This is one game that certainly sets the standards for all future puzzle games.

There's also the simple fact that Vice City is an amazing game in most regards. In this regard, the high points far outweigh the control issues, making Vice City for iOS a no brainer for most gamers.

Learning to move your ship accurately is a bit of a challenge, but in that "gotta try one more time" kind of way.

It’s a solid action game, and one that will especially appeal to those who appreciate stylish combat.

Angry Birds successfully captures the spirit of Boom Blox using a 2D viewpoint, a compliment that should make this game an automatic purchase for many.

The wait for Gundam Breaker 4 has been super long, and I didn’t even think we’d see a new game in the series after New Gundam Breaker, but here we are. Gundam Breaker 4 is real and it is spectacular in almost every way. It is my favorite Steam Deck game this year since Shin Megami Tensei V Vengeance, and one I look forward to playing online and offline over the coming months with all the DLC planned.

Joe Danger Infinity has a terrific theme, sure to be fun for everyone who plays it, and will keep you coming back to beat your best and keep climbing the leaderboards.

If you’ve tried out the previous Sniper or Zombie Army games from Rebellion and bounced off of them, there is likely nothing here that will change your mind. Similarly, if you’ve enjoyed any of those games you will be happy with what you get here. Zombie Army 4: Dead War is more of what Rebellion has shown it knows how to do best: realistic playgrounds filled with plenty of action, stealth, exploration, and thrilling opportunities to exercise the capabilities of your arsenal. A solid port of a very satisfying game.

I have long counted Jeff Minter's Minotaur Rescue and Minotron: 2011 as two of the very best games in the App Store, and I can tell you that GoatUp solidly lives up to the greatness of those titles. It's quite a different sort of game, but the pieces come together just as nicely.

Oddly, while I was looking forward to playing the new-to-the-West Saviors more, I ended up enjoying my replay of Stranger more. Still, both games are well-crafted dungeon RPGs and the fact that they offer slightly different experiences is one of the biggest strengths of this pack.

Right now, I’d recommend Remnant 2 itself for sure. I love the gameplay, co-op, soundtrack, and improvements over the first game. I do not love the visual downgrade to get it running decently on Steam Deck though. Since it is Steam Deck Verified, Valve likely wants people to buy it to play on Steam Deck, but just be prepared for some tinkering to get it running at an acceptable frame rate. I featured Remnant 2 as one of the best new games to play on Steam Deck in 2023, and I’m expecting it to be on my end of year list as well.

The one minor gripe that I have with Rat On A Skateboard, and with all Donut games actually, is that accessing the online high scores pulls you out of the game and opens up the leaderboards in Safari. In an age where Game Center is readily available to developers, this sort of action doesn't quite fly anymore, and I'd love to see their entire catalog updated with proper in-game leaderboards in the future.

Phoenix is one of those games that really grows on you the more you play it. I love how it's different each time you play and it captures that same type of magic of classic arcade-style high score games.

It boasts a tutorial that is incredibly approachable, making the game appropriate for even the most casual of puzzle gamers, while offering a top-end that's full of strategy, a bit of luck, and an entire trail of character development decisions.

Still – with so few complaints, Doom II RPG is a game I enjoyed from beginning to end.

The original was fun, but the sequel goes well beyond, feeling notably more "fleshed out," with a good deal more eye-candy.

The fishing works as expected, and is decidedly more fun and interactive than other available titles.

With a tremendous amount of gameplay in the main game and a free play mode for those who master what the challenge mode has to offer, Freaking Inkies is more than just a unique and fun experience – it's a great value too.

Overall, X2 Soccer 2010 is one of the top soccer game experiences right now on the App Store.

Infinight is not a fast-paced game - so much so that likely some gamers will find frustration - but it is evocative and challenging. Puzzle fans who like a slice of atmosphere to go with their quest for the goal should enjoy what Infinight has to offer.

A well-visualized game that's a ton of fun with a skill curve that will keep you playing for ages.

An original game that's worth a try.

