Download the Google Play APK and you'll be able to get access to the app store on your device. Among the benefits of Google Play are the ability to search for apps, notifications, automatic updates, widgets and more. It also gives you access to movies, eBooks and music through Google's various services.

Google doesn't provide independently-written reviews of Android apps (for this, you should check out Softonic Moba), but it does its best to highlight the apps that are most popular, and picks out interesting new ones in its 'Featured' section.

How to install the Google Play APK your phone

1. Download the Google Play APK and move it to your mobile's SD card
2. In the phone's settings, go to Applications and check the 'Unknown Sources' option
3. Open a file manager (Astro File Manager, for example) and tap the Google Play APK file
4. That's it! Google Play is now installed on your phone or tablet

The Google Play APK file can give you access to all the great Android apps if for some reason it's corrupted or missing from your device.

Download Google Play APK (ex Android Market) 4.1.10 in Softonic

This version of VLC for Android is still in development stages and, as a message warns when you launch the app, it is not stable and can cause problems if you don't know what you're doing with it. We experienced crashes on several occasions, and in one instance it froze our Motorola Xoom completely in testing.

When it's working, VLC for Android makes for a good alternative to the Android media player. It handles a wider range of file formats (audio, video, and streaming media), and has the same minimalist interface as the desktop version.

The video player window in VLC for Android is well designed, playing video at full screen resolution with gesture-based controls for changing volume and brightness settings. You can scrobble through videos simply by sliding your finger across the screen.

Video-wise, VLC for Android supports a range of formats and playback of supported formats is generally very smooth. However, HD video is not officially supported and we found watching high definition movies to be impossible due to lag, or simply getting a black screen.

VLC for Android performs better for handling audio files, with simple player controls and a widget giving you basic controls from your home screen.

There's no question that VLC for Android is very rough around the edges, and you'll encounter problems if you want to play HD video. However, as an early build it shows signs of emulating the success of the desktop version of VLC.

Download VLC for Android (NEON version) 0.1.1 Beta in Softonic

The idea of Basketball Shoot is based around aiming the ball at the goal by dragging your finger, then releasing it to shoot. You're given an aiming guide to help you land the ball in the net, and the guide gets shorter as you progress through the levels, making it harder to judge.

There are 8 different levels in Basketball Shoot, and in order to progress through to the next you must keep playing without running out of balls. You earn more balls by scoring baskets or performing special combos. There are lots of achievements to unlock in Basketball Shoot, which adds to its addictiveness.

Graphically, Basketball Shoot is fun. The backgrounds are diverse, including an outdoor court, and indoor court, and even an airport.

Basketball Shoot is one of the games that's great for making time fly by on a long journey. It's a shame there aren't more levels to extend its appeal even more.

Download Basketball Shoot 1.12 in Softonic

Combining two genres, distance puzzle and action adventure, Zombie Highway Is about attempting to escape from zombie hordes via different types of cars. How Zombie Highway changes gameplay is that players use the accelerometer to control the car and use the touch controls to fire their weapons through the four windows of the vehicle.

While driving and avoiding obstacles; players have to avoid and kill different types of zombie who try to flip the car and stop the player from escaping. Zombie Highway features main types of zombies like the lightweight, medium, and heavy zombie. The different weights affect the control of the car. Zombie Highway also mixes traits by adding healing zombies in the different weight classes.

Players can use turned cars to knock off zombies or use one of the many different guns in the game. The weapons range from pistols and machine guns with different power levels. The touch screen is used to fire out of specific windows to weaken the zombies.

Zombies can also cause players to run into crashed cars which ends the game. Zombie Highway keeps a lot of statistics. The main goal is to travel as far as possible and accumulating miles can open medals which are used to open new levels. Zombie Highway contains different modes of play like no weapons or low visibility. Zombie Highway also includes in-app purchases for the higher power weapons for the inpatient.

Zombie Highway is an addictive game that contains great arcade action and requires quick thinking.

Download Zombie Highway 1.9 in Softonic

It has taken some time, but Adobe has released its Adobe Reader for iOS devices. A universal app, Adobe Reader allows users to view their PDF files.

A simple interface allows for continuous, single page, or automatic viewing. With the standard portrait or landscape support, depending on the pdf file Adobe Reader will intelligently scale the file on the screen.

Adobe Reader can open directly from Mail, websites, and other locations by holding a finger on the file where a menu will appear giving the option to open in Adobe Reader. Users also have the ability to wirelessly print the file inside Adobe Reader giving a good functionality beyond just viewing files.

Depending on the page size, Adobe Reader will include a slider bar on the bottom of the screen so users can quickly swipe to specific pages. It is a direct purpose app that has room for growth and more options, but in this release, it offers an easy solution for reading.

