In this captivating and addicting match-3/RPG fantasy hybrid for iOS and Android, you time as a new student at a school for witches and wizards should be filled with studies. Unfortunately for you, you've been partnered with the brash and bossy Alicia, and her short attention span and hunger for power means you and your new friends might stir up some trouble in your cauldrons. A simplified version of Puzzle Quest with stunning visual designs and easy to master gameplay you may find hard to put down.

It's always seemed inefficient to trap mammals inside robots. It didn't work for Dr. Robotnik, which should have been a lesson to everyone. Nevertheless, in Horn, an epic third person RPG adventure from Phosphor Games, the robots themselves decided to start converting humans into their own kind. While its a bit unclear why that happened, its up to you, an amnesiac blacksmith's apprentice, to sort it all out.

Pocket Heroes mixes co-operative roleplaying strategy with roguelike difficulty, all set in a retro, SNES style world. Journey in a group with your friends or random teammates, killing monsters, looting, and leveling up along the way. It's a multiplayer-only game, and turns only progress once everyone on your team has done their thing. If you work together, you might just survive for a while!

Siela's family restaurant is having trouble staying afloat, and her sister is considering selling the whole thing to someone else. With no choice but to seize management herself in a last-ditch effort to turn the business into a success, Siela and her friends must cook and serve food made using ingredients they hunt for in the wild in this simple but addictive blend of RPG and simulation for iOS and Android.

That's right, it's a licensed game based on a 30 year old movie! In WarGames: WOPR, the War Operation Plan Response computer is hacked by David Lightman who proceeds to engage in games against the artificial intelligence. Things get a bit out of hand, though, and the struggle nearly sets off World War III. In the movie it's all about man versus machine, and you know exactly who wins. In the game, you play as the computer fighting against those do-gooding humans as you attempt to fill the world with freshly launched nuclear missiles. And what better way to play out that attack than in an RPG-inspired puzzle game?

Little Red Riding Hood has brought wine and cake to her ailing grandmother. But then Grandma went outside, locking the door behind her, and hasn't returned. In this mobile escape-the-room adventure game from IDAC, explore the seemingly serene environment searching for clues and solving puzzles to find the best of the two ways out: one brings Little Red to safety, one brings a tasty dinner to Mr. wolf. Well, so much for an innocent outing to Grandma's house in the woods.

Bub is dead, but like any good dog, he's not letting that keep him down. In this free iOS advergame for the upcoming ParaNorman movie, you control the ghostly pooch as he jumps, chomps, and swings his way through levels trying to retrieve the zombie bones he's lost so that their owners don't come looking for them when the sun goes down. Simple and straightforward but absolutely gorgeous, 2-Bit Bub is a ghoulishly good time.

Be prepared to bring out the big guns in Great Big War Game, a great big turn-based strategy game from Rubicon. Move your military units around the maps and position them to take out the enemy. With a large variety of maps and units to choose from, as well as local and on line multiplayer capabilities, Great Big War Game is a great way to spend big chunks of your time.

Based on the B-movie of the same name, the one famously riffed by the Mystery Science Theater 3000 crew so many glorious years ago, MANOS - The Hands of Fate is a retro-styled platform game from FreakZone that may very well be as punishing as the film itself. In a different sort of way. Armed with a few guns and an impending sense of "doom", work your way through the game's enemy-infested levels in an attempt to best your own speedruns. The Master would be pleased if you got a high score.

Sixty levels of smooth block sliding puzzling goodness can be a little bit too relaxing, perhaps? Well don't fret, because if you want a little snark to keep you on your toes, Woodhead serves up subtle Onion-style satire with every new level. Taking full advantage of the iPhone's interface strengths, this is a great little time-waster to keep in your pocket.

Fhtagn! Cthulhu's powers have been locked away, and he needs to save the world to get them back... so he can destroy the world of course. This turn-based RPG from Zeboyd Games affectionately sends-up both Lovecraftian horror and RPGs themselves, but it's also a game with more than ten hours of solid play for an amazing price.

The revolution is here, and it's pink, furry, and packing heat! In this action-packed iOS platformer, players control Belle, a multiarmed gun-weilding alien, in her quest to free her kind from slavery. Making your way safely through the frantic, dangerous levels will require mastery of the tricky controls, but Project 83113 is a beautifully made and fun blast while it lasts.

