Such a friendly edition of Mobile Monday, this is. Everybody's our friend, especially those who deliver good games to us. We also seem to have a penchant for puzzle games, which are basically brain BFFs.

Nono says Yesyes to iOS - Mmm, delicious picross puzzles. We love 'em, and you probably do, too. If you don't, we can't be friends anymore. Our current BFFs at Graycode Software released NonoCube earlier this year for Android and Kindle devices, bringing a fantastic touch interface to dozens of amazing 3D picross puzzles. Now iOS owners don't have to be left out, as NonoCube has finally hit iPhone and iPad! Rejoice! You can also win a free copy of the game if you're clever enough!

Timbuktu lands on Android - Earlier this year, Green Eyed Games released a charming puzzle game for PC/Mac called Last Train to Timbuktu. The game elegantly combined a Rubik's cube with a sliding block puzzle, challenging you to arrange tiles so the train could make it to the station on time. Now the train is pulling into mobile territory where it fits quite nicely, landing on Android devices as a free download. This thing was made for the touch screen!

Sparkle 2 coming this summer - 10tons continues chugging forward with more great (and gorgeous) mobile games. The team recently released Clowns in the Face, which is every bit as fun as the name implies, and has now announced the impending release of Sparkle 2, a sequel to the original marble popping matching game. Allows us to make some preliminary observations: mmm, pretty picture. That is all. Sparkle 2 will hit iOS, Windows and Mac this June. Eep!

Free App of the Week: Pudding Monsters - Each week on the iTunes App Store, Apple drops a single release down to the tasty price of "free". This week, that freebie is Pudding Monsters, a game we reviewed and thought totally rocked. Just tap and swipe on a Pudding Monster to set it in motion, and it'll keep sliding unless there's something in the way. If that something is another Monster, they'll squish and merge together, and the goal is to make sure all Monsters in a level have been assimilated. Easy? Ha, yeah right!

Go Home Dinosaurs! doesn't sound like anything a sane person would say, mainly because dinosaurs are awesome and inside all of us lurks a five-year-old (or Ross Gellar) giddy at the thought of dinos in our house. But it's only a good idea to have them around if you're not barbecuing, and unfortunately that's what the gophers happen to be doing, and now the only defense against the BBQ-hungry horde of giant lizards is the tower kind... tower-defense, that is! Fire Hose Games delivers a gorgeous comedic and colourful game that's big on strategy.

At the start of each level, you'll be given your choice of cards to fill your maximum hand... since different cards summon different units with their own unique effects, you'll want to think carefully about what you're up against to decide and and how much to use. Dinos will flood in waves from the cave and head along the path to your barbecue. Two piles of dynamite will protect your delicious meats at the cost of a single steak each time a dino triggers one, but when those run out, it's game over, man! Initially, all you have is one gopher who will dig anywhere onscreen you click on and attack anything within range. To get help, you need to send him to collect coconuts when they appear, and these are spent to use the cards in your hand. Each card, when picked up, will show you the size of your unit and the range around it, so right-click if you need to rotate it and think carefully before you place it since you can't rearrange a unit once it's down. Collect coins to spend in the store for special cards with temporary boosts, or fancy new outfits to class up your gopher.

Analysis:Go Home Dinosaurs! is not a game to be played without an eye for strategy. You'll want to eye the lay of the land to figure out what cards to pick at the start of each level, since some units are useless on certain stages where the terrain prevents them from being placed effectively. And speaking of being placed, since you can't move units once they're down, you really need to think carefully about what you're doing. Why can't I spend more coconuts to move or rotate towers? And why can't I choose which dino my gopher attacks when there are a whole bunch of them within range? These two seemingly small things can lead to big frustrations if you accidentally plop down a tower in the wrong position, or realise late in a long level you're going to have to restart because your placement isn't working out. This, along with other things like the lack of an option to speed things up or see how many dinos of each type you'll be facing, means die-hard tower defense fans may find a few things lacking.

