question definitely limits the competition, and when we’re talking about an actual “screen-full” of bullets, nothing competes with Shogun. Games like Air Attack HD are great games at the top of the genre, but the Japanese (and some American masochists) love bullets, bullets, and more bullets. No easy routes, no peon enemies, and lots of death.

Shogun: Rise of the Renegade is one of the most complete top-down shooters I have played on Android. From graphics and style to an innovative control system, Shogun has all of the quality traits of an arcade shmup. With a very concise opening screen, you can throw yourself straight into training and all of the levels within the first few moments of playing the game. Luckily, the Shogun developers gave us this mercy before throwing enough bullets at you to cover the world a couple of times. I must get the only downside of this game out of the way quickly; their are only four levels not including training. While each level has two bosses, Shogun is too short to be as superb of a game as it is.

The smooth gameplay cannot be stressed enough, and I was amazed at Shogun for the sheer amount of objects on-screen before I even completed the first level. Some mobile games hiccup at the thought of two objects on the screen, and games with less action stutter on consoles. Shogun, however, does something extremely rare – it packs more action and on-screen objects than you can dodge while never dipping in frame-rate. If you’ve ever played a top-down shooter before, you know how important timing and anticipating can be for staying alive. These bullets are on set paths at specific times so most of the game depends on you finding and getting to the perfect hiding spot from all the bullets at a precise time. If you don’t get there, you die, which is why any lag or stuttering severely destroys the credibility and enjoyability of a bullet-hell style game. Shogun has shown no slow-down whatsoever. I can’t say that about many games much less games you would expect to have a little lag.

The art in the game is completely influenced by the 80s and 90s arcade games. The ships are mech-style enemies, very colorful, and full of gears, blades, armor, and guns. While the enemies do show tons of detail, your ship is tiny runt with just a splash of red. It would’ve been nice to see a little more detail and imagination put into your ship, but admittedly you’re not really looking at your ship that often. The backgrounds aren’t too detailed, but they give you a good setting which the enemies can resemble. For example, in the desert, the enemy ships have a dustier, more rugged look to them. Shogun doesn’t blow you away visually, but it achieves its goal of faithfully mimicking the 90s era arcade shmups, and that was satisfying enough to me.

Shogun’s controls are the most innovative part of the game, especially for mobile devices. In many top-down shooters, whichever power-up you get, that’s your weapon. Shogun gives you three different weapons from the get-go along with an EMP and some wing-men. Instead of gaining power-ups or having a weapon-wheel at the bottom of the screen (which would take your focus away from the bullets), Shogun semi-pauses the game whenever you take your finger off the screen. In the background, the game moves at a snails pace, giving you enough time to select your weapon, but not completely stopping the game to give you an unfair advantage. The three guns are laser, spread, and a homing weapon which is by far the best weapon. The homing gun almost makes the game unfair as well because it is very powerful and strikes enemies you otherwise may not reach.

When trying to grasp the essence of a game that a generation of gamers remember fondly, it’s best not to deviate too far from the path. Shogun balances the old-school precision and mechanics of a truly needy genre with an updated control scheme, updated graphics, and the lofty goal of reviving a niche market. Shogun is the best pure bullet-hell game I’ve played on Android, and without any frustrations from a gameplay standpoint (besides a few too many deaths), it’s time for all Android-nation to to travel through the Four Circles of Bullet Hell.

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.