The tower defense genre has been around for years, punctuated every so often by the release of a game that sets a new standard for how things should be. One of the first for the browser world was Desktop Tower Defense, and for the mobile market, an early heavy-hitter was the original Fieldrunners. Developer Subatomic Studios took a few years to do it, but the team has finally rolled out a worthy sequel with Fieldrunners 2. Expect more maps, more variety, more units, more enemies, and more rewards with this stunning release that will rewrite the way you think of the tower defense genre on iPhone.

Hanger, the browser release from A Small Game that's all about swinging ropes and broken body parts, has made its way to iPhone, and it's just as outrageously arcadey as ever. If you've played Hanger 2 or Hanger 2: Endless Level Pack, you'll know exactly what to expect in this wild romp through twisty terrain, as the mobile version takes the best from those releases, remixes it a little bit, and tosses you loose to see what you can do. Expect to see a lot of severed legs and game over screens before you get a decent score in this game!

The year is 1937. It's a dark time in the city. Fade Haven has fallen prey to a rat burglar who is robbing the town of its precious diamonds. Is there anyone who can help? Time to call in Detective Pete! But of course, he needs your help. Team up with the super sleuth in Fade: Case of the Stolen Diamonds, a unique puzzle game for iPad by Treetop Games. Can you recover all the diamonds and bring the thief to justice?

Your frontier lass is being kidnapped! Get your revolver and head out the door! Gunman Clive is a sidescrolling action/shooting game by Bertil Hörberg, starring you versus a bunch of bad guys. Utilizing some fantastic 3D visuals in a two dimensional world, you will have the pleasure of shooting your way through the strangest old west town you've ever seen, complete with moving platforms and loads of enemies. Oh, and watch out for ducks, those things can be deadly!

A cinematic simulation of hacking that owes more to Wargames and Sneakers than Kevin Mitnick and Adrian Lamo, Uplink: Hacker Elitecyberpunk intrigue. Originally released by Introversion Software in 2001, and streamlined into the Hacker Elite version for the US market, the latter is now available for purchase from the lovely indie and retro game outlet GOG, and it's a worthy addition to any gamers library.

Outwitters is an asynchronous multiplayer strategy game from One Man Left, the creator of the equally captivating mobile game Tilt to Live. Outwitters takes place on a hex grid and stars three races of characters, each with a handful of unique units. By steadily moving soldiers across the board, deploying specialist healers, scouts, and the like, each team vies for control and the ultimate destruction of the other side's base. It's the most intense experience you can have with chubby pink soldiers and a field full of fish fighters!

Born is a mindless creature of the Void. At least, that's how it was supposed to be. When Born dares to escape into a world that seems to have no place for it, however, you'll need to utilize all the puzzle platforming abilities at your disposal and learn to master colour in order to find Born a place to belong and help it escape from the Void once and for all. A challenging but evocative platforming adventure that's heavy on narrative and atmosphere for your iOS.

In case you wanted your roguelike fix on the go, Seramy Games has developed Dungeon Ascendance for the Android mobile device of your liking. Play one dungeon level at a time, being able to choose a different class for each one. Unlock new classes and dungeons as you delve deeper and fight your way to collecting all the achievements. Your turn-based fighting arm awaits your command!

Hey there strategy and tower defense fans! Just a little note to announce a bit of good news for iPhone and iPod Touch owners. Kingdom Rush, the so-awesome-it's-mega-awesome tower defense game from Ironhide Games, has finally made its way to small-screened iOS devices, following Kingdom Rush HD for iPad and the browser version of Kingdom Rush last year. The game stands out as one of the best defense/strategy game on the planet, capturing two awards in our Best of 2011 feature, including Best Browser Defense or Strategy game along with Game of the Year! If you haven't tried it in one of its incarnations, you owe it to yourself to correct that mistake immediately!

Welcome to another meeting of the society for combining things with other things. ("Hear, hear!") You may have enjoyed some previous games of this type such as the ever-popular Doodle God series. Well, we have now discovered a new game of this type called Creation HD, from Egyptian developer Accorpa. In this game, you begin with four things that are not combined with other things in any way. But by combining these things, we can come up with other things to combine into still other things with an end result of 235 things!

