Roto Force not only feels amazing on iOS regardless of if you use a controller or touch, but it also managed to surprise me with its writing and boss designs. I’m very impressed with the accessibility options and the haptic feedback included on iOS as well. This is one of the most-polished games I’ve played on iOS all year, and one I see myself jumping into regularly with its awesome gameplay and aesthetic. I urge you to try the game for free and see how you feel because this might be your next favorite pick up and play twin-stick shooter on mobile.

If you have Netflix it doesn’t cost you anything to try the game, and if you’re a fan of the show and somehow aren’t that familiar with chess, I encourage you to give it a shot. Queen’s Gambit Chess will assuredly teach you how to play the game, so if that is what you’re looking for you’re all set. But it will only take you so far, choosing to show you what to do instead of teaching you what to do. Experienced chess players will probably find it a bit unsatisfying overall thanks to the low level of difficulty and excessive handholding. Throw in some fairly serious technical issues in the current version that deeply affects multiplayer and you’ve got a game that struggles to find its own winning move.

Overall, Double Dragon Gaiden: Rise of the Dragons is a decent beat-em-up, but not much more than that. This franchise has had enough serious lows that I think this still falls somewhere in the average zone, so I think I can give it a soft recommendation to Double Dragon fans. The roguelite structure does the game no favors at all in my opinion, and while the presentation is nice it does sometimes feel like it’s getting in the way of the gameplay. Not a bad dust-up, but not a great one either.

When Sephonie is on, it’s on. There’s definitely something to chew on here, and if you can get your teeth around it you might have a great experience with the game. The biggest issue with the game is how inconsistent it feels in all respects, and that even comes down to the technical aspects of this Switch port. You’re going to have to be able to put up with some rough edges to get at the good points of Sephonie, but if you’re in a forgiving mood and feel like playing something that is for better or worse different, you might want to give it a go.

Nobunaga’s Ambition: Awakening is a strong example of a flavor that most players have already made up their minds on. It’s frankly too complex to teach in tutorials without tossing the player into the mix, so you have to be ready to take your lumps and learn if you’re planning to get the most out of it. If you think you can do that and want to get in on a series so good that it’s been around about as long as Nintendo has been making consoles, feel free to lose yourself in this great strategy game.

Barring the few features I’d like to see in potential patches, Venba delivered in spades, and I can’t wait to see what Visai Games works on next. Venba is a great 1 hour or so long experience that will definitely have you salivating at some of the food while probably thinking of your own family or friends while playing.

After both This Way Madness Lies and Cosmic Star Heroine ended up being so good, I think Zeboyd Games’ potential next turn-based RPG will be near the top of my anticipated games list. If you enjoy magical girls, JRPGs, and Shakespeare and want a game that doesn’t waste your time, This Way Madness Lies is an easy recommendation. Its low asking price definitely helps, and I think it does a few things better than Cosmic Star Heroine, though that remains my favorite release from the developer.

I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I think Hello Kitty Island Adventure is one of my favorite mobile games of this year so far. It’s so much more than I expected it to be, so much more than it needed to be, and I genuinely appreciate just how compelling it is from head to toe. I’ve been vocal amongst my peers about how Apple Arcade needs more reasons to subscribe these days. Well, here’s one extremely good reason. Butters was right the whole time.

The only reason you should avoid Return to Monkey Island is if you don’t enjoy point and click adventure games that can have some obtuse puzzles. This release does enough with accessibility and hints to negate that, but I’d only hesitate in recommending it to that group of people. If you do enjoy the games, just go buy Return to Monkey Island on iOS and enjoy your weekend with it. It rules.

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.

If you like Touhou Project and can enjoy a relatively mindless action-RPG with rough edges all around, you’re in the best position to appreciate Touhou: New World. Keeping its scope in mind, it’s a decent way to spend a day or two of gaming. Just don’t expect it to get anywhere close to the quality of the games it’s paying homage to. I suppose that’s the nature of many of these Touhou Project spin-offs, but it’s frustrating when it gets as close to being more as this one does.

Might & Magic – Clash of Heroes: Definitive Edition doesn’t add very much to the original game, but it was already a strong game that stands for itself quite well in modern times. Dotemu has done a capable job of bringing it to the Switch, and it fits the platform almost as well as it fit the Nintendo DS. If you’re looking for a cool new puzzle game that offers both a substantial single-player mode and enjoyable multiplayer gameplay, you’ll likely be quite satisfied with what this game has to offer.

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.

Manic Mechanics is aimed primarily at the multiplayer co-op experience, with support for up to four players via local or online play. As a solo affair, it’s probably not going to satisfy you. Taken as intended, as a multiplayer experience, it’s quite a lot of chaotic fun. I’d be hard-pressed to recommend it over Overcooked but if you need something similar to that game, and I mean really similar, this game checks off all the necessary boxes with sufficient level of quality to satisfy.

Series fans will definitely want to give this game a look if only to see how the long-running and well-loved franchise got its start. For a game that is more than a quarter of a century old, it plays remarkably well. It’s also a fantastic choice for those looking for a lighter RPG bite, provided they’re willing to put up with a few eccentricities owing to its age.

