An innovative indie experience that melds the bizarre with the sublime, Incredipede tests your problem-solving skills and patience in intriguing ways.

Streamlined without being dumbed-down, Frontline Commando: D-Day is a fun, accessible romp that shooter fans will find easy to like.

Blip Blup is a very good puzzler for abstract visual thinkers, even if the difficulty spikes can be tough.

Fiz's slow-burning but incredibly entertaining brewery management simulation really nails the nitty-gritty details, offering addictive beer-making entertainment for hardcore enthusiasts and casual imbibers alike.

Ace Attorney is one of the best series to come out of Japan in the past decade. Despite some issues, this compilation is recommended whether you’re a dedicated fan or a newcomer to the franchise.

Infinity Blade III caps off the epic franchise in a largely dazzling manner, though the repetitive nature of the series resonates more strongly than ever.

LEGO The Lord of the Rings may not match its much pricier Mac counterpart on features or gameplay depth, but it's still the best LEGO game on iOS by a wide margin.

With the look of a classic RPG and the heart of an arcade favorite, Nimble Quest is an engaging free-to-play curio that's a hair less gripping than either influence might suggest.

Football Heroes is a fun pigskin game that offers a continual stream of great moments, though it’s held back by unintelligent computer opponents.

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

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.

Wave Trip may feel derivative in spots to multiplatform players, but it's nevertheless an exciting and engaging musical odyssey.

Every fantastic thing about Dead Trigger 2 is offset with an overriding push towards greedy in-app purchases and/or obnoxious special offers.

Streamlined stealth and an intriguing premise blend well to get République off to a promising start in Exordium.

An intuitive control scheme and loads of cartoonish charm make Combo Crew's brawling action a real treat for your fingertips.

Ms. Splosion Man is a mostly excellent puzzle-platformer, but a couple of unfortunate design decisions hold the iOS version back from greatness.

Backyard Monsters: Unleashed offers a solid blend of base building and tower offense in a free-to-play package, although its cycle of monster and building upgrades drags it down as you reach higher levels.

Mr. Crab features plenty of entertaining levels that make it easy enough for a child to pick up, but tricky enough for adults to enjoy.

Third Eye Crime serves up a masterful blend of stealth puzzling and noir-inspired storytelling, with misdirection cleverly applied on both counts.

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.

In spite of a few control issues, Metal Slug 2 is a surprisingly strong showcase for old-school action and rich 2D presentation.

Star Command's violent romp through the galaxy is equal parts challenging and clever, making it a must-play for sci-fi strategy fans.

A great mix of strategy and time management, Pocket Trains offers a lighthearted and awesome diversion for rail enthusiasts with a sweet tooth for cuteness.

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.

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

Ridge Racer Slipstream delivers the unique and thrilling flavor of the well-known arcade racing series without messing up the controls, but it relies too heavily on its console predecessors for inspiration.

Impossible Road stands alongside Super Hexagon as one of the top tests of skill, reaction, and sheer pluck on the App Store.

Layton Brothers Mystery Room may have some annoyances, but overall it's a polished adventure with fun characters and an intriguing story, and the content is definitely worth the asking price.

If comical medical insanity and gutsy operations don't gross you out, this silly surgeon simulation will tickle your funny bone for hours on end.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

Dawn of the Plow’s no-frills retro style gels perfectly with its simple snow-plowing mechanic, which provides a light-hearted distraction that can easily become a chaotic battle to stave off the inevitable.

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.

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

Pudding Monsters might try a few too many things within a short span of levels, but its breezy puzzle action entertains while hinting at better challenges down the line.

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.

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

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.

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

Adventure Time: Card Wars is an impeccably designed card-battler with the show’s signature humor generously slathered over it. Don’t be turned off by the energy mechanics — this is one game that makes that minor annoyance worth tolerating.

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.

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.

The App Store is full of great racing games, but Table Top Racing is a comparatively vanilla effort hardly worth the investment.

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

Beastie Bay isn't as multi-layered as the games it is based on, plus its battle system is lacking, but the great simulation features may still keep you coming back for more.

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.

Order & Chaos Duels can quickly become very pricey the more you play, which is a shame since it offers a rich combat system and lots of charm.

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

Haunted Hollow is an uncomplicated, charming, and fun strategy game that's particularly potent with pals.

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.

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.

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.

Great visuals and a tactile control scheme combine with the Formula One license to produce a stellar top-down iOS racer. F1 Challenge comes with bells and whistles, but its fundamentals prove top-notch.

Best (and most cheaply) experienced in small bursts, Solitaire Blitz offers an engaging high-score chase disguised as a classic game of cards.

Temple Run: Oz puts a slick Disney spin on the top 3D endless runner, but isn't quite as captivating or fully-featured as the free and still very recent Temple Run 2.

Mittens is a cute and cuddly time-killer that hearkens back to classic cartoon sensibilities, but its puzzles are a bit more linear than in Disney’s finest.

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

Scaled down in some respects and expanded in others, Real Racing 3 might irk some old fans, but it's a remarkably giving free-to-play affair.

Sporos is a pure puzzle game in the classical sense, with a simple rule set that quickly iterates and expands. It may not dazzle, and it’s easy to fall into a trial-and-error grind – but if you want a cerebral challenge, it’s as difficult as the limitations you place on yourself.

Alien Hive is a unique puzzle game, but the originality crumbles a bit under the weight of limited resources and a pointless enemy tile.

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.

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.

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.

Tiny Death Star's slow but satisfying consumer-centric twist on battlestation management lacks the excitement of the films it draws from, but makes up for it raw cuteness and loads of thoughtful fan service.

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.

Dead Effect is an uninspired first-person shooter that does nothing original, proving most memorable for its hilariously awful dialogue.

Defying expectations, Deus Ex: The Fall is a slick-looking, enjoyable offshoot — and while it doesn't feature quite the same level of depth or versatility as other games in the series, it's still a staggering achievement for iOS.

Sonic the Hedgehog seems like a perfect fit for an endless runner, but Sonic Dash fumbles the fundamentals and aggravates with heavy-handed in-app purchases.

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.

Even with its odd mix of casual fighting and (eventual) hardcore-only challenge, Injustice’s solid action will please the crime-fighting crowd.

Star Wars: Assault Team is an engaging, strategy-minded card battler quest that's a blast for series fans. However, its steep challenge might push you to spend more than you originally intended to once you get sucked in.

Gun Bros 2 is a serviceable twin-stick shooter hampered by a miserable free-to-play model that punishes the player for not paying.

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.

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

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.

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

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

With a smart runner-like design and plenty of free fun within, Smash Bandits captures the rush of the getaway in bite-sized bursts.

For what it’s worth, Liberation Maiden is the far better value and experience than its 3DS counterpart. Play this version of the uncommon shooter if you haven’t already, but don’t expect it to last you long.

Its combat system may be simple, but Fright Fight offers plenty of ways to have fun with its Smash Bros-like online matches. Just expect to spend money if you crave variety or quick progress.

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

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.

Lumber Jacked is a stellar retro-stylized platformer that’s challenging to no end and will keep you replaying stages to enjoy its brutal objectives and cutesy aesthetics.

Laudably unique and pleasing in short bursts, Fish Out of Water falls short of warranting long-term attachment.

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.

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

Bloodstroke pays lip service to John Woo’s bloody brand of action, but it lacks any grace, efficiency, or flair. Cool art style notwithstanding, Bloodstroke’s clumsy controls doom it from the start.

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

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.

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.

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

Serious adventure fans will be able to look beyond Cognition's warts to appreciate the story and puzzle challenges, but it's bound to be a love-hate relationship.