Adobe Reader is a simple addition to iOS, giving users more functionality and a first party solution to reading pdf files.

Download Adobe Reader 10.3.0 in Softonic

Mirroring the movie, The Amazing Spider-Man is an interactive way to experience what Spider-Man goes through. The game adds extra villains, like Sandman and Venom, as well as includes the Lizard.

As a side-scrolling game, you move through levels in a classic action adventure game, beating up enemies until you reach a boss at the end of the level. You are also able to use Spider-Man’s powers, like climbing and traveling between buildings.

The graphics are good and allow you to move in a 3D space, even though it is a linear experience. The variety of enemies in The Amazing Spider-Man changes how you have to attack to win. It can get repetitive having to simply beat everyone up however.

The Amazing Spider-Man is a good movie game, but does not offer a lot of replayability.

Download The Amazing Spider-Man in Softonic

Mirroring the movie, The Amazing Spider-Man is an interactive way to experience what Spider-Man goes through. The game adds extra villains, like Sandman and Venom, as well as includes the Lizard.

As a side-scrolling game, you move through levels in a classic action adventure game, beating up enemies until you reach a boss at the end of the level. You are also able to use Spider-Man’s powers, like climbing and traveling between buildings.

The graphics are good and allow you to move in a 3D space even though it is a linear experience. The variety of enemies in The Amazing Spider-Man changes how you have to attack to win. It can get repetitive having to simply beat everyone up however.

The Amazing Spider-Man is a good movie game, but does not offer a lot of replayability.

Download The Amazing Spider-Man in Softonic

Mirroring the movie, The Amazing Spider-Man is an interactive way to experience what Spider-Man goes through. The game adds extra villains, like Sandman and Venom, as well as includes the Lizard.

As a side-scrolling game, you move through levels in a classic action adventure game, beating up enemies until you reach a boss at the end of the level. You are also able to use Spider-Man’s powers, like climbing and traveling between buildings.

The graphics are good and allow you to move in a 3D space even though it is a linear experience. The variety of enemies in The Amazing Spider-Man changes how you have to attack to win. It can get repetitive having to simply beat everyone up however.

The Amazing Spider-Man is a good movie game, but does not offer a lot of replayability.

Download The Amazing Spider-Man in Softonic

In Avengers you play as Captain America, Iron Man, Thor, or the Hulk to protect the Earth from invading aliens. Each character has a specific move unique to that character, such as Iron Man and his laser beams. Gameplay is a simple beat-them-up where you button mash to defeat waves of enemies.

Graphics is Avengers is like an old arcade game, using sprites rather than polygons. It looks low-tech, but the game is detailed, just like the comic book where the movie takes its cues. It is not the most visually intense game, but it does well enough.

Avengers is a simple action game that connects with the movie.

Download Avengers The Mobile Game in Softonic

Let’s face it, the story of Shadowgun is not that important. It might be interesting to know the background of why the main character is going around and shooting everyone and everything.

But that is not really why you would play Shadowgun. Players are going to pay for Shadowgun like they paid for Infinity Blade – because it looks awesome.

While Infinity Blade took place in the past, Shadowgun is a futuristic third-person shooter. Using the Unity Engine, Shadowgun looks very impressive. In some cases, the visuals even surpass Infinity Blade’s amazing presentation.

Played on the iPad 2, Shadowgun plays fast and smooth. The gameplay is smart and only a little unfair with aiming at close range causing small amounts of panic with approaching enemies. The controls in Shadowgun are also well developed and easy to use.

Controlling movement with a radial circle that moves the character and another radial that fires the various weapons that are collected; moving the point-of-view is performed with the right hand allowing for freedom in aiming.

This combination in controls is fluid and without a lot of problems. A main issue is the lackluster speed of the main character. He is like a tank. Shadowgun also utilizes a cover system. Much like recent third-person games, players can push against cover and pop-and-shoot. Some cover is destructible and will decay as it takes damage. Taking cover in-game is important because even though the main character can absorb a lot of damage, he can be killed in a short amount of time.

Gameplay is a mixture of exploration and shooting on a linear path through levels. Players will walk into an area, get attacked, take cover, kill everyone, and then move to the next area. It is a simple mechanic, but maintains a level of addictiveness.

Content-wise there is nothing new for players to experience. The strength of the gameplay is what makes the experience fun in Shadowgun. For once, a developer was able to recreate a third-person shooter for touch-based interfaces.

Shadowgun is another step forward for the hardcore gaming community on mobile devices.

