Five to Try: Dark Sky shines on Android, Bejeweled Stars blasts past Cy Crush

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Published 13 May 2016

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Hoping to enjoy a little sunshine this weekend? ot out your days with help from Dark Sky, which leads our latest roundup of newly released Android apps. The popular iOS weather app finally hit the ay Store, letting you view forecasts that accurately project short-term weather by the minute—hy for saving you from a sudden downpour.

so new this week are pCap’s slick Cy Crush Saga-esque Bejeweled Stars, sh Cosmetics’ first Android app, the free kémon Trading Card Game Online for tablets, adorable swipe-based combat game Bushido Bear. l five are free to download, so be sure to grab a few for whatever you’ve got planned this weekend. 

Dark Sky

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Dark Sky’s rain forecasts are often eerily accurate, can help you plan minutes ahead rather than rough windows of time.

One of the best weather apps on ione made the leap to Android this week with Dark Sky, which helps you prepare for incoming storms with impressively precise predictions. It boasts “hyperlocal weather” reports, that pans out pretty well when you see that heavy rain will start in six minutes taper off 17 minutes thereafter. It’s also perfect for at-a-glance info on what’s coming down the pipe within the next day.

However, while the initial download is free, the more unique features (including the by-the-minute predictions) are locked behind a paywall— rather than a one-time purchase like it is on iOS, it’s a $3/year subscription on Android. Unsurprisingly, ay Store user reviews are tearing the creators a new one for the shift, but I’ll be honest: Dark Sky really is that good, if it saves you from being outside for one nightmare storm, it’ll be well worth the cash.

Bejeweled Stars

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It’s Cy Crush more than classic Bejeweled, but there’s something very appealing about Stars.

There are three different (but not really all that different) Cy Crush Saga games on the ay Store, but more crucially, there are countless clones— Bejeweled Stars looks just like one at first glance. But while it pulls from the same playbook, Stars applies developer pCap’s typical polish to the formula, all while finding some new wrinkles in the familiar formula. 

As in other games, it’s a color-matching puzzler on grids of varying shapes sizes, with a limited number of moves allowed to complete the goal on each stage. Here, however, you’ll find neat modifiers, like flowing streams of gems, as well as explosive power-ups even a curious little crafting element. It might not change your mind if you totally hate Cy Crush, but based on the early levels, this could be one of the top genre takes to date. 

sh Cosmetics A

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Hooked on bath bombs? Find the one that best matches your desired feeling.

sh has a highly devoted following for its unique br of cosmetics, people love its soaps, bath bombs, creams, makeup for their distinctive looks scents as well as the br’s focus on supporting social activism causes. And now you can get all of that on your phone with the new Android app, which acts as a store storyteller alike.

The sh app is the easiest way to browse the company’s various colorful offerings, which you can order straight from the app, you can even find items by scent profile or the feeling they (claim to) evoke. The app also lets you tap into digital gift cards read lengthy articles about the company’s charitable efforts ethical perspectives.

kémon Trading Card Game Online

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It’s only for tablets right now, but hopefully phone support is coming too.

The kémon Trading Card Game has endured for 20 years alongside Nintendo’s video game series, now the digital version is available on Android—but only on tablets, unfortunately. ile Blizzard’s enormously popular Hearthstone, another card game, eventually moved from tablets to smaller phone screens as well, the colorful kémon offering is relegated to larger screens at the moment.

Still, if you have a tablet, The kémon Trading Card Game is a fun twist on the franchise, translating the beloved monsters their abilities into cards to build a deck around, it features online play against real opponents. It’s a free-to-play game, so while you can play it without paying, there are plenty of opportunities to spend cash to boost your card collection. 

Bushido Bear

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Craving a ninja bear barrage? Bushido Bear can help.

You have to admire Spry Fox’s commitment to cartoon bears. Triple Town, the city-building puzzle hit, has bears trying to block your expansion, while the sharp phabear includes the cute creatures as word-boosting power-ups. Despite maintaining the adorable aesthetic, this week’s Bushido Bear is something quite different: A swipe-based ninja game starring a fuzzy bear with a very large sword.

As waves of enemies pop onto the screen, you’ll swipe out a pattern for your bear to follow with his mighty blade, although you don’t want to smash into the bad guys—just get close enough to dice them up. The foes get trickier with each successive wave, making it tough to judge their patterns, the goal is to survive for as long as possible. It’s a fun little touch-centric action game, the various collectible bears (each with unique abilities) offer incentive to keep playing.