Title: Blown Away: Secret of the Wind
Developer: Black Pants Studio
Platforms: IOS Universal
Price: $2.99
---
Besides being quirky and/or having a unique art style, the only definite thing you can say about the games from Black Pants Studio is that they're diverse. From the hand-drawn mirrored landscapes of Symmetrain to the 3D platforming and environmental dicing of Tiny & Bing, each of their games seems to try something different. Blown Away: Secret of the Wind is their newest iOS game and it combines auto-running and fast-pacing puzzling in a charming and colorful package.
Hendrik is unfortunately having a bad day. Through a gust of wind, Mother Nature took away not just his home, but his hair too. Now he travels a weird and dangerous world, collecting the pieces of his house along the way. For the unprepared, this land would prove to be an insurmountable challenge, between deadly gaps, roaming monsters, and raging flames, among other hazards. But Hendrik has a unique tool in his arsenal: a pair of teleporting boots, that Blown Away's puzzles and platforming revolve around.
In each of the game's 120 levels, you walk to the right automatically, recharging your boots with each step. Tapping the screen teleports you to that location, even as you're falling to certain doom. The charging element is what turns a relatively simple mechanic into a puzzler. Your boots only charge when you're moving, and you only have a limited amount of teleports, so reaching the end of a level means assessing the level and figuring out where to teleport so you have enough distance to recharge. But distance isn't the only thing to consider; timing is important as well if you want to evade patrolling monsters and crushing sawblades.
The auto-running and boot recharge complement each other nicely, forcing you to always pay attention to the path ahead, thinking of how many teleports you'll need to cross a gap, where you should teleport to and when. Through that simple single-tap mechanic, Blown Away delivers both puzzles on the go and the arcade-y thrill of dodging traps, and it's all presented in a vibrant hand-drawn art style that brings to mind old-style cartoons.
Blown Away is available for $2.99.
Developer: Black Pants Studio
Platforms: IOS Universal
Price: $2.99
---
Besides being quirky and/or having a unique art style, the only definite thing you can say about the games from Black Pants Studio is that they're diverse. From the hand-drawn mirrored landscapes of Symmetrain to the 3D platforming and environmental dicing of Tiny & Bing, each of their games seems to try something different. Blown Away: Secret of the Wind is their newest iOS game and it combines auto-running and fast-pacing puzzling in a charming and colorful package.
Hendrik is unfortunately having a bad day. Through a gust of wind, Mother Nature took away not just his home, but his hair too. Now he travels a weird and dangerous world, collecting the pieces of his house along the way. For the unprepared, this land would prove to be an insurmountable challenge, between deadly gaps, roaming monsters, and raging flames, among other hazards. But Hendrik has a unique tool in his arsenal: a pair of teleporting boots, that Blown Away's puzzles and platforming revolve around.
In each of the game's 120 levels, you walk to the right automatically, recharging your boots with each step. Tapping the screen teleports you to that location, even as you're falling to certain doom. The charging element is what turns a relatively simple mechanic into a puzzler. Your boots only charge when you're moving, and you only have a limited amount of teleports, so reaching the end of a level means assessing the level and figuring out where to teleport so you have enough distance to recharge. But distance isn't the only thing to consider; timing is important as well if you want to evade patrolling monsters and crushing sawblades.
Title: Power Hover
Developer: Oddrok
Platforms: IOS Universal
Price: $3.99
---
Between Temple Run, Subway Surfer, and everything in between, I've been somewhat burned out on behind-the-back runners. It's one of the most common genres on mobile, and in recent years, seems to have been reduced to the format for generic licensed titles. Switch lanes, jump, slide....sometimes it feels like if you've played one, you've played them all. None that I've played have been able to match the variety and style of the hectic Boson X...till now. With its incredibly varied stages and colorful low-poly aesthetic, Power Hover is easily one of the best runners on mobile.
The story is simple. The energy to your robot village has been stolen, get on your hoverboard and follow the thief's trail of batteries to retrieve the power. It's merely there to serve as a framework for the fast-paced chases and hazards to evade, and it's in those aspects that Power Hover shines.
Endless deserts where massive worms gracefully arc through the sands. Sea-bound ruins and seaside cliff faces. Tight canyons wracked by seismic tremors and drills erupting from the dirt. Every level in Power Hover is unique, not merely in terms of locations and hazards, but in how the camera seamlessly changes perspective. One moment, you're guiding your robot boarder through discarded shipping containers from high up; the next, the camera swoops in close as you enter a claustrophobic tunnel.
The constantly changing locations and perspectives, even within the same level, makes each stage feel like an adventure, driving you to see what comes next. The hazards along the way are equally diverse, ranging from stationary stones and rusted cars to rolling spikes and saws to lasers. Between hand-crafted stages and endless boss levels, Power Hover offers a surprising amount of variety in every aspect of its gameplay.
The reflex-testing action wouldn't be worth experiencing if the controls weren't tight. Actually, tight is the wrong word. Your hoverboard has an intentional looseness to it, feeling more like surfing than rigid lane swapping. You're always in control, even as as you smoothly weave between obstacles or grind across rails, but doing so skillfully requires timing and looking ahead to prepare for the next section,
Power Hover's aesthetic completes this polished package. Each level pops with vivid colors and interesting sights, whether it's a coastal strait with wind turbines and gulls skimming the water or a massive machine lumbering through the desert.
Power Hover is available for $3.99 on iPad and iPhone.
Developer: Oddrok
Platforms: IOS Universal
Price: $3.99
---
Between Temple Run, Subway Surfer, and everything in between, I've been somewhat burned out on behind-the-back runners. It's one of the most common genres on mobile, and in recent years, seems to have been reduced to the format for generic licensed titles. Switch lanes, jump, slide....sometimes it feels like if you've played one, you've played them all. None that I've played have been able to match the variety and style of the hectic Boson X...till now. With its incredibly varied stages and colorful low-poly aesthetic, Power Hover is easily one of the best runners on mobile.
The story is simple. The energy to your robot village has been stolen, get on your hoverboard and follow the thief's trail of batteries to retrieve the power. It's merely there to serve as a framework for the fast-paced chases and hazards to evade, and it's in those aspects that Power Hover shines.
Endless deserts where massive worms gracefully arc through the sands. Sea-bound ruins and seaside cliff faces. Tight canyons wracked by seismic tremors and drills erupting from the dirt. Every level in Power Hover is unique, not merely in terms of locations and hazards, but in how the camera seamlessly changes perspective. One moment, you're guiding your robot boarder through discarded shipping containers from high up; the next, the camera swoops in close as you enter a claustrophobic tunnel.
