Google’s Play Game Services were heralded as a big level up for Android gaming when they were announced back in May. Finally we had a universal system and an easy-to-implement API for tracking achievements and leaderboards across games, carrying saved games across devices (cloud save), and enjoying real-time multiplayer with friends — even on iOS, if the App Store version also integrates Play Game Services. And it’s all accessible through an app, just like Game Center on iOS.
But you can’t just pull up a filter on the Play Store to uncover Play Game Services-supported apps, and finding them can at times feel like wielding arcane arts. So Android.AppStorm’s editorial boss lady [Ed note: that would be me - Rita] asked me to round up a big list of the best. Here are more than 40 games that use at least one of the new services. I’ve included a note on each one to say which Play game services it utilizes, for your convenience.
Looking for more multiplayer games? Check out our roundup of 35+ Android and iOS Cross-Platform Multiplayer Games.
Riptide GP/Riptide GP 2
Take a rocket-powered jet ski for a spin in the futuristic racers Riptide GP and Riptide GP 2, and you’ll get a hankering for high-speed water sports. You steer, boost, and maneuver your “hydro jet” through tilt or taps and gestures, or via a physical controller, with acceleration handled automatically.
A robust career mode and four-player multiplayer coupled with some of the best graphics on Android make these a must-have for speed freaks. If you’re still not convinced, check out our review of the first one.
Play Game Services included: Achievements, cloud save, multiplayer, leaderboards.
Price: $1.99/$2.99
Requires: Android 2.3 and up
Play Store Link: Riptide GP/Riptide GP 2
Developer: Vector Unit
Terraria
The popular 2D Minecraft-esque sandbox Terraria recently made the leap from PC to mobile, complete with new tutorials and a touch-based control scheme that (hopefully) doesn’t make you scream in anguish. Terraria on Android is pretty much the same as it is elsewhere, presenting a huge 2D world where you can dig, craft, build, battle, and explore to your heart’s content.
Play Game Services included: Achievements, leaderboards.
Price: $4.99
Requires: Android 2.3 and up
Play Store Link: Terraria
Developer: 505 Games
Eternity Warriors 2
Fans of the hack-and-slash dungeon crawler will feel right at home with Glu Mobile’s free-to-play Eternal Warriors 2, which sports a polished user interface, satisfying and responsive touch controls, great graphics, and fluid combat — along with co-op and versus multiplayer. As with all free-to-play games, there’s always a gentle push to spend real money on items and upgrades — but you can get by just fine without dropping any cash.
Play Game Services included: Achievements, cloud save, multiplayer, leaderboards.
Price: Free
Requires: Android 2.1 and up
Play Store Link: Eternity Warriors 2
Developer: Glu Mobile
Farm Invasion USA
Aliens exist, and they’re coming for your corn. Farm Invasion USA puts you in the
shoes
harvester of a redneck family of farmers in Texas as they single-handedly oppose a horde of popcorn-loving creatures from outer space. You mow down and shoot aliens and harvest corn before they can fry it from above, darting back and forth on a two-plane side-scrolling map.
Play Game Services included: Achievements, leaderboards.
Price: $5.20/Free
Requires: Android 2.2 and up
Play Store Link: Farm Invasion USA Premium/Farm Invasion USA
Developer: Handy Games
Glow Puzzle
Connect the dots has never been as cool and tricky as in Glow Puzzle, a deceptively-challenging neon-colored puzzler. You connect the dots in a continuous path — reusing a pairing results in failure — through more than 2,000 puzzles. It’s simple yet captivating, and you can play online with your friends, too, to see who’s fastest under pressure.
Play Game Services included: Achievements, cloud save, multiplayer, leaderboards.
Price: Free
Requires: Android 2.2 and up
Play Store Link: Glow Puzzle
Developer: Glosculptor
7×7
Also in a deceptively-tricky puzzling vein, 7×7 presents a colorful twist on connect four-style games. You drag blocks around the board to make vertical, diagonal, or horizontal rows of at least four pieces of the same color. There’s a combo meter and a Tetris-style up next queue, but it’s held back by a few design flaws — as detailed in our review.
