Battlepath Monsters' problem is that it just isn't deep enough.

It’s certainly fun to shoot at aliens, but eventually you’ll find things turning too repetitive. You’ll feel as if you’re not gaining a substantial edge in combat. The kind of edge that would make you want to play more. That leaves Galaga Wars as the kind of game you’ll enjoy fleetingly, before inevitably seeking out a weightier frantic shooter.

On the one hand, I was taken by the concept of leveling up cute-animal critters, the simple and mostly enjoyable mini-games, as well as an art style that is exceptionally cheerful. But there's something inherently wrong with the type of peddling that's found here.

Sopio is a fun game that I imagine is loads of fun to play with a small group of friends, but unfortunately that experience doesn’t translate very well digitally, where it has been isolated into a single-player game.

The full five-dollar Auditorium experience is well worth the money, and even the five level initial game is worth downloading. But it's hard not to feel bitter about getting a title piecemeal rather than a full, outright download.

Like all free-to-play games in this general genre, there are oodles of in-app purchases on offer that can help you progress faster and give you something to brag about to other players through the game’s world chat option (which feels more than a little outdated in 2017). Some of the purchases come with a hefty price tag so you’ll probably want to avoid browsing the store while exhausted. At least with this one you probably won’t have to worry about the little folks in your life racking up big bills – Gangstar New Orleans is very much for adults only.

The toys are cute, and could be a hoot to collect regardless of the mobile game they’re tied to… just be prepared to push through some frustration with the mobile game as it stands now.

If I haven’t dissuaded you – or persuaded you exactly with the reasons I didn’t like it – give the trial tracks a try, and I mean really dig into them, and there’s a good chance you’ll like this one a lot more than I did.

While the gameplay might have fared better on the mobile scene a few years ago, it quickly becomes clear that Holy Water Games needed to revamp more than just the visuals to keep this one from feeling like a slippery mess at the start of 2014.

If you can accept the aggravating with the adorable, there’s a lot to enjoy here.

Like the "big in Japan" DotA, Plants War could prove to be hugely popular with a small subset of gamers, but more mainstream audiences probably won't get much out of it.

Grudger is a decent title that could have been even better. It’s fun, challenging, and has a nice bit of replay ability due to the aluminum scavenger hunt and survival mode. And with 30 levels spread across two worlds (with the promise of more to come), there’s enough content to justify a purchase.

In its current form, QuestRun has significant problems. There’s still quite a bit of potential here, but some clean-up would benefit the game greatly.

Volcano Escape is certainly cute, but it's also clunky and frustrating at times. It's good, but not great. This is one of those titles that feels like it's on the verge of realizing its potential, but it isn't quite there yet.

It makes progress a struggle, so despite good intentions SkateBird isn’t a game that ever really properly takes flight.

All the improvements and cool aspects of the more fringe elements don't matter if the core isn't any good, and that's where Power Rangers Legends falters.

Disney's Monsters University is a disappointingly bland offering with little by way of unique and engaging gameplay or replayability.

Mafia III: Rivals isn’t technically a bad game. It’s a decent free mobile RPG, and we haven’t had a big mafia-themed game on mobile for a while now. Like …a few months, maybe. The problem is, there’s really nothing here that hasn’t been done before; several times over, in fact. If you’re burned out on this kind of stuff, I don’t think the organized crime motif is going to do anything to change that. However, if you’re actively looking for a new free-to-play RPG, well, I suppose you could do worse. Just don’t expect anything new or exciting.

I didn't really enjoy playing Space Agency. But it would be unfair to mark down a game that is very clearly tailored to a specific audience, and will likely bring them several hours of absorbing pleasure, just because it didn't suit me.

That’s the danger of Perloo: with no menu, no hints, no level skips, and no sense of progress, it’s easy to feel lost, hopeless. Yes, it demands dedication and commitment to carry through, but this doesn’t make for a fun game.

Where Fashion Story succeeds is in making a social game truly accessible is in terms of keeping the interface clean and the goals straightforward.

It’s too bad Nibbler can’t just lock you in a cryogenic tube like he once did to Fry while you wait everything out. If you’re a diehard fan of the series, this might be a game where you shrug off the bad stuff and just enjoy it for giving us the great Futurama world again, but otherwise, Worlds of Tomorrow often feels like you’re sitting around waiting for the year 3000 the old-fashioned way. Hypnotoad, if you could convince us it’s more fun than it is right now, we’d be much obliged.

The online multiplayer co-op may have been fun, but try as we did for over 20 minutes, we simply couldn't find a game at all.

It all feels a little muted – despite a range of weather conditions – and we never felt that it ever went all out in terms of throwing oddball stuff your way, like the superlative Golf Story did.