Of course, you shouldn't take those criticisms as an effort to warn you away from it, because if I didn't think you should play Go Home Dinosaurs! I wouldn't be here telling you about it or tabbing back into game to play another level when I should be working. The challenging yet accessible gameplay and beautiful character design makes this the perfect choice for casual fun. The card setup is actually a clever one, forcing you to really think and plan your layouts to get the most out of them, especially when it comes to figuring out just how to fit each unit to its best advantage. As a result, the game's vibrant design packed with pop culture references masks a perfectly engaging little gem. There's even an optional vegetarian mode to replace all the barbecue with veggies... though you'll have to grind a whole lot of coins to pay for it first. With a ton of levels, unique towers and baddies, and some serious challenge to boot, Go Home Dinosaurs! is a vibrant little game that deserves a spot in any defense fan's library.

Windows:
Get the full version (via Steam)

Mac OS X:
Not available.
Try Boot Camp or Parallels or CrossOver Games.

The woods are no place to be stranded in. You can lose your way; you can lose your mind; you can even lose yourself. Developed by Simulated Culture, Rootwork is a new strategic card game that drops you into the heart of the deepest, darkest forest and challenges you to make it out safely. However, a stray critter or a thorny bush are the least of your troubles here. These woods are full of dark forces and malevolent spirits, and at the center of the dark maelstrom is "She." Who is She? That's uncertain. But these are Her woods, and if She wants you to stay lost forever the odds are stacked against you.

Luckily, you are not alone. A mysterious Hoodoo man and his son Lucas appear to guide you and protect you with the power of Rootwork. Rootwork refers to Hoodoo practices of using found objects — a feather, a key, some river stones, etc. — to weave together powerful spells. With these simple items at your side, you might just stand a chance of escaping. Maybe.

The game begins with a thorough tutorial explaining the mechanics of Rootwork. Your goal is to flee the forest by visiting three specific Milestones before the sun goes down. Each round, you draw up to five Survival Cards. These are the tools you will use to bypass the Threats that block your passage. You then draw two Threat Cards and one Site Card, which hopefully contains one of the Milestones you need. There are four suits: Fury, Corruption, Deceit and Loss. Every Threat Card and Site Card contains up to two curses in a given suit. In order to access the Milestone on the Site Card, you need to nullify the curses on all three cards by placing Survival Cards of the same suit upon them (by tapping and dragging). However, if you're short on suits, every Survival Card can be turned face down (via a quick double-tap) and placed on any card to remove half a curse of any suit.

There are also special cards such as the Dense Underbrush, which acts as a wild card, and Strange Cairn, which allows you to peek at the top card of any of the four Site Decks. You also have pocket space which can be used to hold extra cards, although only one pocketed card can be played at any given time. Should you fail to remove the curses of either of the Threat Cards, you wil incur their wrath. Menaces will burden you with fright (get frightened more than three times and it's game over) while Sticks will take up pocket space and become irremovable.

Of course, there are a few more intricacies to the game, and it takes a minute or two to get the hang of, but Rootwork is by no means overly complex. Once you grasp the basic mechanics, jumping in is actually quite simple, and a game only takes a couple of minutes to complete. And once you've got the hang of one character, you can switch to another, which changes how many cards you can carry in your hand and/or pocket.

Analysis: It's always refreshing to see a card game that isn't based around battling a series of increasingly redundant monsters. Even if the backbone of Rootwork is a simple suit matching game, the idea is conceptually pleasing and has clearly been given plenty of thought. By escaping the forest multiple times you can unlock extra cards, characters and videos explaining the origin of the four great menaces, Ruin, Blight, Snare and Mourne, and the dark force controlling them all. There's certainly plenty of atmosphere and intrigue to be had here, which is something you don't often get with a card game that is this easy to play.

If there's one downside, it's that the unlockable cards and different characters don't add a tremendous deal of strategic variety to the mix. And since all of the unlockables and achievements basically require you playing through the game a bunch of times (and we do mean a bunch — one achievement requires over 1,000 wins) tedium can set in quickly if you're just playing game after game after game. You can unlock all the cards via an in-app purchase, but if you do so, Lucas will berate you for cheating. (You can't buy your way to victory!)

But like the old standby Solitaire, Rootwork is a game you just find yourself coming back to for a quick round or seven. And unlike Solitaire, Rootwork is atmospheric, aesthetically pleasing and full of mystique. If you're looking for an interesting and unique card game, you could do far worse than to get lost in the woods of Rootwork.

