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give you something to brag about to other players through the game’s world chat option (which feels more than a little outdated in 2017).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.