This week’s Top 5 apps set a rather different tone from last week. After all, we do know how the Christmas season is a very busy one for just about everybody, so we’ve decided to comb through a bunch of mobile apps and games on Android and iOS to decide who made the cut. After wading through a sea of options on both the Google Play Store and the Apple App Store, we’ve distilled it down to five exceptional picks that caught our attention.

We do know that you might want to relax this Christmas, so Planet of Lana is part of the list. Want to go wild? DEEEER Simulator throws in some humor as well this holiday season. We are also aware that there are tons of videos you record for memories during the holiday season, and this is where LumaFusion comes in. TimeShifter targets those who do a whole lot of traveling, allowing you to figure out your jet lag and how to best recover. Without further ado, let’s dive right in!

Planet of Lana

Playing Planet of Lana felt like carrying a tiny, living painting in my pocket. I guess the hand-painted aesthetic and poetic storytelling drew me in from the beginning, as I guide Lana and her loyal companion Mui across the alien world’s forests, ruins, and mysterious plains. This is far more than just a simple side-scroller game; it engaged with my emotions, and to me, that is a huge win.

I was struck by how well the visuals held up on a smaller screen. The environments felt like living watercolors, boasting gentle animations and evocative lighting that made each scene feel invested with atmosphere. Movement wasn’t about frantic action but thoughtful exploration, and there was a real joy in watching Lana and Mui navigate their way through puzzles and silence-laden landscapes. My ears were also treated to a soundtrack that carried the game, something that cannot really be said of other games.

I think what separates Planet of Lana from other side-scrolling adventure games would be its storytelling strength, especially when I see the bond between Lana and Mui grow. There’s a quiet charm in issuing a command to Mui, watching the little companion respond with a chirp or gesture, and solving environmental puzzles together. Combat-hungry gamers will probably give this title a pass, since this game rewards patience, timing, and observation skills.

There is no perfect game, and Planet of Lana, for all its beauty and mood, sees the narrative unfold at a gentle pace, which might prove to be too slow for some. I also thought the puzzles, while clever, are rarely brain-breaking. Here’s a hat tip to this mobile version that features decent touch-friendly controls, cloud save support, and achievements. Certainly, something soothing this Christmas is warranted if you have gone through a particularly tough year.

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DEEEER Simulator: Modern World

I am always one who is up for a practical joke or something punny, so when I stumbled upon DEEEER Simulator, it caught my attention, like a deer staring at headlights. Basically, this game sees me step into the hooves of an actual deer, where I wander around and wreak havoc in a city. I think I can best describe this as a “slow-life town destruction” experience where nothing makes much conventional sense, but a lot of laughter can erupt from sheer absurdity.

This surreal chaos reminded me of Untitled Goose Game, yet another wacky title where I just go around harassing humans. DEEEER Simulator proved to offer a surprisingly flexible open world where my deer — equipped with a stretchy neck, horns, and an apparently limitless capacity for messing with the environment — is the avatar and agent of utter randomness. I can choose to stroll through town at a leisurely pace, interact with other animals, or go fully “buck wild” and send vehicles flying, hopscotch through buildings, and generally turn an ordinary street into my personal playground. Totally love it!

However, is the game perfect? Not really. The freedom to explore, smash objects, and interact with the urban landscape without rigid objectives can be utterly cathartic at first, but after a while, the loss of aim in my existence led me to feel as though I was just wasting my time. I need achievements! I need affirmation! After a while, those who are performance-oriented might feel like the game gets thin rather fast.

You know what? It shouldn’t matter. This Christmas, why not go buck wild with DEEEER Simulator? I’d recommend this off-beat antidote to over-serious games since it carries its own sense of quirkiness, sense of humour, and delivers the unexpected. Forget about tight goals or deep progression, this is not the game for you, but it is a delightfully daft digital deer romp that lives up to its absurd name.

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LumaFusion

Christmas and the holiday season mean meeting plenty of relatives and friends, and that often involves snapping photos and filling up my phone with crazy videos. The thing is, what do I do with those videos after? Thankfully, here is a video editing app, LumaFusion, that offers me flexibility, creativity, and power to shape the final cut into what I want it to be with minimal fuss and maximum creative freedom.