You know what your average, boring ol' tug-of-war game needs? A table instead of a rope. At least that's what Otto Ojala (of Wrestle Jump fame) thinks, and he's managed to turn the idea into Tug the Table, a simple yet wonderful little one-button fighting game where you play as a little blue person trying to pull an orange person across a line.

The idea is similar to Wrestle Jump: press the [up] key to jump up repeatedly and pull the table — and your opponent — across the line. The first player to win five matches wins the game. Each match has challenges that change the players' sizes and centers of gravity or alter the table and room. When that gets too easy for you, you can toggle "Hard AI" mode in the settings to introduce a smarter AI and more obstacles, or find a friend to play as Orange in the two-player mode. Tug the Table isn't deep or complicated, but it's a nice way to spend a few minutes. Really, it's worth playing just so you can do a weird, jumpy victory dance among the confetti after you win a game.

Play Tug the Table

A lot of kids who grew up with RC cars turned into today's gamers. That's a dangerous blanket statement to make, but you can't argue there isn't some overlap. After all, isn't driving a radio controlled car around the living room kind of like a video game? And didn't playing with RC cars and video games make your parents mad? Looking to bring those two worlds together, Paladin Studios, the team behind Momonga Pinball Adventures, has released Nikko RC Racer, a wild and untamed arcade racing game that's about as close to driving the real thing as you can get.

Nikko RC Racer features around ten cars, two of which are included in the free download, the rest must be purchases or unlocked via promo code, along with ten tracks to drive through. The basic goal of the game is to race through the environments hitting each checkpoint as quickly as you can. Just like in real life, though, you'll probably want to drive around and explore the landscapes, which you can totally do. The tracks are remarkably open and stocked with neat things to see. Some of them even arm you with different power-ups you can use to find shortcuts.

Nikko RC Racer comes across as a very simple arcade racing game. Too simple, in some respects, as the main drawback is a lack of any binding elements that give your high score challenges a sense of overall purpose. Beating your own best times is fine, as is driving these responsive, unique RC cars, but sometimes you want to feel like you're working towards a greater goal, even if that's just a cheesy ending screen with "you won" written across it.

If you've got a soft spot for RC cars or are looking for a nice and casual arcade racing game, you can't go wrong with Nikko RC Racer.

One night, Luke decided to go out and visit the love of his life. However, an unfortunate note on the door informs him he's now alone in this world. To console himself, Luke wants nothing more than to stare at the stars. With all the buildings in the way, though, how can he? That's where you come into play. Luke at the Stars is a simple but charming puzzle game that's all about moving buildings out of the way so you can get a good view of the sky.

Each level in Luke at the Stars features a few building, each with different styles of floors. Tap one of the floors, then tap a floor on the adjacent building to swap them. Match at least two floor types and they disappear, lowering the building's height. The goal is to keep the rooftops from touching the sky.

There's no time limit in Luke at the Stars, nor is there much of an incentive to make complex move or clever swaps. There's a basic counter that shows you how long it took you to complete the level, but that's really it. The gameplay stays simple but gains challenge later on at just the right pace. The artwork and music really help set the mood, turning this lovely little diversion into a beautiful mobile puzzle game experience.

Money, or freedom. Which will you choose? McBank: The Puzzle of Money and Freedom uses stark, humorous imagery wrapped around a series of quick puzzles that play on the theme of the uneven distribution of wealth and power in modern society. Even though most of the world's money is controlled by a relative few people, the masses continue to support them with their purchases and actions. McBank forces you to to choose with each level you complete, and the results aren't always pretty.

Venture through the still streets of the city as you take in the dystopian sights: signs that tell you how the latest fashions are good because they're expensive, advertisements that tout products you already have but are going to buy anyway, etc. There's no shortage of interesting things to look at, but in order to play the game, you'll need to tap on the glowing arrows. There, you're presented with a simple cluster of tiles and can swap any two tiles in a column or row. Maneuver everything in groups to make them disappear, don't leave any tiles stranded, and accomplish all of this within the moves limit listed below.