Oscura is a dark and shadowy mobile platform game created by Chocolate LIberation Front. The silhouette-based visuals might remind you of games like Limbo, but Oscura is much more grounded in action, preferring exaggerated leaps over more limited, realistic physics. Some of the levels feature horribly frightening phantasms, not all of which come in the form of moving enemies. But the visual design is one of Oscura's strong points, and you'll find it's both a graphical treat as well as a platform player's dream.

The number of "just one more round" games on mobile devices has increased dramatically since Jetpack Joyride gained its popularity (see the browser release Chuck the Sheep for another fine example). Each one features short stages, upgradeable abilities, in-game currency that can either be collected while you play or boosted with in-app purchases, and simple gameplay that grabs you within seconds of starting. Dragon Flight is one such game, though instead of going the route of sidescrolling arcade game, developer NextFloor plops you on a dragon for a vertical shooter that even casual fans can enjoy and (eventually) master!

Commander Pixman is in trouble. Or, rather, the aliens whose base he has just crash landed on are in trouble! Armed with a gun and a good pair of jumping boots, you have the honorable pleasure of escorting Commander Pixman through over 135 levels in this retro-inspired action arcade game, destroying aliens, evading traps, and making pixel-perfect jumps time and time again. And if you fail, you get to watch your flub a second time on instant replay!

The great alchemy phenomenon kicked off by Doodle God is still going strong, but why simply play god when you can undertake the colonization of an entire planet? My Laboratory lets you do just that, following the same basic rules as other alchemy-based games where you drag and drop elements to create new things. You start with the four most basic elements and work towards building over 200 unique creations, from the small to large, simple to not-so-simple. The plug and chug through all of the possible ingredients will give you multiple hours of unexpected logic puzzle excitement!

You'd think surviving through like Siege Hero and Crush the Castle would have taught someone a lesson, but here again the daft occupants of multiple castles stand, waiting to be toppled to the ground. Catapult King from Wicked Witch Software is the latest in a long and respectable line of physics-based destruction games, this time taking the action to an up-close 3D first person mode so you get the best seat in the house to watch the destruction rain!

Tiny world, tiny problems, right? More like "not right". Er, yeah. Anyway, Mini Quests is a pint-sized adventure/puzzle game by dishmoth available for Android devices and as a Java Applet for browsers. The chunky-pixeled isometric game puts you in control of a little guy out on an adventure, trudging through the fantasy lands as he hunts for treasure and fights/puzzles his way out of various scrapes, like you do!

Choose your heroes and strategize your way through level after level in this addicting turn-based strategy game by Retro64. Available as a browser game or iOS download, Rune Raiders will have you hooked right away. Each hero has different abilities, which makes it easy to find the combo that suits your play style. Whether you favor the ninja or the pun tree, make your choice wisely and plan your attack to overcome evil monsters. Defeat the Dark Master, save the kingdom, then celebrate at the Victory Pub!

In FazeCat's everything-but-the-kitchen sink defense game, Paladog, Critterland has been invaded by zombies, witches, skeletons, and just about every evil little thing you can imagine, including television sets! It's up to you to fight them off, but are you dog enough to take them on over a whopping 120 levels, including special mini-games. Paladog is a big, cuddly, newspaper-fetching machine, that brings back the Sunday paper, but slobbers all over the funnies... and you love it anyway.

Explore deeply layered fantasy landscapes, encounter boss battles and intriguing characters, discover treasure chests and secret coves, upgrade armor and weapons, level up and and everything else you'd want to find in an epic RPG platforming adventure. The on screen controls make your journey all the more enjoyable for a classic gaming feel. Any nostalgic cravings you had for your favorite games of old will be satisfied as you are the hero and your quest is great. Keep that sword handy and your magic prepped; who knows what danger lurks beyond those gates? You'll soon find out!

Oh no! The king of the realm needs you to save the princess from the evil clutches of the Dark Knight! Go figure, right? Wind-up Knight is a mobile run and jump adventure very similar to Canabalt HD except you get a fancy sword and armor to fight enemies while dodging traps to make your way to the princess. Convenient items in adventuring, yes, but it won't save you when the Dark Knight starts getting really serious about stopping you. A knight's mettle will never be more tested and neither shall your timing skills as pits, enemies, and environmental dangers stand in your way.

