Android

Google's Android used to be the "other" phone/tablet OS, but its market share has since skyrocketed far above Apple's iOS. Still, there aren't quite as many games, because Apple consumers seem to have more disposable income, and Android is much less locked down (yarr!). It's basically PC mustard race, for phones. Speaking of which, it is possible to run Android programs on Windows and Mac using BlueStacks.

Get your apps from here:

Google Play Store - Default "app store" that every 'droid phone should have
AppBrain - An alternative way of browsing the apps available on Google Play
SlideME marketplace - Download emulation apps from here

Some emulation apps are available at the SlideME marketplace, some are on the Google Play Store!

Protip: If you're buying from Google Play, you've got a 15 minute grace period to return the app. After you buy it, if you go back to the Google Play page on your device, you'll have a 'refund' button. Great for if you're getting buyer's remorse in the first 15 minutes.

The List

Free Games

If a game is free to install, but pay-for-play, it goes in the other list. If the game has a free version or demo that's good enough you'd play it without ever buying the full version, it goes here.

Title	Genre	Description
Alchemy	Puzzle/Toy	You start with Earth, Fire, Air and Water, and from various combinations of these, create different elements. There's 370 in the game. Not great for much but dicking around and seeing what you can make, but hey, it's mostly free.
Angry Birds	Puzzle	Small, no-brainer crush-the-castle game with cartoon birds. This is the ~~cancer~~ avian flu that is why so many apps have birds in their icons now; in the hopes that you'll download their piece of shit instead of this.
Bad Piggies	Puzzle	A sequel for Angry Birds about the green pigs' exploits. You're given a set of items to assemble a vehicle which you must drive to the goal. If the pig (and the King or the egg, when applicable) reaches the goal you win, but there are optional objectives as well.
Buddy Rush	Hack-n-Slash	Simple hack and slash game playable on your android, ipod/iphone, and browser (as a facebook game), and you can use your characters on any system. Just run around, kill monsters and perform simple quests (often involving reaching the end of a map or collecting items. You even get to kill mummys for toilet paper). Over 20 characters to choose from, all but 3 (4 if there's a special going on a character) cost in-game premium coins called chips. There are multiple ways to earn chips, but downloading apps (and immediately removing them) is a nice way to earn yourself a few new characters to play with.
Burger	Puzzle	Exactly what you'd expect. Dish a certain amount of orders before time runs out. Includes a few hidden "achievements" as well. Can be surprisingly addictive.
Cartoon Wars 2	Tower Defense	Tower defense game with cartoon characters. Expands on the first game in a lot of ways, and adds in Cartoon Wars: Gunner levels as part of the campaign.
Chocohero	Action	Endless falling game. Guide Chipster down the yummy path of cookies and cakes while trying to escape the huge wave of milk from above by tilting.
Cut The Rope	Puzzle	Physics-based puzzle game where you cut ropes to swing a piece of candy along a level. Well-designed.
Danmaku Death	Shmup	A bosses-only bullet hell game. Dodge bullets, try to stay in front of the boss as much as possible and use your force field wisely.
Elgard	MMORPG	Pretty much the only good MMO on the market, Elgard is an instance based MMO where you go into dungeons to complete quests with a boss waiting at the end of each dungeon. There is PvP, guilds, an auction house, and 3 difficulty modes for each dungeon. Elgard has 6 classes, with a 7th on the way, each with a bunch of flashy spells and unique playstyles. You can play the entire game solo or enjoy it with friends. Since all areas except for the main town are private, you don't have to compete with other people for quest objectives or farming. Has a nice OST too.
Friction Mobile	Puzzle / Shooter	Damn simple one-button game, timing is everything.
Fruit Ninja	Arcade	Fruit appear on the screen briefly and need to be cut down before they disappear. There's a few different game modes and unlockables.
Gloomy Dungeons	FPS	A game that's similar to Doom. It has bad movement controls, but you will get used to it soon.
Grabatron	Arcade/Physics	Grabatron is about playing a UFO in 2D space, your mission is to destroy as much as you can before you get shot down. There are two control schemes; tilt to move and touch to move. Tilt to move allows you to calibrate the center position so you can play it properly from any angle. Your primary weapon is your claw, which you touch to lower and it'll automatically grab anything you hit with it. Swiping across the screen flings whatever is in your claw. The sound and animation is superb, it used to be a paid game but they swapped it over to the F2P model and made it so you could buy in-game currency instead.
