It's just flat-out an exceptional game, even a dozen years after the fact. The control difficulties will make for some annoying miscues, but it's as good as you can expect for this type of game on a touch screen.

For now, players have over 100 levels and a way to create an infinite amount more to play locally solo or with friends for $1. If you want a fast-paced game that demands digital dexterity, Finger Tied is an easy recommendation.

If you enjoy games about solving mysteries, you’ll likely enjoy Master Detective Archives: RAIN CODE. That goes double if you like the Danganronpa series, as it goes to many of the same places in tone and themes. The mysteries are well-built and fun to unravel, the overall story and the episodes that make it up are interesting, and the overall presentation is really sharp despite some technical shortcomings. Some of its attempts to mix things up might have been best left on the cutting room floor, but overall this is a satisfying ride.

There's a lot of little frustrations that I have with Full of Stars, especially as the charm of the concept of space chaser meets interactive fiction wears off after you continue to fail against the difficulty presented. Still, it's a game that compelled me to sit down and fight against it to try and beat it. And with the promise of future content teased with additional pilots, and a long-term meta-game as you upgrade Blue Sector, along with the rewarding feeling of beating a tough level, there's a lot to like about Full of Stars, even if this game wants to beat you down to the core of your soul, too.

It’s obvious that fans of the series should check out Halo: Spartan Assault right away, but I think it’s one of the better dual-stick shooters to launch recently on the App Store even if you're not a Halo fan.

I really wish this game didn’t come in as hot as it did. Pokemon Scarlet and Violet represent an excellent new vision of what a Pokemon adventure can be, and it says a lot for how many good new ideas are in here that I still found the game incredibly enjoyable despite the severe technical problems. I understand schedules must be kept. Well, the schedule was kept. It’s too bad what it ended up costing, because something this absorbing shouldn’t come with so many provisos.

The action is quite familiar to anyone who has played a few games of this genre before, and the game suffers from a few pacing issues that are made worse by how straightforward it tends to be mechanically. Still, that does little to diminish how excellent the game is overall. The strength of its main characters and the desire to see just what is coming next makes Eastward a very tough game to put down.

It's a solid experience that I'm amused by, and am curious to see what they do with new levels, because the game explores so much of its concept as it is.

If you’re looking for another precision platformer with strong gameplay mechanics and sharp level design, Garlic is your guy. But it isn’t the only game to do those things by any stretch of the imagination, is it? The thing is, I can’t say I’ve ever played a game of this sort that had Garlic‘s ridiculous energy to it. There’s a Wario-ish bent to it, but it’s even stranger than that series tends to be. I think that kind of thing is subjective and as a result you’re either going to love it or hate it, but it really worked for me.

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.

Both smart and fun, making it a worthy successor to the Cubis titles of old. It also fits in nicely amongst its modern peers, with Game Center support, lovely art, and a cheery soundtrack-the whole package when it comes to top-notch presentation.

Sid Meier once famously said that games are a series of interesting decisions. I think it’s that inherent push-and-pull that made The Oregon Trail a fascinating game then, and it continues to make it one here in its latest form. The game can certainly wear thin if you play too much of it, and the framework of its design sometimes betrays its fifty-year-old origins. But in the end this is a game about making hard choices without clearly correct answers. It’s as compelling as it ever was, and Gameloft has done a good job of updating the right parts of it to make it more palatable to modern tastes.

The graphics in Blades of Fury are great, and the ten different levels in the game are equally awesome.

There are tons of new power-ups, a new mission mode that tasks you to complete various challenges, local co-op play for all modes, and online leaderboards for just about everything. You also have a new ability that you can charge up that allows you to take out a bunch of enemies at once. The vector-like stylings of the Recharged line are a perfect fit for Black Widow, too. It’s the best Recharged game so far, and an enjoyable twin-stick shooter in its own right.

There's 5-star potential that Rust Bucket can still reach, but until then, this game has to settle for being merely very good, though it could be one of the best roguelikes on the App Store at some point.

It’s a fun puzzle game that has a super simple and quite clever physics-based mechanic at its center, and it works well.

If you enjoyed Jet Set Radio, Bomb Rush Cyberfunk is the game for you. I wish it did a bit more to stand out, but we don’t really get many games like this, and Bomb Rush Cyberfunk is a polished and straight up fun experience with an amazing vibe and superb soundtrack. It is held back by some technical issues on Switch though.

Adventure To Fate: Battle Arena is an excellent sequel to the first game. It cuts some of the stuff that didn't work that well, doubles down on its strong points, and adds a bunch of new things for players to play around with.

Fans of Shin-chan, Bokunatsu, Attack of the Friday Monsters, or those who just enjoy a bit of slow-life low-pressure adventure will likely appreciate Shin chan: Me and the Professor on Summer Vacation. It could be a little fuller, and I don’t know how to feel about how it wraps up its story, but it’s unique, silly, and nostalgic in all the right ways.

The game's multiplayer implementation is also a mixed bag: user friendly, but a bit limited at present, with no way to download other people's custom maps or create a game just for your friends.

Overall, Cafe Enchante is yet another excellent otome game. It is a perfect entry point into the genre and a great game on its own right. After Piofiore, which definitely went to some dark places, Cafe Enchante is a refreshing experience that feels like a nice cappuccino with its gorgeous art, amazing soundtrack, and well told story that is longer than expected.

iPhone gamers on the go will find Train Conductor to be a game particularly well-suited to quick, pick-up play sessions. It's right into the action and in moments you're in the heat of the connecting track shuffle.

This is the Lumines I suspect most of us have always wanted on our iOS devices. It's a little light on gameplay modes and I'm not sure I could ever get enough skins to be satisfied, but Puzzle & Music nails the core gameplay and the exceptional aesthetics of the beloved series, and I'm not sure if we can realistically ask for more than that.

It can be slow-going at times near the end of the progression loop, but Dash Quest is relatively fair with doling out carrots with very little sticks involved.

It's easy to get your money's worth out of this one, and it's perfect to just pick up and play whenever.

LISA: Definitive Edition, taken as a whole package, is an RPG unlike any other I have played before. Sometimes that’s a good thing, sometimes it’s a bad thing. This is a very heavy, raw game in terms of its story. It hits on some very tough topics and it pulls zero punches. If you’re squeamish about violence or gore, or just aren’t into the idea of a very rough and frequently cruel narrative, you might want to hold off on this one. But if you’re okay with that kind of thing, I recommend playing this to see what it has to say.

The setting is a lot of fun, the characters are interesting together, and I really liked how I could shape the story a little bit both by choosing my character's gender initially and by making various dialogue choices as the game progressed.

NaturalMotion has created something very impressive and they clearly want to show off their little Ninja and what he can do.