The company is probably tired of tinkering with what should be a surefire winner, but my personal hope is that EA keeps at it with FIFA, because it hasn’t found the right mobile formula for it yet, and its Maddenization is a step in the wrong direction.

Run Sheldon is a cute little app and free endless runner that's worth picking up, especially for the younger set who need a jumping-off point.

There’s some very tongue in cheek presentation too, with comic relief commentators that somehow don’t get (too) annoying. Sadly there’s not much more to Clone Drone in the Danger Zone than that, so it’s a struggle to say the content here justifies the high asking price.

Juice Cubes is a decent little game that ultimately fails to plant much of a stake in the already over-populated match-three territory. It's cute, buoyant, and aside from being stingy with its power-ups, doesn't do anything particularly wrong; the thing is, its repetitive, too-easy gameplay simply fails to give us any reason to leave our first Crush.

I was honestly surprised by how much I’ve been enjoying Crime Connection. It’s got plenty of that familiar freemium style, but manages to change things up just enough to feel unique.

Disoriented! is well-made. It's also clever and, in several ways, charming. But it's not really fun. This is one of those titles that feels like it should be more enjoyable than it really is, but being technically flawless just isn't enough to give it a hearty recommendation.

The clever and progressively challenging rotating gameplay of Twisty Planets is its primary draw, and the reason to play it.

There are just so many other games of this variety where the gameplay is faster, and the characters less questionably designed (this always seems to be an issue with anime-inspired games), that it’s hard to give Phantom of the Kill a glowing recommendation.

SimplePhysics does what it ultimately set out to do, which is to make a physcis simulator that works and is easy to design for.

Getting to the end of stages intact after slowly and strategically working your way through the many traps is tense and terrific. Most of the time at least. Sadly this isn’t enough for us to recommend Spelunker HD Deluxe wholeheartedly. It’s just a little too old fashioned to be consistently enjoyable, despite its co-operative options and heaps of content.

There’s an endearing cheesy soap-opera charm to Five Dates that means you can’t take your eyes away from it. This certainly doesn’t mean it’s a game we recommend to everyone – but if you’re looking for a reasonably well presented dating sim you could do a lot worse, especially for its budget price.

Fear for Sale: Phantom Tide can be summarized as ordinary, but entertaining. The design sticks pretty close to casual adventure norms, never straying far from the expected amount or style of puzzles, hidden object scenes, and story details. Still, every game doesn’t have to be an innovator in order to be fun, and Fear for Sale definitely delivers on that front.

Though fairly fun when it comes to Survival mode, Clash of Puppets probably won't sate gamers looking for a deep experience. The lack of microtransactions is definitely a high point, and it's a wonderful introduction to the world of 3D platform titles for kids. But when it comes down to questions about why exactly everyone is a puppet and why objectives are so repetitive and limited, it's hard to justify picking this one up.

Achieving 3 star ratings and completing some of the later stages would be just about impossible for a younger audience, yet the mini-games are too few to really appeal to adults who are looking to get the best bang for their buck.

Angry Birds Stella is fun and its cast is charming, but it’s not as if it delivers a wildly innovative experience. What’s here has been done before. And again.

When the game works well, it works pretty well. But it's bogged down by a few lingering issues that sadly tarnish the overall experience. There needs to be a little more meat on these bones, because the few pieces here are enjoyable. There's just not enough of it.

There’s no denying that Fantastic Plastic Squad is a great-looking game, and the whole “toy” thing is pulled off really, really well. But it does get pretty tedious, and a I seriously cannot stand how it keeps downloading more and more content.

A decent and relatively funny freemium monster trainer. It certainly makes good use of some fantastic creature designs and more than a few memorable characters. The only problem is it tends to get in its own way half the time once monsters start to get hurt.

MoviePop is fun for a little while, but the repetitiveness and simplicity won't keep you bound to your seat for very long. If nothing else, it's a decent showcase of memorable movie moments.

Potential players should be aware that it's not exactly reinventing the wheel.

SCRABBLE Pics is an easy word puzzle game to get into, and it’s fun to play, but there’s no denying that it’s marred by the occasional questionable word-choice and a difficulty level that is lukewarm throughout.

Dead Z Meat is a very focused experience – with the single player campaign being the only mode on offer – but the issue is that it doesn’t focus on very much. If you’re looking for a solidly assembled lightgun style title on Switch you can do a lot worse than this, just don’t expect to be amazed.

Still, when it has you, Skyward is a charming, infectious game that never lets you down when you want some fleeting fun.

You’ll have to put up with banner ads at the bottom of the screen and constant encouragement to try Urara-Work’s other games, but neither of these overly detracts from the experience.