Gun Bros	Shooter	Awesome shooter game with fairly smooth controls and a lot of levels.
Icy Tower 2	Climbing	You know what this is. Climb the tower before you're caught by its crumbling. Make a lot of combos by bouncing around without stopping as much as possible.
Meganoid	Platformer	Avoid the spikes and enemies, get the orange diamonds and teleport to the next stage. Pretty simple game. Unfortunately it has a metric ton of levels and no continue. You also cannot grind for many extra lives.
Mystique	Horror Adventure	Free episodic games. You play as a girl with amnesia trying to escape from an isolated location.
PewPew	Arcade shooter	A Geometry Wars style game with great controls, and will run on anything. Loads of fun and quite challenging.
Plague.inc	Strategy	Imagine Pandemic 2 with 200x more realism, 8 different kinds of bad goop to take control of, a load more upgrades that link together logically, and an actual sense that you're KILLING THE ENTIRE EARTH. That's this game. It's ad based and a lot of stuff is restricted though, but you can unlock the ability to use loads of different things like adding genetic traits and super speedy Gonzales mode.
Plants War	MOBA	MOBA game where you play as plant creatures to defend your forest home as a hero with legions of AI to back you up. Think mobile DOTA or League of Legends.
Puzzle Family	Puzzle	A set of 8 puzzle games made by the creators of Super Action Hero and Slice It.
Reactor (2-player)	Puzzle / Multiplayer	Instant gameshow, anywhere anytime, just put the phone between you. This is the game you play with your girlfriend. There's a four-player version if you're willing to buy it, though better for tablets since smartphones are too damn small for four people to sit around.
Replica Island	Platformer	Good, polished free platform game. Puts the trackball to good use.(if you have one)
Robotek HD	Fighter	You're a robot that controls robots and you fight robots with robots with robotic powers. Requires in-game purchase pretty early on if you suck at the game. (which you probably will)
Shift	Puzzle/Adventure	Shift is a puzzle/adventure game where the objective is to get to the door at the end of the level. The cool thing about Shift is that in order to solve these puzzles, you can shift the stage to be upsidedown or rightsideup. There will be obstacles such as spikes which kill you, a timer, keys, etc., that all hinder you to your objective of getting to the next level.
Simon Tatham's Puzzles	Puzzle	A variety of open-source puzzle games. Great for killing time, as it can randomly generate new configurations. Non-copyright-infringing Sudoku, Kenken, and other, less newspapery games. Be sure to look in the menu, as each comes with an explanation of how to play.
Slice It!	Puzzle	You're given a shape and you have to draw straight lines through it, separating it into a certain number of pieces of equal size, while using a specific number of strokes. Might take a little getting used to, because you HAVE to use the given number of strokes, but it's easy to kill time with. Beat levels by getting the pieces close enough in size to get up to 5 stars per stage, and you'll unlock other chapters when you get enough stars. As you play you'll get hint points you can use if you need them.
Stair Dismount	CRUELTY	Drop a ragdoll down a flight of stairs with the right angle and force settings to damage it as much as possible. I WARNED YOU BRO. I TOLD YOU DOG.
Tricorder	Toy	It turns your smartphone into a genuine sci-fi sensor device, using real data from anything in your phone that measures things. Looks and sounds like it came off the set of Star Trek: The Next Generation. Was removed from the public because CBS threatened to sue, so the app has been killed. (If they come out with an "officially licensed" version, be sure to take a big steaming shit on it.) If you have a rooted phone, you can still get it through the Blackmart Alpha appstore.
Zenonia series	RPG	Zenonia is like a Genesis or Super Nintendo ARPG which introduces fresh concepts to the genre like the day-night system and the great skill tree for customizing the hero. Highly recommend for both retro gamers and adventure fans. The sequel, Zenonia 2, fixes many small issues with the first game and is generally considered to be superior. Zenonia 3 has sharper looking graphics, removes the hunger and inventory weight limits, and continues the saga. And there's also Zenonia 4 and 5. Each game contains different classes to play around with. The ones after 2 are free.
Zoo Keeper Battle	Puzzle	Zoo Keeper is a match-three game like Bejeweled. This free version only allows online multiplayer battles, so score like a madman in the 30 seconds per turn you're given and rage like one if your opponent takes you down in a single turn while you only got bad draws or missed the good ones under your nose.

Paid Games

Stuff that you pay to download, or subscribe to play online.