LumaFusion is serious about what it does — it is the kind of app that carries serious ambition: multi-track video editing with up to six video and six audio tracks, professional-grade transitions and effects, and the ability to handle 4K footage — all without having to pull a laptop out of my bag. There is a learning curve to adhere to, though, so I would recommend a degree of patience. For instance, the timeline is magnetic, clips snapped neatly into place, and trimming felt precise even with my clumsy thumbs. This isn’t a basic swipe-and-clip editor — it’s a genuinely powerful environment where I can keyframe effects, layer audio, and sculpt color with tools.

It does seem Android users of the app ran into performance issues more often than iOS users. Among the gripes are crashes and erratic behaviour when projects got complex or long, with playback stuttering and the export process sometimes tripping over itself. Combing through the app’s reviews, it seemed to highlight video previews going black or exports failing late in the process, which can be frustrating when I am racing against a deadline and counting on an app that I paid a premium price for.

Overall, LumaFusion is worth checking out for its sheer ambition and capability. There is very little I cannot do compared to a serious editor, even desktop-powered programs, including multi-layer compositions, comprehensive audio mixing, titles that look crisp and intentional, and effects that elevate rather than distract. Of course, I guess this is where getting a phone with a larger viewing real estate makes far more sense if I am going to do plenty of video editing while traveling!

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TimeShifter

Anyone who has spent countless hours in airports and on red-eye flights would be intimately familiar with the cruel grip of jet lag. That’s why TimeShifter immediately piqued my interest, seeing how the Christmas season would see plenty of people traveling. Basically, TimeShifter is different from the run-of-the-mill wellness app and functions more like a practical companion that understands the realities of frequent travel.

How does it work? It relies on science-based guidance to help my body adjust faster to new time zones. In reality, it delivered far better than I expected. The onboarding process worked smoothly, giving me generic advice while tailoring a personalised jet lag plan based on my travel itinerary, sleep habits, and even caffeine tendencies. For instance, when I confirmed a flight to Melbourne, it began generating a clear set of recommendations—when to sleep, when to seek or avoid light, and whether that cup of coffee I rely on should be embraced or postponed.

I never knew I needed that kind of hand-holding, but it is nice to be looked after by an app, at least once in a while. My usual modus operandi is to try to get as much sleep as possible if I lose hours, and if I were to gain hours, I would try to remain as awake as possible. Oftentimes, enough cocktails and beer on the flight would do the trick, too!

TimeShifter isn’t the flashiest app around, and thankfully, there is no need for it to be so. Its strength lies in being dependable, informed, and oddly comforting—almost like having a travel-savvy friend nudging me toward better habits. For anyone who wants to wrestle back control from jet lag, I feel confident recommending it as part of your travel toolkit.

Figure out how you can arrive in the best possible physical condition at your destination after a long flight with TimeShift.

OmniTools

Knowing the Christmas season is a very busy one for many people, with tons of things to keep track of, how about an app that can help you maintain your sanity? Enter OmniTools, an app that quietly grew on me. At first, it felt like a straightforward utility suite: instead of juggling a handful of small standalone apps for things like timers, converters, and QR-code functions, OmniTools bundled a selection of everyday tools under one roof.

I found the inclusion of a Pomodoro timer, QR code generator, countdown clock, unit and currency converters, a smart bill splitter, among others, wrapped in a lightweight interface that worked offline with the overriding intention to be fast without draining your battery. After all, there is the risk of spending too much time snapping photos, recording videos, and doomscrolling during the holiday season and depleting the phone’s battery all too quickly.

Using OmniTools, I carried this smug look, knowing that I have a digital Swiss army knife in my pocket. I found myself turning to the Pomodoro and countdown timers more often than I expected—on long workdays, they became a simple way to manage focus without switching between apps. The converters are reliable when I need quick unit or currency calculations on the go, and the bill splitter makes awkward calculations between friends a little less awkward.

Of course, nothing is perfect in this world, and I did wish that some of the tools were more polished than the others because there is no seamless sense of uniformity. Still, I do not have much to complain about this app, seeing how capable it is without really trampling on my privacy. Definitely worth checking out!

Now here’s a nifty app that boasts a bevy of features for everyday use, from timers to a BMI calculator.