Stripping the kart racing genre of all of its vital elements, Monkey Racing is a thoroughly flat and soulless experience.

Slowdown, loading screens, and AI woes plague Tiny Troopers: Joint Ops all too often, leaving it a disjointed game at best.

For a game that shouldn't be involving enough to survive five minutes, NOON is a beautiful and addictive experience.

A decent 3D spatial puzzler with some clever mechanics, but one that's perhaps a little light on variety.

Race the Sun is a blast while it lasts, but there may not be enough to bring you back after the first couple of enjoyable hours of gameplay.

George Orwell meets Monster Hunter in what feels like one of Vita's oddest and most significant exclusives yet.

A nicely presented, but ultimately underwhelming addition to the auto-runner genre.

Minutes may be visually duller than its bullet hell peers but it makes up for it with a variety of game-changing surprises.

A tough, violent, strategic card battler, Warhammer 40,000: Space Wolf is a sharp-edged love letter to the grim vision of the future.

Like most endless runners, your mileage will vary with Run Sackboy! Run! which, while impressively handsome, is a surprisingly limited example of its genre.

The Sailor's Dream is a gorgeous, meditative experience with heart and soul. But it's lacking in substance, depth, and meaningful interactivity.

A polished endless runner that looks and feels great, but stops short of creating something truly special with its core elements.

Zombie Catchers is a fun, funny, bizarre little game that came out of nowhere and immediately started gnawing on my heart.

The NES Remix games are clever reinventions of classic games. It's just a shame this 3DS edition is so lazy, and far from Ultimate.

Entertaining, amusing and great for quickfire RTS play, but too shallow to sustain interest.

Sleep Attack TD's stage-spinning gameplay adds a dash of originality - and difficulty - to a solid tower defence game.

Woah Dave! is about three times more fun that it should be, and keeps you playing five times longer than you intended.

A strikingly simple yet severely limited casual arcade experience, Meat Factory provides a grisly slice of ephemeral fun.

Audio Defence expertly executes on a clever idea. But it's more of a fun gimmick than a game you'll want to keep coming back to.

What could have been the iPhone's best looking beat-'em-up turns out to be an empty firework show with little for you to actually do.

Well it might not be the most complex game in the world, Mmm Fingers has enough going for it to keep you entertained for a while.

A brainier episode than Metamorphosis, Ones & Zeroes might not be thrilling, but it asks some interesting questions all the same.

An intriguing look back at what the JRPG used to be, Dragon Quest II has enough going for it to make it a little more than a curio.

A snow bound adventure that keeps you enthralled from first to last, Caverns of the Snow Witch is well worth a look.

A pretty and original but bafflingly constructed oddball platformer with a control system that never feels quite right.

If you've always wanted to pit iOS-owning friends against Android evangelists, you may find some mileage in Captain Strike, though there's little that'll make you stick around.

Celebrating life, in all its fleeting chaos, has rarely been as fun as this. Play, enjoy, and stick two fingers up at mortality.

Shantae and the Pirate's Curse is packed full of good times guaranteed to please fans of platforming games.

A fairly satisfying and good-looking slice-em-up that could do with a bit more polish and difficulty balancing.

There is some entertainment to be had with this year's NHL 2K, but it has more than its fair share of problems.

A neat pushing together of ideas that pretty much comes off. Puzzle to the Center of the Earth definitely has its moments.

Monster Strike squeezes a bunch of puck-launching into a fairly familiar free-to-play model, but it isn't that much fun.

By diluting its traditionally strong ball-flicking action with underwhelming card collecting and free to play elements, PikPok's attempt has bounced off the rim.

A pitch perfect, pick up and play blend of strategy and accessibility, history and thrills.

A neat mix of ideas wrapped in a package that makes you want to play, Swap Heroes is well worth a look.

Jet Car Stunts feels right at home on Vita. The new Collector mode gives veterans something to sink their teeth into, but newcomers may be put off by the game's difficulty.

Maria the Witch tries to offer relentless challenge in the same vein as Retry, but neglects to incorporate the stuff that Retry work well.

Great looking and supremely smooth, but its core gameplay is overshadowed by its own style. As endearing as the game is in many ways, it's just not a massively entertaining concept.

While the DNA of Tiny Realms is taken from other games in the genre, the additions here make for a highly evolved strategy management that may well convince veterans to stray from their current games of choice.

Unforgiving, relentless, soul-crushing, precise, gorgeous, addictive, fantastic - RETRY is all these things, go get it.

Just as satisfyingly dumb as it's always been, Samurai Warriors 4 brings a good dosage of new stuff to a slightly tired formula.

Gauntlet's Revenge makes a valiant effort to bring the Tilt to Live controls to a new genre, but they're just too imprecise to really work.

A jumble of ideas that don't work very well together or apart, this is one to avoid.

Free to play veterans will put up with the shenanigans Angry Birds Transformers tries to pull in the name of a quality shooter, but those just looking for a quick burst of fun may find the wait timers and slow progress distasteful.

In its current form, it saddens me to say that there is nothing to recommend about Red Riding Hood and the Restless Wolves, apart from some nice music.

A huge and hefty basketball experience, NBA 2K15 has its problems, but it's still worth a look.

A poorly put together dungeon crawler with little personality and bad controls.

What promises to be a fun little arcade racer disappoints by falling back on too many generic endless runner tropes.

A workmanlike conversion of a workmanlike card game, but a treat for superhero strategists.