Download Shadowgun 1.1.3 in Softonic

The stand out features of Jazz: Trump's Journey is its beautiful environments and awesome jazz soundtrack. The mechanics of Jazz: Trump's Journey are what you would expect from any other platforming game. Jump, slide, and move obstacles throughout each level to get to the end.

Jazz: Trump's Journey does have a special mechanic once you help Trump find his trumpet. Tap the trumpet button and time will freeze. This becomes necessary to pause/resume platforms to get through a level.

Throughout Jazz: Trump's Journey's you'll find more members to join your band. Each level is also filled with musical notes and photographs. Collect them all to unlock achievements. You'll want to search each level thoroughly as photographs can be hidden where you least expect.

While Jazz: Trump's Journey is a free application, only the first two levels are actually free. You'll have to pony up some cash for the full version.

Overall, Jazz: Trump's Journey is a breath of fresh air for platformers with its compelling story, beautiful art, and great soundtrack.

Download Jazz: Trump's Journey 1.0.2 in Softonic

Combining two genres, distance puzzle and action adventure, Zombie Highway Is about attempting to escape from zombie hordes via different types of cars.

How Zombie Highway changes gameplay is that players use the accelerometer to control the car and use the touch controls to fire their weapons through the four windows of the vehicle.

While driving and avoiding obstacles; players have to avoid and kill different types of zombie who try to flip the car and stop the player from escaping. Zombie Highway features main types of zombies like the lightweight, medium, and heavy zombie. The different weights affect the control of the car. Zombie Highway also mixes traits by adding healing zombies in the different weight classes.

Players can use turned cars to knock off zombies or use one of the many different guns in Zombie Highway. The weapons range from pistols and machine guns with different power levels. The touch screen is used to fire out of specific windows to weaken the zombies.

Zombies can also cause players to run into crashed cars which ends the game. The lite version of Zombie Hunter features six of the thirteen guns, two of the six levels, and one of three levels.

Zombie Highway is an addictive game that contains great arcade action and requires quick thinking.

Download Zombie Highway Lite 1.4.5 in Softonic

Racing fans may not find the speed of Nokia Racing to be extremely fast, but where the game excels is the strategic driving required to achieve good distances.

Cars drive from a vertical view, and you have to move your car around collecting repair and gas kits while avoiding road hazards and other cars. Each time you drive into another car or over a hazard, your car loses health and when you reach zero, the race is over.

It is simple at first, but requires timing and thinking to keep your car healthy.

Graphics in Nokia Racing are simplistic, but the game plays without any problems. Controls are easy. Touch the direction you want the car to drive and in a grid system, the car will move that direction. The challenge of Nokia Racing happens the further you drive with different hazards and the difficulty of the computer opponents.

Nokia Racing is a great, easy racing game.

Download Nokia Racing 2.0 in Softonic

A location-based app, Foodspotting allows users to take pictures of the food that they are eating, give a quick review, and post it to Foodspotting for others to view and comment on. Rather than comment on the restaurant itself or service, Foodspotting is focused on the food of a restaurant.

Foodspotting uses location services to pinpoint the area the user is in and load reviews of nearby food. If there is a specific type of food that users want to look up, it only takes a few seconds for Foodspotting to pull relevant reviews.

The interface is straight forward and easy to use. The separate tabs guide users to the search or latest reviews easily. The continuously growing user base will assist in adding more dishes and reviews for unknown places.

The app works well because of the location related focus. Rather than offer food that might be halfway across a city, it will post relevant reviews and show the closest places possible. Foodspotting is a great app for constant travelers who might want a particular type of food, but are not aware of what the best dish at a restaurant is.

The only issue with Foodspotting is based on the location service that the app relies on. Sometime it may not locate the exact location of the device and show review locations that are far away.

Foodspotting is great for users who want to know about the food of a restaurant.

Download Foodspotting 0.0.9 in Softonic

Trucks and Skulls NITRO is more fun than Angry Birds

Users catapult different vehicles at skulls in Trucks and Skulls NITRO. But unlike other similar puzzle titles, Trucks and Skulls NITRO contains a lot more satisfying destruction. The main vehicle that is used is a semi-truck, set on a launcher, and let loose to fly through the air and destroy structures protecting the different skulls.

It is a simple, recognized gameplay mechanic, but what Trucks and Skulls NITRO does different is offer better and more interesting types of vehicles and secondary elements. Some trucks contain more weight and others contain a nitrous turbo causing more damage.

Other trucks are outfitted with bombs or have strange secondary trajectories. It will take a user a good amount of time to become proficient in each truck, each power-up, and even more time to become a master of Trucks and Skulls NITRO.

