/v/'s Recommended Games Wiki
Android logo 512px

Google's Android used to be the "other" phone/tablet operating system, 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 it on your regular computer too, with Android x86 (installed, or as a live CD, or under VirtualBox). Or you can use 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
  • F-Droid - A catalogue of Android free/open source apps

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.

Protip 2: If your cellphone experiences random framerate drops and stutters, activate flight mode and enjoy your superior performance.

Games

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.

Screenshot Title Genre Description
Alchemy-Android1 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.
Asphalt 8 Android screenshot Asphalt 8: Airborne Racing Insanely over-the-top arcade racer in the same vein of Burnout. Excellent graphics that wouldn't be out of place in a regular console. Great intense gameplay.
Beach-Buggy-Blitz-Collect-coins-1- Beach Buggy Blitz Racing Kart racer from the makers of Riptide GP. Drive around the beach collecting coins that look suspiciously like the awesome face. Graphics are detailed and crisp in standard Vector Unit fashion, and the game is optimized for Tegra 3. Originally a paid app, it is now free, so you should pick it up!
Buddy-rush-20110418014154364 640w 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.

Cartoon Wars 2 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.
Cheeseman-iphone-1-1- CheeseMan Platformer What seems like Alphanoize's answer to Super Meat Boy, only with 100% less pretentious developer soapboxing. More or less the same rules. Avoid the blades and make your way to the goal. Simple art style, no lives, no game overs.
Mzl.ludjevfb.480x480-75-1- 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-2 Cut The Rope Puzzle Physics-based puzzle game where you cut ropes to swing a piece of candy along a level. Well-designed.
Mzl.womcpbob.480x480-75 Cytus Rhythm Great Osu clone rhythm game based on a moving bar and non-specific button spots, meaning that the buttons could be anywhere, as opposed to only using, like, 5 columns. In my opinion, good songs, wiith varying difficulty from really easy to really tough. Also can be paid for to remove short timers, and is also available for iOS.
DDeathScreen 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.
Img 0643 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.
GimmieFriction Friction Mobile Puzzle / Shooter Damn simple one-button game, timing is everything.
Gloomy-dungeons-3d-free-demo-4-2 Gloomy Dungeons FPS A game that's similar to Doom. It has bad movement controls, but you will get used to it soon.
Grabatron 004 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 thumb Gun Bros Shooter Awesome shooter game with fairly smooth controls and a lot of levels.
Huebrix Android screenshot Huebrix Puzzle An unique, addictive abstract puzzler. Drag the multicolored squares to fill every bit of the field without crossing paths.
IcyTowerScreen 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-550x268 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.
Mole-Kart-1- Mole Kart Racing It's Mario Kart, but with moles. No, I mean it is literally Mario Kart. The track designs have been shamelessly lifted from some of the later games in the series, including courses such as Moo Moo Farm and Mushroom Gorge. Despite its blatant ripping off, it's actually a decent kart racer for mobile with plenty of control options. Sadly, no online multiplayer.
Mystique-chapter-1-foetus-girl-appear Mystique Horror Adventure Free episodic games. You play as a girl with amnesia trying to escape from an isolated location.
PewPewScreen PewPew Arcade shooter A Geometry Wars style game with great controls, and will run on anything. Loads of fun and quite challenging.
Plants War 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.
Punch-Hero-2-1- Punch Hero Fighting Think Punch Out or Wii Boxing with touch controls. Unfortunately requires an internet connection to play and includes a couple of microtransactions for customizing/upgrading your character. Also features online multiplayer. Graphics are decent but textures look disgustingly choppy on HDMI.
PFamily Puzzle Family Puzzle A set of 8 puzzle games made by the creators of Super Action Hero and Slice It.
ReplicaIsland Replica Island Platformer Good, polished free platform game. Puts the trackball to good use.(if you have one)
Android-robotek-300x146 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 1 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.
Tatham-Puzzles 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.
Sliceit screen2 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.
StairD 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.

Android Tricodrder 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 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.
ZooKBattleScreen 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.

Commercial 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)

Screenshot Title Genre Description
Blazing star screenshot 01-1- Blazing Star Shoot 'em up The classic arcade shooter from SNK, now on your Android device, featuring local co-op via-Bluetooth.
TheConduitHD The Conduit HD FPS It says a lot about the Wii's lack of horsepower when your Android phone can run a Wii game in HD. You play as a U.S Secret Service agent who singlehandedly stops an alien invasion headed by ex-President John Adams in a generic, but nice-looking FPS with cool weapon design. The game got mixed reviews on the Wii, but the fact that it's a modern, non-Gameloft Android FPS makes it worth checking out. First 2 levels are free.

(Also, N.O.V.A totally ripped this game off; it even had a character with the same name and role as Prometheus.)

