Grow is today's free app from the Amazon Appstore.
Familiar as it may be to some PlayStation gamers out there, this may be a new type of game to Android users. Not many games are available with the food chain gameplay mechanic used as the primary motive for the game. And to those faithful PS gamers a particular game bares the most resemblence in not just gameplay but also the title, Flow. Like Grow, Flow is a food chain game whereby your aquatic life form begins as a single celled organism and grows only by eating similar or smaller sized organisms. Although Grow follows nearly the exact gameplay design as Flow, Grow differs by including an upgrade system and loot to boot. After eating fish they drop coins. Collect the coins to afford upgrades in swim speed, accelerated growth, and extra item slots.
Grow also borrows its UI straight from another widely popular game, Angry Birds. Each backdrop has as many as 12 levels where you'll attempt to earn 3 stars based on speed and performance, just like Angry Birds. The Pause menu and Level Cleared/Failed screens have also have the replay, menu, and next level buttons from Angry Birds.
Touch controls are responsive and come with two optional setups. By default you'll have the entire screen as a touchable control surface. With your fish in the middle, touch anywhere around it to go in that direction. This one was fun for a while, but my finger ended up blocking the action. So you will most likely do what I did and switch to the static directional touch pad. There is an option for left hand or right hand controls.
With 64 levels of gameplay, seven colorful backdrops, and two levels of difficulty, Adventure Mode is where you'll begin. Seven levels in Survival mode come next where global online leaderboards may keep you coming. Reviews are positive and I'm enjoying the game at least for a little while.
Grow -
