A bunch of Android Games [May 27. 2016]

It has been some time since my last post here.
To be honest I have been busy with work and family-life, but now I'm back in the game.
This time I have quite a large pileup of assorted games tested and just keep on reading to find out what I found this time...

Minecraft: Pocket Edition
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Minecraft PE is one of my favorite games for the Android platform. So I must admit I was pretty pleased when I tried this and it turned out as well as it did.
Gameplay is smooth and the game performs very well on the Pine.
It has official gamepad support, but it is not mapped logically (from my point of view). In settings there are the possibility to remap all the buttons, so it is easy to customize it to your liking.
I did find a bug while running this on the Pine. All blocks are getting green spots/fields when you are moving around in dim places. Not the biggest bug, and has close to nothing to say for the experience, but still, it's there. 

Storm the Train
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Fun side-scrolling shooter with a good tempo to it. Many unlockables, but there are some ads in this one. The ads can be disabled with an IAP (recommended for the best experience and to support the developers).
This game does not officially support gamepad but it is easy to setup using SixAxis.

Boxel Bot
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Please keep away from this game. This game does not provide the possibility to buy yourself out of ads, and its an extreme amount of ads in this one.
When it doesn't even support gamepad of IAP this game is useless. (You could probably disable the ads with Lucky Patcher, but I did not even give that a try. 

Cordy
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The combination of official gamepad-support, smooth gameplay, high fps and great sound this is one of the games you just MUST try on your Pine.
Cordy gives you one of the visually most beautiful gaming experience you can get. For the ultimate gaming experience it requires that you just love sidescrollers...
The free version of Cordy gives you the 4 first levels and the rest can be bought for the quite steep price of $3. 

Cordy 2
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This game gives you the same gaming experience as Cordy 1 does, but with a bit more finesse in the gameplay. This one is also free to download and install, but it only gives you 6 levels. To unlock all levels you need to pay up $4. Its a bit much, but I did it gladly as the Cordy games are really fun and both me and my kids love them. 

One Tap Hero
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Fun and challenging platformer that's capable of driving out your inner daemon. (Some of the levels are extremely difficult).
There is no official gamepad support, but it is extremely easy to map this game using SixAxis.
This game has some ads, but they can be disabled for the small sum of $0.99. 

Paper Monster
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This game has NO gamepad support but it can be mapped with SixAxis. You can not use mouse to klick on the buttons in the menu, so you need to map multiple "touch emulation profiles" just to start the game.
There is also ads. 

Paper Monster Recut
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The Recut version of Paper Monster is more playable than the first Paper Monster game. This game is quite fun to play, but it feels a bit sluggish.
It does contain ads, and that sucks.
The frosting on the cake is the annoying, repetitive game music.
It doesn't score high in the test mostly because of the sluggish gameplay. 

Just Shout
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This meaningless sidescroller shooter is a lot of fun. And quite time consuming. It runs really smooth on the Pine with little to none problems. The lack of official gamepad support is frustrating, but its doable to map the keys with SixAxis.
Just Shout contains ads, but they are removable for the sum of $0.99. 

Block Battles: Heroes at War
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Not able to map keys for this game, and therefore it gets the worst rating that's possible. To bad, cause the game seems fun. 

Hovercraft Takedown
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This block-themed racer-shooter is fun in the beginning with a creative controller.
It runs smoothly on the Pine and is very well playable.
The hovercraft just floats around and that's a fresh alternative to all these other classic racing games.
When you throw official gamepad support on top of that you would think you got a good game, but then again, no. The gameplay is extremely repetitive, and you'll soon get tired of the game.

PSP Emulation [May 16. 2016] UPDATED [May 22. 2016]

PSP game emulation

It has now come to the point where it is safe to say I have a conclution on the PPSSPP running on the Pine A64+ 2Gb board.

When it comes to performance during PSP emulation there are still a long way to go until we get a perfect ride, but still it does a darn good job on the less graphic-heavy games for the classic hendheld from Sony.

SPOILER ALLERT!!!

The PPSSPP on the Pine is simply not good enough to make me stuff that old PSP1000 in a box and throwing it in the garage.

On simple games (graphics-vise) like Loco Roco and Little Big Planet the emulator does a good job. Occationally there are some crackling noizes in the speakers, but thats mostly in the cutscenes and menus. In gameplay there has been little problem with sound (on the games that actually was playable).

I think thats enough stalling. Lets cut to the chase and present the findings of my test so far.

Here we go:

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[May 27. 2016]

Princess Crown
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This game provides a smooth gameplay and many hours of fun. There are some bugs running this in PPSSPP though. The sound is stuttering sometimes, and during intro-movie there was some lagging, but that went away once the game started. 
Another deal-breaker for many potential gamers are the fact that this game is only available in Japanese. 

