Although it would be nice to earn rewards more often, the core mechanics stand up on their own, and this is one runner I'll be keeping on my device for quite a while.

Think of Always Sometimes Monsters as a visual novel with justifiably tedious gameplay sequences binding everything together, and you'll be in the right frame of mind to accept its strengths.

Ultimately you are going to buy the game for the barcode gimmick. It's fun and how much fun you derive from it will almost directly translate into how fun you will have with the game on the whole. For me it was worth an hour or two of entertainment and the game got tired pretty quickly after that.

While Crystal Souls has been available for PC for awhile now, I think that the iPad version has a better control scheme. Hence, I have no problem saying that Crystal Souls should be considered the definitive version and I’m very happy to see it make its return on the iPad.

I think with a little bit more to do, this game could have been great; but for a free game, it was still quite good.

There's so much that could have been amazing about Heroki. It just falls so short, and it genuinely makes me sad. It pains me for so many reasons to say bad things about Heroki because of what the game could potentially stand for. But as a game? It's just not great.

At its core, AlphaBear isn't dramatically different from most other letter games, but between its few gameplay twists, the rewarding collection mechanic, and its infectiously silly and fun-loving nature, it's an easy game to fall for.

The character animations are incredibly fluid and give the movement a really good feel. The levels are a bit longer than most iOS platformers (it’s a port, after all), but never so long that they become frustrating.

Overall, LMO is a pretty fun game with a great amount of content that will entertain young and old(er) gamers.

Downhill Riders probably isn't going to make headlines, but if you're looking for a stylish new runner, it's worth checking out.

And it's a game that has great production values for what it is, as a 2D top-down shoot 'em up. It's just that the game has a lot of issues that keep it from being a solid recommendation.

Despite the few qualms I have with the game, Dinofour is a fun and challenging experience that I would recommend to any puzzle platformer fan.

If you enjoy time attack games and don't mind a stiff challenge, you'll definitely want to give Trappy Tomb a look.

Taken as a sequel to Rogue Ninja, Alchemic Dungeons features significantly more content and is just all-around more fun to play.

The Executive is one of the best mobile games of 2015, and is something that you need to play. It's so amusing and so much fun, that you're doing yourself a disservice by not playing it.

In the end, it’s an enjoyable platformer with great production values and good pacing. In my mind that’s more than enough to be worth a recommendation.

If you’re at all into puzzle games that are more interested in soothing you than hurting your brain, I think you’ve found your new addiction.

This is right up there with Cardinal Quest 2 as one of my favorite mobile roguelikes.

I suspect many people will be happy to see that LEGO Batman: Beyond Gotham has reverted back to the old style, and I think I'll go ahead and agree that it was probably the right call for this game.

Furdemption is a trully great puzzle platformer with a whimsical protagonist and a colorful-yet-gory art style that stands out among the competition.

What Tales from Deep Space provides is a lot of puzzle-platforming fun, albeit not as a perfect package.

Beast Bound is an okay game made slightly better by infusing itself with an infectious amount of enthusiasm.

There's a lot of great ideas here, and a solid game at its core, but the execution could have been a lot better.

Not essential, but if you pick it up, it'll be perfectly fine.

The art style is nice and minimalistic, but you will get tired of the music and the various voices telling you to ‘try harder’ every single respawn.

If you like your Warhammer, then, or you're just itching for a good turn-based strategy game on your iPad, give Warhammer 40K: Armaggedon a try.

For now, it's hard to recommend Sonic Runners to any but the most patient of fans. You're going to have to use a metaphoric machete to chop away at all of the dense jungle getting between you and the fun running action, but if you can look past all of that, you'll find something worth sinking your teeth into.

I really can’t say enough good things about this game. It’s hard as nails, immensely satisfying, and just plain fun.