oking for some fresh apps games to entertain amuse you this weekend? If you have an Android phone, then we’ve got you covered: our Five to Try column rounds up the latest greatest offerings on the ay Store. And if you love rich role-playing quests, then the release of the beautiful The Banner Saga 2 should be fantastic news indeed. 

so new this week is Anchor, an app that lets you trade two-minute audio recordings to create a dialogue with other users, as well as Microsoft’s personalized news app, News o. And if you need further game options, NBA 2K17 offers a slick basketball simulation, while gend of the Skyfish remixes Nintendo’s Zelda series with a fishing twist.

The Banner Saga 2

It’s here, it’s here! The original The Banner Saga remains one of the most engrossing games available on Android, now two years later, the sequel is in the ay Store to deliver another dazzling role-playing quest. ke its predecessor, the game offers a mix of tactical turn-based combat, adventure-defining narrative choices, between-battle management as your caravan travels the country amidst the apocalypse.

The Banner Saga 2 ($5) doesn’t bring any dramatic shifts to the formula, although the battles are livelier thanks to new units map obstacles. Nevertheless, the original was excellent the sequel is just as vivid enticing, just as meaty for fans of role-playing adventures. It’s a direct continuation, so you should really play the original game first—although there is a recap video if you prefer to start here.

Anchor

It’s not difficult to find people to chat with on the Internet, but having a constructive, spoken dialogue with rom people can be challenging. However, that’s exactly the kind of community that Anchor is trying to create with its new Android app, which lets you record up to two minutes of speech, tag label it as you please, send it out into the world. 

Other users can find listen to your thoughts then reply with their own short recordings, creating a chain of conversation that Anchor likens to tiny, on-the-fly podcasts. It’s a unique concept, since the app has already been on iOS for a while, you’ll find a number of active threads topics to dig into— share your own perspective within.

NBA 2K17

st as suspected: following the recent release of the MyNBA2K17 card game console companion app, now we have a full-fledged NBA 2K17 ($8) game for Android. The console versions have been brilliant for years, this year we see the mobile hoops experience inch even closer to the $60 TV game, even if it’s not as packed with features.

It’s a realistic simulation that is nicely streamlined for smaller screens, the five-on-five action looks fantastic: the players are realistic the animations are pretty smooth, although audio output is glitchy. NBA 2K17 has a thin season mode along with single games, or you can jump into the enhanced MyCareer mode, which lets you guide a single created player through college into the NBA. ternatively, free-to-play rival NBA ve Mobile was just updated, as well. 

News o

Microsoft’s Garage program has developed an array of smaller apps for Android outside of larger offerings like Office Cortana, News o is its latest effort. It’s a news curation app built around the Bing search engine, but it’s all funneled through your own social media accounts: you can link in Twitter, Facebook, or nkedIn to get personalized picks.

That’s the promise, at least: you can only sign in with one account at a time, when I switched from Facebook to Twitter, the results were the same. so, the picks are a bit questionable: when reading about a horrific train crash, a celebrity gossip blog should not be the top source for that topic. News o does have some helpful annotation sharing features, however, hopefully it’s an app that becomes smarter the more you actually use it.

gend of the Skyfish

Many games owe a debt to Nintendo’s The gend of Zelda, but few capture enough of the magic to warrant being mentioned in the same breath. ckily, gend of the Skyfish ($3) is an exception. dely praised after its iOS debut last month, this mobile quest puts a fun spin on the classic formula— swaps the sword for a fishing pole. 

Yes, a fishing pole: as ttle Red Hook, you’ll use the tool as a grappling hook to vault across isls grab far-off objects, or even to daze enemies. Unlike its inspiration, Skyfish is pretty linear, looping you through 45 shorter stages, but the puzzles are compelling the graphics storyline are sharp. Zelda fans should finally see the great Oceanhorn on Android soon, as well.