If you’re the kind of person who often complains about free to play games and the lack of depth in mobile games, do not hesitate to put your money where your mouth is and buy Stardew Valley. This game is absolutely incredible, and will not disappoint.

Part of the charm of Pivotol is in the fact that it’s totally endless, with no levels to speak of. It’s a game to be played because it’s fun to make tiles disappear, rather than because you feel the need to progress. It’s surely not going to be for everyone, but for me, Pivotol tickles all the right spots and I’m thoroughly enjoying my time with it.

Setting aside the mandatory ads, this is one of the best things I’ve seen come out of Konami in quite a while. Imaginative? No. I mean, it’s just Picross. And it’s certainly trading heavily on nostalgia. But it’s a very well-done take on that kind of puzzle, and I’d be telling one of the biggest lies in my life if I said the window dressing hadn’t scored a direct hit on me. I hope the game gets updated with more franchises, puzzles, music, and perhaps some larger grid sizes, but what’s already here is incredible for a free game.

It’s a true meditative experience via a game with cute little animal faces, which was an unexpected factor. Every factor enhances the experience, from the chirping birds to the different drum sounds, and to the chimps’ eye-popping glee when the beat touches them. Even business decisions seem to have been made with the player’s stress levels in mind, keeping in-app ads away and instead using one low price for the entire 85 levels of play. I can not recommend it enough to anyone that finds the stressors of living in 2018 just a little too much to handle.

I suspect mobile gaming fans will be playing and replaying this one for years to come. I’m a little surprised to see such effort behind a paid original title on mobile in 2018, particularly without even a hint of added purchases to be found in it. I hope it works out for the developers, because I’d love to see more feasts like this come across my mobile plate now and then.

As much it’s kind of a bummer that you can’t pay to get rid of the ads, Pandoraid is still a really fun game that will keep you playing for a good long while. The retro-style visuals and chip-tune soundtrack are great at evoking a vintage feel, the controls work well, and the unlocks are both enjoyable and meaningful.

I may have my nits to pick with Monster Hunter Stories, but the game is certainly quite a good JRPG all-around. It ranks fairly high even among the impressive JRPG library of the Nintendo 3DS, so in the increasingly dry traditional JRPG landscape that is today’s mobile gaming market, it’s a real blessing. It’s not as good as a mainline Pokemon release, nor will it keep you playing as long as a mainline Monster Hunter game, but I suspect fans of either looking for something to play on their phones or tablets won’t be unhappy with Monster Hunter Stories.

I am immensely enjoying Dragalia Lost. Just like Super Mario Run did for the time honored runner genre, so does Dragalia Lost do for social RPGs. It follows the formula and makes key improvements along the way. After hours of playinng I have yet to come close to running out of energy yet. The gameplaay, graphics and story all shine out above competition within the social RPG genre. If you can wrap your head around the departure from usual Nintendo fare, you’ll be rewarded with a gem of a game.

The pace is pretty good, the game looks and sounds great, and on an individual level some of the puzzles are fun to untangle. The games shines with potential, and that does take it a good distance. As such, I’d probably still recommend the game, even if I can’t do so as enthusiastically as I would have liked to. It’s buggy, the design feels inconsistent, and the story keels over at the last minute, but you may want to put up with all of that if only to get at the bits that work.

The bottom line is that Legend of Solgard is free and the mechanics and polish are all top-notch, and the game loop quite compelling, so there’s no reason not to give it a shot yourself and see which side of the fence you end up on.

On the one hand it infuriated me at times, and as I type I still don’t really know what was going on at times or why I was solving certain puzzles. But on the other hand, I enjoyed playing the game.

Needless to say, I’m quite excited by SHI•RO, both as it is and as it can be after the following two parts are launched.

When it comes to making a puzzle game feel like it isn’t just another match-three game or the like, there are few things developers can do without going too far. The Company Game arguably treads that tightrope just so, though at times I did wonder whether the puzzles were too obscure or if I was just not as smart as I thought I was! The Company Game will not be for everyone, of that there is absolutely no doubt, but if you’re a fan of smartphone puzzle games, want something a little bit different to the usual fare, and don’t mind having your blood pressure increase further than it really probably should, The Company Game should at the very least be on your radar.