Everybody wants to rule the world, and zombies are no exception. In Brainsss, a wild sort of mobile game by Lonely Few, you get to help the zombies start their plot for world domination. Part strategy, part action, part brains, you must lead and grow your zombie horde to complete the goal for each level. Humans just don't get it. Life is so much simpler if all you need are brainsss.

Though it's a scary (if distant) thought in real life, being stranded on an island where you have to fight for survival isn't high on anyone's to-do list. Place it in a casual game, though, and we're tripping over ourselves to start the download. Sahmon Games' simulation series The Island: Castaway has been perplexing players for a few years now with its superb blend of quest-based item hunting and character managing, spawning The Island: Castaway 2 not long after the original was released. Now there's the mobile version of The Island: Castaway, and it manages to bring every pixel of entertainment from its PC cousins to the portable touch screen. Be prepared for the addiction to begin all over again!

Up for a challenge? In BlockHopper, an innovative puzzle platformer from GreenPixel, you control an adorable little robot named Bit across 35 different levels and landscapes to ultimate victory. But here's the twist: this isn't just some run-of-the mill, jump over static platforms to victory kind of game. Instead, you control the placement of platforms in the form of many different and ingenious blocks, each with their own separate logic and mechanics. This game features some cute graphic and a great soundtrack by Starship Amazing, but don't kid yourself, this game is hard. VERY HARD. To win, you'll have to think outside the block.

We are not alone. Life has been discovered on Mars, but it's nothing like we ever expected to encounter. In this gorgeous, one-of-a-kind moody action adventure game for iOS, you'll journey deep into the red planet and uncover the secrets buried within its soil. Discover new life forms and challenging puzzles that force you to use the environment to your advantage as you help the planet grow... and ultimately decide its fate.

Orbital Defender is a great looking planetary defense game from Addictive Zone that has been acutely tuned for ease of use on mobile devices. As a lone satellite orbiting a single planet, it's your job to keep the rock safe from asteroids, comets, UFOs, and more nefarious dangers as you orbit over and over again. You can't move, only shoot, and since firing at your planet is a very bad idea, you have to play a little game of strategy as you blast foes each time you swing by.

From Munsie Games comes an impressive collection of mobile arcade games packaged together in one robust release: Twitch Arcade! Featuring a dozen games for the price of a single app, Twitch Arcade has everything from avoidance games to puzzle, defense, and shooting games, all playable from a single interface with easy to learn controls. No matter when you buy this tablet-optimized app, you get every new game added in future updates for free. And what better feeling is there than getting tons of games for one tiny price?

Do you have what it takes to be a real Hero Mage? This turn-based, tactical strategy game brings the feel of tabletop RPG combat to your mobile device or browser. Take control of a small group of heroes on their battle-ridden path to victory over darkness in the realm of Papillion. It's like a tabletop game in your pocket!

Frankenstein is a brand new work of interactive fiction written by Dave Morris and released using the inkle platform. Based on the original novel by Mary Shelley, this modern narrative weaves a captivating story that takes advantage the mobile platform to deliver a strong visual impact along with its interactive elements. You are both reader and player in this experience (though more the former than the latter), choosing directions for your character to take and shaping the narrative in ways that are both subtle and obvious. The end result is a visual and textual masterpiece that you will be both thrilled and intrigued to experience.

The cheese is the prize in this gloriously cartoonish and vibrant stealth mobile/tablet game from Electronic Arts. Guide a daring mouse hero through 70+ levels, drawing a path for him around his ferocious feline opponents. Contend with ghost cats and villainous constructs, outwit mouse traps, and drink in one of the most polished casual gaming experiences you could want in the process.

Well, would you look at that, another kingdom is in peril and you must defeat the king's power hungry son before it is too late. Nano Kingdoms puts you in charge of His Majesty's forces as you carve a path towards his evil son. Easy-to-figure out click controls make this realtime strategy defense game a nice choice for first time RTS players. The sounds are well-made, the art is wonderfully cartoonish, and the difficulty will leave you satisfied with your micro-managing skills.

