Every month the Stuff team goes through large numbers of apps, trying to separate the wheat from the chaff, the gold from the grit, the er… thing from the other… thing? This is the May 2018 collection of apps that you need to download, today — though you don’t need to do them all at once. Pick the ones that catch your eye. That’s what we did.
1 BBC Earth: Life in VR
Free / Android Daydream
Dive into the drink and discover life beneath the waves, from faffing otters to swarms of krill. It’s the best personal Blue Planet around, short of actually hurling yourself into the sea.
2 Typorama
Free (IAPs) / iOS
If your idea of type design is a strange attraction to Comic Sans, use Typorama to add text to your pics instead. Loads of styles and effects are included, and a one-off IAP forever nukes watermarks.
3 Noted
R13/month / iOS
Zone out even more during boring lectures and meetings with Noted. Use the app to record everything, tap to add inline ‘TimeTags’, and use them to flesh out notes later when you’re less bleary-eyed.
4 tanz.love
R15 / Android
Drum machines with traditional pads and step sequencers are so last year. With tanz.love, you get your ‘UNCH UNCH UNCH’ on by way of an oddball circular beat recorder twinned with chunky retro buttons.
5 PromptSmart Pro
R240/Android ● R300/iOS
Who says Android is bereft of pro-level apps? PromptSmart gives you a tiny teleprompter that follows your voice as you speak. Perfect for your award-winning “I hate Apple” YouTube series.
6 Tekken
Free (IAPs) / Android, iOS
It’s not the console game, because your phone’s lacking in buttons. But mobile Tekken does offer loads of punchy fun, combos, and a very violent panda. (And yes, also freemium you want to beat up.)
7 Part Time UFO
R60 / Android, iOS
These days, when a UFO crashes it isn’t sent to Area 51 – the locals would just grumble too much about the “immigrant” not pulling its weight. Cue this feast of absurd claw-machine chores.
8 Tiny Armies
R15 / Apple Watch
Turn-based strategy on a PC? No problem. A smartphone? Sure. An Apple Watch? Hang on a minute. But Tiny Armies has a go anyway, with surprisingly great stripped-back, lightning-fast battles.
9 The Battle of Polytopia
Free(IAPs) / Android, iOS
This Stuff fave is a mobile-optimised Civilization in fast-forward. Now, buy any extra tribe (R16 each) and you get online multiplayer. There’s a good chance we may never leave the house again.
Three of the best – Turn-based games
TURN UNDEAD
Free / Android, iOS Give the undead a kicking–and then quickly realise that time only moving when you do makes for some seriously tricky slaying.
DISC DRIVIN’ 2
Free / iOS ‘Shuffleboard meets Wipeout’ is about the best way to describe this one. Flick your disc along tracks suspended in mid-air, keeping ahead of rivals.
TAKO BUBBLE
Free / Android, iOS This retro single-screen arcade effort feels like Bomb Jack infused with chess-like forward planning. Think. Move. Grab bubbles. Don’t die.