Play Game Services included: Achievements, leaderboards.
Price: Free
Requires: Android 4.0 and up
Play Store Link: 7×7
Developer: Kiip
Triple Town
It’s not easy to pull yourself away from Triple Town, a puzzling city builder that abstracts the joys of both to their core in a world where three grasses make a bush, three bushes make a tree, three trees make a house, and bears terrorize your tiny citizens. Choosing not to front up the cash to unlock unlimited play might be your only guard against a Triple Town addiction.
Play Game Services included: Achievements, leaderboards.
Price: Free
Requires: Android 2.2 and up
Play Store Link: Triple Town
Developer: Spry Fox
PBA Bowling Challenge
PBA Bowling Challenge lets you take to the lanes for a 10-pin bowling fix wherever you are. The flick and tilt controls work surprisingly well, and they feel far more satisfying than merely pressing a button.
The real appeal here, though, is the depth in its feature set. You get three modes — multiplayer, quickplay, and career, with dozens of tournaments and a huge number of balls and alleys. And sparkling graphics seal the deal.
Play Game Services included: Achievements, cloud save, multiplayer, leaderboards.
Price: Free
Requires: Android 2.3 and up
Play Store Link: PBA Bowling Challenge
Developer: Concrete Software
Stick Stunt Biker 2
Don’t let the stylish, peaceful atmosphere fool you: Stick Stunt Biker 2 is full of some of the most brutal stunts and crashes you’ll ever see on two wheels. You touch the screen to accelerate and brake, and tilt to lean back and forth, then let physics do its thing. The goal is not just to perform gnarly stunts, though — you’re actually working your way through tracks as quickly as you can.
Play Game Services included: Achievements, leaderboards.
Price: Free
Requires: Android 2.2 and up
Play Store Link: Stick Stunt Biker 2
Developer: Djinnworks
Super Stickman Golf 2
While we’re playing with sticks, Noodlecake’s Super Stickman Golf 2 is a must-have for arcade sports fans. You’ve never seen golf like this (unless you played the first one), with bizarre levels that see you defying gravity and risking life and limb just to get a ball in a hole. Real-time multiplayer through Play Game Services is particularly awesome here, as it adds an element of urgency to the competition.
Play Game Services included: Achievements, cloud save, multiplayer, leaderboards.
Price: Free
Requires: Android 2.3 and up
Play Store Link: Super Stickman Golf 2
Developer: Noodlecake Studios
The Sandbox
Why not play god with The Sandbox’s pixellated 2D world? The Sandbox has campaign modes involving zombies (among other things), but its big draw to creative types is the Free Mode. This gives you a blank canvas, so to speak, with which you can shape a world in your image. Your power is to create or destroy simple blocks like water, stone, or soil, but from these you can get into crafting and all sorts of cool chemical reactions between different materials.
Play Game Services included: Achievements, cloud save, leaderboards.
Price: Free
Requires: Android 2.3.3 and up
Play Store Link: The Sandbox
Developer: Pixowl
Temple Run 2
Endless runners are pretty well played out at this point, but Temple Run 2 still brings enough to the table to draw a big crowd. Taking elements of Indiana Jones and transplanting them into a mad dash to escape a cursed idol, the game has you weaving, ducking, jumping, and collecting coins, but mostly running. And now you can also buy the superstar sprinter Usain Bolt for an extra-fast runner.
Play Game Services included: Achievements, leaderboards.
Price: Free
Requires: Android 2.1 and up
Play Store Link: Temple Run 2
Developer: Imangi Studios
Plague Inc
The award-winning Plague Inc offers a terrifying window into the powers of super pathogens, and with a delightful twist. You don’t try to limit and eventually halt the spread of the disease — quite the opposite, in fact. You are the plague, and you need to evolve in such a way that you will continue to spread and kill, with the end goal being to stamp out humanity. Its simulation style and realistic vibe make it an incredible warning and wake up call.
Play Game Services included: Achievements, leaderboards.