ChuChuChuRocket05 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.
Cordy-3-1- Cordy Platformer Before big names such as Rayman and Sonic landed on Android, Cordy was probably the go to platformer. Gameplay resembles LittleBigPlanet and Sonic the Hedgehog, with an art style similar to Super Mario Galaxy. Simple sidescroller with native controller support. Even with its detailed 3D visuals, it runs smooth as silk on most devices. Compared to newer mobile platformers, there's no real challenge and it gives off a much more casual feeling overall (even carrying over the three star ranking system from games such as Angry Birds), but Cordy is free-to-play, so you can try before you buy.
Cordy-2-1-1- Cordy 2 Platformer The sequel to Cordy, including power-ups, bigger bosses, and better graphics and music. Like the first game, it has native controller support and is free-to-play if you want to try it first.
45586547 Dungeon Raid Puzzle Jewelry-like rpg game where you must combo swords to kill enemies or collect money, armor or heath.
Dodonpachi-daifukkatsu hd iphone 02-1- Dodonpachi Resurrection 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.
456 170111 1-1- 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.
Expendable Rearmed Android screenshot Expendable Rearmed Shoot 'em up Updated version of a little-known Dreamcast gem. Play as a soldier clone - any one in an army of clones, they're all identical and expendable after all - against an invading force of biomechanical aliens.
Gamedevstory 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.
Giana-222-1- Giana Sisters Platformer Another one of the earlier platformers on Android with native (sort of) control support and optimized for Xperia Play, based loosely on the DS and Facebook remakes of Giana Sisters. Anyone who has even heard of Giana Sisters already knows the basics. It's Super Mario Brothers, except not. Become Punk Giana to shoot fireballs and smash bricks.
GTA Vice City Android screenshot Grand Theft Auto Vice City: 10th Anniversary Edition Sandbox One of the greatest GTA games ported to Android to celebrate the series 10th birthday. Solid port with suprisingly good controls. Has nearly all the content of the PS2 game but on your fucking phone. (Will run like shit on weak devices.)
8180535162 a677d48d06 b-1- Jet Set Radio 3D Trick Platformer Defying the stigma of "mobile isn't for 'real' games" once again, JSR is a full-fledged port of the original SEGA Dreamcast game with native MOGA controller support, with new features such as using your device's camera to create new tags. It also takes up over a gigabyte of space, so make sure you've got enough room and your device can handle it before buying.
Knightsofpenandpaper Knights of Pen and Paper +1 RPG From the same guys who made Magicka. A neat little "retro" style RPG that plays more like a tabletop Dungeons & Dragons game. Will keep you entertained on long car rides. It's recently been optimized for tablets.
Mzl.gtwijdru.320x480-75-1- Krazy Kart Racing Racing Konami's answer to Mario Kart, complete with cartoony items, colorful tracks, bonus challenges, and online multiplayer. Choose from characters such as Rocket Knight, Octopus, Goemon, and even Pyramid Head and use the accelerometer or touch screen to steer. Graphics are reminiscent of Diddy Kong Racing or something of the like, while the music is as techno as it gets. Sadly no Vic Viper or Twinbee to choose from.
Scr01 Little Stars for Little Wars 2 Strategy, Puzzle Great Game If you like Risk, Stratego, or Chess then this game is for you. Easy to understand game play and very difficult to beat at times. There is also a custom level generator so you can play past the main game and two-three player mode.
Modern Combat 4 Android screenshot Modern Combat 4: Zero Hour FPS So shamelessly "inspired" by Modern Warfare that it hurts, but damn, it actually works. Very good gameplay and excellent graphics.
O2JamAnalog 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.
Paper monsters retina1-1- Paper Monsters Platformer Simple 2D platformer with an art style similar to LittleBigPlanet. A bit like Cordy, but slower and with more focus on exploration. Tends to be compared with games such as Super Mario Bros and Donkey Kong Country. Unlike Cordy, it tends to lag on older/less powerful devices.
Nexusae0 2012-11-13-16.03.50-1- Pizza Boy Platformer A retro 16-bit style platformer that hearkens back to SNES games such as Super Mario World and Marko's Magic Football. Unfortunately the game lacks native controller support, which sucks because of how awkwardly the on-screen controls are placed, but if you have a KeyToTouch-like app, this can probably be fixed. The controls can be a bit slippery at times as well.
Nexusae0 2012-12-04-19.56.25-1- Raiden Legacy Compilation, Shoot 'em up Four-game compilation similar to Xbox 360's Raiden Fighters Aces that includes the original Raiden, Raiden Fighters, Raiden Fighters 2, and Raiden Fighters Jet, played vertically using touch controls.
RSSS 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.
RiptideGP Launch 2011-04-13-1- 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.
Sonic 4 Android 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.
Sonic4Episode2-Android-2-1- 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.
SonicCD Android 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.
2536607-1309806844654-1- Spirit HD Action Simple but very creative action game. Defeat enemies by creating small whirlpools using your finger or stylus, but try not to crash into them. Art style is very reminiscent of Geometry Wars and can be played vertically or horizontally. Looks and plays surprisingly well even over HDMI out.
Super-monkey-ball-2-edition-sakura-ipad-001-1- 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 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.
IMG 1858-1- Wreck-It Ralph Compilation, Action Mobile adaption of the film, including the original Fix-It Felix Jr. game (a Donkey Kong-style endless arcade game), Hero's Duty (a twin-stick Geometry Wars-alike), and Sweet Climber (Doodle Jump with candy). Embarrassingly better and probably more accurate than Activision's own Wii/3DS adaption. Sadly no Sugar Rush racing game or Hero's Duty FPS yet, but there is supposedly more "Coming Soon".
Standoff Android screenshot
Standoff Action, Arcade If you've played "Wild Guns" for SNES, it's basically that with mobile controls. The campaign is very short, but the endurance mode is fun and challenging. Make sure to check the Settings page to see how to actually play.