The reflex-testing action wouldn't be worth experiencing if the controls weren't tight. Actually, tight is the wrong word. Your hoverboard has an intentional looseness to it, feeling more like surfing than rigid lane swapping. You're always in control, even as as you smoothly weave between obstacles or grind across rails, but doing so skillfully requires timing and looking ahead to prepare for the next section,
Power Hover's aesthetic completes this polished package. Each level pops with vivid colors and interesting sights, whether it's a coastal strait with wind turbines and gulls skimming the water or a massive machine lumbering through the desert.
Title: Euclidea
Developer: Horis International Limited
Platforms: IOS Universal
Price: Free
---
Math can be difficult and frustrating for some people, and the very notion of math puzzler probably is enough for people to dismiss some games. But Euclidea isn't like most math-based puzzlers; rather than numbers and addition and subtraction, it's all about geometry, constructing figures and shapes. There are quite a few games that feature similar concepts, usually physics-based puzzlers where you need to build supports or structures, but Euclidea distills that idea down its purest, most minimalist form, with an elegant presentation and easy-to-use controls.
Euclidea starts out simple, easing you into its collection of geometric brainteasers by teaching how to create line segments, select points, draw circles. And then gradually, the challenge begins to increase, as you use intersecting circles to create equilateral triangles and perfectly bisect lines.
But the game isn't completely merciless. For several of the more common and tricky actions like bisecting angles and creating parallel lines, once you learn how to construct it once, Euclidea provides tools that automatically perform the action. Thanks to the game's controls and clean UI, the challenges of the puzzles are about figuring out how to accomplish a task rather than in the execution
You'll need those tools, because while Euclidea may be easy to control, it certainly isn't easy. Figuring out to create a perfect hexagon within a circle or trisecting an angle requires you to think ahead, understand how points and intersections and line segments all interact and can be used together. It may sound scary, but the game does a good job at introducing its concepts and making sure you can use them before throwing the tricky challenges at you. Like math in general, Euclidea's puzzles are cumulative, building upon what you figured out before and challenging you to use that knowledge in new ways.
Euclidea is visually sparse, black lines against white, but there's something appealing and satisfying about the symmetric patterns of lines and arches created from your attempts to solve puzzles, how distinct shapes emerge from the mess of intersecting and overlapping figures.
Euclidea is free to download, with only an IAP to remove ads. You can download the game here.
And if you enjoy this one, the developer released Pythagorea earlier this year, a similarly geometry-focused puzzler with its own unique twists.
Developer: Horis International Limited
Platforms: IOS Universal
Price: Free
---
Math can be difficult and frustrating for some people, and the very notion of math puzzler probably is enough for people to dismiss some games. But Euclidea isn't like most math-based puzzlers; rather than numbers and addition and subtraction, it's all about geometry, constructing figures and shapes. There are quite a few games that feature similar concepts, usually physics-based puzzlers where you need to build supports or structures, but Euclidea distills that idea down its purest, most minimalist form, with an elegant presentation and easy-to-use controls.
But the game isn't completely merciless. For several of the more common and tricky actions like bisecting angles and creating parallel lines, once you learn how to construct it once, Euclidea provides tools that automatically perform the action. Thanks to the game's controls and clean UI, the challenges of the puzzles are about figuring out how to accomplish a task rather than in the execution
Euclidea is visually sparse, black lines against white, but there's something appealing and satisfying about the symmetric patterns of lines and arches created from your attempts to solve puzzles, how distinct shapes emerge from the mess of intersecting and overlapping figures.
And if you enjoy this one, the developer released Pythagorea earlier this year, a similarly geometry-focused puzzler with its own unique twists.
Title: Five Card Quest
Developer: Rocketcat Games
Platforms: IOS Universal
Price: $2.99
---
Between Mage Gauntlet and Wayward Souls, Rocketcat Games is well established as a developer that can develop a challenging quality RPG/roguelike experience on mobile. Now with Five Card Quest, they tackle the turn-based game and deliver a challenging tactical dungeon crawler
In Five Card Quest, you select a duo of warriors from a selection of classes, from the powerful support Priest to the dagger-wielding Rogue, and traverse room-by-room through dangerous dungeons. You might find a healing fountain or a merchant or another warrior to add to your party, but more often, you'll find enemies blocking your path to the exit.
Combat in Five Cars Quest is an interesting blend of card game and lane-based strategy, reminiscent of Zachtronics' Ironclad Tactics (however less complex). Your party is one side of the screen, enemies on the other, spread out across three lanes. Each turn you have five skills to use from, a mix of random abilities from each of your warrior's pool of skills, and with each action, your enemies move down the lane, closing in until they're within striking distance.
The combination of random abilities and staggered enemy approach gives Five Card Quest's combat a unique feel and allows various strategy and tactics. Abilities don't just inflict damage; they let your characters swap lanes, freeze an enemy's movement or knock it back to its side of the screen. Some attacks may take three turns to charge up, forcing you to consider how long it will take certain enemies to close the distance to strike. Other attacks do lane-based damage or injury the front-most foe.
You never know what attacks and abilities you'll have at hand during your turn, resulting in tense and desperate strategy as you use whatever's available to postpone incoming attacks, heal and prepare blocks and parries, switch characters across lanes, and so on. Five Card Quest pulls no punches, and a careless strategy will only get you killed more quickly.
Your enemies are just as varied, ranging from shielded brutes to archers and spellcasters. Each area has its own array of enemies, enemies that can stun and poison, among other actions. Friend and foe alike are brought to life on a bright angular art style, giving Five Card Quest a unique aesthetic.
Five Card Quest is available on iPhone and iPad.
Developer: Rocketcat Games
Platforms: IOS Universal
Price: $2.99
---
Between Mage Gauntlet and Wayward Souls, Rocketcat Games is well established as a developer that can develop a challenging quality RPG/roguelike experience on mobile. Now with Five Card Quest, they tackle the turn-based game and deliver a challenging tactical dungeon crawler
In Five Card Quest, you select a duo of warriors from a selection of classes, from the powerful support Priest to the dagger-wielding Rogue, and traverse room-by-room through dangerous dungeons. You might find a healing fountain or a merchant or another warrior to add to your party, but more often, you'll find enemies blocking your path to the exit.
Combat in Five Cars Quest is an interesting blend of card game and lane-based strategy, reminiscent of Zachtronics' Ironclad Tactics (however less complex). Your party is one side of the screen, enemies on the other, spread out across three lanes. Each turn you have five skills to use from, a mix of random abilities from each of your warrior's pool of skills, and with each action, your enemies move down the lane, closing in until they're within striking distance.
You never know what attacks and abilities you'll have at hand during your turn, resulting in tense and desperate strategy as you use whatever's available to postpone incoming attacks, heal and prepare blocks and parries, switch characters across lanes, and so on. Five Card Quest pulls no punches, and a careless strategy will only get you killed more quickly.
Your enemies are just as varied, ranging from shielded brutes to archers and spellcasters. Each area has its own array of enemies, enemies that can stun and poison, among other actions. Friend and foe alike are brought to life on a bright angular art style, giving Five Card Quest a unique aesthetic.