Price: Free
Requires: Android 2.2 and up
Play Store Link: Plague Inc
Developer: Miniclip
Delta-V Racing
Delta-V Racing captures much of the magic of the celebrated futuristic racing series Wipeout and transplants its high-speed vehicular combat from 3D to 2D. It’s not quite perfect, with a few balance and design issues and controls that take some getting used to, but Delta-V is cool and loads of fun. Progression proves frustrating if you prefer one type of event over the others, but at the same time there’s great variety on offer.
Play Game Services included: Achievements, cloud save, leaderboards.
Price: $0.99
Requires: Android 2.2 and up
Play Store Link: Delta-V Racing
Developer: Spacehopper Studios
Galaxy on Fire 2 HD
Normally reserved for the PC, Galaxy on Fire 2 HD brings an epic space combat and trading simulation to Android. It has elements of genre stalwarts Elite and Freelancer, with dozens of star systems, planets, customizable spaceships, and missions. It also looks gorgeous and controls about as well as a game of this complexity could on a touch-only interface.
Play Game Services included: Achievements, leaderboards.
Price: Free
Requires: Android 3.1 and up
Play Store Link: Galaxy on Fire 2 HD
Developer: Fishlabs Entertainment
QWOP
QWOP is one of the most ridiculous games around. You control a sprinter who is representing his small country in five track and field events. But the trouble is that he doesn’t know how to run. Your job, then, is to control his legs, bending and straightening them in whatever way you can to propel him forward without falling flat on his face. It’s hilarious, whether you succeed or fail.
Play Game Services included: Leaderboards.
Price: $0.99
Requires: Android 2.3 and up
Play Store Link: QWOP
Developer: Noodlecake Studios
Tasty Fish
Despite what its name might suggest, Tasty Fish is about survival. You do everything in your power to keep a school of fish safe from danger posed by sharks, crabs, and boats — mostly with taps that guide them from place to place around the screen. It’s cute, fun, and easy going.
Play Game Services included: Leaderboards.
Price: Free
Requires: Android 2.3 and up
Play Store Link: Tasty Fish
Developer: Dime Studios
Wurdle
Wurdle isn’t your grandfather’s word search. The jumble of letters hide words not just on the horizontals, verticals, and diagonals, but also in waves and loops. You trace out as many words as possible, with the only condition being that there’s a direct path between each successive letter. Loads of options allow you to tweak the difficulty and length of games, as well as to adjust the appearance.
Play Game Services included: Achievements, leaderboards.
Price: $1.99
Requires: Android 2.2 and up
Play Store Link: Wurdle
Developer: Kittehface Software
Blueprint 3D
Combining magic eye puzzles with architectural drawings and a little something new, Blueprint 3D presents hundreds of cool challenges to uncover order from chaos. Puzzles are grouped into 11 themed packs, and you can swap between three difficulty modes — each of which alter the experience considerably. Check out our review for more details.
Play Game Services included: Achievements, leaderboards.
Price: $6.99
Requires: Android 2.3 and up
Play Store Link: Blueprint 3D
Developer: FDG Entertainment
Air Hockey Intense
I don’t know that Air Hockey Intense is quite as intense as any real game of air hockey I’ve played (maybe that’s more a reflection on me than the game), but it’s a fun alternative for the majority of the time when an air hockey table isn’t near at hand.
There are two game modes — intense, for something that you’d never find on a real table, and classic, for the traditional air hockey experience — together with 15 tables, three difficulty levels, and lots of paddles and pucks to choose from.
Play Game Services included: Achievements, leaderboards.
Price: Free
Requires: Android 2.1 and up
Play Store Link: Air Hockey Intense
Developer: Web and Create
Giana Sisters
The Giana Sisters were created way back in the Commodore 64 days as an unlicensed clone of Super Mario Bros. Legal action from Nintendo forced it off the shelves, but not before it could capture and captivate an audience. More than 20 years later, they returned, with all new levels and graphics and controls, and now you can see what all the fuss was about on your Android device.
It’s certainly not of the standard of Nintendo’s famous series, but Giana Sisters is a solid platformer. And recent updates have fixed the previous control issues.