Sparkle 2 is a quickie, but a polished quickie. There's plenty to do and see if you've got the time to invest – especially if you're a fan of the genre. And even if you're not, it's cheap enough to try out. Give it a whirl and see if you don't get into the marble game.

Your enjoyment of the game only depends on two factors: how much you like match-3 games, and how much you like Adventure Time.

Feel free to mentally bump this grade up by a half-star or so if you’ve never played the previous games in the series or get a lot of use out of the companion app feature, but on its own, My NBA 2K17 feels like a lot more of the same.

Angry Birds Go! is a good game. It’s just not the great game it could have been.

Samurai Siege has a lot of competition, and its creativity in terms of setting and unit/building design definitely gives it a bit of an edge. The technical flaws cut that edge down in size, however, impairing your ability to sit down and become absorbed by the game. It's not unplayable by any means, but some errors are just too frustrating to overlook.

Even if its story isn't quite all there, Found: A Hidden Object Adventure still offers a fun blend of social and hidden object gameplay, with great visuals and intriguing locations. It's an exciting journey for adventurers of all ages, but one that puts too much emphasis on the "pay to play" model of a "free to play" game.

Askaryl's Grimoire may keep younger readers enthralled - and on that note, I think it could be a great way to introduce technology-obsessed youngsters to the joys of actually sitting back and reading something - but I suspect that more seasoned veterans of the genre will find it lacking.

RoboCop might be a great time-killer, but even its eerily addictive upgrade system can’t save it from the sheer mediocrity at play. Checking out the upcoming film might be something fun to do; playing the game, however, is not.

Turning up somewhat late to the party can't sap Drop the Chicken of the talent that's clearly been employed in its level design, but it will leave the coop it's housed in feeling a little too familiar for many.

Dream Dresses isn't a bad game, but it doesn't have the makings of a stand-out hit, either.

If you’re looking for a new mobile Final Fantasy that plays like its console brethren, you’re going to be sorely disappointed. But if you need something mindless and fancy-looking to kill time? You could do much, much worse.

A Little War is fun and offers up a surprising amount of simplistic strategy once things really get going. It's also pretty cute and the way the soldiers' and hero's appearances change as they get stronger is pretty awesome. It's just a shame that it pushes the whole "freemium" thing so hard, as it sometimes gets in the way of simply having fun.

Considering that Only One is free-to-play, it can't hurt to give it a try.

Grub is a cute game, and it’s enjoyable for as long as it lasts. There’s the rub: Once your energy runs out within five minutes or so, you need to wait around for a refill or pay a large sum of coins for one more go.

Tiny Monsters captures the Dragonvale spirit of addictive breeding-based gameplay. It doesn't have nearly as much long-term depth as its constantly updating 8-month-old counterpart, but it's still fun nonetheless.

Dumb Ways to Die is free to download, so if nothing else, it’s great for a few chuckles. You probably won’t stick with it for long, but even if you delete the app, remember that train safety is forever.

This is just another in a long line of not-exactly-lazy but not-exactly-interesting reskinnings of the same old matching game.

As awesome as it is to see a game built around a comedy whose influence went far beyond its meager $12.8 million in box office receipts, there’s nothing as memorable about Office Space: Idle Profits as the lines of dialogue from the movie that inspired it. Not even a meeting with the Bobs is likely to save this one from being here today, gone tomorrow, just like poor Initech itself.

Alien vs. Predator: Evolution’s heart is in the right place.

Still, for those who can enjoy the aesthetic of a game more than the gameplay, Lost in Harmony is a great purchase and a fun way to spend a few hours.

It’s not going to set the world on fire like Kingdom Rush did, but if you’re already sold on tower defense games, Crystal Siege HD is well worth adding to the collection.

A loyal reader told me I overrated Thor: The Dark World, and while this game is better, it’s not by much. That leaves me in much the same place, lamenting that while this game looks like the proper companion experience to the sure-to-be-awesome movie, it’s just a bit underwhelming. Guess I’ll keep hoping.

Cubemen 2 doesn't really do anything all that exciting with the original concept, and the game ends up feeling quite underwhelming as a result.

Perhaps my expectations for Yet Another Zombie Defense were off-base. I was looking forward to a sharp mix of light tower defense strategy and arcade action, but what I got was a competent but unremarkable dual-stick shooter with sentry turrets and blocks- reasonably fun, but quickly forgettable.

If you want an open-world Spider-Man title, The Amazing Spider-Man delivers a decent experience along with a slew of flaws. However, if you're simply looking for a smooth Spidey adventure, stick with Total Mayhem.

Stands out as one of the better controlling platformers to hit mobile devices. Sadly, that might not be enough to let it stand out among the forest of mobile games released each day.