Title: Downwell
Developer: Ojiro Fumoto
Platforms: IOS Universal, PC
Price: $2.99
---
Gunboots are probably not the safest fashion choice, but safety isn't your concern in Downwell. Treasure awaits in the deep dark well, so down you go, entering a fast and frenetic downward shooter/platformer that definitely scratches the itch for a Spelunky/Binding of Isaac-style roguelite on mobile.
Yes, Downwell is a roguelite, so that means procedurally-generated wells, randomized enemy, random upgrades, and of course permadeath. Each attempt, you dive into the claustrophobic tunnel of platforms, ledges, and enemies, blasting away with your powerful gunboots.
But Downwell is no simple mindless shooter. Your gunboots can only fire a certain amount of bullets before recharging and they can recharge when you touch the ground, so the gameplay gains a layer of planning and depth. Carefully leaping around enemies to get in the best positions to fire, jumping on enemies to converse ammo, deftly avoiding hazards, is all necessary to survive.
Enemies range from relentless bats to ghosts that can phase through walls, among more dangerous variations, and they all pose a threat. Even the first stage can be hectic, and the worlds only get more challenging, introducing new hazards and enemies.
Thankfully, your fierce footwear is a versatile weapon, obliterating foes with punchy powerful blasts. Each weapon type feels distinct and forces you to approach your descent differently based on range, damage, and spread. The laser can pierce through multiple blocks with a single shot, while the noppy sprays out bullets wildly. Gather enough gems, and you enter a Gem High, a stat buff that boosts your attack damage as long as you keep the meter full by collecting gems.
Collecting gems allow you to upgrade your health and gunboot charges at shops, and between stages, you're able to choose power-ups that imbue your hero with new abilities. Jet boosts to slow your descent, eating dead enemies for health, causing dead enemies to explode when shoot, a drone companion, and many others. Power-ups can stack too, allowing you to mix and match effects.
Downwell shines due to its subtle depth and challenging action. Like games such as Spelunky or Vlambeer's titles, it nails that amorphous element of "game feel", gameplay design that just feels satisfying and addicting and powerful.
You can purchase Downwell for $2.99. The game is also available on Steam.
Developer: Ojiro Fumoto
Platforms: IOS Universal, PC
Price: $2.99
---
Gunboots are probably not the safest fashion choice, but safety isn't your concern in Downwell. Treasure awaits in the deep dark well, so down you go, entering a fast and frenetic downward shooter/platformer that definitely scratches the itch for a Spelunky/Binding of Isaac-style roguelite on mobile.
Yes, Downwell is a roguelite, so that means procedurally-generated wells, randomized enemy, random upgrades, and of course permadeath. Each attempt, you dive into the claustrophobic tunnel of platforms, ledges, and enemies, blasting away with your powerful gunboots.
But Downwell is no simple mindless shooter. Your gunboots can only fire a certain amount of bullets before recharging and they can recharge when you touch the ground, so the gameplay gains a layer of planning and depth. Carefully leaping around enemies to get in the best positions to fire, jumping on enemies to converse ammo, deftly avoiding hazards, is all necessary to survive.
Thankfully, your fierce footwear is a versatile weapon, obliterating foes with punchy powerful blasts. Each weapon type feels distinct and forces you to approach your descent differently based on range, damage, and spread. The laser can pierce through multiple blocks with a single shot, while the noppy sprays out bullets wildly. Gather enough gems, and you enter a Gem High, a stat buff that boosts your attack damage as long as you keep the meter full by collecting gems.
Collecting gems allow you to upgrade your health and gunboot charges at shops, and between stages, you're able to choose power-ups that imbue your hero with new abilities. Jet boosts to slow your descent, eating dead enemies for health, causing dead enemies to explode when shoot, a drone companion, and many others. Power-ups can stack too, allowing you to mix and match effects.
You can purchase Downwell for $2.99. The game is also available on Steam.
Title: hocus
Developer: Yunus Ayyildiz
Platforms: IOS Universal
Price: $0.99
---
Earlier this year, developer Yunus Ayyildiz released the challenging shape-crafting puzzler rop. Its simple mechanic of manipulating ropes and nodes to mirror shapes was used to offer quite tricky and complex spatial conundrums. Now Ayyildiz's next game hocus is also about spatial conundrums, but rather than recreating shapes, you're navigating them,
Each level in hocus presents you with an impossible Escher-inspired structure. You guide a red cube along the perimeter of the shapes, traveling along the odd shapes towards the waiting exit. Forced perspective allows you to travel along planes that appear to touch, letting your cube navigate each impossible maze to reach your destination.
It may sound complicated, but hocus is actually a pretty laid-back puzzler. There are no timers or move counters, so you can access each level at your own pace. While the shapes grow more complex and intricate, the core mechanics remain the same and the game even has a compass that lets you know which directions the cube can move at each junction.
Every new level in hocus is a pleasure to study and navigate, especially if you're a fan of Escher-style illusions and impossible shapes. The game's minimal aesthetic complements its simple yet increasingly challenging puzzles.
Hocus currently features 50 levels, with more to come. You can purchase the game for $0.99.
Developer: Yunus Ayyildiz
Platforms: IOS Universal
Price: $0.99
---
Earlier this year, developer Yunus Ayyildiz released the challenging shape-crafting puzzler rop. Its simple mechanic of manipulating ropes and nodes to mirror shapes was used to offer quite tricky and complex spatial conundrums. Now Ayyildiz's next game hocus is also about spatial conundrums, but rather than recreating shapes, you're navigating them,
Each level in hocus presents you with an impossible Escher-inspired structure. You guide a red cube along the perimeter of the shapes, traveling along the odd shapes towards the waiting exit. Forced perspective allows you to travel along planes that appear to touch, letting your cube navigate each impossible maze to reach your destination.
It may sound complicated, but hocus is actually a pretty laid-back puzzler. There are no timers or move counters, so you can access each level at your own pace. While the shapes grow more complex and intricate, the core mechanics remain the same and the game even has a compass that lets you know which directions the cube can move at each junction.
Hocus currently features 50 levels, with more to come. You can purchase the game for $0.99.
Title: SPL-T
Developer: Simogo
Platforms: IOS Universal
Price: $2.99
---
If you follow mobile games, no doubt you're familiar with Simogo. Their games - from the haunting adventure game Year Walk to the enigmatic text-twisting Device 6 - are defined by how they use the touch interface and slick polished presentations to deliver unique and compelling narrative experiences. So at first glance, SPL-T doesn't appear to be a Simogo title. But as you learn its rules and master its intricacies, SPL-T reveals that it's as unique as any of their other games.
Your first attempt at SPL-T is likely to be confusing. Its gameplay seems as simple as its minimal appearance. The core concept is that you need to gather points by splitting the screen into blocks. Splits alternate between horizontal and vertical divisions; by dividing an area into four or more equally-sized blocks, those blocks convert into "point blocks" marked with a number. That number indicates how many splits are required to remove those blocks from the screen.
