Android Gaming Headlines and Updates: Pac-Man Geo, Company of Heroes, PUBG Mobile, and More

Compared to previous weeks, the last seven days have been fairly light on drama, with only brewhaha over Tencent’s involvement in PUBG Mobile to sate our thirst for corporate gossip. There are some intriguing announcements, however, including a take on Pac-Man so fitting and ingenious that we can’t believe we haven’t already played it.

Meanwhile PUBG Mobile has graduated to version 1.0, receiving a massive overhaul for its graduation present, and Kartrider Rush+ has chosen to embrace the coming winter.

To read about the best new Android games and sales, check out the Saturday companion to this article.

Headlines

Pac-Man Geo is a location-based augmented reality game for mobile. No doubt you’re already mouthing the words, “Pokemon GO clone”, but you’re wrong. In fact, Pac-Man Geo lets you take real world maps and turn them into Pac-Man stages, complete with ghosts, power pills, and more. It might work, it might not, but it sounds cool.

Sticking to the world of vintage arcade games, Space Invaders is making a foray into the recently released Yoko Taro project SINoALICE with a crossover event. You’ll be able to collect a Three Little Pigs Invader and a Princess Kayuga Invader throughout.

Company of Heroes came to Android this week. But just before it did, Feral Interactive released a video showing the game being played on an Android phone. And here it is.

What a time it is to be a battle royale game. While Fortnite is engaged in a three way wrestling match with Apple and Google, PUBG Mobile is having its own tussle with the Indian authorities, who pulled the game over geopolitical tensions between India and China. In response, PUBG Mobile dropped Tencent as a publisher.

Forager is one of those projects that worked its way up from the sewer, starting life as a game jam project that attracted the attention of Humble Games, who decided to publish it on PC and Switch. And now it’s coming to mobile, allowing Android gamers to enjoy its charming, stripped down, open world crafting gameplay.

Updates

Kartrider Rush+. the slick kart racing game that not only gives Mario Kart Tour a run for its money but laps it twice and causes it to veer into a barrier and explode, has just entered season 3. The winter-themed season adds new karts, riders, and a 4v4 Championship Mode, among other goodies.

For the first time ever, Star Trek: Fleet Command has entered a new timeline, allowing players to pilot the Mycekium-powered USS Discovery. Commander Saru and Michael Burnham are available, too, and there’s a whole new Battle Pass to explore.

At long last, PUBG Mobile is out. It’s been out for ages, of course, but strictly speaking it was a beta version. Now 1.0 has arrived, and with it a new and improved Erangel map, with new resource points and a graphical overhaul all round.