It’s an interesting idea let down by one-note gameplay, finicky onscreen joystick controls, and its habit of forcing you to replay levels after each mistake. It’s also significantly overpriced at £6.99.

Because your party doesn’t auto-heal, anyone with that skill swiftly becomes indispensable, although you can mix and match team members depending on the enemies you face. The real problem is that without new ideas, this no-frills dungeon crawler is possibly a little too generic for its own good.

There are regular moments in dungeons when the 3D viewpoint gets in the way, and you’ll need to grind a fair bit, but these are relatively minor niggles when set against compelling battles, great art style, and an inspiringly large world to explore. It even has a New Game+ for those who just can’t let go.

If you’ve played it before, it’s a relatively brief experience that most certainly bears repeating. For those who haven’t, the first time is a joy we’d recommend to just about anyone.

If you’ve played Kerbal Space Program you know exactly what to expect (minus the cute characters), but for everyone not familiar with terms like periapsis, there are tutorials that guide you from novice to space flight professional. Having all that in your pocket is a salutary reminder that we live in a wondrous age.

The splendidly named Dread Nautical is a turn-based roguelike set on a spooky, zombie-infested 1930s cruise liner. Choosing one of four survivors, you spend action points to move, pick things up, and attack, either melee or ranged depending on what makeshift weapons you’ve managed to purloin.

As you progress words get longer, featuring far more abstruse letter groupings, and although it can’t quite muster the rampant addiction of Alpha Bears, it offers a decent word-based challenge.

It’s very simple, but there’s a level of learning involved in when to boost wood and gold production; when to upgrade your defences, barracks, and walls; and which path your raiders should take. It’s very throwaway but the lightly tactical gameplay is still breezy fun.

If your ball-like warlock slips between the flippers he falls, taking damage equivalent to his height up the tower. You can recharge health with heart containers, and by getting him through the exit in time, but progress is cemented with the treasure and XP you earn, which permanently unlocks new skills, helping you get even higher next go. All of which is enjoyably addictive.

In other words it’s a clone of 1983 coin-op Spy Hunter, but unfortunately what you see in the first minute of the tutorial is all there really is to it, with relatively little nuance to uncover. As mindless entertainment its daily missions are a brief diversion, but little more.

Elegantly balanced so that using a controller is no advantage over touchscreen, its developers promise regular updates of new mazes, game modes, and challenges.

It’s a joyous affair, even if aiming can prove a bit frustrating, especially as the farmhand, with his limited water reservoir and three naughty porkers to keep track of.

Unfortunately, its reach sometimes exceeds its grasp, and even on the latest iPhone it suffers from frame rate stutters when the action gets busy. Its unremittingly generic sci-fi characters and setting also conspire against it.

It’s weirdly hard to concentrate on what the text is actually saying, rather than simply spotting which sentence fragments go where, so it’s not much of a reading experience, although it is a gentle and long term challenge that turns out to be pleasantly relaxing without a timer.

It’s a pleasure to wander around, the input of American artist William Chyr evident in the expansive and mildly trippy building designs that trail off into infinity. And it’s no shrinking violet on the challenge, which rapidly becomes deliciously tricky.

Puzzles soon become multi-layered memory tests, especially when you’re trying to pare back the number of moves used, and there’s no hint system, so you’re on your own (or on YouTube) if you get stuck; although the tinkering and eventual epiphany is where the real joy lies.

It’s a bit of lightly addictive throwaway fun, a sense that’s undermined by rounds against overwhelmingly more powerful computer-controlled snakes.

As you progress across its worlds the complexity layers on, with new powers and gardeners constantly being added in what is a clever, likeable, and surprisingly deep game.

Fights themselves are a bit light on tactics, with the looming shadows on all sides making it impossible to see enemies before they’re right on top of you, but the range of other activities and role-playing style progress of your troops will appeal to those who love XCOM but prefer their games a bit less sadistic.

It’s designed to be relaxing, but the reality of not knowing what the hell is going on is actually slightly stressful and eventually extremely dull.

Although similar in some respects to Hearthstone, the tactical depth and ability to deploy game-changing combos keeps it fresh and distinct, the touchscreen port playing even better than the PC original. There’s still an undertone of pay-to-win but provided you don’t take things too seriously it doesn’t spoil the fun.

The brothers’ interactions and cute claymation styling make for delightful, heart string-plucking interludes between levels. There’s not much of it but it concertedly leaves the door open for future chapters.

With infinite continues and no ads, it’s a friendly user experience, and even though some of the level design is a bit iffy, the art style is unusually good for a freebie.

With a couple of hours’ worth of occasionally irritating head-scratching, there’s a slight sense of having played the intro to a much larger game. Whether you’d want a full-length version of Discolored is another matter entirely.

The sparkly graphics and familiar faces do their job, although it soon starts to get trickier, tempting you to spend in-game gold and actual currency to complete levels. For its target audience of small girls it’s fiendishly compelling, just don’t forget to turn off in-app purchases before handing your phone over.

It’s completely free, with no ads or in-app purchases, and is clearly a labour of love for the small team at Stay Inside Games. If you like turn-based tactics and have a phone, you may as well.

One of the best Dark Souls clones so far and while some things are near identical the co-op features help distinguish it as something more than just a straight copy.

With its 8-bit-style graphics and roguelike trappings, Space Grunts 2 is every bit an OrangePixel game; only this time, rather than being about action, it’s a turn-based deck builder with an emphasis on speed and simplicity.