The world of Penumbear might not be one you'd want to explore on your own, dark as it is. Navigating a friendly little bear through, on the other hand? Well, that works quite well.

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.

A big update with new control options is in the works, so things are likely to improve in the future, but it's a shame about TowelFight's controls in their current state because otherwise it's an incredibly enjoyable game.

It's a bit dorky, and it needs a few tweaks to really offer much lasting value, but what's here is quite fun. It just needs a little more worth digging.

Hackycat is a solid game of kick-ups wrapped in a pretty delightful package—and hey, if you're going to kick cats, make it these ones. They need the help, and you need the cheeseburgers if you're going to kick 'em all.

The Gods: Rebellion does a decent job recreating the character action experience on iOS in nearly every aspect save controls. If you have more patience than me (or are simply used to iOS character action titles) by all means check out Rebellion as it offers a lot in its other elements.

Where the original at times felt like a nicely implemented tech demo, King Cashing 2 is an excellent game in its own right, improving on nearly every facet over the original and well worth checking out.

If you're a free to play gamer used to the often basic games that litter the Top Free chart on the App Store, Real Racing 3 is going to knock your socks off.

Rather than judge a book by its publisher, pick this up today: it'll be a delight for your left and right brain alike.

This is such a weird game to even review, as I can fully admit its flaws are numerous, and it's definitely not for everyone... But, any game that has us yelling at our phones definitely deserves some attention.

If all Dance Wars did was take the standard DDR gameplay and music selection and infuse it with some social features, I would have happily played it without much complaint. The problem is its excessive freemium system not only prevents you from playing, but blatantly puts monetization ahead of any semblance of balance between unlocking songs and having to pay for IAP items. It's really a shame and is a far cry from the previous DDR offering.

If you're willing to buy into Year Walk, to explore it's shifting landscape and learn its lessons, you'll find a tremendous game. I've never played anything quite like it.

Recoil Games hasn't come up with anything all that fresh or unique in the world of one-touch platformers, but Rock Runners has hooks that work. If the rest of the game worked as well, relied less on repetition and more on thoughtful level design, we might have something special. Instead we find ourselves with a runner that isn't quite the same old thing, but doesn't do nearly enough to stand out.

PinWar isn't quite enough of anything. It's not quite pinball enough to please the pinball purists, and not quite competitive enough to really hook the adversarial among us. It is, however, a lot of fun.

Relic Rush may not have the length or variety to propel it to the upper tier of iOS casual games, but it's still worth a shot for folks looking for a simple platformer to try.

Like any of its logic game brethren, Puzzle Restorer thrives on the strength of those rules. Because they make a solid foundation, the game is free to open up into greater and greater challenges without ever becoming bogged down in complexity. This could be the start of a puzzle game legacy if Gavina Games has the tenacity to keep it going. As a new twist on a popular type of puzzle game, there's plenty of room to grow.

Still, I give QuestLord a lot of credit for properly introducing me to a genre that I never really could get into. With a streamlined attribute and quest system, there's not a lot of depth that is traditionally found in other titles. However, it's for this exact reason that I think it succeeds for newbies like me. Assuming you're looking to give dungeon crawlers a try, I'd definitely recommend QuestLord as an introductory taste.

Even though SlotZ Racer 2 HD can be considered more of the same, it's still an enjoyable virtual slot car racer. For those that didn't have the pleasure of playing the original SlotZ Racer, this sequel is well worth checking out. For others already familiar to the scene, SlotZ Racer 2 might not offer enough new features to warrant investment. Fortunately, considering SlotZ Racer 2 HD is available for free, you can at least check it out before making a decision.

Anyway, Help Volty is a strange game set in a strange world, for sure, but that's the best part; you can't figure it out and you can't help but want to continue because you want to try. It's neat.

Finding Teddy is a delight and a surprise. It's a game that could easily languish as a hidden gem of the platform, but it's just as sure to be evangelized by those that play it. It's an easy game to love, particularly if you're a fan of point-and-click adventure. The story of a girl and her teddy bear may not seem like the must-play hit of the moment, but it has so much love to give. A little of your time isn't much to ask in return.

A note on in-app purchases: the free, ad-supported version of Beastie Bay is robust and enjoyable and, as far as I can tell, in no way different than the paid version. $4.99 strips the game of advertisements and lets players use their iDevice's portrait mode. Portrait mode is, admittedly, the superior way to play Beastie Bay, but there's an inordinate amount of well-designed, well-executed fun to be had for free.

The controls are responsive and well-suited to touch devices, but more importantly, Kairo brings something fresh and unique to the platform -- there's nothing like it, to the best of my knowledge, on the App Store. We need more games like it.

You may get the sense that Little Inferno walks a fine line between satirizing our gaming habits and revelling in them. If you take it lightly, it works. Give it serious thought and you might find a bit of hypocrisy buried between the lines, but that doesn't change the fact that this is a game that sticks with you.

In the crowded iOS racing genre, there's a growing collection of decent racing titles that either focus on killer visuals or innovative gameplay (with the best succeeding in both). Table Top Racing falls in the former category with a fun visual style that does a good job eliciting feelings of nostalgia. Whether that's enough to differentiate itself from the pack is a matter of opinion, but as far as racing titles go you can do a lot worse.

In a sea of matching games, few feel simultaneously as rewarding and as respectful of a player's skill as Rise of the Blobs. It may be soft and jiggly on the outside, but it's hard as nails underneath.

Archipelagos' unique combination of strategy with an element of encroaching menace should have similar appeal to a certain set today as it did back in 1989.

In the end, Cracking Sands ends up being a title recommended to racing fans that are looking for a title with a wealth of content. That's pretty much all it has going for it as the visuals aren't particularly inspiring, the controls aren't as precise as I'd like, the weapons-based gameplay, while fun, can easily become too hectic.

Pixel People takes an apocalyptic future and makes it hopeful, cheerful and bright-if it's where freemium games are headed, we have a lot to look forward to.