Best New Android Games and Sales: Lineweight, Unmemory, Pac-Man Geo, and More

Typical. You wait months for an innovative experimental multimedia storytelling game and then two show up at once. Lineweight and unmemory share a lot in common, including a brace of pre-release awards and nominations, but their subject matter is quite different. We recommend that you try both.

Pac-Man Geo, meanwhile, is a brave and interesting experiment in AR and location-based gaming, and Big Brother: The Game is an even more experimental enterprise. Let’s just call this the week of experimentation.

New Games

Lineweight is one of two polished-looking interactive story games out this week. What were the chances? In this case, the developer is Cipher Prime – the studio behind stylish hits like Auditorium and Splice – while the game sees you working your way through five distinct chapters presented in a cutting edge multimedia fashion.

Like the real thing, Big Brother: The Game – a joint project between Endemol and 9th Impact – gives you the chance to win a life changing sum of money as long as you’re prepared to give up your time and dignity. It lets you play as either a contestant or a spectator, completing tasks, voting, getting to know your fellow housemates, and more.

Pac-Man Geo is an AR location-based mobile game with a difference. Rather than viewing the world through your camera, you’ll spend your time converting real life map data into Pac-Man stages which you can play and share with others. There’s also a selection of pre-made stages based around notable places.

Here’s the other interactive story in the tradition of Blackbar and Device 6. This time, the whole thing hinges on a murder. Your girlfriend has been taken out and you need to find out whodunit. Unfortunately, your working memory is kaput, giving you the Memento-esque task of piecing together fragments of knowledge.

Sales

Teslagrad, the slickly produced 2D puzzle-platformer from Playdigious, is currently on sale at a massive discount. It normally costs $6.99, but you can pick it up right now for $1.99. Originally a PC title, Teslagrad sees you working your way through a steampunky campaign in which you acquire electromagnetic abilities as you progress.

Peace, Death! is a thinly veiled imitation of Papers, Please!, the cold war satire about a checkpoint guard crushing peasants’ dreams with a rubber stamp. The satire is less evident here, replaced with silliness and a more streamlined, arcadey approach.