Note: If you really don't give a fuck about the developers who made these great games, you could just google the name of the game and add apk at the end, and you'll almost always find an apk file from some site like apkmania, then just install it on your phone. Only works for games that AREN'T subscribe to play online. (Really though, if you enjoy one of these games and play it all the time, spare a few bucks and buy it from the store)

Title	Genre	Description
Battleheart	RPG	Recruit heroes, level up with skill trees, combat is entirely click-and-drag and ISN'T annoying about it, with bosses that need strategies.
Chu Chu Rocket	Puzzle	Good ole Chu Chu Rocket in your Android Phone for only 0.99$/€. Hundreds of puzzles, challenge maps and classic battle mode. Good touchscreen controls, though people with big fingers may struggle a bit for precision.
Dungeon Raid	Puzzle	Jewelry-like rpg game where you must combo swords to kill enemies or collect money, armor or heath.
Espgaluda II	Shoot 'em Up	The classic Xbox 360 bullet hell shooter from Cave, now on your Android device, played vertically, with a new touch-based control scheme. A "lite" trial version is also available if you're wavering.
Game Dev Story	Time Management	Time management game where you create and manage your own video game company. Guaranteed to suck your life away. Similar games by Kairosoft like Dungeon Village, Hot Springs Story and Pocket League Story (soccer) are great as well.
O2JAM U	Rhythm	Oh shit nigger! Do you remember O2Jam? Of course you don't. It was a rhythm game MMO, similar to DJMAX and of course beatmania, that closed down. Now it's back on your phone! Contains most of the songs from the MMO, including everyone's favorite. The game is free, but songs are bought individually.
Plants vs. Zombies	Tower Defense	Simple and fun CASUAAAAAAAAAAAL game known from PC. You plant plants on your lawn to protect thyself from zombies. The game includes 50 levels in story mode, 49 plants, various zombies, and multiple minigames. The game also has very nice soundtrack.
Realistic Summer Sports	Simulator	From the creator of Enviro-Bear, RSSS is the greatest and the most realistic summer sports simulator ever made. 15 different events and everything is controlled simply with one finger. Compete against your friends or computer and see if you can beat all the world records.
Riptide GP	Racing	Wave Race meets F-Zero X. Choose between the accelerometer and the touch screen to steer. Perform stunts in midair to fill your boost gauge and then use it to plow through the competition. Has an online mode and looks stunning over HDMI out.
Samurai II: Vengeance	Hack 'n' Slash	Play as a samurai that swings a sword around and kills bad guys. Beautiful graphics reminiscent of Okami. Pretty smooth controls.
Sonic 4: Episode I	Platformer	Decent Sonic game that got good reviews. Physics are rather awkward in normal gameplay and outright terrible in the special stages. Level design is better than you would expect while the music is decent. It's one of the best Sonic games made recently, now on your Android phone.
Sonic 4: Episode II	Platformer	The follow-up to Sonic 4: Episode I. Better graphics, better physics, and better music, but a bit slower and more puzzle-focused. Sonic is now accompanied by Tails, whom he must use to make it past certain areas. This bad boy is optimized for Tegra 3, but make sure your phone/tablet is powerful enough, as even the non-Tegra version tends to have severe lag on some devices. Also features co-op mode.
Sonic CD	Platformer	Best port ever done in recent years of one of the best Sonic games from the Genesis era. It's a great port because it's not emulated, rather it was recreated in a new engine that made it possible for it to run smoothly and add many extras. Contains both soundtracks, the ability to play as Tails, smooth Special Stages, leaderboards, achievements and almost everything you want from a good port. However, because of this it doesn't play exactly like its Sega CD counterpart, with minimal but noticeable physics differences. Regardless, it's too good of a deal to pass up.
Sonic Jump	Infinite Jumper Platformer	This is a remake of a old java mobile phone Sonic game that actually predates games such as Doodle Jump. As Sonic, you jump on platforms until the top of the levels. A surprisingly good job has been made in creating the new level designs and mechanics.
Super Monkey Ball 2: Sakura Edition	Action/Party	Plays similarly to the Monkey Ball games on Wii. Use the accelerometer to collect bananas and roll your way to the goal. You will need a device with a good viewing angle to see where you're going, or just play through HDMI for cleaner results. Includes several multiplayer modes, including Monkey Target, Monkey Bowling, Monkey Golf, and Monkey Base (tablet only).
Tap Sonic	Rhythm	Fun and challenging rhythm game by Neowiz. Uses the DJMAX soundtrack (since Neowiz is Pentavision's publisher), so it's the closest thing to a DJMAX on your phone. Available for free, but you have to buy song packs or some shit like that and it feels like they're ripping you off. Despite that, it's pretty hard to turn down on a good rhythm game.

