Meganoid Brings Retro Fun to Android

The premise of Meganoid is pretty simple: Your hero must make it from point A to point B, without dying. If you can collect a few diamonds here and there, that will up your score. Moving from one point to another is harder than it sounds, though, as a lot of one-hit-kill obstacles and enemies stand in your way.

At the end of each level, your performance is judged based on how many diamonds you collected, as well as on whether you beat the timer.

Your hero (aptly named "Hero") isn't without skills of his own--he can double jump and pick up crates to throw at enemies. The controls are simple, and can be changed, though the easiest ones to use (in my opinion) are the on-screen left, right, and jump buttons. If you prefer, you can use your phone's accelerometer or its physical keyboard (if it has one). Heck, you can even try the game's "remote" controller option using a Nintendo Wii Remote.

Like many old-school games, Meganoid starts out with extremely easy levels and gets hard quick. It doesn't have the typical "life" system, but if you die three times the game kicks you back to the main screen. At least you can pick the game back up at the level you last played.

If you earn medals for grabbing all the diamonds and beating the timer, you'll unlock a "Sarge" mode for that level. In this mode you play with a different character--Sarge--and the level is totally different (and a lot more difficult).

Meganoid is an excellent choice if you like platformers, challenges, or retro graphics. It has 90 regular levels and 80 Sarge levels, and the developers claim to be adding even more. For the cool price of $0, it's an excellent pick.