What it all really comes back to is that Wall Kickers just feels good to play, something that will come as zero surprise to anyone who has played any previous games from Kumobius. It can fill short periods of time quite well, but you’ll also find it up to the challenge of making you procrastinate on more important matters for longer sessions as well. The core mechanics ride the line between simplicity and depth the way any genuinely satisfying arcade experience needs to, and the difficulty scales up nicely. Throw in that usual Kumobius quality on the presentation, and you’ve got yourself a winner.

It’s a great quick reprieve from the stresses of daily life, with reason to return time after time and a great reason to share your progress on social media with the photo booth. The paid No Ad option does seem expensive to still have to wait for honey, but that’s absolutely no deterrent from the title.

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.

There is something about being able to play a golf game that takes itself seriously, but not too seriously on an iPhone, one-handed, any time I want that I think makes this a great addition to any gaming arsenal. And when you’ve done that, maybe check out some of Colin Lane’s other work? There’s plenty to choose from.

Ultimately you can customize how tough the game is and no matter how rough it gets, Barbearian will look gorgeous throughout and will feel amazing whether you use a MFi controller or the touch controls. It feels completely different when the difficulty is adjusted so there is value in getting into the options and fiddling around. When people ask where the good premium games are, Barbearian is one I will point to, with gusto.

If you’re looking for a straightforward, one-handed, one-time-payment puzzle game, Zero Escape may very well be it. The retro sounds and graphics delighted the kid (and teenager) in me. The difficulty curve was never insurmountable, and you’re never asked to spend more actual cash to get hints. The hourly mission is a great way to keep those stuck on a level motivated to keep revisiting it.

KataKoto isn’t going to last you a very long time, but it’s engaging enough to keep you busy for a couple of hours at least. There’s no real reason to come back to the game after you’ve cleared all of the stages, which is perhaps the biggest weak point in the whole affair. The sometimes-fussy controls can be a bit of a bummer, and you’ll have to deal with the semi-frequent video ads, too. If you can cope with all of that, you might want to tumble KataKoto around in your brain for a bit. As puzzle games go, it’s a bit on the breezy side, but that might just be what the mood calls for sometimes.

Azur Lane has enough interesting ideas of its own to help it stand out a little from the crowd, and there’s a considerable amount of content here to enjoy right from the get-go. It’s perhaps a little overly-complicated for its own good, and anyone who isn’t already somewhat familiar with games like these is probably going to be scared away by its busy interface and tutorial avalanche. At the same time, it’s not hard to see why this game was a pretty big hit in other regions. The art is good, the gameplay is reasonably fun, and there’s a lot to chew on for those who get engaged with it.

Donut County provides a lot of what people are always saying they want more of from their mobile games: a new and unique world, a compelling story and interesting mechanics you don’t see in tons of other titles.

Being left wanting more isn’t necessarily a bad thing, after all; it means that I truly enjoyed and felt a connection to the themes of lucid dreaming, depression, and connection to others. The loving attention to detail in each setting did nothing but enhance the experience. I was absolutely right to trust my instinct, as Radiant One is a game not to be missed.

Puzzle games lend themselves to mobile gaming particularly well, and Evergarden with its gorgeous color palette and subtle shading looks just beautiful on a modern iOS device. The game is calming yet addictive and one I don’t expect to stop playing any time soon, even after this review’s completion.

I guess if I have anything bad to say about the game, it’s that Sneak Ops is a little too on the nose of emulating a lot of the mechanics of Leap Day, and I’d love to see a bit of innovation on the whole daily level game format. Also, it’s weird that paying for the game seems to make it less fun, but your milage may vary on whether or not you feel the same. Either way, Sneak Ops is fun, free, and super easy to recommend.

You might make it a personal mission to progress through the quests that help to build your knowledge of the game while also having you build certain things or upgrade them to bring new mechanics into play. Or you might just want to keep zoning areas, building roads and just increasing your population to as big a number as possible. Ultimately it doesn’t really matter how you play Pocket City, I think you’ll have a blast regardless.

In the end, Rowdy Wrestling doesn’t try to set the world on fire or change the face of mobile gaming as we know it. Rowdy Wrestling is exactly what it says on the box – it’s easy to pick up, hard to put down and sometimes that’s just what you need.

Motorsport Manager Mobile 3 is simulating forms of racing that not everyone, especially those of us in the U.S., really understand all that well. It’s to the credit of its developers that it accomplishes it so well that you’re likely to get sucked in after playing just a race or two and really want to start building up your race team to chase down championships. Even if you don’t know your splitters from your spoilers, you just might find yourself enjoying the ride here