Play Game Services included: Achievements, leaderboards.
Price: $1.00
Requires: Varies with device
Play Store Link: Giana Sisters
Developer: Kaasa Games
World of Goo
World of Goo has been around for years now, but it’s still one of the best games on Android. It involves building strange towers and bridges by linking blobs of goo, with the goal being to transport the goo balls from one point to another. Its charming aesthetic style has been endlessly copied elsewhere, but going back now it still feels fresh, and there’s a delightful challenge in building goo architecture.
Play Game Services included: Achievements, leaderboards.
Price: $4.99
Requires: Android 2.2 and up
Play Store Link: World of Goo
Developer: 2D Boy
Townsmen
Townsmen is a kind of medieval SimCity lite. You plop down different kinds of buildings, harvest grain, collect taxes, trade, and watch your tiny little people go about their lives. There are quests and scenarios, as well as a sandbox mode to keep you busy. The sedate pace is relaxing, but you may find the game’s relentless need for micromanagement tedious. Hardcore SimCity fans will think Townsmen far too casual-minded.
Play Game Services included: Achievements, leaderboards.
Price: $2.59
Requires: Varies with device
Play Store Link: Townsmen
Developer: Handy Games
Worms 2: Armageddon
You can probably tell from my review of Worms 2: Armageddon that I’m a fan of the smack-talking antics of those murderous little critters. This is Worms (almost — perfection would involve a mouse) as it should be, with colorful and creative battlegrounds with which you can blow yourself and your opponents to smithereens.
The best fun comes from same-device multiplayer, but you can also dig into a single-player campaign or online multiplayer, and there are plenty of custom game modes available.
Play Game Services included: Achievements, multiplayer, leaderboards.
Price: $4.99
Requires: Android 2.2 and up
Play Store Link: Worms 2: Armageddon
Developer: Team 17
Minesweeper 3D
If you’ve ever been hooked on perennial Windows pack-in game Minesweeper, you’ll probably form an instant opinion of Minesweeper 3D. It’s an interesting twist, but one that’s sure to be divisive as it arguably adds needless complexity. If you were burned out on the standard 2D game, though, this might be just the breath of fresh air for you.
There are a dozen board types, each requiring spatial awareness as you do your mental calculations and rotate the shape around, and three difficulty settings.
Play Game Services included: Achievements, leaderboards.
Price: Free/$1.99
Requires: Android 2.3.3 and up
Play Store Link: Minesweeper 3DMinesweeper 3D Premium
Developer: Pink Pointer
Eufloria HD
Eufloria HD is beautiful. Its ambient aesthetic makes for a charming companion as you work to master its explorative strategy. Its gameplay seems strange from a distance, but up close Eufloria is intuitive and easy to learn. You spend your time spreading sending seedlings hopping between asteroids, building up colonies and resources, and fighting opponents.
Play Game Services included: Achievements.
Price: $4.99
Requires: Android 2.3 and up
Play Store Link: Eufloria HD
Developer: Omni Labs
Modern Combat 4: Zero Hour
Android’s closest thing to popular console first-person shooter Call of Duty is currently in its fourth incarnation, with a cookie cutter story involving you almost single-handedly preventing nuclear war. Multiplayer is where it’s at here, and for that you have access to an in-depth rankings, specialization, and skill system, with purportedly 20,000 weapon arrangements. If a console-style FPS on your phone or tablet sounds appealing, you won’t do much better.
Play Game Services included: Achievements, cloud save, multiplayer, leaderboards.
Price: $6.99
Requires: Android 2.3 and up
Play Store Link: Modern Combat 4: Zero Hour
Developer: Gameloft
Aces of the Luftwaffe
If you prefer your shooting more old-school arcade-y, turn your attention to Aces of the Luftwaffe — a chaotic shoot-’em-up set in the 1940 Battle of Britain (and elsewhere in World War II). Your plane moves wherever you touch the screen, and shoots constantly while you hold your finger down. If you’ve played shmups before, you know what to expect; if you haven’t, well, expect to spend most of the time dragging your plane around simultaneously shooting enemies and avoiding their fire.
