Easy on the eye and showing lots of promise, but a lack of quality in the final third means that Football Drama falls short of greatness.

It's a good casual choice that can be played one handed in portrait mode, with your thumb simply weaving your car through traffic. There are a wide variety of modes within this basic gameplay--you could be chasing someone, running away, or racing against a timer--but they all amount to either avoiding or hitting certain other cars. You also get different vehicles that handle somewhat differently, and a number of tracks with minor variations. As a casual game, it didn't grab me, but it might be worth checking out if an arcade racer appeals to you.

It's easy and glacially paced. I could see the gameplay becoming more challenging later on: Don't Bug Me requires constant action since your towers quickly decay and you always have to jump into the fray yourself. It's not a set-it-and-forget-it TD game. For now, though, it takes too long to unlock new towers and enemies and the early levels are quite dull.

Like just about every game these days, it uses a card mechanic, with new cards unlocking after more matches. Your new units require resources, but also need to be drawn into your hand. This means your strategy has to adapt to both what your opponent is up to and what you have available at the moment. This can be frustrating when the card you need to counter their move just doesn't come up, but it works well to keep things tense within the super-tight timelines of each match (only a few minutes).

The story is interesting enough, with lots of double-crosses and opportunities to make meaningful choices. The mechanics are a little obscure at first, but it's easy enough to figure out, even though it can feel somewhat arbitrary.

This goofy physics based puzzler has its best jokes in the first few minutes of gameplay, and wears its schtick thin at just about the same time it turns into a real game. You can approach it as a silly timekiller or as a serious Angry Birds-style slingshot challenge. Give it a try for something fun that requires little attention, have a good laugh at the first few levels, and then play as long as it continues to be amusing - if it grabs you, there's a surprising amount of depth to the gameplay later on.

Telling Lies is one of 2019's best games but still stands in the shadow of its predecessor's achievements. It earns major props for acting, writing and excellent implementation of FMV. Minor demerits for an untidy denouement.

A familiar yet modern riff on turn-based action RPGs that feels just as fresh and exciting on mobile devices as it did on consoles and PC.

Though outside our usual remit, this game is so unusual and of rare quality that it has proved itself a rising star. Astrologaster is a pitch-perfect musical comedy of (medical) errors.

Shards of Infinity is a polished deck builder that's perfect for two. A great app of a great card game.

Solar Settlers is an extremely well-built machine, a solitaire optimization puzzle par excellence, and an excellent digital board game.

Informative and well designed, Egypt: Old Kingdom is one pyramid scheme worth buying into.

It's easy to bemoan the dearth of complex, satisfying gameplay on mobile, and especially in the tower defense genre, but you can't do that here. Dungeon Warfare is certainly not the first dungeon-themed tower defense game, but it’s rare to see it done with so much verve.

Yes, yes, a million hollow moons yes, Cultist Simulator is a good game, the kind which will haunt your waking moments with its patterns and intricacies. The app is so easy to use, making the repetition of the game dreamlike rather than simply dull, and though I’ve beaten it twice and wasn’t sure I could tackle another go-around, it seems like I’m a born again cultist. I’ll remember my fleshsack days fondly, looking back from the seat of the Glory upon those quotidian beginnings. But first I have to finish this last bit of research...

A challenging puzzler that will push your organizational and management skills to the limit as it thrusts new nodes and numbers upon you.

Limited tactical options and offensive IAP structure kills what could have been an interesting mobile alternative to roguelike deck builders like Slay the Spire.

Good and solid bouts of roguelike card-battles, but the final result is short of inspiring. Likeable and worthwhile.

If you're already a fan of Wave Light's Demon's Rise series, Shieldwall Chronicles is more of the same but with a somewhat less interesting setting and slightly more complex gameplay. New players who are after some RPG tactics with lots of math will also love this game.

On a platform where the roguelike is a dime-a-dozen, Immortal Rogue takes big steps to insure it stands out among the rest. Not without its stumbles, though.

A colorful, addictive twist on the traditional card battler with frenetic “dungeon” runs and slick presentation.

Devotees of the console strategy RPG style of Fire Emblem may find a lot to like in Parthia 3 and its prequels, especially those disappointed by Nintendo's limited Fire Emblem: Heroes. This series was created by someone with a lot of love for a very particular kind of game. Now that the creator is freed of this obsession, I hope his next project can find the audience it deserves.

Evolution is a brilliantly thematic and enjoyable experience that does an excellent job of simulating the struggle for survival.

An excellent sci-fi SRPG that will provide countless hours of fun once you get over its initially intimidating scope.

A tired, lackluster, and watered-down riff on the Alien series that finds players swapping from camera to camera guiding crew members through a xenomorph-ravaged space station.

Sheeping Around looks the part, but sadly the game turns out to be as dull as you would expect for a game based on an animal that stands around in a field all day chewing grass.

All in all, the game makes for an excellent romp. Yes, it’s an excellent way to get anybody to practice their sums but that’s like praising a dish for ‘sneaking’ vegetables into it. Edifying to be sure, but a delight in its own right.

Miyamoto is a bit of a hidden gem, offering snappy and addictive gameplay, topped off with some stylish presentation.

The biggest issue, outside of the odd UI hiccup and impenetrable mechanical logic, is that TITP pretends to offer a scathing commentary about the human condition, but it’s bite is toothless.