Kind of Soccer’s quirky and ridiculous hit-the-referee hook is backed by fun-yet-challenging gameplay and a cool lo-fi aesthetic, though its ultimately shallow nature shows through sooner or later.

A minimal, fairly effective, and initially compelling arcade experience that lacks the depth and pulling power to keep it around for the long haul. Still, it’s worth a look for a buck or two.

Flashout 2 is fast and slick, but its combat and upgrade systems stand out more than its racing elements. There are more substantial sci-fi racers on the App Store, but Flashout 2 is a fun, lightweight diversion.

Boom Beach continues Supercell’s fight for your wallet in a solid, yet unspectacular freemium combat strategy game that rewards the patient and meticulous.

Solidly enjoyable (albeit super streamlined) brawling action makes The Winter Solidier an intriguing comic affair, but serious repetition and underwhelming side elements wear out its welcome.

Star Horizon is a tightly responsive, beautiful action shooter throwback with only a few issues—namely the bland story and short playtime—holding it back from being a mobile classic.

The Collectables shapes up well early on, but its straightforward-yet-fun shooting and strategy elements are well and truly hamstrung by a freemium-spoiled design with a stingy reward system.

Glorkian Warrior is a sweet-natured, old-school shooter with a sting in its tail in the shape of a harsh difficulty level. It’s fun but also frustrating, even on the so-called easy setting.

Surgeon Simulator is full of gags and funny moments that are bound to make you laugh out loud, and the intentional wonky controls ramp up the crazy shenanigans. Bizarreness burns brightly in this silly sim, but its humor doesn't always translate into lasting fun.

At its best, Knock-Knock is creepy, surreal, and gripping. However, that grip is loosened by frustrating repetition and a set of muddled systems that obscure more often than they engage.

Block Fortress: War’s unique blend of real-time strategy with tower defense and base building gains ground early, but gets bogged down in the trenches before long.

Eets Munchies will nourish your inner level designer, but the experience as a whole is a bit inconsistent.

Mines of Mars puts a cool building and crafting spin on the side-scrolling action genre, though its fun is whittled down a bit by control issues and minor bugs.

Autumn Dynasty Warlords does a great job of translating 4X strategy for mobile play, although its simplicity threatens the appeal of its combat.

With atmosphere and story driving the slow-burning adventure, Out There is decidedly light on action and excitement. That said, it's the game's personality and surprises that will keep you pushing deeper into the stars.

Another Case Solved is enjoyable enough to warrant the free download, but it lacks a strong enough hook to carry you through the eventual tedium and repetition.

Rigid in spots and light on impact, Tengami still feels like the ideal kind of App Store curio: it’s short, sweet, intimate, and handcrafted, with dreamy environs and meditative, low-key puzzles.

Oquonie is a puzzle-based adventure full of contradictions, notably in being both simple and complex. Soothing to noodle around with but also hard work to understand, it’s tricky to say how much actual fun’s on offer, but Oquonie’s an easy game to be quietly impressed by.

Word Puttz is a solid free-to-play puzzler, though it won’t scratch the itch of advanced word nerds.

Minor technical issues aside, Kahuna is a flavorful reintroduction to a 16-year-old game of Hawaiian-themed stratagem.

Toast Time perfectly captures the chaos of a rushed breakfast; similarly, it doesn’t always sit well and it’s tough to fully digest.

In Fear I Trust is a well-made thriller with some clever puzzles, but its tendency towards tired horror clichés makes it feel generic and aimless.

Baldur's Gate II is a great slice of RPG gaming history, though it’s geared towards serious fans of old-school role-playing — and the tricky touch interface, punishing difficulty, and unintuitive design elements tend to get in the way of fun at times.

There’s a quirky kind of fun in dunking on UFOs, dribbling around explosions, and jumping into outer space for extra coins — but theme aside, NBA Rush brings little new to the saturated endless runner genre, and it’s too shallow to hold much long-term interest.

Equal parts Mirror’s Edge, League of Evil, and NinJump, Shadow Blade is solid, slicey fun for its duration — but that isn’t terribly lengthy.

While lacking the depth and visual diversity of its desktop counterparts, Archangel is a fun touch screen take on the action RPG.

Battle Supremacy’s slow, purposeful shooting isn’t thrill-a-minute stuff, but sustained online firefights are satisfyingly tense.

Fightback’s base combat is entertaining enough, but its reliance on a pay-to-win model dramatically overshadows its gameplay.

By air, land, or sea, Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed delivers an entertaining burst of nostalgia-drenched fun, though the slow-to-unlock content and awkward in-game currency implementation are unappealing new mobile-exclusive features.

