Rather than deliver a tantalising treat, peeling away the skin of DK: Jungle Climber reveals bland play mechanics that can't be saved by the game's creative control system.

The Bearded Hero is a decent enough puzzle game, but it doesn’t really wow.

Titans is a well-made game, but it still feels a lot like previous card battlers.

A generously expanded platformer that nevertheless feels a little lightweight and insubstantial the second time around.

Shephy has a lot of promise, but ultimately lets itself down by unbalanced decks and somewhat messy rules.

Full of rough edges and built on a poor facsimile swing system, Real Golf 2011 comes a distant second in most of the areas that matter despite its online multiplayer.

SpeedX 3D Hyper Edition is a great concept, and it plays remarkably well. But you'll have seen everything it has to offer within 15 minutes of play.

One of the oddest games you'll ever come across, Hamlet replicates the adventure gaming formula of yesteryear with obtuse puzzles that makes for a annoyingly difficult gameplay.

Magic Orbz is a cheerily presented Breakout clone that adds physics-based destruction and some fun power-ups to the mix. But, it's still a Breakout clone.

A solid twin-stick shooter with an interesting evolutionary twist, but the execution doesn't quite match up to the concept.

Safe Cracker is an enjoyable, if repetitive, reflex-based puzzle game that would benefit from a single asking price instead of offering pieces of itself through in-app purchases.

A well put together puzzler, but some may find its random elements a little too much to bear.

Ark of Sinners Advance stumbles towards greatness. It's not the easiest game to pick up, but it is a difficult game to put down.

Anamorph offers up an interesting challenge, but for a lot of gamers its control system will really suck the fun out of playing.

The Midnight Sanctuary is fantastically bizarre both visually and narratively, but it won't convert you to visual novels.

Rage of Bahamut, but with a Star Wars twist: if you're sworn off card battlers then there's nothing for you here, but Star Wars fans just might find their next unhealthy addiction.

Evil Factory is absolutely gorgeous, but even the best graphics can't forgive its virtual controls and poor writing.

Infected is more akin to a mild tummy bug than a potentially life-ending bout of Ebola. To be fair though, it's probably more entertaining than either.

Steel Diver provides exciting, tactical underwater action, but a steep difficulty curve and lack of content make it difficult to recommend.

Something of a disappointment considering our expectations, uncovering Contact's charms demands significant patience.

Killer pixel graphics and awesome music make you want to love The Blocks Cometh, but the crowded controls keep you from embracing it fully.

A nicely constructed puzzler all about slotting shapes together, but once you've clicked with the core concept it doesn't really go anywhere.

I Am Bread is a ridiculous "slice" of mobile gaming, and while it doesn't really work, it's not really supposed to.

RoboCop is an inoffensive target shooter very loosely based on the movie of the same name.

Sure, Game of War - Fire Age isn't a great game, but the people playing it are an entertaining bunch indeed.

Stifled by tricky controls, Heavy Gunner is visually striking but too repetitive to live up to its epic billing.

Outworded looks nice and the multiplayer is fun, but in the end it's just a word search game. And that could put a lot of people off.

Murl the Squirrel is a perfectly fine game, but we expect more from Ravenous nowadays.

A wonderful looking shooter, Seraphim is a little thin, but you'll enjoy what's here while it lasts.

There's fun to be had spinning the reels, but King Cashing 2 doesn't do enough to stave off the inherent shallowness of its battles.

A solid but unremarkable brawler that runs out of super steam a little too quickly.

All of the ingredients for some destructive fun might be in place, but Burnout Crash! can't quite mix them together into an appetising meal.

Queen's Crown boasts a polished presentation, but some of the lustre is removed by insignificant quests, error-strewn dialogue, and devious in-app purchases.

A decent enough wild west shooter, but there's not much here after the initial thrill.

Dawn of the Dragons has got the storytelling side of things well and truly sorted - it's just a shame that the action is so basic and the gameplay so reliant on the player pumping in real cash for in-game currency.

Kamiko aims for Zelda-lite but falls way too short of the mark due to dull design, simple puzzles, and levels which lack substance.

While it's a fun mix of match-three puzzling and role-playing, Dungeon Raid fails to set the two elements in a solid structure and so never gains any long-term appeal.

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.

Solidly constructed and as compelling as ever, Jewel Quest on the DS suffers from the wealth of high-quality alternatives on the platform and a somewhat superfluous story.

A perfunctory twin-stick shooter that plays just fine, but fails to do anything of particular note.

An enjoyably frantic arcade collect-'em-up, Crazy Raider is just too slight an experience with too simple a combat system to warrant prolonged play.

Dungeon Defenders never gets the opportunity to show off its creative gameplay due to a poorly designed interface.

A neat central idea, held together by some decent level design, Burger Cat is let down by some sloppy controls and a few bad decisions.

There's a solid idea here, but it might not keep you entertained for as long as you'd like.

There's a great puzzle game here, but Fright Heights loses itself too often in difficulty spikes and cruelty.

Doodle Kingdom doesn't deviate far from Doodle God's original formula, but the addition of fantasy elements and new sub-quests is entertaining.

Crash City Mayhem will make you pull a variety of faces, ranging from raised eyebrows, to indifference, to disappointment.

A surprisingly respectable brawler that sports the solid shell of a bona fide ninja turtle, but not the muscular legs.

A fresh blend of several popular brews that has a bitter aftertaste. Keep an eye out for updates, though - this one deserves to do well but is currently far too unforgiving.

HonorBound's restrictive free-to-play framework keeps its squad building mechanics from reaching their full potential.