Once you realize that those blocks disappear from the screen, SPL-T's hidden depth becomes apparent. When those blocks disappear, above blocks as well as new blocks fall down to fill in the gaps, allowing for new splits to be made. Adding to the mechanic is that point blocks that fall into an empty space have their split number halved, letting you remove them more quickly.
SPL-T evolves from a puzzler with seemingly little strategy into a game of careful planning. To earn a high score, you must be mindful of how the screen will affected several splits in the future and be careful not to create a scenario where mo more splits are possible. It's a tricky and surprisingly addictive challenge.
And not surprisingly, just like its simple puzzle mechanics blossomed with hidden depth, SPL-T is not as basic as it first appears. A plethora of secrets are waiting to be found within the game itself. To say more would spoil the mysterious nature of Simogo's puzzler, but rest assured that SPL-T might be more than just a block-splitting game.
With SPL-T, Simogo once again showcases its mastery of mobile puzzlers, delivering an engaging game hiding a strategic challenge behind its simple aesthetic.
You can purchase SPL-T for $2.99.
Developer: Simogo
Platforms: IOS Universal
Price: $2.99
---
If you follow mobile games, no doubt you're familiar with Simogo. Their games - from the haunting adventure game Year Walk to the enigmatic text-twisting Device 6 - are defined by how they use the touch interface and slick polished presentations to deliver unique and compelling narrative experiences. So at first glance, SPL-T doesn't appear to be a Simogo title. But as you learn its rules and master its intricacies, SPL-T reveals that it's as unique as any of their other games.
Your first attempt at SPL-T is likely to be confusing. Its gameplay seems as simple as its minimal appearance. The core concept is that you need to gather points by splitting the screen into blocks. Splits alternate between horizontal and vertical divisions; by dividing an area into four or more equally-sized blocks, those blocks convert into "point blocks" marked with a number. That number indicates how many splits are required to remove those blocks from the screen.
SPL-T evolves from a puzzler with seemingly little strategy into a game of careful planning. To earn a high score, you must be mindful of how the screen will affected several splits in the future and be careful not to create a scenario where mo more splits are possible. It's a tricky and surprisingly addictive challenge.
With SPL-T, Simogo once again showcases its mastery of mobile puzzlers, delivering an engaging game hiding a strategic challenge behind its simple aesthetic.
You can purchase SPL-T for $2.99.
Title: Lara Croft GO
Developer: Square Enix Montreal
Platforms: IOS Universal, Android
Price: $4.99
---
I'll start with a confession: when I first saw the screenshots and footage of Hitman GO, my impressions weren't exactly positive. I'm a big fan of the stealth franchise and it seemed like such a weird direction to take. But then I played the game and realized it was a brilliant distillation of Hitman's stealth-puzzle DNA into an experience built from the ground up for mobile. So to say my hype and expectations for the Tomb Raider-themed follow-up were high would be an understatement.
Lara Croft GO not only exceeds those expectations, but also refines the turn-based puzzle template introduced in Hitman GO, all in a gorgeous isometric package.
While Hitman GO presented its sneaky puzzles like a board game, Lara Croft GO sheds the tabletop veneer to deliver an action-puzzle adventure. The turn-based movement along paths remains, but it's no longer contained to flat surfaces and figurines. You guide Lara through ancient temples and dense jungle, past deadly traps and subterranean passages. This is an adventure in the full sense of the word, as levels flow together seamlessly and areas seen in the distance might be traversed several stages later.
Yes, traversal. The levels here are multi-tiered environments and Lara is as agile as ever, able to scale walls, shimmy along edges, and even pull off the occasional handstand. The handstand isn't the only callback to the main games; Lara's dual pistols return as well, as you deal with the numerous creatures found throughout GO's levels. Like in Hitman GO, you need to bump enemies from the side or back to kill them, but the combat is far more involved here. You might need to goad a lizard to chase you, or time your movement to avoid the poisonous fangs of a giant spider. Single-use spears let you skewer creatures from afar, and the environment is your greatest weapon, since traps and hazards can kill creatures.
However Lara Croft GO wouldn't be compete without environmental puzzles and all the elements you'd expect are here: pillars to push and pull, switches and pressure pads, platforms to raise. Given the turn-based nature of the gameplay, puzzles rely heavily on timing and figuring out the optimal path through the levels so you can avoid danger while activating switches or getting platforms into position. While the grids are smaller than the ones in Hitman, Lara Croft focuses more on interactive elements and environmental dangers to add challenge and variety to its puzzles.
Lara Croft GO visuals are just as impressive and polished as its gameplay. The board game aesthetic is gone, and in its place is a colorful isometric world filled with detail and life. Foliage sways in the breeze, lizards test the air with forked tongues, waterfalls drain out over cavernous drops. Each chapter, divided between different Mazes on your journey to a mysterious artifact, has a different visual tone, from the cliff-side ruins of the Maze of Snakes to the underground ruins and murky swamps of other levels. That visual polish even extends to the stylish menu and minimalist UI. An atmospheric soundtrack completes the engrossing presentation.
Lara Croft GO truly impressed me in how it adapted the turn-based puzzle gameplay seen in Hitman GO to Tomb Raider's platforming-heavy adventure. Once again, it distills the core aspects of a franchise - the exotic locations and ruins, the dangerous traps and creatures lurking within, environmental puzzles and agile climbing - into a mobile-friendly experience that's simple to control but still challenging and engaging.
If there's one gripe, it's that the game lacks the replay value of Hitman GO, with no collectibles that require extra puzzling to reach, optional challenges, or move pars to beat. There are gems and hidden relics to find, which in turn unlock new outfits, but those are hidden in the background rather than extra gameplay elements. But I imagine those elements would tarnish the atmosphere and adventure vibe, so perhaps the experience is better without those aspects.
Lara Croft GO can be purchased for $4.99 (Also on Android).
---
*Okay, so Lara Croft GO is a slight deviation from the usual games I cover, but with a mobile game this good, I really wanted to share my impressions, and honestly I put it in the same category as Grow Home and Valiant Hearts, aka games from larger publishers that are more indie game-esque than their usual work.
Developer: Square Enix Montreal
Platforms: IOS Universal, Android
Price: $4.99
---
I'll start with a confession: when I first saw the screenshots and footage of Hitman GO, my impressions weren't exactly positive. I'm a big fan of the stealth franchise and it seemed like such a weird direction to take. But then I played the game and realized it was a brilliant distillation of Hitman's stealth-puzzle DNA into an experience built from the ground up for mobile. So to say my hype and expectations for the Tomb Raider-themed follow-up were high would be an understatement.
Lara Croft GO not only exceeds those expectations, but also refines the turn-based puzzle template introduced in Hitman GO, all in a gorgeous isometric package.