Play Game Services included: Achievements, leaderboards.
Price: Free
Requires: Android 2.1 and up
Play Store Link: Aces of the Luftwaffe
Developer: Handy Games
Save the Puppies
What heartless soul can resist the call to save all the puppies from the evil dogcatcher? You guide a dachshund (sausage dog) through 150 labyrinthine levels, avoiding obstacles like cats and interacting with the environment, in a quest to rescue cute puppies locked in cages. Its cuteness is overwhelming. You must save the puppies.
Play Game Services included: Achievements, leaderboards.
Price: $3.90
Requires: Android 2.2 and up
Play Store Link: Save the Puppies
Developer: Handy Games
Asphalt 8: Airborne/Asphalt 7: Heat
Opinions differ as to which of Asphalt 7 and 8 is the better game (our own Nathan Snelgrove went as far as to call 8 the best mobile arcade racer available), but both offer the best arcade racing experience on Android. Similar to Criterion’s famed Burnout series, you speed and drift through city streets and highways, bumping and shunting rival racers in an effort to give yourself the upper hand.
Both sport several game modes, gorgeous visuals, excellent multiplayer, and a big lineup of cars — with just enough difference between entries that you can justify owning both.
Play Game Services included: Achievements, cloud save, multiplayer, leaderboards.
Price: $0.99
Requires: Android 2.3 and up
Play Store Link: Asphalt 8: Airborne/Asphalt 7: Heat
Developer: Gameloft
Quadropus Rampage
The name speaks for itself. You’re a quadropus (like an octupus, but with four tentacles), and you go on a rampage. A few control issues stand in the way of your angry cephalopod as he goes about bashing enemies in their fishy faces, but Quadropus Rampage is otherwise a very enjoyable isometric roguelike with a silly sense of humor.
Play Game Services included: Achievements, leaderboards.
Price: $6.99
Requires: Android 2.3 and up
Play Store Link: Quadropus Rampage
Developer: Butterscoth Shenanigans
Monster Shooter 2
Now we move from four tentacles to the more conventional eight. And from bashing to shooting. Monster Shooter 2 pits you against a horde of alien invaders led by an octopus set on taking over the world. It’s an incredibly chaotic, manic top-down (at a slight inclination) shooter, true to the spirit of such games back in the 8-bit and 16-bit games. And the cartoony style brings plenty of charm.
Play Game Services included: Achievements, leaderboards.
Price: Free
Requires: Android 2.3 and up
Play Store Link: Monster Shooter 2
Developer: Gamelion Studios
Kingdom Rush
I’m completely burned out on tower defense, but if you’re still into it you may want to look at the fantasy-themed Kingdom Rush. It’s one of the best games of its genre, with an epic campaign, tons of enemy types, funny battles, and cartoony graphics. Mark it down as a great time waster.
Play Game Services included: Achievements, leaderboards.
Price: $0.99
Requires: Android 4.0 and up
Play Store Link: Kingdom Rush
Developer: Ironhide Game Studios
Beach Buggy Blitz
Rather than play out the tired kart racing trope, Beach Buggy Blitz tackles the underserviced buggy racing crowd. What’s the difference, you ask? Not much, really. It’s a solid casual racing game, complete with powerups and upgrades for pushing yourself ahead of the pack and knocking back your rivals. There’s also a variety of locales, and three basic control schemes that suit different tastes — tilt, touch, or gamepad.
Play Game Services included: Achievements, cloud save, leaderboards.
Price: Free
Requires: Android 2.3 and up
Play Store Link: Beach Buggy Blitz
Developer: Vector Unit
Flick Home Run!
Its link to baseball is tenuous at best, but Flick Home Run! offers a cathartic kind of therapy after a long day. Flick the ball with your finger, watch to see how far it goes, and repeat. There are several game modes and heaps of balls that have a variety of characteristics, but that one thing — flick the ball as far as you can — never changes.
Play Game Services included: Achievements, cloud save, multiplayer, leaderboards.