Containing a huge amount of levels, Trucks and Skulls NITRO gives a lot to the player to experience. Trucks and Skulls NITRO also contains a gold shop, with gold earned while playing or even returning to the game once a day. The gold can purchase new trucks, unlock keys for levels, and other items to use in the game.

The only main drawback is there are a lot of ads in Trucks and Skulls NITRO. It almost feels like each level contains some type of connectivity to other apps or offers for other games. While Trucks and Skulls NITRO contains really addictive gameplay, the ads take away a lot from the polished experience.

Trucks and Skulls NITRO is great for fans of Angry Birds. The gameplay is similar enough that there is not a strong learning curve and actually plays a lot more interestingly than other games.

Trucks and Skulls NITRO gives players a lot to experience at a low cost (FREE).

Download Trucks and Skulls NITRO 2.1.1 in Softonic

Trucks and Skulls NITRO HD is more fun than Angry Birds

Users catapult different vehicles at skulls in Trucks and Skulls NITRO HD. But unlike other similar puzzle titles, Trucks and Skulls NITRO HD contains a lot more satisfying destruction. The main vehicle that is used is a semi-truck, set on a launcher, and let loose to fly through the air and destroy structures protecting the different skulls.

It is a simple, recognized gameplay mechanic, but what Trucks and Skulls NITRO HD does different is offer better and more interesting types of vehicles and secondary elements. Some trucks contain more weight and others contain a nitrous turbo causing more damage.

Other trucks are outfitted with bombs or have strange secondary trajectories. It will take a user a good amount of time to become proficient in each truck, each power-up, and even more time to become a master of Trucks and Skulls NITRO HD.

Containing a huge amount of levels, Trucks and Skulls NITRO HD gives a lot to the player to experience. Trucks and Skulls NITRO HD also contains a gold shop, with gold earned while playing or even returning to the game once a day. The gold can purchase new trucks, unlock keys for levels, and other items to use in the game.

The only main drawback is there are a lot of ads in Trucks and Skulls NITRO HD. It almost feels like each level contains some type of connectivity to other apps or offers for other games. While Trucks and Skulls NITRO HD contains really addictive gameplay, the ads take away a lot from the polished experience.

Trucks and Skulls NITRO HD is great for fans of Angry Birds. The gameplay is similar enough that there is not a strong learning curve and actually plays a lot more interestingly than other games.

Trucks and Skulls NITRO HD gives players a lot to experience at a low cost (FREE), and the Nitro HD version contains a level maker not seen in the iPhone version.

Download Trucks and Skulls NITRO HD 2.1.1 in Softonic

The idea behind Idea Flight is simple. The presenter is represented as the “Pilot.” Each viewing member of the presentation is the “Passenger.” In the default state, the Pilot controls the flow of the presentation through their iPad, which is then streamed to each of the connected iPads. When the Pilot switches pages, each connected Passenger iPad will also move to the next page.

Idea Flight can connect up to four iPads through Bluetooth and sixteen through WiFi, allowing for small and large presentations. The intelligent design of Idea Flight is that no one is straining to see a large screen and all the information is presented right in front.

When a Pilot is giving their presentation, the PDF file is locked for all the Passengers, but the Pilot can unlock the presentation allowing for free viewing. It is an easy to use interface for both the Pilot and Passenger. Both the Pilot and Passenger are able to make notes in the presentation as well.

Idea Flight supports PDF files and many programs can export to the format. After the Pilot has selected the presentation, the other iPads will download the file and the Pilot can begin. Idea Flight is a free download, but the Enterprise (Pilot function) Idea Flight is a paid application.

Idea Flight contains a simple interface and streamlined experience for both Pilots and Passengers. The ease of use along with the number of possible connected users is impressive.

Idea Flight is a great app for the future of business.

Download Idea Flight 1.1 in Softonic

The experience of Phone Story is one half arcade game and one half an informative and interactive experience. It presents the process behind the production of consumer electronics, specifically smartphone production.

Phone Story takes users through the production process from mining the materials needed for the hardware to the selling of products combined with an overview. Using a voiceover, Phone Story does present a slightly biased explanation of how electronics are created. Phone Story also discusses the recycling process of older electronics.

Visuals in Phone Story are presented in 8-bit graphics, using an updated color scheme that is familiar with other mobile arcade games. It is simple, but does present the content in an interesting way. Most of the gameplay of Phone Story is also simple, requiring users to move the different characters across the screen.

As Phone Story is a mixture of genres, it is a poignant message of current consumer electronic trends. Phone Story does educate users in a subject they might be unfamiliar with.

Phone Story is a simple game containing a complex message.

Download Phone Story 1.2 in Softonic