While Hitman GO presented its sneaky puzzles like a board game, Lara Croft GO sheds the tabletop veneer to deliver an action-puzzle adventure. The turn-based movement along paths remains, but it's no longer contained to flat surfaces and figurines. You guide Lara through ancient temples and dense jungle, past deadly traps and subterranean passages. This is an adventure in the full sense of the word, as levels flow together seamlessly and areas seen in the distance might be traversed several stages later.
Lara Croft GO visuals are just as impressive and polished as its gameplay. The board game aesthetic is gone, and in its place is a colorful isometric world filled with detail and life. Foliage sways in the breeze, lizards test the air with forked tongues, waterfalls drain out over cavernous drops. Each chapter, divided between different Mazes on your journey to a mysterious artifact, has a different visual tone, from the cliff-side ruins of the Maze of Snakes to the underground ruins and murky swamps of other levels. That visual polish even extends to the stylish menu and minimalist UI. An atmospheric soundtrack completes the engrossing presentation.
If there's one gripe, it's that the game lacks the replay value of Hitman GO, with no collectibles that require extra puzzling to reach, optional challenges, or move pars to beat. There are gems and hidden relics to find, which in turn unlock new outfits, but those are hidden in the background rather than extra gameplay elements. But I imagine those elements would tarnish the atmosphere and adventure vibe, so perhaps the experience is better without those aspects.
Lara Croft GO can be purchased for $4.99 (Also on Android).
---
*Okay, so Lara Croft GO is a slight deviation from the usual games I cover, but with a mobile game this good, I really wanted to share my impressions, and honestly I put it in the same category as Grow Home and Valiant Hearts, aka games from larger publishers that are more indie game-esque than their usual work.
Title: Dungeon of the Endless
Power is emitted by the Crystal; if it's destroyed, then all hope is lost. Upon finding the level exit, you must transport the Crystal there. In this phase, the cautious room-by-room approach morphs into a desperate escort mission as you designate one person to carry the Crystal. The rest of your team must protect that defenseless hero as relentless waves of enemies endlessly spawn from every un-powered room. You never have enough power to illuminate all the rooms so pre-planning is crucial. Did you place enough modules? Which route will you take, which rooms will you power up? Which hero will guard the rear, which one will rush ahead to guard the carrier?
All of the game's varied elements mesh together at that moment. The cautious dungeon crawling to find the exit, the tower-defense aspect as you build modules for support along your route, and the squad tactics as you lead your team out of the level.
Developer: Amplitude Studios
Platforms: iPad
Price: $4.99
---
Some games are laser focused on a single aspect, fine-tuning a mechanic or element to perfection. The reflex-testing evasion of Super Hexagon or the fourth wall-breaking storytelling of The Stanley Parable. And then you have games that straddle numerous genres, like the deck-building action brawler Hand of Fate or A Dark Room. Dungeon of the Endless fits firmly in the latter category: a sci-fi dungeon-crawling, tower-defense, squad-based roguelike that blends aspects of those genres to deliver a challenging and unique experience.
Dungeon of the Endless starts out bad for your team of bounty hunters, assassins, and criminals, as their prison transport vessel is destroyed by the mysterious alien force known as the Endless. And it only gets worse from there, as the escaped survivors find themselves deep underground, in the subterranean corridors of an Endless complex. Alien monstrosities lurk in the dark rooms and halls, waiting to attack your heroes in overwhelming waves. The exit is twelve floors up, past industrial tunnels, dilapidated research facilities, and organic hives.
The easiest way to describe Dungeon of the Endless is to break its gameplay down by its individual elements. Each floor is a procedurally-generated maze, and you guide your team room-by-room, searching for the level exit. You never know what awaits behind the next door. Much-needed resources, a merchant, a new hero to recruit, more ruthless enemies?
While you can't choose your heroes' actions directly, you must still use their skills intelligently to make it out alive. Some wield powerful guns but move slow, while others slice enemies down with blades and spears and run quickly. Special abilities can boost damage and speed, regenerate health, among other useful buffs.
But your team alone isn't strong enough to survive the Endless. Each room is peppered with slots where you can place various modules. These act like the towers in a tower defense game, each with different offensive, defensive, and support capabilities. However, you can only place modules in powered rooms, and that's where the true challenge emerges.
But your team alone isn't strong enough to survive the Endless. Each room is peppered with slots where you can place various modules. These act like the towers in a tower defense game, each with different offensive, defensive, and support capabilities. However, you can only place modules in powered rooms, and that's where the true challenge emerges.
All of the game's varied elements mesh together at that moment. The cautious dungeon crawling to find the exit, the tower-defense aspect as you build modules for support along your route, and the squad tactics as you lead your team out of the level.
Surviving in Dungeon of the Endless is always thrilling, tense, and challenging, and discovering the synergies between modules and heroes is equally rewarding. A varied array of modifiers adds replay value, including an endless mode, a hardcore mode, and other twists on the core gameplay. The game controls flawlessly on touchscreen, joining the likes of FTL and Paper's Please as examples of excellent PC ports.
Dungeon of the Endless is available for $4.99 on iPad.
You can also purchase the game on PC, through Steam, Humble, and Green Man Gaming.
Dungeon of the Endless is available for $4.99 on iPad.
You can also purchase the game on PC, through Steam, Humble, and Green Man Gaming.
Title: Manowar
Developer: Lachlan Nuttall
Platforms: IOS Universal
Price: $1.99
---
A swaying ship, cannons, and a colorful assortment of cannonballs. That's all Manowar needs to deliver a tricky and satisfying puzzle game.
But that's only the start. as new mechanics compound to create suprisingly devious challenges. Firing a cannon cause the remaining cannonballs onboard to bounce into the air, allowing you to get them over walls or balance them atop other cannonballs. Then the game adds colored cannons that only affect cannonballs of the same hue. And then barriers that can only be crossed from certain directions, then platforms that swing in specific patterns, and then portals, and so on.
All these mechanics turn Manowar into a puzzler with a focus on timing and careful planning. Moving and firing cannonballs without thinking of how it will affect the remaining cannonballs can easily led to having one stuck without a way to maneuver it. You may need to block passages to guide cannonballs along a certain route or fire colored cannonballs in a specific sequence, among other tricky scenarios.
Manowar remains challenging through its 48 levels, and the game's polished presentation compliments its equally polished puzzle design. You can purchase Manowar for $1.99.
Developer: Lachlan Nuttall
Platforms: IOS Universal
Price: $1.99
---
A swaying ship, cannons, and a colorful assortment of cannonballs. That's all Manowar needs to deliver a tricky and satisfying puzzle game.
All these mechanics turn Manowar into a puzzler with a focus on timing and careful planning. Moving and firing cannonballs without thinking of how it will affect the remaining cannonballs can easily led to having one stuck without a way to maneuver it. You may need to block passages to guide cannonballs along a certain route or fire colored cannonballs in a specific sequence, among other tricky scenarios.