Colossatron’s couple hours of campaign chaos are plenty amusing, but it’s short on the depth and diversity needed to ensure real staying power.

Cut the Rope 2 works in some new puzzle mechanics, but we hoped the series’ first numbered sequel would feel just a bit more distinctive.

Lawless is easily one of the slickest titles on the App Store, but gorgeous visuals don't really equate to a great way to spend your time.

Mountain Sheep’s stylish art direction and new ideas are promising, but in execution KingHunt is perfunctory and unfocused, relying too heavily on high scores to the detriment of its pacing and rhythm.

Heroes of Dragon Age is a generally entertaining romp through Thedan lore, but a lack of battle interaction and an overly limiting stamina bar blight the whole.

Band Stars brings charm and fun in a polished package, but it fails to build on good first impressions and ends up feeling blandly generic.

With fun exploration and beautiful visuals, Assassin's Creed Pirates skirts close to greatness, but settles for being an enjoyable diversion.

Skateboard Slam tears up the course with charm and skills aplenty, but then hits the wall hard when it comes time to level up.

There’s no in-app purchasing your way out of Touchgrind Skate 2's challenging learning curve, but players willing to put in some practice time will find a satisfying skating game.

Strike Force Heroes: Extraction almost nails its attempt to bring the classic shooter genre to iOS, but a few mechanical rough spots keep it from being on par with its inspirations.

Despite solid controls, cool and playful presentation, and decent depth, Flick Kick Football Legends shoots itself in the foot with invasive advertisements and a too-short stamina meter.

The astonishing illustrations, excellent soundtrack, and delightful world of Morphopolis may be worth the price of admission alone in what is an otherwise middling hidden-object game.

Sorcery 2 continues the adventure with very little iteration, but it’s built on a strong foundation that remains charming.

Echo Prime offers plenty of energetic stages full of foes to blast and slice up, but its repetitive nature weighs down some of the more interesting elements.

Even Up’s un-sexy, straightforward approach may not enthrall everyone, but its logic isn’t without merit.

Batman: Arkham Origins features almost none of the complexity Batman games are now known for on other platforms, but it's moderately fun for a while — at least until the game starts trying to milk your wallet.

CSR Classics holds all the appeal of its predecessor with a nice hot rod restoration element, but progression proves extremely slow and repetitive.

First of Awesome suffers due to a lack of variety, but it remains an enjoyable experience in small chunks.

With an excellent mix of costumes, tons of collectibles, some truly clever dialogue, and a pleasant sense of humor, Costume Quest is a very likable adventure. Over time, exploration and battles can grow repetitive, but that shouldn't stop you from digging into this sweet Halloween affair.

The relationship between player decisions and race results can be hard to determine in NASCAR: Redline, while vestigial in-app purchases put the brakes on what could have been a solid lightweight sim.

Touch screen controls force Machine at War 3 to sacrifice some depth, but it largely makes up for it with a robust selection of gameplay modes and units.

There's nothing revolutionary here, but Marvel Puzzle Quest: Dark Reign does a good job of spicing up the match-three genre for comic fans with its hero-centric nerdiness, tense combat encounters, and strong collecting elements.

NBA 2K14 shapes up well for some LeBron-fueled magic, but it fumbles the pass and struggles to meet expectations after a promising 2012-13 season.

Disney Infinity: Toy Box really does bring the core creation concept to iPad, though it takes some getting used to after such a wonderful experience on the consoles. Thankfully, the fun isn't lost in the occasionally awkward transition.

Deer Hunter 2014 serves up some robust shooting and free-to-play progression, but it lacks challenge, walks an ethical tightrope, and provides only a tiny portion of the complete hunting experience.

Angry Birds Star Wars II has a glossy and charismatic exterior, but compared to past entries, its appeal feels largely skin deep.

Go Dance is a simple and enjoyable iOS dance game, though its lack of robust features and very thin soundtrack limit its fun.

Where’s My Water? 2 provides more physics-based puzzles without rocking the boat, but a barrage of freemium roadblocks – thanks in part to the baffling inclusion of an energy mechanic – drains fun from the latest adventure.

In true Adult Swim fashion, Giant Boulder of Death's oddball tone and gameplay are equally entertaining – in small doses.

Junk Jack X certainly has some of the absorbing potential of the games it nods to, but the fun is harder to come by thanks to tricky controls that get in the way.

Yu-Gi-Oh! BAM Pocket offers a decent trading card game rooted in the world of the long-running franchise, but its good points lose out against a weak story, a lack of variety, and a clear departure from the source material.

Dream House Days is a cute concept that’s almost ruined by free-to-play shenanigans.

