Five to Try: Disney y Road debuts, Reddit finally has an official app

BY

Published 8 Apr 2016

NSFW AI Why trust Greenbot

We maintain a strict editorial policy dedicated to factual accuracy, relevance, and impartiality. Our content is written and edited by top industry professionals with first-hand experience. The content undergoes thorough review by experienced editors to guarantee and adherence to the highest standards of reporting and publishing.

Disclosure

If there’s a theme to this week’s ay Store picks, it’s apps games that can distract you in a hurry. Disney y Road? It’s just as addictive as the original, but now with beloved Disney characters. An official Reddit app? You could lose hours at a time digging into subreddits. And that’s not all.

There’s also a stalone Starz subscription app for streaming movies TV shows, a new Kingdom Hearts game, SwiftKey’s ShakeSpeak keyboard, which helps you type out text messages just like Shakespeare himself surely did centuries ago. t all of those things together it sounds like a leisurely weekend well spent. Grab these fresh apps enjoy! 

Disney y Road

fivetotry april8 disneycrossy

It’s undeniably y Road, but each film or franchise’s characters have their own unique level to play in.

Disney y Road sells itself rather well. It’s y Road, one of the best free-to-play games ever released for phones tablets, it’s infused with a heap of Disney goodness. at’s not to like? Very little, it seems. In fact, the new app takes the opportunity to improve on the original game’s formula by bringing in some much-appreciated variety.

ile still essentially an endless take on Frogger, each license—including Zootopia, Inside Out, The on King, Haunted Mansion—has its own original level for its characters to play in. And that can mean dealing with new kinds of threats level-specific modifiers. Still, Disney y Road mostly doesn’t try to fix what wasn’t broken, the allure of unlocking 125 classic-to-minor Disney characters could make fans fall in love all over again.

Reddit: The Official App

fivetotry april8 reddit

Can the official Reddit app beat your favorite third-party app of choice?

If you believe in Reddit’s claim that it is the “front page of the Internet,” then the long-awaited release of an official Android app may be good news indeed. The Reddit app brings all of the posts, images, links, commentary, conversation into an easy-to-read format, whether you prefer cards or topic listings, it’s certainly preferable to reading the mobile web version.

However, unofficial Reddit readers are in ample supply on the ay Store, everyday users probably already have a third-party favorite. Some ay Store reviewers don’t seem to think the official app improves on what they’re used to, but it’s early still. Besides, at the very least, it’s worth trying the official app: you get three free months of the paid Reddit service just for signing in with the app during launch week.

Starz

fivetotry april8 starz

Starz doesn’t have quite the roster of original shows as premium rivals, but the movie selection has serious stouts.

HBO did it Showtime wasn’t far behind, so it’s little surprise to see premium cable channel Starz take the leap release its own stalone subscription app. Now you can pay $9 a month to gain access to the network’s movie original TV offerings, although curiously, there’s no free trial available. At least you can browse the listings before shelling out for the service.

Starz has original shows like Black Sails Outler, the movie lineup is currently led by hits like The Avengers: Age of Ultron, iplash, Inside Out. And you can save videos for offline playback, too, which is an excellent perk. The newly overhauled Starz app is a one-stop destination for all users, so if you’ve got a cable or satellite subscription, you can access the free content here, as well.

Kingdom Hearts Unchained X

fivetotry april8 kingdomhearts

Kingdom Hearts’ storyline has long gone off the rails, but at least Unchained X does a nice job of capturing the series’ essence on mobile.

Double Disney gaming this week? You bet. Disney is big on crossovers, but this one stretches back a long ways: Kingdom Hearts blends Disney classics with Final Fantasy characters, has spanned several games since 2002. Unchained X is the first Android entry, it helps set up story threads for the forthcoming Kingdom Hearts III on consoles.

It’s a simpler take on the series formula: as a customizable keyblade wielder, you’ll dive into worlds inspired by Disney animated classics fight the evil Heartless monsters. However, you’ll just tap or swipe to attack the worlds are simply 2D backdrops. Unchained X has appearances from the likes of Mickey Mouse, addin, Goofy, many more, plus you can take down big boss enemies with online allies in raid events.

ShakeSpeak

fivetotry april8 shakespeak

SwiftKey’s ShakeSpeak is good for a laugh, at least— luckily, it’s free.

SwiftKey uses its Greenhouse program to launch experimental apps on the ay Store, including SwiftKey Neural pha Clarity Keyboard Beta, but its latest effort is something wildly different. ShakeSpeak is designed to make you write like lliam Shakespeare himself, with not only the outline of his visage added in, but also predictive text pulled from his works.

The company analyzed his wide library of literary classics, ShakeSpeak highlights his most-used terms: “thee,” “thy,” “thou,” for example, as well as “hark” “How now!” SwiftKey’s predictive typing talents might produce smarter keyboards, but it’s hilarious to see the company put it to use to create a sillier one, too. This month marks the 400th anniversary of his passing, so what better time to text like the Bard annoy all of your friends?