Space... the final frontier. You never would have thought it was so pixelated out there though. Kairosoft takes a crack at a sci-fi simulation with its latest installment to the "Story" series of games. As some of the first intrepid humans to blast off and colonize a new planet, the actions you take help to expand your influence throughout the galaxy. The best way to influence these extraterrestrials is to attract them to your planet like its a tax-free shopping mall. Those aliens literally buy anything you can give them, especially chocolate cake and fine jewels. The aliens' spending habits, the exploration of your planet, and missions of peace to others are the best ways to help your colony prosper. You can't start a colony all by your lonesome so make sure your treat those octopians real well.

Hexage, creator of Evac and Everlands, pits your human military prowess against endless alien swarm in this mobile tower defense game, Radiant Defense. Defense of your spiral reactor (which looks oddly like a stove burner) is the number one priority since it keeps out those pesky invaders from, you know, destroying all humans. Radiant Defense definitely keeps elements that you would always expect from the tower defense genre, but you remove the predetermined path and get the ability to create the path they will follow to their doom (hopefully). Lasers will fly, aliens will die, and the entire time your fingers will be nimbly working to hold off a rather comically bad invasion story unfold.

It was supposed to be a quick and easy heist. Break in to the museum, snag the Lupine Twine Amulet, sneak out. Profit! But then, something unfortunate happened: Lucas MacGuffin put the amulet on. With the amulet permanently attached to him, Lucas now had the unfortunate ability to turn into a werewolf whenever he was exposed to moonlight. On top of that, the entire city went into lockdown as a result of his bungled theft. Making delicious lemonade out of those lemons, though, Lucas turned his misfortune into a boon, using his lupine skills to work his way through town in a sokoban-style adventure. MacGuffin's Curse is one of those light-hearted, funny, challenging and visually gorgeous games you won't be able to put down.

The kingdom is under attack!... not that Questy cares, of course. At least... not until his funds run out and he can't keep himself in the fat and complacent lifestyle he's become accustomed to. In this gorgeous upgrade of Sean Gailey's quirky, colourful fantasy puzzler, place loot bags and other helpful items to guide Our Hero Questy away from hazards and through mazes to ultimately defeat the evil wizard Boneyard.

Majesty: The Fantasy Kingdom Sim from HeroCraft is a mobile port of the fantasy strategy game first published in 2000, with a sequel following almost a decade later. Fans of the original will immediately fall in love with the mobile release, and anyone new to the series will find plenty to like about this portable-friendly title!

The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few, right? Or, perhaps more accurately, the needs of the upper classes outweigh the needs of the plebs. No matter how you dice the words, the point is it's ok to sacrifice a few little guys so the bigger, more important ones can survive. The mobile port of the browser game Dibbles: For the Greater Good illustrates just that, providing a charming and intelligent Lemmings-like game that just might make you rethink this whole "needs of the many" business.

Don't you just hate it when a bunch of brutes, nerds, bullies, and ten feet tall Greeks show up at your party unannounced? Party Crashers Tower Defense plays on that most basic fear humans have shared since the invention of chips and dip. You've only got so much food, so it's your job to defend the party from invading party crashers!

Zaga-33 is a minimalist roguelike created by Michael Brough in one week but later refined into a more polished product for Windows, Mac, and iOS devices. It ditches almost all of the traditional roguelike customs in favor of focusing on just a few gameplay elements for an ultra-refined experience. No stats to track, enemy lists to memorize, or equipment to manage, just pure and simple power-ups and combat!

Looking for a lovely way to relax or a unique way to get the kids to bed? Difference Games brings their Twisted Fairytales series to Nook and Kindle Fire in this stunning matching game based on the classic story of Snow White, though it isn't really so twisted as you might think. Light on gameplay but heavy on beautiful artwork, it's the perfect way to kick back and sink into a fantasy world for a while.

Sandlot's much-loved strategic trading simulation comes to your mobile devices in this port of one of the first Tradewinds titles. Start off as the lowly captain of an itty-bitty ship as you sail around the sea, performing tasks and earning favours from governors in between buying low and selling high, and even tracking down a notorious candy-gram pirate or two. Cheeky, silly, and easy to pick up, it's not as complex as other titles but is a great way to get introduced to the series or the genre gently.

When you hear the phrase "the best things come in small packages", you should mentally amend that to "the best things come in small cube packages". Cubemen is a no-bloat tower defense game that tries to do one thing and do that one thing well: strategy. Forget mini-games, artificially inflated campaigns, and storylines that make about as much sense as a koala flight attendant. Cubemen delivers pure, raw tower defense strategy, and it does it so well, you'll lose yourself each time you play.

