Apps! A Look at Adult Swim's Android Goodies

I love me some Android applications.

I am currently the proud-ish owner of a Droid 2 Global (ish because I really need a new phone soon, despite it being a year old– this screen is bad, and I’m not even getting Ice Cream Sandwich because it’s too old!) and, while they weren’t when I first got the phone, Adult Swim is the proud owner of a couple Android apps. While nowhere near the amount on the Apple App Store, the Android Market/Google Play has its share of Adult Swim official and related goodies for your smartphone.

Adult Swim themselves have two official apps out. Robot Unicorn Attack was their first venture into Android, and soon after came an Android version of the official Adult Swim app that Apple iDevice users have already had for a while. There is also another app related to the network in a way in a game based on Tim & Eric’s Billion Dollar Movie, named Tetnis. There’s also a fanmade Adult Swim Message Boards app out there! Let’s take a bit of a look at each.

First, since it’s on the top of my applications list, let’s look at the official Adult Swim app. You may be familiar with it if you have an iPod Touch, an iPhone, or an iPad. The two apps are similar, yet they have some purely cosmetic differences. Right off the bat you’ll note that the black bar at the bottom and top of the iOS app is nonexistent on the Android app. Those options are still there, no worries– you only have to tap your menu button on your phone’s face. You can flip through the featured videos when you open the app, just like the iOS app, as well.

Watching full episodes that aren’t free will, of course, require a login. Gold Episodes are available on the app. Video is actually far nicer on the Android app. The video itself is much clearer, while audio is still a bit crappy. Louder though, perhaps. The Games page in the app is cleaner and lacks really much of anything– understandable as the only game Adult Swim has actually produced for Android thus far is Robot Unicorn Attack. There’s a trailer and screenshots for the game, as well as a Buy link and reviews. The Shows page is nearly identical to that of the iOS app, minus the alphabet on the right side of the screen. You can browse through a list of Adult Swim shows, and hit any of them for clips and a nice little banner for each show.

The app’s schedule page is nice. You can cycle through the schedule for the current day, the next day, the day after that, etc. or you can also go through a list of shows to find out when one is going to be on air. There’s also a nifty little option to download the full schedule at the bottom of the screen, which brings you to the paper schedule that’s available on the AS website.

If you take a little jump over to app settings, you can sign in to Twitter and Facebook to share stuff from the app, as well. And if it’s taking up too much phone space, clear its cache from the settings page.

Downsides are that the navigation is a little weird, if you’re not used to using your menu button to navigate apps. Otherwise, cosmetically and feature-wise, it’s far better than the iOS app. I recommend nabbing it. It’s free. And it’s on the market right here.

Next up, Robot Unicorn Attack. You’ve played this game a million times. You know damn well what it’s about. You’re a robot unicorn. You have three wishes. You jump. You try to get high scores and blast through stars. Adult Swim’s rehashed it a million times too. You’re familiar.

Well, it’s also available on the Android platform. For 99 cents, you get the whole thing you’re familiar with– the song, the unicorn, the dolphins, etc. If you haven’t tried a touch screen version of this game, you really must. It seems it was meant for a touch screen. A quick tap gives you a quick jump, double tap for a double jump, and a long press gives you a longer jump. Tap the boost to run through those stars. It’s all quite simple but it works fantastically on Android. It looks fantastic and it plays better than it does on a computer, I think.

The app started off a bit rough with some really painful force close problems– dying and trying to start your second wish used to force the app to crash, making it unplayable. Thankfully, the folks at AS have since fixed the issues and it’s much smoother now. No lag, no crashes, just jumping unicorns and Erasure.

The one downside of the app, as stated in the app’s market listing description, is that it is not supported on tablet devices. So if you have an Android tablet, this game is not supported for your device. A bit of a blow to the app, but if you have an Android smartphone, and you have 99 cents to spare and a love for jumping unicorn robots, it’s way worth the price of admission. It’s on the Android/Google Play market right here.

Now, Tim & Eric’s Billion Dollar Movie isn’t actually Adult Swim content, but of course, it’s Tim & Eric, so it’s related. You may have heard that the duo recently released their feature film (in theaters and on demand now!). Along with it comes a little game for Android (and iOS!) named Tetnis. If you’re familiar with games like Bejeweled, where you move patterns around to get three or four of one kind of thing in a row and rack up points before a timer runs out, you’ll be able to jump into this with ease. Since that’s what it is.

It’s not just that though! It’s also filled with B$M references: images and sound effects. Instead of jewels, you’re playing with pizza, rusty nails, pills, wolf heads (“we gotta get rid of that wooooooolf!”), brown toilet paper, Schlaaang and Dobis logos, and sometimes, Eric or Tim heads pop up as special pieces. Every time you get a combo, or use a special Tim or Eric head, you’ll also hear sound clips from the film, like Eric yelling “oh yeah!” or the both of them saying “DOBIS”. When you start up the game (hit “GET INFECTED!”) you’re welcomed with a loud “SHRIIIIIIIM!”

It’s a fun, easy, simple game that’ll be fun for anyone who likes T&E, B$M, or really, anyone. It’s free on both smartphone platforms. Go install it! It’s worth it. Here’s an Android link though.

Lastly, not so much a review as it is a plug, Adult Swim Message Boards member Metatroid (who may be going by another name now, I’m unsure) released a fan-made ASMB app a while back named Android Swim. If you use the boards a lot, and want to check ’em out and post while you’re on the go, the app is great. You can access the entirety of the boards, post new threads and replies, and check your PMs. It’s only 99 cents, so if you use the ASMB a lot, check it out. It’s available over here on the Market.

So there you have it. There are some other Android apps that are in some way Adult Swim related (there’s a George Lowe app somewhere!) but these are the most notable, and most official. Two are free, and two are really cheap, and they’re all pretty nice! Check them out. Get them on your device. Have some fun. Impress your friends.

iOS has a substantially larger amount of AS apps, most of which have free Lite versions. Next time, I’ll do my best to take a look at each.

But for now, go forth and install.