Price: Free
Requires: Android 2.2 and up
Play Store Link: Flick Home Run!
Developer: Infinity Pocket
Osmos
Osmos was critically acclaimed on iPad, and it’s easy to see why. Its gorgeous visuals and brilliant ambient soundtrack support an inventive and laid-back mechanic. In a world of single-celled organisms, you push your mote around, shrinking as matter ejects behind you and growing as you absorb smaller motes.
Whether you think of it as life inside a petri dish or the collisions of stars and galaxies, Osmos is incredibly affecting and close to being the ultimate chill-out game. And there’s multiplayer, too.
Play Game Services included: Achievements, cloud save, multiplayer, leaderboards.
Price: $2.99
Requires: Android 2.2 and up
Play Store Link: Osmos
Developer: Hemisphere Games
Bopbop
Bopbop is super cool and fun. You connect dots of the same color on a grid, with more points for more dots, and race against the clock to rack up the biggest score you can. From this simple concept emerges endless awesomeness. There are three game modes available: classic, which sticks closely to what I’ve just described, Powa, which adds a score multiplier, and Zen, which does away with points and time limits entirely.
Play Game Services included: Achievements, cloud save, leaderboards.
Price: Free
Requires: Android 2.0 and up
Play Store Link: Bopbop
Developer: Inferno
Granny Smith
Named after a popular brand of apples, Granny Smith puts you in the shoes of a crazed granny on skates as she goes to whatever lengths necessary to get her beloved fruit before a conniving thief. In video game terms, it’s a platformer and an auto-runner. Your job is to guide granny clear of hazards and into the many apples that dot the landscape, using granny’s jumping and throwing talents. She’s in pretty good shape for her age.
Play Game Services included: Achievements, leaderboards.
Price: $1.99
Requires: Android 2.3 and up
Play Store Link: Granny Smith
Developer: Mediocre
Avabel Online
You have to be tethered to a PC to enjoy a 3D massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG). Avabel Online even includes an offline mode you can enjoy in transit. There are dungeons, monsters, bosses, weapons, people, and things to do (mostly fighting), with co-op and PvP opportunities for those who like to put the multiplayer in MMO.
Play Game Services included: Achievements, cloud save, multiplayer, leaderboards.
Price: $6.99
Requires: Android 2.3 and up
Play Store Link: Avabel Online
Developer: Asobimo
Gunslugs
Paying homage to the 8-bit console days, Gunslugs pastiches 80s action films in a ridiculous side-scrolling shooter/platformer. The controls work best with an external gamepad, of which it supports many, while the graphics look a bit muddy at times. But there’s lots of fun to be had rampaging around pretending to be Sylvester Stallone, Arnold Schwarzenegger, or Jean-Claude Van Damme in a forgettable blockbuster flick. The levels are randomly generated, too, so there’s theoretically infinite replayability.
Play Game Services included: Achievements, cloud save, leaderboards.
Price: $1.49
Requires: Android 2.3 and up
Play Store Link: Gunslugs
Developer: Orange Pixel
Wind-up Knight
From 2D to 3D, but still in a side-scrolling platformer package, we move to Wind-up Knight — a delightful adventure to rescue the princess from an evil black knight. The cute little guy can jump, roll, swing his sword, and block things with his shield, which is good because there are all sorts of spikes and flames and baddies intent on blocking his progress. The story is presented in an extremely silly fashion, while the gameplay itself is really well-executed and satisfying.
Play Game Services included: Achievements, cloud save, leaderboards.
Price: Free
Requires: Android 2.2 and up
Play Store Link: Wind-up Knight
Developer: Robot Invader
Phew, we made it to the end. I don’t know about you, but I found several awesome games I didn’t previously know about — Bopbop, Save the Puppies, and Glow Puzzle in particular. There are plenty of other games that use the services, with more popping up every day. A good place to start, if you’re looking, is the Play Store with a search for “game services.”
My selection here is focused on all the good stuff I could find, but I’m sure I’ve missed something — so take to the comments with your additions to the list.