Title: Prune
Developer: Polyculture
Platforms: IOS Universal
Price: $3.99
---
Mobile is home to wide variety of genres, and games like Shadowmatic, Zen Bound, and Monument Valley have shown how relaxing tactile experiences are well suited for the platform. The recently released Prune drives that point home, delivering a wonderfully artistic puzzler that's a worthy addition to any mobile library.
Grow a tree, lead it to the light and watch its flowers bloom: that's the core concept of Prune across the game's five chapters. Swiping on the screen lets you slice away branches and steer the growing tree towards the light, through narrow passages, and around obstacles. From red spheres that infect your tree to windswept landscapes, gates and switches, and pollination, Prune's zen veneer blossoms into a surprisingly tricky puzzler in later levels as new and interesting elements are introduced.
Prune is as enjoyable to watch as it is play. Watching your tree sprout and reach out with twisting branches towards the light is always satisfying; combined with the shadowy landscapes with red sun and stars overhead, Prune is art in motion. Even the game's menu is elegant, as you spin the earth to switch chapters, the stars streaking by and the ground eroding with the passage of time.
Prune's freeform gameplay makes it fun to replay, or just sit back and enjoy the artistic experience. You can purchase Prune for $3.99.
Developer: Polyculture
Platforms: IOS Universal
Price: $3.99
---
Mobile is home to wide variety of genres, and games like Shadowmatic, Zen Bound, and Monument Valley have shown how relaxing tactile experiences are well suited for the platform. The recently released Prune drives that point home, delivering a wonderfully artistic puzzler that's a worthy addition to any mobile library.
Grow a tree, lead it to the light and watch its flowers bloom: that's the core concept of Prune across the game's five chapters. Swiping on the screen lets you slice away branches and steer the growing tree towards the light, through narrow passages, and around obstacles. From red spheres that infect your tree to windswept landscapes, gates and switches, and pollination, Prune's zen veneer blossoms into a surprisingly tricky puzzler in later levels as new and interesting elements are introduced.
Prune is as enjoyable to watch as it is play. Watching your tree sprout and reach out with twisting branches towards the light is always satisfying; combined with the shadowy landscapes with red sun and stars overhead, Prune is art in motion. Even the game's menu is elegant, as you spin the earth to switch chapters, the stars streaking by and the ground eroding with the passage of time.
Title: Her Story
Developer: Sam Barlow
Platforms: IOS Universal, PC, Mac
Price: $4.99
---
With the advent of games like Proteus, Gone Home, and other experiences, the question of what exactly constitutes a game has been brought up often over the past few years. I imagine Her Story will be another experience brought up when that discussion comes up. Whether you classify it as a game, a visual novel, interactive fiction, or something else, one thing remains constant: Her Story offers a mature and gripping experience.
Discussing Her Story's story in detail would do a disservice to the narrative it weaves. The core idea is that you're watching a series of interviews of a woman telling her story to the police. These interviews are divided into numerous short clips, and by typing keywords and phrases into the game's wonderful recreation of a 90's era desktop, you can search for new videos to learn more about the woman and her situation.
Ideally I'd classify Her Story as a narrative adventure. In adventure games, you collect items, and typically need to figure out how and when to use them to solve puzzles and continue. Her Story is that cycle, distilled to its purest form. Your items you gather are the parts of a story, and you're trying to discover the truth. Through deduction and learning more details, you gather new keywords and phrases to unlock more of Her Story's narrative puzzle box.
There's no hand-holding here. In other detective games, such as LA Noire or The Trace, you might have a notes screen that highlights clues, connections, and important videos, or maybe a hint system, Her Story strips all out those extraneous elements. The onus is on the player to piece together the mystery; it's a completely cerebral experience. There isn't even a definite end; you finish when you feel satisfied that you've learned enough.
Her Story's non-linear structure is also very unique. How you piece together the story could be different from how someone else might. You may stumble on some revelation earlier or later than another person, or learn the context of a clip later in the story. But no matter how you approach the story, Viva Seifert anchors the tale with her excellent performance.
Her Story might not appeal to everyone, but if you're looking for a unique experience that tackles a mature and gripping story in a way not often seen in games, it's well worth checking out.
Her Story is available to purchase for $4.99.
Developer: Sam Barlow
Platforms: IOS Universal, PC, Mac
Price: $4.99
---
With the advent of games like Proteus, Gone Home, and other experiences, the question of what exactly constitutes a game has been brought up often over the past few years. I imagine Her Story will be another experience brought up when that discussion comes up. Whether you classify it as a game, a visual novel, interactive fiction, or something else, one thing remains constant: Her Story offers a mature and gripping experience.
Discussing Her Story's story in detail would do a disservice to the narrative it weaves. The core idea is that you're watching a series of interviews of a woman telling her story to the police. These interviews are divided into numerous short clips, and by typing keywords and phrases into the game's wonderful recreation of a 90's era desktop, you can search for new videos to learn more about the woman and her situation.
Ideally I'd classify Her Story as a narrative adventure. In adventure games, you collect items, and typically need to figure out how and when to use them to solve puzzles and continue. Her Story is that cycle, distilled to its purest form. Your items you gather are the parts of a story, and you're trying to discover the truth. Through deduction and learning more details, you gather new keywords and phrases to unlock more of Her Story's narrative puzzle box.
Her Story's non-linear structure is also very unique. How you piece together the story could be different from how someone else might. You may stumble on some revelation earlier or later than another person, or learn the context of a clip later in the story. But no matter how you approach the story, Viva Seifert anchors the tale with her excellent performance.
Her Story is available to purchase for $4.99.
Title: Door Kickers
Developer: KillHouse Games
Platforms: iPad
Price: $4.99
---
Door Kickers was one of the first games I wrote about, all the way back in 2013. Since then the game has been finished, expanded, garnered critical acclaim, and now the tactical SWAT game has made its way to iPad. Tactical strategy is a genre that excels on touchscreen, and Door Kickers' tense top-down action is a welcome addition to anyone's mobile game library.
Door Kickers is the kind of game that's easy to learn but challenging to master. The top-down line-drawing control scheme and the concept of troopers breaching rooms likely brings to mind games like Frozen Synapse and Breach & Clear, but personally I'd say Door Kickers is the better game compared to those two. The controls here are simple - drag to set your team's paths, hold on icons to choose actions - but provide a wealth of tactical depth. Do you go in loud or infiltrate silently? Split your teams into a stealth and assault force? Disorient terrorists with a flash bang or blow them away with a breaching charge? You can stack up on doors and synchronize breaches with go codes, use your snake cam to peer into rooms, time sniper shots, flank distracted enemies, and more.
