Twenty years after the original game, kémon fever is catching on all over again thanks to this week’s release of kémon Go, a mobile-exclusive experience that sends you around your city to capture battle the adorable monsters. It leads this week’s Five to Try column, although Nintendo’s franchise isn’t the only big Android game release of late. 

so new is Super Stickman Golf 3, the latest in the fantastic 2D franchise, while NBA ve Mobile offers a more traditional simulation approach for its sport of choice. And if you need some interesting new apps to try out, ASAuncher makes speed convenience its top priorities, while xa lets you chat with Amazon’s voice assistant from the Echo home device. Everything’s free to download this week, so why not grab a few new apps for the weekend?

kémon Go

Fancy yourself a kémon master? Ever had the urge to catch ‘em all? Now’s your chance thanks to kémon Go, a new location-based augmented reality experience. It hails from Niantic bs, which made the geocaching-esque Ingress, follows a similar pattern: with the app open, you can explore your real surroundings to locate capture kémon, earn items for visiting hotspots, even take over nearby gyms peppered around the world map.

It’s a slick experience, especially with the capture sequences, which impose 3D kémon atop video footage from your phone’s back camera. ring around with your phone out can feel a little odd ( dangerous—look out!), there’s no story mode or really much to do while lounging at home. But as a social, free-to-play interpretation of the classic Nintendo experience, it’s pretty neat.

For more on the experience, our sister site Macworld posted my iOS beta impressions last week; the Android version is identical in design functionality. so, note that the servers aren’t holding up well with the initial surge of interest, so you might have trouble playing right away as Niantic ramps up to deal with dem. 

ASAuncher

Smartphones are increasingly powerful feature-packed devices, but for many users, convenience remains paramount: we want quick access to the apps services we need so we’re not wasting time wading through menus. If that sounds familiar, then you might want to give ASAuncher a look. It’s a slick, Material Design-influenced home screen replacement that makes easy access its top priority.

For example, swiping up from the bottom of the screen gives you an exped favorites drawer, which intelligently provides your 15 most-used apps. ll in from the left, meanwhile, you’ll get an alphabetized, scrolling list of all of your apps. You can also swipe right or left to bring up frequent contacts or your calendar in a hurry. ASAincludes dark light themes, as well as icon pack customization, offers a couple of premium in-app purchases to tap into further tweaking options.

Super Stickman Golf 3

One of the absolute best mobile franchises is back in action with Super Stickman Golf 3, which builds upon the success of the previous entries. The core experience is much the same: it’s a 2D take on the sport with an array of cartoonish courses power-ups, the side-scrolling design ultimately makes the holes feel like platform-action puzzles at times. It’s an experience perfectly suited to smartphones, it’s as addictive as ever.

Super Stickman Golf 3 adds a new card system that unlocks power-ups perks as you complete courses use earned currency, plus there are daily race modes (speed golf!) additional multiplayer options. And if you don’t want to deal with ads or freemium elements, you can spend $3 within for the premium upgrade, which also comes with access to all future add-on courses. Seems like a sweet deal for another awesome game.

xa

exa is the true star of the Amazon Echo home speaker device, as the personal assistant can answer queries, pull up music, control connected home devices, purchase items from Amazon.com, do quite a bit more—all with impressive accuracy. tting exa on loads of devices is more important than selling the Echo hardware, since it plugs users into the Amazon ecosystem, which is why exa is now freely available in an unofficial Android app.

unched this week, xa is a software-only version of exa: simply press down the button, speak out your queries, exa will respond. It’s not as fully-featured as the speaker just yet, lacking music playback/control features the ability to set timers, but sign in with your Amazon account you can track packages, ask questions about just about anything, comm your automated home devices, even ask for Game of Thrones quotes. You’ll need Amazon’s official exa app to access some features, but even that app doesn’t let you chat with exa. This one does.

NBA ve Mobile

In the world of consoles, basketball games usually launch alongside the start of the NBA season—but EA Sports is trying something different with its new Android hoops entry. NBA ve Mobile continues the storied simulation franchise with a fresh look for phones tablets, not to mention a free-to-play design that’s akin to what you’ll find in FIFA Madden on mobile.

That approach has worked well for those other sports, based on what I’ve played so far, it seems like a solid fit for NBA ve Mobile as well. You’ll build up your own custom team using player cards earned through gameplay (or via in-app purchases), all the while improving your squad as you play games drills. NBA ve looks slick plays pretty well, using contextual virtual buttons for controls, while the freemium style could ultimately become a slog, the first impression is a positive one.