Maybe it would’ve fared better as a park-builder or a dinosaur-themed fighting game instead of a mix of the two.

It’s a shame, as Atari Mania has clearly been made with love and care and certainly doesn’t feel like a cash-in – but it can’t fail to pale a little in comparison to Atari 50: The Anniversary Celebration.

As far as its mechanics are concerned, it’s more of the same: More hunting for opportunities, more tapping to perform energy-sucking “tasks,” more shopping for clothes - the coolest of which cost enormous sums of cash.

Tiki Kart 3D is pretty close to being a really fun, nearly must-have game for your smartphone. If some of the problems I addressed above were to be patched, than I'd definitely be willing to sing the game's praises from on high.

The premise was an engaging one, but unfortunately I found the execution lacking.

Bright Memory: Infinite Gold Edition may have a fair few flaws, but worth investigating if you’re looking for a new first person shooter on the Switch.

TwoDots would be a wonderful experience to lose yourself within, if the game would only let you in.

In the end, Justice League Action Run will reach its audience – fans of the television show and DC enthusiasts that can accept a new-look Justice League. With so many other runners to choose from, it’s appeal beyond these groups will likely be limited. If you are so inclined, check it out and you might be pleasantly surprised. It’s not revolutionary, nor is it genre-defining, but it’s good enough to keep you hooked through all 150 missions. You just might even walk away with a sense of accomplishment in the end.

It’s fun and satisfying playing what is there, even if the players you go up against aren’t exactly that tough to contend with. But it immediately feels like a game that you’d be better off waiting for a few updates later to check out. Hopefully by then, the community will have matured and there’ll be additional maps and objective types to delve into. For now, it’s a little too half baked.

There is no denying that Harry the Fairy is a well-polished title but perhaps someone polished too hard and some of the internal workings are showing. The game follows a formula to a tee and doesn't stray from it. The controls are great, the audio and visuals are solid, the gameplay offers light challenges and solid design. Everything works how it's supposed to, but there is no "above and beyond." It's exactly what you'd expect and nothing more.

The battle mechanics are different that other similar genre games I've played, and it's also nice to have to learn to adapt to a new system. It's just that there was this nagging feeling in the back of my head while playing that there are better options out there.

Stormfall: Rise of Balur has a chance to find its niche, but it might be fighting an uphill battle for both perception and reality reasons.

I think my lasting takeaway from Super Lemonade Factory was just how generic it was, for better or worse. There's nothing inherently wrong with it in any shape or form, but it doesn't do anything to make itself stand out either. In an oversaturated app market, that alone could be enough to bury it in the long term.

The Nintendo Switch port truly does hinder the game, ultimately. The game itself is excellent if it’s being played on a more powerful platform, and perhaps if this game was released after the launch of the Nintendo Switch 2 the outcome would be different.

Demolition Dash is an average game with an incredible presentation. We just wish they'd spent as much time working on knocking our socks off in the gameplay department as they did in the art studio.

As puzzle games go, Bring Me Down rests pretty firmly in the middle of the pack. The gameplay is challenging, but nothing here is actually good enough to make it stand out.

If you’re looking for an off-kilter 3D platformer Super Adventure Hand isn’t a bad option, but we’d recommend waiting for it to get a discount point before giving it the full two thumbs up.

Spellfall is free, so despite its aggressive panhandling for in-app purchases, you have nothing to lose by downloading it. But it would have been nice to drop a couple of bucks for a great-looking match-three battle game that lets you concentrate on its story without being pulled out of the fantasy by sales pitch after sales pitch.

It's not likely to make converts out of non-fans but if you're into the CCG scene, this one is definitely worth a look.

Beneath the issues, Speed Blazers has the fundamentals of a great game in place. As it stands, though, this is a title that feels like it's still in beta, thanks to the bugs and the obviously incomplete content.

Ninja UP! is a dead-simple jumping game that successfully offers players an intense test of reflexes.

Battleloot Adventure has a lot more going for it than we expected in a budget app. If you don't mind straight questing, there's easily 10+ hours of content here to play through. Combat is slick, and the dozens of unique creatures are a blast to pummel. The lack of a story, grinding, and glitches keep it from being a definite must-buy, but it's still a decent RPG experience.

While Cling Thing may have a lot of heart in its quest to become the next big thing in cutesy physics-puzzling, the game is really hurting in terms of its charm. With bland, forgettable characters and boring level designs, not to mention controls and physics that do more to harm the playing experience than do it any good, this is probably one game that’s best left stuck on the back of your chair like a stale piece of gum.

Yes, Saturn Defense is free, and there are dozens of hours just waiting to be played: just don’t expect it to pop up on any year-end best of lists, or even be remembered a few months down the road.