An arcade game of raw survival! Standing on a cloud-piercing mountain, it's you versus evil alien robot things who really want to be kind of this here hill! Armed with a single-shot gun, you must lob shots at the foes to keep them away from the pinnacle. Two control schemes let you customize how you play, but beyond that, it's up to your skill with this simple weapon to see how long you can survive. Bonus 16-bit visuals give it an extra epic feel!

Most of us have been craving a game that pits skeletons against pizza. Obviously, pizza is going to be the winner, which is why this crazy hodgepodge sort of arcade game puts you in control of a giant, customizable pizza. Skeletons rise from the soil every thousand years, but a doughy arch nemesis arises this time around, and it's your job to roll, jump, and crush the boney bad guys with your supreme skills. Not only that, but you'll participate in over 100 neat-o levels with dozens of themes, including skiing down long snowy slopes, finding and rescuing puppies, balancing, swimming, taking out skulls in a very Crush the Castle sort of manner, and even customize your pizza with all sorts of accessories. You're a Renaissance pizza, that's for sure. A very creative game that's worth its weight in laughs and sheer awesomeness. Pizza vs. Skeletons Free is also available.

Hidden object games are all over the place for the Mac/Windows downloadable scene. Take a look at the mobile market, though, and you'll find the pickings a bit more slim. Narrow that search to just the good hidden object games, and the selection is even smaller. Pirate Mysteries: A Tale of Monkeys, Masks and Hidden Objects is one of the successful hidden object games on mobile devices. It manages to keep its intrigue along with a healthy amount of content while shrinking everything down to fit on smaller hardware.

If you've played a spot-the-difference game, either in your browser or on a mobile device, chances are you've seen one or more releases from Difference Games, a studio dedicated to visually stunning, easy to play spot the difference games. Twisted Fairytales: Pinnochio is one such release, incorporating graphic novel-style storyboards and three levels of difficulty to make your pixel hunting as challenging or as casual as you please!

It's a serious trip on Nostalgia Lane when you pick up Retro Racing, an arcade-style racer from the creator of QWAK. True to its roots, you focus on pure skill and coming in first place rather than crazy jumps or tweaking your car. Look for the most efficient path through each course, and pick up power-ups to increase your car's speed, acceleration, or tire stickiness to keep you in the game. Mistakes must be kept at a minimum, as this game doesn't coddle you just so you feel like a winner. Earn your rank and you will be rewarded! A neat local two player mode is also available.

Off the Leash (iPhone/iPod Touch) - The life of a dog is wrought is stress. Take, for example, running from the police, avoiding obstacles, staying away from stationary human folk, and gathering coins and power-ups, all while recruiting as many dogs as you can without stopping even for a moment. Off the Leash is just such a crazy game, utilizing motion controls for a mission-based arcade experience that's, well, completely off the leash. Control a pack of dogs running from the police while you work to go as far as you possibly can, increasing your pack size to gather more power-ups and switching your running formation to creep through difficult obstacles. It's an absolute riot of a game, and once you start completing and seeing new, crazier missions, you'll be absolutely hooked on this gorgeous game. From the same team that brought us the equally-awesome Land-a-Panda!

The SNES/Square classic makes the leap from 1993 into your hands with this port of the huge RPG action adventure. You play a boy from a small village who, unwittingly, draws the legendary Mana Sword from a stone and is banished for what the villagers perceive as an ill omen... and when you get wrapped up in a conflict to save or destroy the world, it looks like they might be right. The real-time combat may feel a little odd to pick up on a touchscreen initially, but quickly becomes second nature, and the huge world combined with the action and colourful environments make this one effortlessly engaging despite an admittedly tried and true storyline.

What a world we live in, where mankind can walk on the moon, salad can be purchased in cups, and falling block puzzles can be fused with word games. If you're ready for your brain to have a little run through the multitasking wringer, Puzzlejuice is without a doubt the best way to hurt your synapses. With a little Tetris-like block arranging and a little Spelltower-style word building, you, too, can drive yourself mad with delight!