After you solve a level you can make a choice: freedom or control. The former sets the people in the scene free, turning its black and white streets into a lively world of color. The latter replaces McBank's influence with your own, earning you some cash but leaving all the people trapped under a new master. But hey, you've gotta buy a fancy car and/or suit and/or other useless item. Who cares about them as long as you can amass your own wealth, right?

McBank is looking to make a statement, but it's not trying to hit you over the head with it. Its theme is well-integrated and even goes so far as to color the in-app purchase system that allows you to buy a completely useless badge just to make yourself feel better. There are five endings to experience, each one determined by your actions in the game. If a little dystopian dourness is your thing, McBank is a fantastic combination of puzzle meets narrative art.

Mac OS X:
Get the full version

Available in your browser or on your mobile device, PlayCreek's insane challenging platforming game Mini Dash is a hop, skip, a buzzsaw, a rocket or dozen, and a jump away from being a walk in the park. All you have to do is use [WASD] or the [arrow] keys to get to the exit in each level as fast as possible, nabbing any bonus items you feel like risking your life for. But since the game takes a page or two from Meat Boy's book, you're going to need to master wall jumping, split-second timing, the double jump, and even running on the ceilings to avoid all the hazards that want you dead. Take a hit, and you've earned a one-way ticket to Back-To-The-Start-Of-The-Level Town. Having trouble with a level? Collect three mushrooms to skip it.

Mini Dash is best described as hectic. While making it to the exit in each level is usually a simple enough task, getting the optional items and making it out fast enough to earn the highest rating is much tougher. If you don't like "twitch gaming", Mini Dash's frenetic pace and unforgiving one-hit K-O is definitely going to be too much for you. If it is your thing, a more pressing annoyance might be figuring out what parts of the scenery you can or can't climb/land on in each level. But with piles of maniacal levels encompassing a variety of unique designs that'll force you to master its controls, Mini Dash is a challenge that will keep you tapping away and grinding your teeth for a long time.

Play Mini Dash

"The first emotion you feel in your life is disappointment. Interestingly, it'll also be your last emotion, and about 80% of the emotions in between." So begins your existence as a clone in Zach Weinersmith's new gamebook Trial of the Clone. Developed by Tin Man Games, written by the mind behind the webcomic Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal (17+) and narrated by Wil Wheaton(!), Trial of the Clone combines a choose-your-own-adventure story with RPG elements, all the while poking fun at all things sci-fi.

After your rather unceremonious birth, you're sent to the temple of the Silene Monks, where you choose whether to be a medic, a warrior or an engineer. From there, it's up to you to make the right choices to fulfill your destiny and, most crucially, not die. But Trial of the Clone is more than a simple choose-your-own-adventure. Along the way you'll gain stat points, weapons and items, which you can keep track of via a built-in D&D-style Adventure Sheet. These come to play in battles which pop up occasionally and affect the course of the story. Battles are pretty simple: You deal damage to your opponent based on your given stats plus a random number from 0 to 3, and then your opponent does the same — the last one standing wins. Loss in a battle doesn't necessarily mean death; it may just mean being relocated to a different department (say, engineering, where physical strength, ability and charisma are less in demand).

There are some other neat little features which enhance the gamebook experience, not the least of which is the soulful voice of the real Wil Wheaton. You can turn on the ability to cheat, allowing you to jump around and experience all the scenarios regardless of your choices, just like you did when you were a child. (Don't lie; we all did it.) There are also some minigames, plenty of illustrations and did we mention the dulcet tones of Wil Wheaton?

If you know Zach or SMBC, then it should come as no surprise that Trial of the Clone is frakking hilarious. The tale of a clone — a mass-produced person with no cause to call himself special — trying to find his place in a cold, futuristic world is an engaging backdrop in itself, but Zach's humor turns this into a raucous and unexpected romp. The story is not astonishingly deep, but it is entertaining all the way through. The geekiness and raunchy humor mean this is certainly not for everyone, but fans of sci-fi culture and the occasional (or not-so-occasional) low-brow chuckle will find plenty to love and laugh at here.

Did somebody leave the front door open? Because there's a draft in here. Seriously, stand by the wall there. You feel it, don't you? Maybe just lean down a bit. More. Moooore. HA! Tricked you into reading mobile game news!