I'm a bit of a sucker for cute art styles, but Joining Hands marries its cute art and sound design with solid, original gameplay.

I know the matching-game pool is crowded, but Monster Soup distinguishes itself with style and original matching mechanics.

A solid tower defense game which rewards intelligent play, has a lot of depth and improves on the aesthetics of its earlier version.

This is a stupid-fun game with some sharp features and systems that'll keep you invested and having a good time.

A game that instantly drew me in with its visuals, and then backed it up with a ton of solid action.

For iPhone and iPod touch owners though, Diggin' Dogs is as entertaining as Where's My Water?, which is a pretty big compliment.

100 Trials is still a good mission-based puzzler and worth checking out. Just don't expect anything particularly groundbreaking with it.

If there's any part of you that craves those drop and match combo chains and the increasingly ecstatic chirps and score-splashes that accompany them, this is where you'll want to look.

Captures something fun that has been left fallow elsewhere, one that turns a small spark of inspiration into a solid, well-rounded new form.

Light the Flower has a cheerful, cartoon-inspired look, and it does present some replayability if you want to try to snag all the stars in every level or improve your time.

Webbies might be casual-friendly, but it's got plenty of potential for those of us looking for more of a challenge.

Wizorb's control issues may sound dire, but in reality they're more annoying than game-breaking. Outside of that shortfall, Wizorb is an excellent puzzle title that does a great job integrating a classic brick-breaking experience with a fantastical 8-bit world.

Granny Smith is a fun, high-speed platformer. It's nice to take a break from the endless types and still keep up the inertia that goes with them.

There are better auto-running platformers out there, but Totem Runner does a good job of keeping up. The experience is well-balanced between twitchy button handling and careful planning-it's just a touch cerebral, and never too frustrating.

I'm looking forward to the forthcoming chapters of the series, but my ultimate judgment of the series will depend on how Skygoblin handles the larger themes in the world and the continued development of the characters, especially Lina, a confident and intellectual woman who is clearly central to the plot, but who spends this game waiting for Bwana and Kito to get their act together.

Of course retro junkies will no doubt find room for subtle strategy, and use patience to their advantage in the climb to maddeningly high tallies. Even then, in the hands of less committed players, you'd be hard pressed not to get at least 1001 fun-filled attempts out of this one. I'd buy that for a dollar - and so should you.

Much like the Walking Dead game and other iOS Telltale titles, if your iOS device is the only way you have to experience them then they're worth checking out, but if you've got any other piece of kit capable of running these games you'll have a substantially better experience regardless of whether you're playing on a PC or home console.

There's very little to complain about with Quadropus Rampage. It's an excellent roguelike/brawler hybrid with a control system that matches the fast-paced action.

Bridgy Jones provides laid-back humor and hours of gameplay, making it an unparallelled classic in the bridge building physics puzzler genre.

This isn't a novelistic game. It's poetic. It doesn't say much, but it says it with quiet elegance.

The simple fact that I found myself having to retrain my mind on how to solve the challenges in Lums is a testament to the success it has in taking a well-known genre and giving it its own unique stamp.

Empire is a rogue-like that uses the 4X genre as its base. I enjoy it for what it is, an experience that is both singular and innovative. Seriously, if you like strategy games, this is not one to be missed.

Still, with plenty to see, lots of replay value through the many paths you can take, some wonderful illustrations by Gary Chalk, and an intriguing new world, you could do a lot worse in the genre than Gun Dogs

The folks at Wicky Ware have done just that, with Mines of Mars being a highly enjoyable melding of exploration and combat wrapped around a side-scrolling mining adventure.

Like most of the games from developer Rebel Twins, Aliens Drive Me Crazy isn't something most people are going to want to sit down and play for hours at a time, but is incredibly fun in short bursts where its limited gameplay scope isn't quite so apparent.

Fluid SE by its nature is best for people who want to be tested, who don't mind repetition in the name of mastering a game and the challenge it sets forth. Thankfully, the game is designed so well that it makes this experience as satisfying as possible.