The time has come for adventure!... well, a little one, anyway! This simplified roguelike from Ido Yeheili offers three different heroes ready to delve into a dangerous dungeon in search of an evil Minotaur what needs slayin'. While definitely not quite as complex as other titles in the genre, Cardinal Quest offers an ease of use and engaging gameplay that's hard to beat and harder to put down.

Hey, Super Crate Box, the awesome arcade and shooting game released by Vlambeer way back in 2010. What are you doing on the iTunes App Store? What's that? Being as awesome as the PC/Mac downloadable version? Sounds great! With handfuls of unlockables, perfectly-tweaked touch controls, and a constant worldwide tally of crates collected, you'll be short on excuses not to play this lovely, crazy little game.

New to the iPad world is the tower defense game we all love to love, Kingdom Rush HD from Ironhide Games, a port of Kingdom Rush for browsers released not too long ago. The team had a bit of a problem when an unauthorized clone appeared on the iTunes App Store weeks before release. The knockoff was spotted and eventually removed (whew), leaving space for this excellent port of an already excellent game to wow and surprise gamers in the iOS device realm!

Infinity Blade 2 is the reason your iOS device exists (other than all of that non-gaming stuff, of course). It's the deep, compelling, great-looking release that melds the casual and the mainstream gaming ideals together. It seamlessly incorporates a strong fantasy story with role playing elements, upgrades, exploration, and even a hint of hidden objects along with fast-reflexes action that will make you sit up straight to play.

Shantae: Risky's Revenge is the sort of game retro-minded players will immediately snatch up. Modern players may look at it and think "another platform game?", but as soon as any human being plays it, it's easy tell that Shantae is anything but ordinary. Risky's Revenge is an action/platform game that's smartly focused on exploration in the style of a good old-fashioned metroidvania. It's a labor of love that's funny, challenging, creative, and absolutely gorgeous down to the last pretty pixel!

Aah, the salt of the sea. Deadly waves threatening to drown passersby. Armed frigates firing on civilians. Mummies scuttling across the sandy beaches, infecting helpless folks with their embalmed charm. It's just an ordinary day for the citizens in Open Sea!, a satisfying and great-looking mobile arcade game by The Pixelizers. To get everyone to safety, you're going to need a little bit of luck and a whole lot of lightning bolts.

Mage Gauntlet, from Hook Champ and Super QuickHook creator Rocketcat Games, is the modern 16-bit action role playing game you've been waiting for. Everything about it is retro, from the level design to the pixel art, only instead of having to dust off your SNES, you just fire up your iOS device. In a decidedly awesome twist, this RPG doesn't take hours of playing before you can get into it, opening it up for shorter mobile sessions and casual gamers alike!

It's super space puzzle action! In space! And, you get to be a delivery boy! In space! How could life get any more exciting than that? How about pirates, a snarky robot companion, a boss with an attitude to match his mustache, black holes, portals, and bombs? There, that should do it. The comedy-laden puzzle game Galaxy Express for iOS devices is all about twisting your brain while making you laugh, and it does so while looking spectacular!

One part strategy, one part text-driven choose your own story adventure, King of Dragon Pass is exactly the game you want on your mobile device. Ported to iOS from the original PC/Mac release of 1999, this storytelling experience is rich in its own history and affords you a vast amount of control over what happens within. Wage war, explore the land, trade with your neighbors, manage your tribe, and read pages upon pages of text explicating the world you're actively participating in. It's great to see a title like this brought back for a new wave of gamers to play, and it works quite well on the iPhone platform.

From Halfbrick Studios comes a cave flying-style game with the power to keep you playing for many multiple hours. Jetpack Joyride takes the best from jump-and-run-style games and mixes in a host of achievements, missions, store upgrades, vehicles and more, crafting a game that looks phenomenal and will keep you doing "just one more joyride" dozens of times in a row.

FBI Agent Nelson Tethers works for the Department of Puzzle Research... yes, that's a thing, and he's quite happy with his job, until the day he's assigned to Scoggins, Minnesota, to find out why the local eraser factory has stopped working. What starts out as a simple missing persons case takes a drastic turn for the bizarre, and soon Nelson finds himself wrapped up in the weirdest, creepiest small town mystery he's ever seen. Take a trip to Scoggins in this clever duo of point-and-click adventure game that doesn't skip on the charm, the creeps, or the chuckles.

