Hands-on with the new Nest Hub Games lobby and more new games [Video]

Google has just released a new “Games lobby” that is home to all of your favorite titles, plus another wave of Google Nest Hub and Smart Display games that all take advantage of the smart speaker’s visual capabilities.

Of course, we saw the first wave earlier in the year, with some omissions depending on your global region. The latest cohort includes a number of word challenge and word puzzle games. We guess these might be the best type of games for adults, plus they work well on touch-enabled displays such as those on the Nest Hub, Nest Hub Max, and other Smart Displays.

You may already be aware of the plethora of audio-only games that you can play on Google Nest Hub, Nest Mini, Home Mini, Google Home, smart speaker, and smart displays. Unlike those, these — along with the existing touch-enabled — games use the display to enhance the experience with on-screen hints, clips, videos, and more.

You might also know that mobile gaming behemoth Zynga released its first title for Nest Hub devices over the past few days too, and we’ve included that as Daily Word Wheel is an interesting hybrid of the immensely popular “Words with Friends” but now for smart speakers.

To get started you only need to say: “Hey Google, Let’s Play a Game.” Because the list is growing, you’ll be able to tap and swipe between all of the most popular options, see the new additions, and start playing a game on your Nest Hub in seconds:

Video — Hands-on with the new Nest Hub Games lobby

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We’d wager that the most important new addition is the new section or Games lobby for all of the voice-activated games on your Nest Hub devices. Instead of expecting you to know the entire game library, you can just use the touchscreen to browse the entire availably library. It’s far better, more cohesive, and downright less confusing or stressful when you just want to find a game to play.

So while we’re likely to see a ton of games added to the Games lobby in future, the latest list of new Nest Hub games is rolling out now — this does mean that some in the list below may not be playable as yet on your devices:

• Horizontal Crosswords
  • If you’re a puzzle fan, then crosswords are probably no great secret. Horizontal Crossword is effectively just a fresher take on the classic newspaper staple. The game lets players say the correct answers or navigate through the words by giving voice commands. When all the horizontal crosswords are correctly resolved, a vertical solution word is revealed.
• Game of Words
  • A simple word guessing game that has jumbled letters in a sort of Scrabble format. It’s not the most entertaining, but the timer does make things a bit more interesting.
• Voice Quest
  • Probably the most interactive voice-controlled side-scroller you’ll likely play of the new cohort of Nest Hub games. You use your voice to control an on-screen minion with voice-specific attacks as you take on hordes of enemies based upon the adventures of Merlin & Co. It’s actually a blast.
• Power of Words
  • This feels like a hybrid of numerous word games and traditional JRPG turn-based combat. Yes, it’s a strange mixture that doesn’t feel like it would fit as a Nest Hub game, but it’s actually quite addictive and harder than it may seem.
• Daily Brain Trainer
  • To help your cognitive skills, Daily Brainer Trainer is like a condensed version of Dr. Kawashima’s Brain Training but far more simple. You just have to answer mathematical questions and quizzes in quick succession and you’re graded for your efforts. The problems get harder and harder as you progress through the levels, too.
• Brainwash Puzzle
  • Another memory enhancer game for your Nest Hub.
• My Smart Pet
  • Think of this as like a “choose your own adventure” style game that has you finding a pet within a forest. It’s a little slow but would be ideal for young children wanting an interactive story that they can feel fully involved within. The animated cartoon animals will undoubtedly be a very popular with younger children.
• Hey Fish
  • Although not available in all regions just yet, Hey Fish lets you create a virtual fishbowl where you can nuture these virtual pets within.
• Daily Word Wheel
  • Daily Word Wheel is effectively a spin-off of Words with Friends and offers you the ability to tackle word puzzles and conundrums but, like some of the other new additions, isn’t available in all regions just yet.

Google has confirmed that yet more games are set to join the current selection, meaning that our list is not the most exhaustive but should be correct at the time of publishing.

What is your favorite new Google Nest Hub or Smart Display game? Let us know what you’ve been enjoying down in the comments section below.