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[May 22. 2016]

LEGO Indiana Jones - The Original Adventures
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These LEGO-games are fun and time-consuming, and this one is definitely time-consuming more than others.
The classic LEGO-gameplay is the same as all the other LEGO-games out there.
The problems occurs when you get past the menus and start the gameplay. There are some graphical glitches in this game, and a little low FPS is kind of killing the overall impression I get from this. After some tweaking in PPSSPP I did get this playable, but it feels a bit sluggish.
Not the best result, but totally playable.

Prince of Persia - Rival Swords
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I was quite disappointed when I figured out this game did NOT work.
With a frame rate between 0 and 2 there is not even a slim hope to get this playable by tweaking the settings in the PPSSPP emulator. What a shame!

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[May 16. 2016]

Loco Roco
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This new-thinking game of the yellow blob rolling around in mystical bright-colored worlds, collecting red flowers and pink flies, really bring back memory.

This game works as it should, if you turn a blind eye to the fact that cinematics are a little bit laggy and with stuttering sounds.

Gameplay is good and no lag here.

The short test to see if the game was playable quickly turned into a three hour spree with LOTS of nostalgic memories.

Those were good times.

Loco Roco 2
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This sequel is just as good as the previous game in the serie. When it comes to game play (technically) there are the same problems with Loco Roco 2 as there are with the first Loco Roco-game.

Some lagging in cutscenes and menus but during gameplay there are no problems to find.

When accessing the Loco-house there are some graphical glitches like stuff missing and text thats hard to read, but personally this is not the main reason to play this game.

Little Big Planet
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This epic release from Sony has led to countless hours with gaming on the ridiculously small screen of the PSP.

With the game working this good I guess my fiance is going to kick my a*s as I am going to occupy the 55" TV for gaming evening after evening.

When it comes to the technical bit of the review there are NOTHING to point out as bad with this game. No lagging or stuttering.

Therefore the conclusion will be; "What are you waiting for?!? Get yourself a Pine and get going!!! Nostalgia here we come!"

FIFA 12
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If you are looking for a good time playing some soccer, keep on looking.
This game is most definitely unplayable. With a FPS of between 7 and 12 this is just a plain and simple pain in the a*s.
I was hoping to be able to play some soccer on my Pine, but it seems I will need to stick with the Android-games for that instead of relying on emulation.

Buzz (all of them)
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These games are fun but quite repetitive.
I must admit I wasn't very disappointed when I figured there were WAY to much graphical glitches to be playable.
The menus are working good, and no stuttering sounds or anything like that, but when you start the game all text are blurry as h**l and completely unreadable.
No need to try these games on the PPSSPP.

I have to say I have don little to non tweaking on each game to try to get them to run better. This must come in next round of testing. 

Need For Speed - Undercover
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And than its done. My complete gaming night ruined... WHYYYY?!?!?
NFS Undercover are one of my favorite NFS games for the PSP. But unfortunately this game is so laggy I just dont know how to describe it to you.
The FPS is between 5 and 11 FPS.

So to make things short; Don't bother!

Tomb Raider - Legend
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This is a fun game that has consumed many hours of my life through the years.
When running it in PPSSPP it looses all of its charm.
Watching Lara Croft rolling around on the ground, kicking some a*s is usually quite fun, but NOT when the game has a peak of 13 FPS and an average of 8...

Yet another title totally useless combined with the PPSSPP and the Pine.
It's a shame.


That's all I have for now, but more games will be tested in the future.

The conclusion I have come to is that the graphic-lite games like 2D (2.5D) works good, but 3D games is to heavy to get a good gaming experience.

SNES Emulation [May 22. 2016]

Super Nintendo Emulation

And then we've come to the test of the combo Pine and SNES-emulator.

After testing many SNES emulators I ended on the John SNES emulator by JOHN emulators. The review of the emulator itself can be red in the first blog post I had here.

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GAMES:

[May 22. 2016]

Super Mario All Stars + Super Mario World
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Great gameplay and fun game. Good frame rate and great sound with no stuttering or crackling.
Some issues with controllers, but this relates to the emulators mapping-issues and has nothing to do with the game itself.

Super Mario World 2 - Yoshis Island
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Its just like playing it on the Super Nintendo. Great response on controllers, great frame rate, but the sound does get messy once in a while. A little stuttering occurs, but not that much and not to the extent that it makes the game unplayable.

Donkey Kong Country
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Good game with nice gameplay. Snappy controllers and overall a good experience.
The sound is a bit stuttering in the menus, but in game play they are spotless.

Nintendo 64 Emulation [May 22. 2016]

Nintendo 64 Emulation

Now its time to test the Pines ability to run Nintendo 64-games.

To make things short well just get right to it and start the review.

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EMULATOR:

Mupen64Plus AE (N64 Emulator)
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To start off this review lets take a look at my choice of emulator for the Nintendo 64-system.
After reading a lot online I figured it was possible best to use the emulator (nearly) all the other are based upon.
When it comes to the emulator and its capabilities I cant find anything negative to say.
The UI is ok (could be better visually, but then again that would use more resources). It is easy to map buttons on this one.
The emulator is snappy and stable, which is the most important features of a emulator.
Therefore I give this the top score!