A solid and often challenging puzzle game. Its simplistic mechanics aren't varied enough to sustain long-term interest, though.

Dino Skater is a typical endless running game, but it has an extra kick of charm - like almost everything featuring dinosaurs.

Symmetrain is an efficient and novel casual puzzler, but the going is a little slow and the scenery is a little repetitive.

When you're following the narrow path the designers expect you to walk down, Corpse Party is one of the scariest portable games you can buy. Yet, failure to do so demands you re-play massive chunks of content you've already seen, significantly diminishing its appeal.

Skyward is a basic arcade / endless climbing game with intrusive ads, but the overall experience is entertaining for a bit.

One third rubbish and one third brilliance, The Sly Trilogy reminds us why the series is so much fun to play and why we forgot about it in the first place.

Kingdoms of Camelot: Battle for the North is a freemium city-builder with genuine slow-burn appeal and a nifty social element, but it may just too much of a slog for the average player.

A disappointing entry that proves itself incapable of overcoming the issues of its forebears - Warriors Orochi 4 is, simply put, a relic.

Clash of Clans with a jungle setting and a modern military theme. Jungle Heat isn't exactly innovative, then, but at least its developer does steal its ideas from the best and re-purposes them effectively.

An accessible, enjoyable online shooter that desperately needs more content to expand its appeal.

Pod Odyssey is a nice Lunar Lander homage, but heavy controls hamper the fun.

The main gameplay can be a little tiring over long periods of play, but Boom! Tanks is otherwise a compulsive game of simple tank combat.

Universe For Sale is a gorgeous visual novel-slash-point-and-click adventure with fantastic world-building and superb writing. The lack of mobile-optimised touch controls makes the gameplay itself incredibly frustrating though, so come for the visuals and stay for the story - if you can manage to tap your way from one chapter to the next.

Doctor Who: Legacy is a real treat for Whovians, and a satisfying but derivative RPG-puzzler for the rest of us.

A relatively fresh but extremely punishing take on the endless climber.

While it doesn't get the hidden object parts quite right, Hidden Runaway is still an interesting, if ultimately disappointing adventure.

Fast, fun, and frenetic, this match-three RPG needs a bit more polish to be recommended without reservation.

Best described as The Desert Megan Fox, 2XL TrophyLite Rally looks beautiful, handles well, but lacks variation, challenge and depth.

Yoo Sports! is a decent attempt to copy the Wii Sports template, but it fails to provide enough quality gameplay to encourage repeat play.

Much like the first game, your tolerance of the whims of fire will determine whether you enjoy this or not.

A running game that doesn't stand head and shoulders above the crowd, but is still fun enough to warrant a try.

Twist Pilot adds a refreshing spin to the concept of GBA gem Kuru Kuru Kururin, but the touchscreen controls and mismatched presentation send it off-course slightly.

A little light on content and design, Demolicious is an interesting first step for a talented team, but one that doesn't quite live up to its billing.

There's a good game trying to get out here, but it gets nerfed too often by fiddly controls.

A groundbreaking, though generic online role-playing game that needs a robust combat system and creative quests to make the portable MMO fantasy a reality.

Initial impressions of Smart As are good, but the game rapidly shows itself to be a brain training title lacking any in-depth planning.

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.

A pure, clever, tactile, endless jumper, Stair: Slide the Blocks to Ascend simply offers too little for the average player, but is worth checking out for its smart gameplay.

A strange, entertaining, but brief arcade racer, WRC Shakedown will keep you entertained, just not for as long as you might expect.

In an age where we're seeing a great deal of innovation and quirkiness in iOS releases, it's disappointing to see an old classic so lazily ported across to Apple's mobile platform.

Perfectly pleasant, yet also pretty forgettable. The kind of game you'll very happily work through on a journey home but never think about again.

Madden NFL 2007 is a solid annual update, but it lacks visual panache and touchscreen brilliance.

A short sharp burst of arcade fun, Wrong Way Racing doesn't have much to it, but what's there is twitchy fun.

You're not buying much of a game with Freakyforms Deluxe: Your Creations, Alive! but if you're of a creative persuasion, that shouldn't stop you from taking a closer look.

Bastion remains a fantastic game, but Vita is not a fantastic place to play it.

An attractive derivation on the well-established chain reaction concept, Splode plays well enough, but doesn't offer any new ideas.

Pocket Harvest starts out fun and challenging, but it gets repetitive regrettably quickly.

A simple little puzzler, TripTrap never adds up to more than the sum of its pretty generic parts.

The VideoKid is a mostly safe play on Paperboy that excels when going wild with its garish visuals and legally-questionable references.

Alien Hive has the foundations of an excellent match-three puzzler, but it spoils the mood with restrictive gameplay systems and an over-reliance on IAPs.

Zapping birds is still entertaining, but Bird Zapper: Seasons isn't the electrifying sequel we were hoping for. Disappointing.

There's a decent enough game here, but it's not exciting or engaging enough to really win a place in your heart.

Fun, functional, flat: Farm Heroes Saga is a re-skin of a previous King game that by this point everyone has played to death.

Quest of Dungeons is a solid but unremarkable roguelike that'll keep you engaged for a few hours but not much more.

An honest, though underwhelming effort, 9 Innings: Pro Baseball 2011 toys too much with game balancing in an effort to deliver high drama.

It wants to be PUBG, but Rules of Survival isn't. It's a bit broken, but when it gets things right, it's quite a lot of fun.

Smash the Office isn't a particularly deep game, and it comes with relatively few features, but what little it does it does well.

After the first flush of excitement, Haunted Hollow doesn't manage to add anything to keep you interested.