Hiversaires Says Hi to Android - Hiversaires only hit iOS a few weeks ago, but developer Aliceffekt has already brought the minimalist adventure game over to Android devices. Like Myst or Kairo, Hiversaires is a game about exploration and discovery that makes no attempt to lead you, instead letting you come to terms with the world around you in your own time and on your own terms. It's a beautiful, challenging and atmospheric game. Our Hiversaires review has more info.

Fancy a little digging? - One part Terraria, one part King Arthur's Gold, and one part Growtopia, OmniDig is an accessible mobile sandbox creativity game currently in the works by Jesse Watson. Out in the woods with just a few basic tools, it's your job to gather resources and craft the materials you'll need to stay alive. There are a variety of biomes to explore, weapons and armor to equip, enemies to encounter, and even turrets to build! OmniDig is currently available for Android, but keep in mind it isn't a finished product just yet, so more goodies are in store!

Free App of the Week: Asphalt 7: Heat - Each week on the iTunes App Store, Apple drops a single release down to the tasty price of "free". This week, that freebie is Asphalt 7: Heat, an arcade racing game from the mobile juggernaut Gameloft. While the game itself is known for being surprisingly playable for a touch screen racer, the real selling point is the visual presentation. Those cars are just gorgeous, and once you see them in motion, you'll be glad you took four seconds to grab it for free!

Douglas Chase, the hero of Tasty Poison's arcade puzzle game Dig!, has it rough. He works as an archaeologist for a failing museum, and in order to save his job, appease his boss and rescue the museum, he has to dig up new and exciting artefacts, pronto. And he has to do all this while mummies, tentacles and moles chase him, which never makes things easy. Oh, and toilet seats count as priceless artefacts, by the way. Have fun!

Dig! will remind a lot of old school gamers of Qix. The basic goal is to fence off areas of the screen by drawing lines. Or in this case, digging them. Tap the perimeter of the field to move Douglas to that area, then drag your finger across the screen to mark out a path. As soon as you touch two edges, that part of the ground drops down, revealing any shiny things that were buried beneath. Get 75% of the field dug out and you'll move deeper where the real treasures are buried!

Working with power-ups and avoiding enemies are the other major parts of Dig's gameplay. Nigel the mummy likes to run along the lines you draw at a frightening speed, while other foes wander around the sides or hide beneath the dirt waiting to attack. You can use scarecrows for a quick diversion, but donning hats to gain character perks is the real way to go.

Dig! is deceptively entertaining. It starts out really simple, possibly even a bit too simple, and gradually introduces more complex gameplay as you dig deeper. There's even a mildly tycoon-style museum section to manage once you get a few artefacts stocked away. The more time you spend with Dig! the better it gets. Now, pretend I said a clever pun about digging deeper into the gameplay and go check the game out!

Daddy Was a Thief is a solid little arcade game from Rebel Twins, creator of the gorgeous mobile game Crumble Zone. The story begins with dear old dad losing his job, then picking up a How-To book on robbery so he can nip off to the bank for a bit of thievery. When the action begins dad is making his escape. The only problem is there are hundreds of things standing between his high-rise hijinks and the safety of terra firma.

Your basic goal in Daddy Was a Thief is to stomp down through the floors of the building so you can escape the police. Swipe down on the screen to heave dad around and break the floor. You can also swipe upwards to jump, useful for avoiding small obstacles. As you progress to lower floors you'll encounter more and more things that want to end your game. In addition to armed officers on some floors, you'll run into missiles firing from outside and even shrink rays to turn you into a tiny daddy. Some items are there to help you out, though, such as the refrigerator shield or the bathtub that lets you crash down several floors at once. And let's not forget a few stops at the pinball-like casino as we make our escape!

Between rounds you can visit the shop to spend coins on various upgrades. They tend to be on the expensive side, unfortunately, so unless you're extremely lucky/skilled, you'll probably end up investing in a few small in-app purchases to beef yourself up. Apart from that, Daddy Was a Thief is practically perfect. The interface is simple and easy to use and the graphics are just plain gorgeous. It's one of those games you'll have to make yourself put down!