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GAMES:

[May 22. 2016]

Super Mario 64
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Good old Super Mario 64... Flashbacks...
This game has a great FPS and when controllers mapped correctly in Mupen64 this is a blast!
There are some graphical glitches here and there, but nothing big and nothing that makes the game unplayable.
Once in a while the sound gets stuttering, but it goes away after a few seconds.
The overall impression (and nostalgia) of the game makes this WELL playable and I can see myself spending MANY hours playing this.


More games will be tested and posted here soon...

Lets start digging through the pileup of tested games... [May 19. 2016]

After a couple of days without any posts here at my Pine64 Gaming Compatibility blog I'm back with more juicy gossip. Or at least some reviews on my newly tested games on the Pine.

Hero-X
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This retro platformer runs smoothly both when it comes to graphicks and audio.
It wont get top score because of the lack of gamepad support and the anoying ads that keeps popping up at the most inconvenient times.
Then again the gamepad issue is taken care of with the "Touch Emulation" and ""Application Profile" options in the Sixaxis app.
When it comes to the ads there are ways to get rid of them. One is using LuckyPatcher to disable the ads or simply resize them to the size of 0x0 px.

Xitos World - Jump and Run
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This Super Mario/Commander Keen blend is a smooth ride if you set it up right.
As you've probably noticed there are both "Official Gamepad support" and "Mappable with SixAxis app" marking on this one. That's because the menus are gamepad compatible but the gameplay are not.
To get a good experience with this game you will need to disable ADS using Lucky Patcher thats found under the "Useful Tools" menu or by clicking the link here.

LostMiner
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This Terrarria/2D Minecraft game is a lot of fun to play.
It has great graphics (retro-style) and good controllers. To play this with gamepad is a bit of an hassle since you'll need to use touch/mouse to place blox. This however is doable with the PS4/DS4 controller since it has the trackpad on the controller, but it does not make the gameplay ideal.
This app contains IAP (in app purchase) to "upgrade" to the PRO version. I will recommend doing so. That way you'll get rid of the popup-ads and banners messing up the screen. (This is also possible to do with the help of LuckyPatcher, even though I recommend supporting the developers and buy the PRO version) (On games that doesn't provide the possibilities to buy your self out of the AD-hell I FULLY support disabeling ads).

Dark Sword
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Dark Sword was a game I was looking forward to get going on my Pine.
The dissapointment was huge when I figured it doesn't support gamepad AT ALL!
I was prepared to look past the laggy intro and try the game with an open mind, but when you cant even input a profile-name without a touch-panel, I just cant.
This game is 100% useless on the Pine (unless you got the 7" touchscreen add on. In that case I guess it will work.

Horizon Chase
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Yet another rip-off of the classic OutRun game. This one does almost everything right. Smooth gameplay, LOTS of different tracks and achievements to unlock, and a great garage to choose your wheels from.
The minus with this game is that the menus doesn't support gamepad, but gameplay does. Therefore the double marking on this one.

Robbery Bob (1)
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Fun game where you are playing as a small-time criminal.
Original gameplay with a nice bird-view angle. Smooth gameplay with good graphics.
This game does have some ADS so if that bothers you, you should consider doing the IAP to get rid of them.
Gamepad is not supperted officially, but there is no problem mapping the controller using the SixAxis app.

Geometry Dash
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Geometry Dash is a fun time-consuming game with tricky levels. And there is no room for mistakes...
A bit repetitive gameplay, but runs smoothly on the Pine.
There is no official gamepad-support, but mapping for gameplay is a quick job.
The problem surfaces when you enter the level-editor. This require touch/mouse input. (It is possible on the DualShock 4-controllers but its not the best solution).

LEGO Star Wars Yoda II
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Yet another game that is 100% depending on touch-input. This one is to the extent that input through the touchpad on the DS4-controller or the mouse is not "good enough". Not able to choose what side I wanted to fight for (first screen that pops up during launch).

Shadow Fight 2
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Yet another game with the shadow/silhouette-style. This one is working good on the Pine, but not flawlessly.
There is NO official gamepad-support, so mapping is required.
The main menu offers a "gym" where you can practice your moves so you're ready when going into a fight.
One irritating thing about this is that the on-screen-controllers are different in the menu than in regular gameplay. This results in one of two scenarios. Number one is to just don't give a sh*t about the "gym" and just map the gameplay-controllers or make two "touch emulation"-profiles and assign a button on the controller to switch between the multiple profiles for the game.
Personally I just ignored the "gym" and mapped for the fights, and it works fine.
You are also required to use the touchpad on the controller or a mouse once in a while.
The game offers good visual effects as well as good physics.

The Walking Dead 1
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This game offers official gamepad support in all aspects of the game, except from the buy-offers and connection request during boot.
The graphics are awesome. Gives me a real flashback to the old XIII-game.
There are some issues with the gamepad-mapping in the game. this results in the wrong placement of buttons when you get a choice of what to say in a conversation or what to do during gameplay.
You get used to this quite quick, or you could remap the whole controller in SixAxis.


◇Even more games will be tested soon...