Emulators

On the Google Play Store, head to the page for Robert Broglia. Buy his line of emulating apps. They're fast, reliable, and very authentic to the original systems.

For the rest of the good stuff, download the apps by Yongzh. You'll notice that some of his apps emulate the exact same systems that some Robert apps emulate. I'm telling you this to save you dosh, don't buy the mirror Yongzh apps. Robert is a faster developer and he likes talking to customers first hand in you throw him an e-mail. Anyways, buy all the other Yongzh apps. With that, you will have all the best apps this /v/irgin could find after months of wasting money and looking around. Also, did I mention that there's no rooting required for these apps to work? Just install and play!

Play the games of yesteryear directly on your phone!

Note: Snes9x EX is free and pretty much kicks the ass of Snesoid.

Title	Type	Developer
FPse	PSX
Snes9x EX	SNES
Mupen64Plus AE	N64
N64oid	N64	Yongzh
SNesoid	SNES	Yongzh
Gensoid	Sega Genesis / Megadrive	Yongzh
Nesoid	NES	Yongzh
Ataroid	Atari 2600	Yongzh
GameBoid	Gameboy Advance	Yongzh
GBCoid	Gameboy Color	Yongzh
Gearoid	Sega Game Gear / Master System	Yongzh
GBA.emu	Gameboy Advance	Robert Broglia
MD.emu	Sega Genesis/Megadrive & Master System	Robert Broglia
NES.emu	NES	Robert Broglia
PCE.emu	PC Engine / TurboGrafx-16	Robert Broglia
2600.emu	Atari 2600	Robert Broglia
GBC.emu	Gameboy Color	Robert Broglia
NGP.emu	Neogeo Pocket	Robert Broglia
NEO.emu	Neogeo	Robert Broglia
MSX.emu	MSX computer / Colecovision	Robert Broglia
Saturn.emu	Sega Saturn (IN BETA unless you help~)	Robert Brogila