Something has gone terribly, horribly awry at Don Eduardo's zoo. Flesh-seeking undead animals are on the loose and you, plucky boy or girl, are the last line of defense in Zoombies: Animales de la Muerte!, a mobile line-drawing defense game from High Voltage Software. Could this be the worst field trip ever?

Zoombies plays like a mashup between mobile stalwarts Plants vs. Zombies and Flight Control, liberally seasoned with doses of guacamole and topped with hordes of crazy-cute zombie animals. Here you defend your territory by drawing a line on the screen with your finger, which your boomerang-like weapon follows. As your weapon hits the oncoming baddies, they explode in a cheerful fountain of cartoon guts and gore. Saving Little Mexico from the zoombie onslaught may seem easy at first, but don't get complacent: the challenge ramps up in the second set of levels, where enemies with different attack patterns demand quick reflexes and intelligent use of unlockable upgrades.

Ah, upgrades. What would a defense game be without them? Zoombies has plenty, from new weapons to help you defeat specific enemies to traps that slow down and damage oncoming foes. These are purchased with currency that is gained by downing baddies and completing challenges. Each level has five specific challenges to complete, like saving a certain number of friendly zoo animals or drawing under a specific number of lines. New levels are unlocked in sets of three by completing a set number of these challenges.

All of these elements combine in a well-managed ebb and flow of challenge and achievement, which makes Zoombies a gratifying play. At only forty-five short levels the amount of content might be a little small, but the polished production and zippy, well-balanced gameplay make Zoombies a star among the app store's !ever-multiplying zombie horde. ¡Viva la defensa!

What happens when you combine the logical deduction puzzles of Mastermind, the word-searching challenge of Boggle, and a handful of military monkeys ready to do battle? Everything goes bananas! Thank you, I'm here all night, tip your server, etc. Banana Breakers by Simian Logic is a quick twist on a logic/word hybrid puzzle where you've got to solve not just one word, but up to six words at once!

The grid of letters can be divided into a number of words (for example, the easy level has you finding four 4-letter words). Click or tap the letters to select them; they don't have to be touching, any letters in the grid are allowed. If you don't spell one of the target words picked by the computer, you're given clues to the position of the letters in one of the target words. A letter highlighted in green means it's a correct letter in the right position, and a letter in red means it's a correct letter but in a wrong position. Use these clues to help formulate your next guess.

However, unlike other word-Mastermind games like Wordspector, you're not just focusing on one word at a time, you're taking on all four (in easy mode) at once! The clues revealed to you always pertain to the hidden word that most closely matches your guess. You might use the clues from one word to formulate another guess, only to find it gives you new clues to a completely different word! Words that give you less new information than what is already shown won't give you any clues at all, but you'll still be credited for making a valid word with some coins.

For each hidden word you discover (or at least try), you'll earn some coins when you complete the board. Coins can be used to purchase clues such as a crossword-style definition of one of the hidden words, or outright spoil a word if you're stuck. Each board is a self-contained game, so you can quickly blaze through a few easy levels, or take your time with the medium (five 5-letter words) and hard (six 6-letter words) levels. Can you crack the code and deduce all the words before going bananas?

Play Banana Breakers

Perfection is a simple, casual puzzle game from Dumb and Fat Games, creator of Sling It! and Phantasmaburbia. It tests your spatial resolve by challenging you to slice bits of an object away until it fits inside an outline. There's no timer, there's no move limits, and there are no missions to complete. Just some relaxing music by Omni-Psyence and a great game of self-challenge at your fingertips.

To cut off a piece of the object, simply tap and slide your finger across the screen. Perfection automatically shows you where the cut will take place, and the moment you let go it's chopped off and the object is resized. You can switch between three solving modes, the first giving you just an outline and a shape to trim, and the second and third adding rotation and zooming capabilities. These modes can be changed whenever you like, and you can also swap out the puzzle with two quick taps, just in case you don't like the asteroid-like object in front of your face.

Perfection is one of those games you can keep on your mobile device (or desktop PC!) for months and never get tired of. The puzzles are generated randomly, so you'll never encounter the same one twice. The lack of a timer or any other "game" device makes the experience as relaxing as can be, all without sacrificing challenge. It's a unique and easy to learn game with hours upon hours of replay value!

Windows:
Get the full version

Mac OS X:
Get the full version