Emulators

Just install and play the games of yesteryear directly on your phone! Also, did I mention that there's no rooting required for these apps to work?

Free emulators

Icon Title System Description
Retroarch Android icon Retroarch Multiple A single app to emulate several systems: PlayStation, SNES, NES, GameBoy, GameBoy Advance, Arcade (Final Burn Alpha), Neo Geo Pocket, Virtual Boy, Genesis, Master System, Game Gear, Sega CD, TurboGrafx, WonderSwan. It does have some flaws: it's complicated by design to get it to run, and the GBA emulator tends to be slow and power draining on weaker phones.

Used to be in the Play Store, but was removed. There's also RetroidNetplay, a fork that adds an online multiplayer function to it.

Gameboid Android icon Gameboid GBA GameBoy Advance emulator.
Mupen64plusAE Android icon Mupen64+AE FREE N64 Nintendo 64 emulator.
MyBoy Android icon MyBoy GBA GameBoy Advance emulator.
PPSSPP Android icon PPSSPP PSP PlayStation Portable emulator. While still a work in progress, it runs decently to really well on mid to high end devices respectively though it can only run a handful of games. Check it out.
Reicast Android icon Reicast Dreamcast Dreamcast emulator. Still in an early stage, glitchy, but can run many games pretty well.
Snes9x EX plus Android icon Snes9x EX+ SNES Super Nintendo emulator.

Remember: understand the limits of your device. For example, it will be hard to run PS1 games at full speed on an 800MHz CPU. If you want to play anything serious, your device should be as powerful as a Google Nexus 7 . (it's $200, get one)

Commercial 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. Robert is a faster developer and he likes talking to customers first hand in you throw him an e-mail.

Recently released, DraStic allows you to play Nintendo DS games at full speed and with multiple screen layout options. Definitely worth checking out, especially for touch-based games such as Animal Crossing.

Yongzh doesn't support his emulators anymore, especially after Google removed most of his apps due to flagrant violations of the GPL.

Useful apps and software

Icon Title Type Description
Google apps 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 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 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 Android icon 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 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 Youtube Browser (Youtube) It's Youtube. Get it. You probably already have it installed, though.
Beautiful widgets Beautiful Widgets Clock / Weather widget Paid app. Lets you download tons of skins to customize your widget all you want.
Simi clock SiMi Clock Widget Clock widget A pretty and minimalist clock widget, and somewhat customizable too.
Solid explorer 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 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 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 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 IMO Messenger Instant messaging Client that works with pretty much any service imaginable, msn, facebook, skype, even steam.
Swiftkey 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 Logo 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 launcherGo launcherLauncher pro 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 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 lawnchairNova lawnchairHolo lawnchair 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.
Smart Launcher Launcher A nice minimal (one screen) launcher that cleans up your home screen and allows you to categorize your app drawer. Especially good for those who only use a few apps.
Widgetlocker 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 Gmote Media control Control your PC's media software from your phone.
Handcent sms 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.
Poweramp music player Power Amp Music player Hands down the best music player on the market. Buy it and never look back.
Barcode scanner Barcode Scanner Scanner QR codes, yeah? This scans them. Now you'll know what all those barcode squares are secretly saying.
Screen filter 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 player MX Video Player Video player Great video player that suports hardware decoding, subtitles and what not.
UCCW Android icon 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

Icon Title Type Description
Titanium Backup Android icon 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 Android icon 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.
Screenshot Android icon screenshot Screenshots Although this one says it only works on rooted phones, it might also work fine on unrooted ones.
Root Explorer Android icon 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 Android icon ES File Explorer File browser Said to do the same as Root Explorer, but I haven't tried. Free.
LCDDensity Android icon 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 Android icon 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 Android icon GameKiller Cheat Engine Almost same as GameCIH but sometimes works better.
Lucky Patcher Android icon Lucky Patcher License Remover Allows you to block ads and remove license verification on apps that use it. Works well most of the time.