It's a well-made entry into the genre, and one of the very few that does a straight take on the concept instead of merely invoking the name because there's a hub and a few secrets.

A perfect example of how to take a simple puzzle game to the next level, Tales of the Adventure Company is an awesome game that everyone needs to check out.

Oh, and the game is absolutely gorgeous, its alien bio-luminescent look being extremely colorful, with an atmospheric soundtrack that's a perfect fit for the game. It's just the bow on a game that's so wonderfully-made otherwise.

This is pretty much exactly how I feel about MUJO, its a nice light puzzle game that will steal time away from you without giving you even a suspicion that you are wrapped up in it.

I feel like if you were going to buy Goblin Sword, you've already done it. It's such a crazy value and has such good production quality it kind of speaks for itself.

With a price point of $0, you owe it to yourself to at least give the game a shot. If nothing else, even if you totally hate it, it's worth paying attention to just to see how its very strange monetization model plays out in the long run.

This is the most fun I've had racing boats in a video game in quite a long time, and I'd strongly recommend it to anyone who enjoys side-scrolling arcade games or can appreciate a different angle on the racing genre.

Whether you're willing to put up with an imperfect feel in exchange for hours of content is your own personal choice.

This is a small roguelike built around quick and fast sessions for you to enjoy when you have a free moment. Take it for that, and you'll have a good time here.

And Brickies is, deep down, still a brick-breaker. And it can't escape that to be an excellent game. It's as good a game as it possibly can be, though.

At its core, FireWhip is a high score chaser, albeit one with a unique mechanic. But its style, the presentation goes a long way toward making this even more satisfying to play than a basic presentation would be, and elevates the whole thing.

Impulse GP continues the trend with tons of speed, great visuals, and a few clever new tricks to set it apart from the pack

It took a lot of re-adjustment, experimentation, and practice, but I finally feel like I've got Power Ping Pong cracked. And you know what? It was well worth it. When everything clicked into place I could finally see why everyone was raving about it.

There are no leaderboards, timers, extra modes, characters, or any of that stuff. Heck, there’s hardly even any color. But there’s still something to be said for a game so focused on one single, brilliant idea, and Hocus is a fine example of that.

If you know what you're getting with Octodad, which is a game that is meant to be intentionally clumsy, and forgive the moments when the clumsiness works against you, you'll have a good time with the game.

With its tilt-based controls, single-screen environments, and arrow-and-dot based characters, you’d be forgiven for thinking Abzorb was trying to be the next Tilt To Live. Luckily, it has a surprising number of clever new mechanics that set it apart from its obvious inspiration, to the point where at some points it almost feels more like a puzzle game than anything else.

LEGO Jurassic World is par for the course for iOS LEGO games.

At least at the moment, Marvel: Avengers Alliance 2 is a player-friendly free-to-play game with a well-designed battle system and satisfying party-building choices.

Action-RPG gems of this size and quality don't hit mobile very often.

Jade Empire might not be Bioware's best RPG, but I'm fairly sure it's the developer's most under-appreciated. While the combat can be a little clunky at times and the story hews a little too closely to Bioware's typical oeuvre, its unusual setting, strong character work, and excellent pace help it stand out from its stablemates.

Beholder is definitely a great addition to games that examine life in oppressive States, and I was glad to see that it manages to be a fun game to play despite its grim theme. With great art and music and plenty of choices, which lead to different endings, Beholder is definitely a game you should be playing.

Darkest Dungeon is a superb game and is well suited for the iPad. It's the kind of game you can drop almost any amount of time into and have fun. I've played both quick, twenty-minute spurts to tackle a single quest as well as some hours-long play sessions where I settled into the couch to really dig in and make some progress. Combat is fun and challenging and rewards good planning—picking the right mix of characters to go in—as well as good turn-by-turn decision making. The ability to upgrade and improve your town as you go adds a nice sense of permanence to what is otherwise a constantly shifting mix of characters. The bottom line is that if you enjoy role-playing games centered on smart, tactical combat Darkest Dungeon is a must-buy.