Ultima Forever’s stripped-down approach to dungeon-delving might alienate more hardcore fans, but the satisfyingly simple battles and the amount of content on offer make it worth a trip to Britannia.

Though it has its irritating moments, the addictive pursuit of constantly upping your rolling arsenal makes Lionel Battle Train an amusing freebie.

Pirate Legends HD can't quite match the quality of the game it aims to duplicate, but it comes close enough to consider.

While certainly enjoyable at times, The Drowning's free-to-play implementation hampers the game to an inexcusable degree.

Pivvot is an interesting homage to Super Hexagon that proves simultaneously easier and more challenging.

Unless you’re a huge fan of The Muppets, you’re better off with one of the many other sim games that execute this format with a bit more subtlety.

Dropchord dazzles with its presentation, but doesn't make a lasting impact with its interactivity.

Riptide GP2 doesn’t reinvent the iOS racing game, but with loads of well-executed content to offer, it's still a largely great option.

It's not the 1993 original, but dodging traps and cutting down monsters as the re-imagined Prince is still a fun way to dive back into its universe.

While there's something to be said for Cold War's new gameplay elements and decent multiplayer, the Sky Gamblers series appears to have entered a deep freeze.

Sky Tourist is delightfully unique and blast to play when it works, but be prepared to muddle through some irksome moments as you push into this interesting, but shakily-executed adventure.

The novelty of uploading your face into Bloodmasque is a lot of fun, but the enjoyment wears thin due to unreliable controls and repetitive action.

Sine Mora is still worth exploring on iOS if you can’t play it elsewhere, but know that it’s the difference between eating filet mignon and ground chuck.

Pac-Man Dash! is a surprisingly tight platformer, but it gets bogged down by an unfortunate pace-killing stamina meter.

Breach & Clear is a short-lived but smartly designed tactics game with impressive military authenticity.

If you don’t already own a Zumba game or simply want the experience with you at all times, Zumba Dance will definitely make you sweat — and that’s a good thing.

This mellow auto-runner offers some interesting gameplay, although it may leave speed freaks craving something more energetic.

Progression can be a pain and the controls need refinement, but Super Paper Pool still makes an intriguing puzzler out of pool and putt-putt.

Samurai Shodown II could have been a fantastic arcade port, but it's held back by crummy controls and performance problems. It's still entertaining, but iOS 7's gamepad support can't come soon enough.

War of Nations brings a few small improvements to the free-to-play strategy boilerplate, but high prices and glitches diminish the experience.

A great spooky aesthetic plus ample atmosphere enhance the unsettling storytelling in this indie adventure, though it's just a bit too compact and open-ended.

Madagascar Math Ops takes the gameplay of Angry Birds and throws in educational content. It might not make your kid a math whiz, but it’s better than flash cards.

Gangstar Vegas may not be "Grand," but it’s sure to satisfy your hunger for a good open-world game on your iPhone or iPad.

Quadropus Rampage would benefit from more exact directional controls, but the action pacing and amusing tone carry themselves well on iOS devices.

While perhaps enough to satisfy the most dedicated of Marvel fans, Avengers Alliance's high points are marred by some pretty notable flaws.

Scurvy Scallywags erects a grand scaffolding of curious creativity on a well-worn puzzle formula, resulting in a familiar experience with lots of fun new twists.

World War Z is an entertaining film-inspired game, even if its combat system could use some polish.

Bam Fu’s hectic same-device multiplayer is finger-bashing fun, but the shallow gameplay ultimately taps itself out of contention for anything other than a short bout.

While stunning to look at, Fast & Furious 6: The Game loses its luster after a short time.

Breezy and pleasantly presented, Go Home Dinosaurs may not be a hardcore tower defense option, but it's still an enjoyable tweak on the genre.

Angry Birds Friends brings the Facebook favorite to iOS, but while the new angle is interesting, the competitive balance seems muddled.

The Lost Reels is a pale shadow of the original, but it does a decent job with what little it's been given.

Despite control quirks, LEGO Batman: DC Super Heroes delivers console-quality visuals and tons of variety to bolster its familiar-but-fun smash, build, and puzzle gameplay.

Iron Man 3 is a fun free game and a very solid diversion, but slow progress saps its long-term appeal.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Rooftop Run is a fun, competent endless runner with nice visuals, although we're not fans of its steep in-app purchases.

Vendetta Online's MMO space exploration and combat is deep, complex, and satisfying – once you get past the learning curve and get a feel for its quirks.

Bookworm Heroes is a polished word/fighting game hybrid, but its aggressive in-app purchases ultimately mellow its charm.