As mesmerizing on iOS as anywhere else, Limbo is a concise and fascinating puzzle platform adventure that really sticks with you.

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

Duet’s elegant brilliance is starkly defined against its unforgiving difficulty, and there’s a truly entrancing puzzler lurking beneath its surface.

Ridiculous Fishing is absurdly fun and seriously memorable.

Ingeniously conceived and expertly executed, Hundreds is one of the very best iOS games to date.

Threes!' engaging mechanics add up to iOS puzzle perfection.

We’ve been dreaming of an Eliss update for years, and Eliss Infinity proves dreams can sometimes come true. More importantly, what was innovative in 2009 remains fresh, tactile, and truly terrific today.

Year Walk is smart, thrilling, and absolutely stunningly crafted. It'll throw you for a loop, leaving you transfixed to the screen until you shake out all of its dark secrets.

FTL's seat-of-your-pants strategizing hits the sweet spot between careful planning and unpredictable action. This survival sim can be a heartbreaker at times, but it's one of the most thrilling downloads you'll find on iPad.

Fast, slick, and startlingly affordable, Asphalt 8: Airborne redefines iOS arcade racing.

Kingdom Rush Frontiers is another excellent – albeit now familiar – tower defense entry for strategy fans seeking a potent mix of brains and brawn.

Stickets looks deceptively simple, but, well, there’s the rub. Brilliant.

Bug Heroes 2 builds on the fine foundation of its predecessor to assemble a strong and varied MOBA-style game, which only stumbles on a few minor points.

Intricate yet fun to learn, Yomi mixes fighting and card games together into a compact package that plays just as well on iPad as it does on your tabletop.

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.

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

Hitman GO is a clever and stylish work of alchemy, bringing elegant stealth mechanics to a new platform and a fresh genre.

Lost Yeti’s throwback aesthetic and charming puzzles are a Super Nintendo-lover’s sugarcoated dream come true.

Karateka Classic is a superb port of an excellent (if ancient) fighting game, and is a great way to rekindle old memories or to simply see what all the fuss is about.

This great indie port flops turn-based strategy on its head with delightful asynchronous chaos and intense multiplayer matches.

A Ride Into the Mountains overcomes a few small rough spots to offer a challenging, intriguing, evocative, and memorable adventure of horseback archery with a stellar minimalist aesthetic.

Despite the strangeness of some of its surface-level changes, Final Fantasy VI has aged surprisingly well, and holds up beautifully on iOS.

Simogo’s keen eye for design and multimedia elevate what otherwise could have been a breezy mystery novella into one of the best puzzle games on the App Store.

David presents an abstract, dangerous world that’s as tough as it is beautiful and surprisingly emotive.

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.

Castle Doombad is an impressive tower defense game that charms and challenges in equal doses.

Tight controls and effective ambience make NightSky one of the best physics platformers around.

Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic is one of the best games of the 2000s, and the iPad version is an uncompromisingly faithful port.