Serve the Pact, serve Avadon, serve Redbeard. So it goes for you, a new recruit to the fabled Black Fortress, eager to make a name for yourself and help uphold the ideals of your land. But all is not as it seems; Redbeard, Avadon's commander, seems to inspire as much fear as he does loyalty in his followers, and murmurs of dissent ripple through the ranks while rumours of traitors both unnerve and intrigue you. Decide for yourself what path you will follow in this massive, engrossing turn-based fantasy RPG from Spiderweb Software. Just remember to watch your back so someone doesn't stick a dagger into it. Who can you trust?

Superbrothers: Sword & Sworcery is, in one sentence, a gorgeous piece of playable, explorable art with a phenomenal soundtrack and overall design that begs to be experienced. We'll call it a point-and-click adventure (a touch and touch again adventure?), but really Sword & Sworcery is all about satisfying your curiosity in a visually striking world and doing one-on-one battles with a few discontented beings. It's a game so stepped in atmosphere and setting you'll feel like it's as epic as The Lord of the Rings, all compactified into your mobile device.

Flaws, the interactive work of fiction from author Jon Ingold, is a difficult game to categorize as well as a different game to review. For starters, it isn't really a game in the traditional sense, more like a choose your own adventure produced for modern, Kindle-enabled devices. Then there's the nature of the story, where discussing even a few of the details can spoil whole bits of the experience. Suffice it to say, Flaws is an intriguing interactive fiction "game" about finding treasure and fame, the Andromeda galaxy, a mysterious diadem, and a possible assassination.

If you're looking for a fantastic point-and-click adventure that combines mystery, suspense, pharmaceuticals, science fiction, and an extremely goofy English translation, then look no further. Take two shots of Dr. Stanley's House 2 and call me in the morning. Presuming, of course, that you ever find your way out of the air ducts.

At long, long last, Jordan Mechner's (creator of the original Prince of Persia game) adventure gaming masterpiece The Last Express is available as a digital download! The game was first released in 1997 where, despite being an amazing interactive experience, it failed to gain much commercial traction. Its cult status survived the turn of the century largely due to the unique nature of the gameplay, the incredible writing, and a visual style that's more like an animated television show than a video game. No more tracking down rate copies of the original CD-ROM. Just download, install, and enjoy!

Virtual Villagers 5: New Believers is a brilliant addition to the genre and ramps up everything that is fun about the series. The puzzles are tougher as are the challenges, which is a good thing for those who love this series of village sims. The story has a darker, more sinister edge as you explore what the destruction and grief have done to the original inhabitants of Isola. There's much to love and recommend in this fantastic new adventure. Go explore!

Adventure game fans with an iOS device, it's time to saddle up. Scarlett and the Spark of Life, a brand new "point and click" adventure from Launching Pad, creator of The Pretender series, has arrived, and it's got more humor than you can shake a pair of reclaimed fenceposts at. Princess Scarlett has been kidnapped by a pair of meatheads, but she's clever and snarky enough to get out of the situation on her own. Her sister, on the other hand, needs her help, so it's time to break free, find a horse, and gallop off to the rescue!

Making games is hard. But playing a game about making games is anything but. Game Dev Story is a lighthearted sim that's lets you run your very own game development studio, doing everything from negotiating licensing deals with console makers to choosing the genre and theme of the games you're going to make. It's the type of game that you pick up to play for a few minutes before realizing that a few hours have already passed. Fixing bugs in a game has never been so fun.

Sometimes games are just there for us when we want to have some fun, blow up the princess, and save the zombies, or something like that. Other times, we want to explore more difficult and painful stories. Grace's Diary manages to seamlessly integrate the theme of a relationship abuse into a sensitive and moving visual novel.

Think you finally kicked your Plants vs. Zombies habit? You are so wrong. Just released on the iTunes App Store: PopCap's crazy-awesome casual defense game Plants vs. Zombies. It's got all the cherry bombing, squash pounding, sunflower sprouting, zombie dispatching wildness of the original PC/Mac download, now in the palms of your hands.

Don't Look Back is a modern retelling of the story of Orpheus and Eurydice, although there are subtle differences. For one, the mythical greek poet favored a harp over a handgun, and for another, he didn't need your platforming skills to guide him on his journey.