Apps of the Week - Nun Attack, UNIQLO Wake Up, Exodus Live Wallpaper and more!

If you're anything like the writers here at Android Central, you're probably losing your mind a little bit waiting for the big Google news to hit on Monday. If you were looking for a bit of a distraction to keep from going off the deep end, we wouldn't blame you. Luckily, our app picks this week should help you out with that. Per usual, we've got a handful of games and a few utility apps that should keep you entertained for the weekend. Take a look after the break and see how we did.

Simon Sage - Nun Attack

Eva, Rosa, Olga, and Mandy are four badass nuns on a mission to bring their wayward sister back to the flock, by any means necessary. Armed with righteous steel (of the firearm variety) and miracles handed down to them from On High, you pair up two of the four to blast through waves of unholy demons and ultimately destroy the gates to Hell from whence they emerged. The controls are primarily drag-and release, much like Battleheart, but there's a bit of tapping to pick up coins, and gestures are employed to execute miracles. As players progress, they level up, earn enough coin to upgrade their weapons, and unlock new weaponry. Nun Attack's cartoon art is set to a funky 70s-style soundtrack which suits the over-the-top action movie style they're going for.
Why they didn't just call this Nuns with Guns, I'll never know, but the premise is awesome and the action is a great mix of twitch reflex and strategy. Give it a go.

Download: Nun Attack ($1.00 / In-App Purchases)

Jerry Hildenbrand - UNIQLO Wake Up

A friend turned me on to this app the other night, while we were discussing the merits of Asian pop music as ringtones or notifications. (We decided it was a huge win to use them, BTW). It's an alarm app with a slight twist -- the music changes based on the weather.
Not just any music either. It's composed by Keigo Oyamada and Yoko Kanno, names that might ring a bell if you're a video game or anime fan. If you're not, these guys win awards and get nominated for Grammys. Their stuff is good.
Anyhoo, you set a wake up time through the app, select whether to have it played in English or Mandarin Chinese, then wait for morning. It won't jar you awake, as it slowly ramps up the volume. It's a nice way to wake up.
There's also a sharing function, where you can share the weather and time you woke up on Facebook, Twitter, RenRen, or Weibo. I've not fooled with this part, as I'm not sure anyone cares when I woke up or if it was rainy, but it might be a cool way to keep a record of it all. It's there, using it is up to you.
If you're looking for a new way to wake up, give UNIQLO a shot.

Download: UNIQLO Wake Up (Free)

Scott Young - Exodus Live Wallpaper

One of the ways I like to put myself to sleep is randomly browsing through the plethora of live wallpapers in the Play Store. Anyone who has done this knows that there is no shortage of really good and horribly bad options to choose from. My latest find in the "good" category would be Exodus. It's hard to capture in a photo, but Exodus does everything you'd expect from a particle generator type wallpaper. The blocks fall based on how you hold your device, touching the screen results in generating a new cube, you get the idea. Only instead of generating little tiny particles, they're big blocks that are oddly soothing in an abstract art sort of way. Exodus has a free and "Pro" version for $.99, with the paid version unlocking more options for color, fading, viewpoint and cube size randomness. Besides the preloaded color themes and the randomizer, you can also choose the background and cube colors to your liking. It's enough that just messing with color combinations can pass the time. If live wallpapers are your thing, give Exodus a try.

Download: Exodus Live Wallpaper (Free)

Chris Parsons - Major Mayhem

Save the world, and your girlfriend for the "Forces of Evil". Sounds simple, right? Major Mayhem is brought to us by Adult Swim and offers up 45 levels of cartoony fighting action that is pretty awesome. The graphics are great and the gameplay is easy to get the hang of and overall it's just a fun pick up and play game. You have a ton of weapons of mass destruction at your disposal so have at it and save the girl. That's an order, son!

Download: Major Mayhem (Free)

Michelle Haag - Halloween Pumpkin, Jack O' Lantern Maker

Every Halloween, my daughter is obsessed with pumpkins and wants to buy a bunch and bring them home and carve them. Luckily there are plenty of apps available to keep her happy and get us all in the Halloween spirit until we can start carving. Her current favorite is Halloween Pumpkin, Jack O' Lantern Maker, specifically for the Nexus 7 and other 7" tablets. It's basically exactly what it sounds like. You get to pick out your pumpkin shape as well as dozens of different eyes, noses, mouthes, hats (including hair) and backgrounds. You can even make a ghost fly across your scene! Once your scene is set and your pumpkin is carved, save the image to your tablet and share it anywhere you wish. Jack O' Lantern Maker is very easy to use so it's good for even the younger kids, but it's got enough options that even the older kids and adults will want to have their turn. All this entertainment can be yours for just $.99, which to me is a small price to pay for a fun app with no ads to get in the way.

Download: Halloween Pumpkins Nexus 7 ($0.99)

Richard Devine - Beach Buggy Blitz

If you missed it earlier in the week, then consider this a friendly weekend reminder. Beach Buggy Blitz by Vector Unit is not only a first rate mobile game, it's now lost its Tegra exclusivity. That makes it pick of the week worthy. After all, not everyone has a Nexus 7 or such other Tegra powered Android device, so now everyone can join in. And, I can play it on my Galaxy Nexus too now which makes me extra happy.
For anyone not familiar, you drive a beach buggy through a variety of settings collecting coins, and power ups, with the sole intention of driving as far you possibly can. Kind of like Temple Run, but with buggys. Steering can be operated either by tilting the device or by touching the screen, whichever your preference may be. And, it just got updated with some Halloween treats in the form of the "Grim Rod" car and 2 spooky new characters.

Download: Beach Buggy Blitz (Free)

Andrew Martonik - Ringtone Maker

I know, I know... this is a lame one. But seriously, this is one of those apps that youll install and forget about until you need to modify ringtones, alarms and notification sounds and youll be glad you have it. Ringtone Maker does just what you think it does, it pulls in different audio files on your device and lets you simply modify and set them. You can clip songs to proper lengths, boost volumes and rename tracks (which is great for OCD people like myself) all before exporting as a default or contact-specific tone. Best of all, its free.

Download: Ringtone Maker (Free)

Sean Brunett - TED

Im a huge fan of increasing your knowledge base and what better way than to watch a bunch of Ted videos. Ted brings prominent speakers from all over the world and allows them to speak in their area of expertise. The Ted app aggregates a variety of recent and past Ted talks so that you can watch or listen to them right from your Android device. The app opens and features three tabs: Featured, which showcases some of the most popular Ted talks of the week, All Talks, which displays all of them and My Talks, which saves the talks that youre particularly interested in. Its a fantastic app if youre a huge Ted fan because you can increase your knowledge base on-the-go or save some for later listening.

Download: TED (Free)

Alex Dobie - Spirits

Here's one for fans of classic puzzle game Lemmings -- Spaces of Play's Spirits is a simple, path-based puzzler with a really unique and gorgeous art style. Players must guide spirits through a surreal game world towards the swirl at the end of the level. In order to get around obstacles, they'll have to employ a host of abilities, including wind powers to change the direction of other spirits, and vine branches to get over hazardous spike pits. But to use abilities, you need to sacrifice one of your spirits, which impacts your overall score. For completionists, there are also a handful of "plants" placed in certain levels, and these can be collected for an added bonus.

It's not particularly difficult, but the well-honed gameplay and unique graphical style means Spirits is definitely worth checking out. There's a free demo version available alongside the full paid app on Google Play, for devices running Android 2.2 and up.

Download: Full version, free demo

Via: Apps of the Week - Nun Attack, UNIQLO Wake Up, Exodus Live Wallpaper and more!