There are again 50 levels in total and the game is really on the short side. It gets very addicting however, as the levels are just pretty cool to look at with colors popping about on-screen. If you are in the mood for a new mobile platformer with some gorgeous pixel art to boot, you can do a lot worse than Reed. I ended up completing all of the game's levels wanting more. Hopefully, a sequel or an update will make this happen, but otherwise this is still a solid platformer worth checking out.

Valleys Between offers a remarkably calming experience despite the dangers that can appear. Being mindful about the environment you control with the touch of a finger allows you to also reflect on your physical world. The level difficulty is balanced compared to current progress through the game. The graphics, music, and sound effects combine to create a thoroughly awe-inspiring experience. But perhaps mostly importantly, Valleys Between is a well-needed reminder that life, the universe, everything is about finding the right balance.

Candies ‘n Curses is a great time, and has its hooks in me like any game with a fun upgrade cycle. The freemium stuff is pretty in your face, and the dual $4.99 IAPs to turn it into a more premium experience feels a little on the expensive side for what’s basically just a simple fast action arcade game. It also has some minor rendering issues on the iPhone X, with the game displaying some game data under the notch, but that sort of thing should be an easy fix. But, hey, for the entry price of free, Candies ‘n Curses is totally worth downloading.

Rolando: Royal Edition ensures that HandCircus’s opus will go down as more than just a forgotten footnote in the depths of TouchArcade’s archives, but instead a significant part of the App Store’s incredible legacy. Welcome back, Rolando – we’ve missed you.

Overall, Thronebreaker: The Witcher Tales on iOS is an essential for any fans of The Witcher 3 and Gwent. If you don’t like card games but enjoy the world of CD Projekt Red’s Witcher the storytelling here will more than make up for that. You can even play on a lower difficulty to skip encounters if you just want to experience the story and world. The writing and story are strong enough to even make this worth it for those who don’t know anything about The Witcher since this is a standalone experience. With a few fixes and improvements, the iOS version of Thronebreaker: The Witcher Tales can easily be the best way to play it.

Clap Hanz Golf in its current state will feel a bit grindy after you’ve played for a good amount of time and just want to unlock everything that’s left. Despite that, it is definitely worth your time and I hope it continues to get regular updates in the future with maybe even a real-time multiplayer mode.

Breakers Collection feels like it’s one for the fans, and in that capacity it is excellent. It’s just about everything you could ask for from a Breakers re-release, with great emulation quality, lots of modes and extras, and an overall level of polish we haven’t seen in QUByte’s other retro collections up until now. Others will likely want to proceed a bit more cautiously, but it’s good to see a niche, beloved slice of the NEOGEO library get its chance to shine again.

Luck be a Landlord manages to perfectly blend slots with a deckbuilding roguelike. I never thought those two would work, but just like Peglin taught me recently, the developers that manage getting genres like these working together are the real ones to keep a watch over for future games. Luck be a Landlord is a game I’ll have on my iPhone homescreen for a long time. I just hope the update with landscape support arrives in the near future. I liked it enough to buy it at full price on Steam soon after playing the iOS version. It is that good.

finity is a slick puzzle game that has some serious bite to it. More casual players might find themselves turned off by that challenge, but I think there’s a lot of merit in the approach the game takes. The Classic Mode gives you all the time in the world to think and sort things out, and hopefully that will train you to better tackle the Tempo Mode and its higher pressure. Despite the difficulty, the rules are easy enough to grasp and make for lively rounds that are different every time. It’s certainly worth checking if you’re an experienced puzzle game fan, and you might enjoy it even if you aren’t.

Anna Holinski Saves The Universe, Alright?! is an enjoyable horizontal shooter with wide appeal. It’s approachable for newcomers but also challenging enough for experts to get their fill. There’s quite a lot to enjoy here, and it even includes the DLC that was a separate charge in the Japanese version. Those hunting for an orthodox take on the genre might be turned off, but in general I think most people are going to be more than alright with Anna.

