Top 5 MMOs for Android!

1. Battle Camp — FREE

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Equipped with an ever expanding array of adorable and evolvable monsters, Battle Camp shocks players with its depth and breadth. From the get-go players can become a unique member of the community via a fully customizable avatar. Together with 5 meticulously chosen monsters, players crawl through dungeons capturing new monsters and face a limitless supply of bosses. Combat is always a blast. To attack, players play a little bit of augmented match-three in an attempt to string up combos for maximum damage. A welcome change in the genre considering the dull nature of tap to attack. A little finger dexterity and classic match-three strategy is necessary in every encounter, making Battle Camp gripping even when you're grinding. Beyond all the mechanics, the multiplayer is truly the gold standard, and that's the most important thing to consider when it comes to an MMO. The PvP is glorious. Connectivity is never an issue, and the exchanges are always thrilling. But it's the cooperative efforts and events that truly make Battle Camp astounding. Battle Camp's community is surprisingly friendly for a multiplayer game as big as it is (though not so surprising given the cutesy aesthetic of the game), and between troop wars and raids, Battle Camp generates a heartwarming amount of loyalty and fraternity within troops and between friends.

2. Order & Chaos Online — $0.99

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For those of you that have played World of Warcraft (and I suspect many of you visiting this list have), you would be happily and blatantly pandered to by Order & Chaos Online. Gameloft has unmistakably produced a knock-off, but that's not a bad thing. World of Warcraft is great, and Order & Chaos does the original much justice. From the human and orc races to the artistic feel, all creativity was spared to allow mobile players forget that they're playing a clone. That being said, opting for similarity in place of originality, Gameloft produces shoddy gameplay. In staying true to the PC original, design decisions fall by the wayside causing clutter and frustration for Android tablet players (I can't even imagine the hell that is Order & Chaos Online on mobile). Still, as one of the most populated MMORPGs for the Android, and drawing heavily from the game now synonymous with MMORPG, Order & Chaos Online has well earned it's number 2 spot on this Top 5.

3. Empire of the Eclipse — N/A

This game is extremely hard to pick up. The learning curve is very slow and the video tutorials are boring long and mostly terrible. but, if you get through all of that, you have an extremely addicting game that will have you checking your phone all hours of the day. Basically, you are trying to take over a universe against other players online in week long sessions. It plays like a very slow RTS where you send troops or probes to other planets to initiate an attack or survey the area. All these things take time and the game is really meant to be played in short bursts. You get to explore numerous technologies and skill trees in the course of a game to assemble your own strategy to take over the universe.

Unfortunately this game is no longer available, but it was great while it lasted.

4. Please Stay Calm — FREE

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Please Stay Calm is a lot like Mafia Wars mixed with zombies and Foursquare. The game is location based and set in your own neighborhood, but in the zombie apocalypse. Like Mafia Wars, everything is mostly UI based, with a collection of fun little mini games for what would be regular post-apocalypse activities like scavenging or zombie hunting. You get to build your own stronghold with friends (if you have them) and upgrade it with supplies. Your battle stats are also affected by the strength of the safehouse, so the larger your group of friends, the better your stats. While very social and happily casual, the minigames do still get quite tired, but the game isn't really meant to grip you for hours on end. It's more of an entertaining social activity.

5. IMO: The World of Magic — FREE

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Between the base warriors, mages, and archers, The World of Magic allows for a surprising amount of depth considering customization in true MMO fashion. Skill trees, weapons, and armors galore the classic MMO mold is further enhanced by PvP battlegrounds scattered through the region. For the social, this would be a great game, but if you're the quieter type the game is quite difficult to ramp up to. The tutorials are few and far between, so if you're afraid of being that 'noob' asking veterans how to play the game, there may be some frustration ahead of you.

Top 5 Pokemon Alternatives for Android!

1. Battle Camp — FREE

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Unlike any of the other Pokemon alternatives I've played, Battle Camp gives an immediate air of quality in all respects. From elegant UI to gorgeous models, it is clear that the team behind Battle Camp spared no details. The actual gameplay, however, is mind blowing to say the least. For the hardcore, the battling dynamic is completely unfamiliar, but the change is welcome. While numerous other Pokemon knock-offs shamelessly try to (poorly) emulate Pokemon's combat system, Battle Camp opts for something fresh. Loosely implementing the beloved bejeweled interface that made Candy Crush so popular, Battle Camp elevates the game beyond spamming your favorite attack. In battles, skilled players can chain up combos to multiply the strength of their attacks. There is no dearth of monsters with unique stats and attributes to build your own complex and worthy team. All this is magnified by Battle Camp's extensive multiplayer capabilities (a function that Pokemon drops the ball on year in and year out). Indeed, Battle Camp tops this exclusive list as the best Pokemon Alternative available on Android. In fact, Battle Camp is turning out to be my favorite mobile game of all time, and it's free.

2. Beastie Bay — FREE

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The monsters and combat in this game are sub-par. While obviously inspired by Pokemon, Beastie Bay dumbs down everything — abilities, monsters, and attacks — and leaves in features that worked well in one-on-one Pokemon battles, but not three-on-three Beastie Bay battles. For example, monster switching and item usage use up an entire turn. It's really annoying. Luckily, the combat is not the focus of the game; rather, it is a tool for taming allies to work your hotel. Beastie Bay's actually more of a SimCity type game than a monster catcher. That's not to say that as a monster catcher, Beastie Bay is a bad game. Actually, all the microsystems depend on the monsters you've tamed, and their importance and weight in the game is enormous. While the combat and monster depth is disappointing at best, monster catching is still a blast exactly because of how crucial it is. In taking monster catching out of the spotlight and making it a hyper-necessary tool, monster catching actually feels more valuable than in actual true monster catchers.

3. Pocket Frogs — FREE

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I love monster catcher combat. I feel like the additional feature of being able to pit your monsters against each other has become so standard in the genre, a monster catcher couldn't succeed without it. But I'm wrong. Pocket frogs is exactly a monster catcher without a battling mechanic. It's pure. The whole game is about collection. You hunt for and catch rare frogs, breed them, and raise them. There's nothing violent about it. All you do is attempt to populate your habitat (or habitats) with the cutest, prettiest, coolest, and rarest frogs you can. It's addicting, and with 35,000 unique frogs, you won't stop till you're absolutely sick of it.

4. Haypi Monster — FREE

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After sifting through countless Pokemon substitutes, Haypi Monster was one of only two games to actually feel complete. All the art and animation fits well together and makes for a congruous and distraction free experience. The battle sequences emulate Pokemon perfectly (they didn't even bother to change some attack names). What stands out most to me, however, is the player movement in the overworld. Unlike any Pokemon alternative I have ever played before, Haypi monster plays like a board game. There are spaces and with each 'turn' you roll a die to see which space you land determining the pace of which you move through the game. Some spaces have battles, and others have a variety of prizes. There is an element of luck in the game beyond just stumbling upon a rare monster in the brush, and it is thrilling.

5. Bulu Monster — FREE

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What I find most frustrating about many of the Pokemon copy-cats in the app store is that so many choose to use either a joystick or D-pad in classic GameBoy fashion, but it just doesn't translate to Android. Bulu Monster makes movement simple and elegant by setting tappable destinations on the map for the player to head towards. In battle, the graphics and animation in battle are on par with the most recent Pokemon releases, but in the overworld, Bulu Monster could try a little harder. To be sure, this game actually spends significantly more time in battle than Pokemon. Yes, battling is the core of Pokemon games, and they ought to be the most enjoyable part, but the feel is all wrong here.The whole game feels like walking in tall grass in Pokemon, where each move you make results in another battle.