The game is perfect for those looking for a more hardcore experience on a handheld device, without alienating the more casual mobile audiences either. With a shining presentation, addictive shooting gameplay, and a whole battalion’s worth of missions to complete, it’s going to be D-Day on your mobile device for a long time to come!

Even though Tiny Troopers 2 may not have set out to redefine the Tiny Troopers franchise, the game still functions as a fairly impressive sequel with great visuals, fun gameplay, and a perfect balance of depth and pick-up-and-play accessibility.

Hands down, Magicka: Wizards of the Square Tablet is one of the best action-adventure games I’ve ever played on my iPad. The game just has everything you could ever want in a mobile sidescrolling game: beautiful visuals, great gameplay, and tons of diverse environments and enemies that never seem to get old.

Ultimately, The Croods is a slow, mediocre game that doesn’t require you to do much beyond tap the screen on occasion. Only the littlest fans of the movie will get anything out of it—and you might want to turn off in-app purchases before you let them get too far.

Much in the same way as the lightweight strategy suits the platform, there just aren’t all that many engaging civ-lite games on mobile devices, making Legion strangely appealing in spite of its faults. It’s very much a game on the right platform at a lucky moment.

Fetch is a game that oozes personality, thanks in no small part to its gorgeous visuals, lively world, and less-is-more approach to storytelling. If you’ve been in search of a solid point-and-click adventure game —and you’re not a dyed in the wool cat person—you won’t regret picking this one up.

Pinpoint aiming and strategic terrain manipulation can remedy disparages a bit, and you can always grind to earn up currency to buy more firepower. Overall, the game is well worth a download for fans of the Worms franchise, and serves as a simple introduction to the genre for those still yet uninitiated.

Danger Boat isn't particularly horrible per se, as it's quite playable and safe.

With cool additional elements like Game Center achievements, leaderboards and the enticing Hall of Aliens, Alien Hive becomes one of the cooler puzzle games available on iOS.

For all its problems, Café 0 tells a compelling story. It’s certainly not the most dynamic piece of literature ever written (beware of tired old boob jokes), but if you’re into interactive novels and you’re curious to find out how a mermaid can actually drown, you’ll almost certainly want to play long enough to see the game’s true ending.

The game is a wonderful take on the Air Hockey concept, with tons of action-packed twists every way you turn, and that frantic addictiveness of a great arcade game. The environmental hazards and power-ups are exciting and unique, and I don’t think I’ll ever look at a regular old game of Air Hockey quite the same again!

The genius of Ridiculous Fishing comes from the fact that it’s actually three tightly woven mini games in one, which tie together in one of the most magnetic compulsion loops you’ll find.

Of course it’s only natural to expect some form of time-based gating when dealing with a free-to-play game. And as far as I’m concerned Heroes of Destiny does a great job of keeping those gates from becoming a huge problem. It’s full of loot and characters to acquire and upgrade, so there’s plenty of reason to keep playing for quite a while. And of course it’s fun to play. There’s always that.

It’s a bummer that PWN doesn’t get the last twenty percent right, because there’s a quality, demanding, engaging game to be played underneath the bad design decisions.

Gamenauts and Artlogic Games did a nice job marrying tower management with some light RPG and party battle elements, but nothing in Castle Champions really burrows its way into your psyche and sticks with you.

The combination of exploration and building meshes well in Eat Eat Hooray! and gives the game a good deal of personality and character.

Super Stickman Golf 2 combines two potentially dull themes - stickmen and golf - and comes away with a solid and hugely entertaining mobile game. Who would have thunk it!

Jones is so responsive—able to jump or charge the instant her last action is complete—that even failing on harder levels still feels like your own fault, not the game’s. Couple that with the adorable kitties who celebrate your success with fireworks, the blocky retro graphics that make even an overflowing litter box endearing, and the chiptune soundtrack that is charged with enthusiasm for kitty-rescuing, and Jones on Fire is an excellent automatic runner pick-me-up for the feline at heart.

Rivals at War is an interesting semi-departure for Hothead as it makes good use of their pre-established card collecting system and drops it into the middle of a firefight. What’s better is that it all comes together incredibly well. It can be a little frustrating to have to scrimp and save for the high-end card packs but using a team of Bronze or even Standard soldiers and tactics isn’t a guaranteed loss. And it’s just fun, besides.

If you’re super-enthusiastic about virtual aquariums, Pocket Fishdom is a decent catch. Those tanks aren’t going to clean themselves, after all.

Dungeon Plunder is a reasonable introduction to the Roguelike genre as a whole, but there are better examples available for only a little bit more complexity.

With striking animations, precise controls, and a touch of humor, Outland Games is well worth checking out, and will reward the time you put into it. More variety in settings and announcer dialog would go a long way toward fleshing out the experience, but there is still plenty of fun to be had in the outlands, barren as they may be.

By combining the breakneck endless pace of games like Temple Run with Sonic’s old school sense of speed, Sonic Dash manages to champion two things quite well; taking an existing formula and bettering it, and developing a Sonic game that’s finally worthy of the hedgehog’s good name.

Knitted Deer boasts cute graphics and a great soundtrack. Its knitted world is an interesting place. Unfortunately, if an endless runner doesn’t excel in every category—and Knitted Deer doesn’t—it’s going to get run down and left to bake on the asphalt.

Assuming additional episodes maintain the same quality of this first entry, The Silent Age will continue to be a must-play series well into the future.

In the grand scheme of things, Spellstorm isn’t all that difficult to figure out. At least it has an in-game help menu. And besides, once all the important stuff is covered there’s plenty of enjoyment to be had through questing, fighting, and upgrading. And it’s so, so pretty.

I like Amber Route in spite of its faults. The art is just lovely, each session weaves a unique narrative, a palpable sense of journey and adventure.

It would be interesting to see how multiplayer works, but that mode is apparently on hold until a future update. Even without it, I, Gladiator strikes you as a game that is very much in line with the conventions of its genre while having just enough tweaks to give it some some identity of its own.