If you enjoy mini-golf, pool, and have liked grapefrukt games’ past releases, this should be the easiest purchase you make all year. Even if you’ve never played a game by the developer, subpar pool is the perfect entry point into an amazing catalog of lovely games. I would like some sort of an in-game glossary for specific terms though, because a few challenges seem a bit vague requiring trial and error.

Gimmick! 2 defies the odds by being a very good follow-up to a decades-old game made by another team entirely. It builds on the original game in some smart ways, but it never feels like it’s paying too much homage to be its own thing. If you enjoyed the first game, you’ll be thrilled with this. Platformer fans who aren’t put off by a high level of challenge will also want to check it out. That said, if you’re looking for something easy-going, don’t be fooled by the look of Gimmick! 2. It’s just as tough of a nut to crack as its predecessor, even with an easier difficulty setting.

ChuChu Rocket! is just one of the best puzzle games around, much as it was 10 years ago on the Dreamcast, and with the new touch interface it actually succeeds at being the definitive version to own.

Ragdoll Blaster 3 is more inviting than the series has ever been before, and it's filled with fun physics challenges at the cost of relatively little frustration.

At the end of the day, Neon Shadow could have done a lot more with its concept, but it's more than serviceable for any FPS fan.

Fantasian is a very demanding experience, and you really have to be in love with its mechanics to put up with it all. Heaven knows the narrative isn’t going to keep you motivated. Fantasian is an absolute masterpiece in most regards, and yet I find myself struggling to recommend it.

At its core, Legend of the Skyfish is just a game with a winning premise that its developers cultivated into reaching as much of its potential as possible. I could see where future content or sequels could expand the breadth of actions you can undertake with your magical fishing pole, sure. But this game right now is a joyous experience worth checking out.

The aesthetic, music, and voice acting are all brilliant and they come together perfectly. While the initial bits of the story took a little while to get going, the time I spent with Olympia Soiree was more than worth it. It may not be the easiest and most accessible otome game, but it definitely is one of the best ones I’ve played.

It really is just what you would expect - another solid Cave release. However, as good as all of their ports are, I can't help but wish that Cave would come up with another built-for-iOS experience like Bug Panic!

This game type in particular really is a lot of fun, but all the different game variations work well and add welcome variety to the beat 'em up style genre.

The highly anticipated online multiplayer isn't quite up to par technically, but it can still provide some pretty entertaining moments.

It sells itself as a game with a unique and engaging story, and that's something it simply doesn't have. Setting aside the translation, the message of the game is still iffy at best and you'll only find parallels to Louis Armstrong if you squint really hard. But it is, for the most part, a solid, fun platformer.

INDIKA was a fresh adventure experience that continuously surprised me throughout with how its narrative flowed, and one I’m definitely going to replay on PS5 when it releases there. As a fan of walking simulators, this is one of my favorites in the genre, and I’m just shocked it even exists. It might even be one of my favorite games 11 bit studios has published so far.

It's a great experience, but I think you need to be in the proper state of mind to enjoy it, and even then I'd lean more towards describing the game as "this is really neat" rather than "this is really fun."

Monster Trucks Nitro 2 has impressive graphics, loads of content to play through, and an over the top fun factor that makes it a recommended purchase.

While I would have liked to have seen a couple more boards, the amount on offer here is quite substantial in all other regards. Just keep in mind that this is indeed a throwback, so those looking for a more novel take on Mario Party will probably want to look into Super Mario Party instead.

If you’re interested in the idea of having arcade-style shoot-em-up action grafted onto a more expansive framework, you’ll probably want to give Astro Aqua Kitty a shot.

In its current state, Station to Station is just lovely. I love the aesthetic, soundtrack, and puzzles, and it has been a joy to sink into daily over the last few weeks on Steam Deck. I hope a future update adds the ability to go a step back or destroy a part rather than reloading. With a lot planned for the game already, Station to Station is worth your time, and I can’t wait to play the new content when the updates arrive.