Useful apps and software

Title	Type	Description
Google apps	All of them	Get everything that's applicable to you. They all pretty much work great. Besides, these are probably pre-installed anyway.
Chrome	Browser	Google is pushing for Chrome to now be the default browser for Android. Supposedly this means they're improving it. Extra features if you use Chrome on PC, like syncing your bookmarks and sending pages from one to the other.
Dolphin HD	Browser	Dolphin HD is a great browser, Opera Mobile is pretty cool too. I find the default browser perfectly acceptable though. Find what suits your taste.
Chant	Browser (4chan)	Even if 4chan has a mobile site now, a 4chan browser can be a lot more handy than relying on your web browser. Chant is a good free option, but sadly no longer available on Google Play because Google threw a fit about the adult boards. Grab the APK from the dev's Bitbucket (linked) instead.
Mimi	Browser (4chan)	An excellent 4chan browser. View GIFs and images in the app, scroll to read through more pages, favorite threads, save images to a folder, and the keyboard doesn't block the Captcha if you've got a longphone.
Youtube	Browser (Youtube)	It's Youtube. Get it. You probably already have it installed, though.
Beautiful Widgets	Clock / Weather widget	Paid app. Lets you download tons of skins to customize your widget all you want.
SiMi Clock Widget	Clock widget	A pretty and minimalist clock widget, and somewhat customizable too.
Solid Explorer	File manager	Probably the best file manager currently on the market, but recently switched from free beta to a trial with a $2 paid version.
Dropbox	File storage	Dropbox. Who doesn't use Dropbox? Save a file on your PC, get it on your phone seconds after. They kinda fucked it up recently when they made it so fucking difficult to save files to the SD card, but it still works.
Google Drive	File storage/Google Docs	If you don't use Dropbox, maybe you use Google Drive. Comes with the extra bonus of Google Docs, as long as you're hooked up to the internet.
QuickPic	Gallery	I cannot stress this enough, if you have the 3D gallery and hate it as much as I did, go get this app. It runs great, no gimmicks, good overview of your photos, it just works.
IMO Messenger	Instant messaging	Client that works with pretty much any service imaginable, msn, facebook, skype, even steam.
SwiftKey	Keyboard	SwiftKey X is a downright amazing keyboard replacement with astounding prediction accuracy. The only two (immediately) noticeable downsides are the pricetag ($5) and that the "learn from your messages/etc" menu is set to automagically post bullshit to your Facebook and Twitter pages.
Swype Beta	Keyboard	Visit that link on your phone to download the app that downloads the beta. You might have this preinstalled on your phone; the beta is likely a more up-to-date version and comes with a couple light and dark themes. Slide your finger across all the letters of a word to spell the word. Uses a good error-correction method, so you don't have to be super accurate. Will sometimes auto-correct you in odd ways. TouchPal works with a similar method, and so does the default keyboard in Android 4.2. Don't have 4.2? Get the keyboard here.
ADW / Launcher GO / LauncherPro	Launcher	ADW launcher or Launcher GO are both good homescreen replacements, or LauncherPro if you have a low end device. These allow for tons of customization, such as resizing widgets, icon packs, dock background, gestures to do certain things, and so on.
Zeam Launcher	Launcher	If you're getting bored with rice shit or your default home screen just isn't that great, this could be a great launcher for you. Unlike 3 other launchers mentioned here, this app follows the KISS principle and so it's resource usage is the best out of the lot.
Apex Launcher / Nova Launcher / Holo Launcher	Launcher	ICS style launchers with lots of customization. Nova Launcher has certain features removed from the free version (resizing widgets etc). Holo Launcher, unlike the other two, will work on Gingerbread (Android 2.3) devices.
WidgetLocker	Lockscreen	For ricers that absolutely must customize EVERYTHING, WidgetLocker lets you add widgets, apps and custom unlocking mechanics to your lockscreen. Not free though. If your device is going to get 4.2 and you can wait for it, 4.2 lets you put widgets on your lockscreen without any extra program.
Gmote	Media control	Control your PC's media software from your phone.
Handcent SMS	Messaging	Replace your default messaging app with Handcent, it's pretty neat. Looks pretty iPhone-ish. Think other messaging apps have been catching up to it lately, so maybe your default is just as good.
Power Amp	Music player	Hands down the best music player on the market. Buy it and never look back.
Barcode Scanner	Scanner	QR codes, yeah? This scans them. Now you'll know what all those barcode squares are secretly saying.
Screen filter	Utility	This applies an overlay which darkens the screen, if you need to make it really dark for whatever reason. (Like being an asshole and texting during a movie.)
MX Video Player	Video player	Great video player that suports hardware decoding, subtitles and what not.
UCCW	*Widget	Amazingly customizable widget with a nice WYSIWYG editor. Can be used for clocks, battery, weather etc, sky's the limit. Lets you import/export skins so you don't have to do all the dirty work yourself.

Root required

1337 hackers only

Title	Type	Description
Titanium Backup	Apps and settings backup	Lets you backup all your apps, along with app settings, phone settings and so on. It's a must have for any root user.
SetCPU	Overclocking	Paid app. Get some more juice out out of your shitty wildfire by overclocking it! Or alternatively underclock for less battery consumption. SetCPU lets you make profiles for when the screen is off, when the phone is charging, low battery etc.
AdAway/Adfree	Ad block	Neither seems to work for me, but now you're aware they exist.
ShootMe	Screenshots	Lets you take screenshots of your phone by shaking it/blocking the light sensor. There may be better apps for this by now, but it works. I can't find it on the market anymore, but your rom probably has it built in, so whatever.
screenshot	Screenshots	Although this one says it only works on rooted phones, it might also work fine on unrooted ones.
Root Explorer	File browser	Paid app, and not for the average user. Lets you mess around in the system files. Can be used to remove THE FUCKING 3D GALLERY or other useless system apps, change the boot animation (download one from deviantART you pony-loving faggot), or just completely break your phone if you don't know what you're doing.
ES File Explorer	File browser	Said to do the same as Root Explorer, but I haven't tried. Free.
LCDDensity	Fucking around	Change the density of your screen just for shits and giggles. Lower density makes everything tiny, high density makes everything huge. Too low density makes your phone crash if you're unlucky, so don't just tick off the set on boot option without testing first.
GameCIH	Cheat Engine	Allows you to mess with game values, set 9001 p2p coins, get max everything, and shit like that, also can speed up\slow down games.
GameKiller	Cheat Engine	Almost same as GameCIH but sometimes works better.