An interesting, frustrating game that just about manages to be worth some of your time.

Minecraft is a huge, absorbing game that thrives on imagination and creativity. It's now on handheld with very few compromises.

A perfectly adequate match-three puzzler that fails to add much to the genre beyond a different default block formation.

It's a unique take on a fast, twitchy, mobile arcade game but Miner Man isn't particularly deep.

Vibrant, playable and tough pinball, which is but a combo away from us yelling “Awesome, you guys!” in Cartman's trademark sneer.

Slightly wooden in appearance, but a first-class representation of classic American wrestling, complete with balletic behemoths and melodramatic flare.

A brilliant, funny, and wonderfully balanced platformer, Electronic Super Fun: Groove City is well worth your time.

A jumbled game that never sparks into life, Hay Ewe has some nice ideas, but they never get to shine through.

A garish and wonderfully retro anti-shooter, Helix deserves your high-score chasing attention

Find the Line is a mellow puzzle game that's marred by loud, frequent ads.

For more seasoned gamers, Disney Magical World might be a pleasant surprise. For kids, it could feel genuinely magical.

The Silent Age: Episode Two wraps up the story nicely, but it wastes its clever time-travelling mechanic.

While particularly savvy players are unlikely to find anything especially innovative in Machineers, the amount of care that’s gone into this blend of existing ideas is noteworthy, with an experience tainted only by its need for further fleshing out.

An arcade experience so authentic it'll have you shoving 10p coins in your Vita's cartridge slot.

Castaway Paradise definitely calls to mind a certain Nintendo property, but it's a surprisingly good fit for mobile.

A good-looking and playable racer, which with enough investment from the developers could conceivably become one of the best on the platform.

A satisfyingly meaty twin stick shooter that spices up its repetitive blasting with weighty combat and a free-wheeling perk system.

Skater is a little lacking and inconsistent to be a really strong choice for sim fans, and it's not arcade-oriented enough for casual players. This is a great first push forward, but the title needs improvement to run with its peers.

Diner Dash is about what you'd expect from, well, Diner Dash (frantic customer service), but much of the fun is hidden away behind in-app purchases and premium currency.

A shiny and sharp racer that gets the meat of the genre right, Reckless Racing 3 is well worth some attention.

A competent, easy-going spatial puzzler without the clear personality or freshness needed to really grab you.

A superbly balanced genre blend of role-playing, action and puzzle with some slightly irritating free-to-play embellishments.

Despite appearances, Card Dungeon is a lot more than just the iOS version of Card Hunter.

A surprisingly sharp and clever racer, Pixel Boat Rush is well worth diving into.

iBomber 3 manages to refresh its own concept and add real value to an incremental update. A great wingman for fans of the original.

Absorption has some nice ideas, and aside from a few niggles, it's well worth a look.

Short-lived, but offering solid swordplay in bite-sized chunks, Cloud Knights is a bit like a tap-dancing koala. It's goofy, charming, and unlikely, but instantly appealing, and great fun while it lasts.

Skullduggery! has a clever control scheme, some brilliant ideas, and a lot of retro charm.

The Secret of Raven Rock is by no means unpolished, but gives the impression of skimping on the quality control process, with some riddles infuriating for all the wrong reasons.

A dark, strange, tough, and beautiful tactical RPG-cum-interactive story with one of the richest settings you could hope for. Banner Saga is an iOS game to savour.

A potentially fantastic futuristic racer that completely fails to get the controls right, and as a result becomes a real challenge to enjoy.

Another flawed attempt at something different, The Magnificent Pixel Dynasty is more hit than miss though.

A unique and interesting attempt at an interactive story, I am a brave knight is short but not quite sharp enough to see its bright concept through.

A warm and endearing adventure that, despite a few problems, is still definitely worth a go.

Everything an infinite runner needs, with a delicious side helping of retro goodness. But you might need laser eye surgery to keep track of the graphics as Jack reaches full sprint.

Prettier, shootier, and bigger than its predecessor, but also a touch awkward at times. Still very much recommended though.

The full Skylanders experience for your tablet device, and a superb game in its own right: Trap Team is one heck of an achievement.

A conventional collection of entertaining gamebook action, The Sagas of Fire*Wolf is a solid entry into the Tin Man canon.

Sharp and shiny in all the right places, Monsu is a solid addition to the endless runner genre.

An unflinchingly tough, sometimes frustrating experience, Futuridium EP Deluxe just about has the gameplay so you can see past its foibles.

A funny, entertaining puzzler. Adventure Xpress might not be the freshest game on the App Store, but it's fun all the same.

Turbo Dismount is a single-note game, but it plays that note painfully well.

Sniper Elite by way of CSR. Kill Shot is dumb free to play fun, but don't expect anything truly ground breaking.

Beatbuddy HD is dripping with charm and good intentions, but repetitive ideas, annoying controls, and frequent bugs lead to disappointment.

Takes a good board game and uses all the digital tricks to make a truly great app.

The Pokémon TCG is a truly engrossing card battler. This digital version is generous with content and feels great, but technical hitches hold it back from greatness.

Epic Island can be a reasonably entertaining game at times - for about two minutes. Then you have to wait. And wait. And wait.

It's not often that a movie tie-in game amounts to anything better than "awful" and Interstellar doesn't do much to buck that trend.

A bright combination of retro arcade gameplay and modern flourishes, Air Supply - SOS will leave you gasping for more.