As you progress, your arsenal continues to expand. New squad classes allow you to outfit your team with riot shields, silenced weapons, and better armor and guns, while unlocking skill tree abilities like double taps makes your team more efficient. The emphasis here is on efficiency. If you don't plan well, if you forget to check your corners, if you rush blindly into a room without a plan, your team will be pay with devastating causalities and dead hostages.
The game's content is just as varied as the tactics at your disposal. Multiple themed campaigns and myriad single missions takes your troopers from dilapidated apartments and dirty garages to Cartel-owned beach houses and hotel floors, to ships, cabins, and groceries stores. A customizable scenario generator provides endless potential challenges if those missions aren't enough.
Door Kickers was an excellent game on PC, and the tactical action feels at home on iPad thanks to its simple and effective touch controls. Perhaps the best aspect is that saves work cross-platform, so it's possible to transfer your progress from PC and continue playing on the go, or vice versa.
You can purchase Door Kickers for $4.99.
Developer: KillHouse Games
Platforms: iPad
Price: $4.99
---
Door Kickers was one of the first games I wrote about, all the way back in 2013. Since then the game has been finished, expanded, garnered critical acclaim, and now the tactical SWAT game has made its way to iPad. Tactical strategy is a genre that excels on touchscreen, and Door Kickers' tense top-down action is a welcome addition to anyone's mobile game library.
Door Kickers is the kind of game that's easy to learn but challenging to master. The top-down line-drawing control scheme and the concept of troopers breaching rooms likely brings to mind games like Frozen Synapse and Breach & Clear, but personally I'd say Door Kickers is the better game compared to those two. The controls here are simple - drag to set your team's paths, hold on icons to choose actions - but provide a wealth of tactical depth. Do you go in loud or infiltrate silently? Split your teams into a stealth and assault force? Disorient terrorists with a flash bang or blow them away with a breaching charge? You can stack up on doors and synchronize breaches with go codes, use your snake cam to peer into rooms, time sniper shots, flank distracted enemies, and more.
The game's content is just as varied as the tactics at your disposal. Multiple themed campaigns and myriad single missions takes your troopers from dilapidated apartments and dirty garages to Cartel-owned beach houses and hotel floors, to ships, cabins, and groceries stores. A customizable scenario generator provides endless potential challenges if those missions aren't enough.
You can purchase Door Kickers for $4.99.
Title: Xenowerk
Developer: Pixelbite
Platforms:
Price: $1.99
---
Pixelbite's Space Marshal was one of the best dual stick shooters to grace mobile this year. Stealth, mechanics like flanking and cover, and a varied loadout added a layer of tactical depth you don't often find in top-down shooters. Xenowerk takes the tight controls, detailed visuals, and satisfying gameplay of Space Marshals and delivers a faster, more arcade-y experience, as you cleanse an science facility of a mutant infestation.
While Space Marshals offered larger levels and a slower pace, Xenowerks is set in claustrophobic dark corridors, where mutant creatures lurk around every corner. A vast array of weapons are available, from simple assault rifles and shotguns to powerful flamethrowers, grenade launchers, and miniguns. You can carry any two guns, and complimenting your loadout is a selection of armor, each granting special abilities that can boost your speed and damage or unleash a enemy-slowing aura,
Each of the game's 50 level is a contained lab floor, where you either hack into terminals to gather data or defeat deadly mini-bosses. As you progress, mutants grow in strength and ability, charging with incredible speed or launching projectiles; success means using your skills at the best time, getting kill streaks to fill up your power meter faster, and managing your fire so you don't overheat your weapons. The missions tend to be short, only a few minutes long, but the varied mutants add more challenge as you descend deeper.
Xenowork is available on IOS for $1,99. An Android version is coming soon.
Developer: Pixelbite
Platforms:
Price: $1.99
---
Pixelbite's Space Marshal was one of the best dual stick shooters to grace mobile this year. Stealth, mechanics like flanking and cover, and a varied loadout added a layer of tactical depth you don't often find in top-down shooters. Xenowerk takes the tight controls, detailed visuals, and satisfying gameplay of Space Marshals and delivers a faster, more arcade-y experience, as you cleanse an science facility of a mutant infestation.
While Space Marshals offered larger levels and a slower pace, Xenowerks is set in claustrophobic dark corridors, where mutant creatures lurk around every corner. A vast array of weapons are available, from simple assault rifles and shotguns to powerful flamethrowers, grenade launchers, and miniguns. You can carry any two guns, and complimenting your loadout is a selection of armor, each granting special abilities that can boost your speed and damage or unleash a enemy-slowing aura,
Each of the game's 50 level is a contained lab floor, where you either hack into terminals to gather data or defeat deadly mini-bosses. As you progress, mutants grow in strength and ability, charging with incredible speed or launching projectiles; success means using your skills at the best time, getting kill streaks to fill up your power meter faster, and managing your fire so you don't overheat your weapons. The missions tend to be short, only a few minutes long, but the varied mutants add more challenge as you descend deeper.
Title: Sproggiwood
Developer: Freehold Games
Platforms: IOS Universal, Android, PC, Mac, Linux
Price: $9.99
---
Mobile has quite the repertoire of roguelikes. From original titles like Hoplite and Auro to excellent ports of games such as FTL and Desktop Dungeons, the genre has thrived on the platform. Sproggiwood continues that trend, offering a charming roguelike with accessible gameplay and tactical depth.
The story is simple; doom is destined to ravage the land and a powerful forest spirit tasks you to defeat this coming evil. You start as a mere farmer, with a small village, but progressions unlocks new classes to choose from and new buildings and denizens to expand your home providing various buffs and support throughout your quest. Sproggiwood is not as obtuse or incredibly challenging as your typical roguelike; the game is divided into distinct randomized stages (each one a set of floors, with a boss to defeat) rather than a sprawling overworld, and permanent upgrades and unlocks persist across playthroughs.
But this accessibility doesn't mean Sproggiwood is an easy stroll through the forest. Armed with various weapons, special abilities, and armor, you face a plethora of enemies, each with their own unique quirks and attributes. Some charge at you sight or explode into flames upon death or unleash ranged attacks. All this information is at your disposal, giving Sproggiwood more of a puzzle game vibe; you must plan out movement, attacks, and ability cooldowns around your knowledge of how enemies will maneuver and react. Different classes, such as the sneaky thief and ranged archer, as well as powerful weapons, expand your tactics with various starting stats and attacks, and the Savage difficulty introduces new enemies and new behaviors to learn. All in all, there's a sizable amount of content, challenge, and replayability beneath Sproggiwood's colorful veneer.
Sproggiwood is available for $9.99 on IOS and Android ($14.99 on Steam/Humble)
Developer: Freehold Games
Platforms: IOS Universal, Android, PC, Mac, Linux
Price: $9.99
---
Mobile has quite the repertoire of roguelikes. From original titles like Hoplite and Auro to excellent ports of games such as FTL and Desktop Dungeons, the genre has thrived on the platform. Sproggiwood continues that trend, offering a charming roguelike with accessible gameplay and tactical depth.