Is Trails into Reverie a conclusion to Cold Steel? Is it a conclusion to Crossbell? Yes, and yes. Newcomers will want to stay well away from this one until they do their homework, but series fans will probably find this to be a refreshing chapter after the too-long Cold Steel saga, and a useful loose-ends tie-up before moving into the next major story arc. Some framerate dips and a few clear bugs that I expect NIS America to resolve soon dampen the fun a little, but overall this is another solid entry in the series and a nice bounce back from Trails of Cold Steel IV.

Oxenfree II: Lost Signals on mobile is my favorite way to play it. Not only did Night School do a great port that feels perfect on iPad, but it also looks and runs nicer than the Switch version. Having now played Oxenfree II: Lost Signals on Steam Deck, iPhone, iPad Pro, and Nintendo Switch, Night School and Netflix exceeded my expectations, and I hope it gets a physical release so I can add it to my Nintendo Switch collection alongside the physical release of the first game. This is Netflix’s best original addition to its games subscription since Poinpy, and one of my favorite mobile games of 2023.

Ultimately, while Ridiculous Fishing EX is a full-on remake, it doesn’t reinvent the wheel. It takes a game that very much worked in every way, buffs up the presentation, piles some extra content on top, and most importantly makes it work the way it should on modern devices. Those who played the original top to bottom will find some new things to enjoy, and those who are completely new to Ridiculous Fishing are in for quite a treat. I wish we had seen the universe where mobile gaming continued along these lines instead of where it ended up going, but for now I’ll just say I’m very happy to have this terrific, near-perfect game vital once more.

Risky Woods is a typical QUByte release. A game that is obscure in many regions and perhaps deserves a bit more attention. Emulation that does the job but has some obvious flaws. A spartan wrapper that does nothing to help you play the game or explain why you should care about it. I’m used to all of this by now, but I get the sense that Risky Woods in particular really deserved better. Still worth a go, but you’ll probably want to look up some instructions online if you’re going to give it a shot.

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.

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.

If you skipped Bugsnax before, this iOS version is superb. The developers went above and beyond with the port by even adding many DualSense features that work wirelessly in addition to delivering an excellent conversion when it comes to visuals and performance. This is easily the best portable version of Bugsnax, and the low asking price compared to other platforms makes it an even easier recommendation. It still has the same issues as the original game, but Bugsnax has never been more accessible, and this is one of the best mobile ports of 2023.

If you’re a fan of both PowerWash Simulator and SpongeBob SquarePants, the PowerWash Simulator SpongeBob SquarePants Special Pack is a no brainer purchase. It is a bit expensive for what it offers, but I’ve enjoyed my time with it on Switch and Steam Deck already. I’m now playing it on PS5 as well. If you, like me, enjoy PowerWash Simulator and want to keep supporting it while getting new levels, this DLC is worth grabbing. It is just a shame that gyro support is yet to be added into the Nintendo Switch and PS5 versions of the game.

Playing through McPixel 3 feels like grabbing an issue of MAD Magazine because I never knew what to expect when I went ahead in my initial playthrough. McPixel 3 on iOS is essential, but it will absolutely feel like poop if the humor doesn’t click with you. I loved McPixel and McPixel 3 is everything I wanted in a sequel and more. The wait for it on mobile has been long, but even in my third playthrough, McPixel 3 is just superb, and it will make you forget all about McPixel 2 which doesn’t exist so don’t worry.

Look, I know at least some of the people reading this share my odd affection for KEMCO and its games. If that’s you, you’ll want to check out Raging Bytes. It’s different from the norm for the publisher, and it’s competently done. Nothing about it is going to bowl anyone over, but it’s quirky, self-aware, and fairly enjoyable. That’s two KEMCO games now with ‘Raging‘ in the title that are different and better than the usual. Might be something to it.

The Last Hero of Nostalgaia is an impressive take on Dark Souls, and one of the best you can find on the Switch. It suffers from some unfortunate technical issues that keep it from being a must-have, something I suspect Switch owners are getting accustomed to by this point in the console’s life. While I would push prospective buyers to pick it up on a platform with more power, those without other options or who prefer their Switch might still want to go for it. Proceed with caution, but it’s at least worth considering despite its issues.

If you enjoy platformers, aren’t turned off by an extremely high difficulty level, and think you’re going to get something out of going for all the secrets and playing all the modes? Yes, absolutely. It’s a Sunsoft game from Sunsoft’s prime, and that alone is a recommendation. Be warned, however, that the game has serious teeth that even modern conveniences can’t completely mitigate.

The Lara Croft Collection brings two excellent games to the Switch in superb form. Only the lack of online multiplayer keeps me from climbing up the nearest mountain and shouting about these, but I’ll gladly scamper up a hill and give a solid yell. If you’ve never played these games before, you really should. And this just happens to be a fantastic way to do so. Whether exploring alone or pulling a friend or three along, you’ll have an awesome time with this scorching duo of games.