The story is simple; doom is destined to ravage the land and a powerful forest spirit tasks you to defeat this coming evil. You start as a mere farmer, with a small village, but progressions unlocks new classes to choose from and new buildings and denizens to expand your home providing various buffs and support throughout your quest. Sproggiwood is not as obtuse or incredibly challenging as your typical roguelike; the game is divided into distinct randomized stages (each one a set of floors, with a boss to defeat) rather than a sprawling overworld, and permanent upgrades and unlocks persist across playthroughs.
Title: Monsters Ate My Birthday Cake
Developer: SleepNinja Games
Platforms: IOS Universal
Price: $4.99
---
Successfully Kickstarted over a year ago, Monsters Ate My Birthday Cake is a charming new puzzle game, the debut title of SleepNinja Games. While it shares elements with other games in the genre, Monsters stands out due to its colorful cute visuals, a narrative, varied mechanics, and just offering a fun polished puzzle adventure experience.
While many puzzles games are simply a series of challenges, Monsters Ate My Birthday Cake presents its brain-teasers within the framework of an interesting story and design more akin to a RPG than your usual puzzle game. You play as Niko, a young boy who wakes to find his birthday ruined when the nefarious Boogins steal his precious cake. This theft sets him on an adventure across the various areas of Gogapoe Island, where dangers and new friends await. Most puzzle games would be content with a simple string of levels, but Monsters lets you explore Niko's village, take with villagers for side quests, visit shopkeepers along your journey to purchase new items and outfits: a fleshed-out structure that adds purpose to your puzzle solving.
But the meat of the game is obviously the puzzles and in that regard, Monsters Ate My Birthday Cake delivers a polished array of challenges. Niko and the monster friends he meets throughout his journey each have their own unique abilities, useful in their own way: pulling and pushing blocks, an obstacle- and enemy- crushing ramming dash, a shriek that destroys obstacles and stuns enemies, and more. You have to use these abilities in conjunction to open blocked paths, avoid or defeat the varied Boogin enemies, and collect coins, keys, and pieces of cake. The enemies also add their own puzzle element, as one must rush at you when you enter its line of sight, another may patrol an area, or unleash a shriek of its own that disables your special abilities. Figuring how to move through the levels, how you need to work together, timing and syncing your movements makes Monsters Ate My Birthday Cake a fun game, and special objectives such as not using a certain abilities or not killing enemies adds extra challenge and replay value.
Personally I think Monsters Ate My Birthday Cake controls well; you simply draw your character's path and double tap to activate your abilities. The game is easy to play, allowing the visuals and overall polish to shine. From the character bios in your journal and the notes you find along the way, to the charming aesthetic, to the varied puzzles and the game's RPG-esque elements, to the story framework that ties it all together, Monsters Ate My Birthday Cake is a complete wonderfully-crafted package.
You can purchase Monsters Ate My Birthday Cake for $4.99.
Developer: SleepNinja Games
Platforms: IOS Universal
Price: $4.99
---
Successfully Kickstarted over a year ago, Monsters Ate My Birthday Cake is a charming new puzzle game, the debut title of SleepNinja Games. While it shares elements with other games in the genre, Monsters stands out due to its colorful cute visuals, a narrative, varied mechanics, and just offering a fun polished puzzle adventure experience.
While many puzzles games are simply a series of challenges, Monsters Ate My Birthday Cake presents its brain-teasers within the framework of an interesting story and design more akin to a RPG than your usual puzzle game. You play as Niko, a young boy who wakes to find his birthday ruined when the nefarious Boogins steal his precious cake. This theft sets him on an adventure across the various areas of Gogapoe Island, where dangers and new friends await. Most puzzle games would be content with a simple string of levels, but Monsters lets you explore Niko's village, take with villagers for side quests, visit shopkeepers along your journey to purchase new items and outfits: a fleshed-out structure that adds purpose to your puzzle solving.
You can purchase Monsters Ate My Birthday Cake for $4.99.
Title: Trigger
Developer: Spelkraft
Platforms: IOS Universal
Price: $1.99, currently free till July 20th
---
On one hand, I love finding hidden gems on the App Store; it's always cool to discover an fantastic game you never heard of. But on the other, it speaks volumes about how hard it can be for IOS developers to find an audience or exposure and attention for their game. I hope Trigger gets the attention it deserves, because it's a fun colorful game and the best same-screen multiplayer game I've played since Wrestle Jump.
Trigger is a simple game to control. Each player has a button in the corner of the screen and controls a small tank. Tapping the button simultaneously rotates your tank 90 degrees to the right and fires a projectile. This simple control scheme makes what could have been mindless arena combat into a hectic game of skill, positioning, timing, close calls, and near misses as you evade enemy shots and plan out your movements. Various power-ups appear through the arenas, granting you abilities such as laying down mines in your wake and bouncing projectiles. Getting hit isn't the end; instead you find yourself on foot, forced to race back to an vacant tank. Besides the fun gameplay, Trigger stands out thanks to its colorful charming art style, as you fight among pencils, erasers, and other everyday items. These objects aren't static; they can move, pencils can break in half, balls roll around if pushed, making the arenas feel dynamic and interesting.
Trigger can be played solo against bots, but the best experience is with friends. I recommend checking Trigger if you're looking for a fun multiplayer game or just something fast and hectic to play when you have a few minutes to spare.
You can download Trigger here. It's currently free till July 20th (usually $1.99)
Developer: Spelkraft
Platforms: IOS Universal
Price: $1.99, currently free till July 20th
---
On one hand, I love finding hidden gems on the App Store; it's always cool to discover an fantastic game you never heard of. But on the other, it speaks volumes about how hard it can be for IOS developers to find an audience or exposure and attention for their game. I hope Trigger gets the attention it deserves, because it's a fun colorful game and the best same-screen multiplayer game I've played since Wrestle Jump.
Trigger is a simple game to control. Each player has a button in the corner of the screen and controls a small tank. Tapping the button simultaneously rotates your tank 90 degrees to the right and fires a projectile. This simple control scheme makes what could have been mindless arena combat into a hectic game of skill, positioning, timing, close calls, and near misses as you evade enemy shots and plan out your movements. Various power-ups appear through the arenas, granting you abilities such as laying down mines in your wake and bouncing projectiles. Getting hit isn't the end; instead you find yourself on foot, forced to race back to an vacant tank. Besides the fun gameplay, Trigger stands out thanks to its colorful charming art style, as you fight among pencils, erasers, and other everyday items. These objects aren't static; they can move, pencils can break in half, balls roll around if pushed, making the arenas feel dynamic and interesting.
You can download Trigger here. It's currently free till July 20th (usually $1.99)
Title: The Day of the Totems
Developer: Cesar Varela
Platforms: IOS Universal
Price: $0.99
---
Your goal is to reassemble your scattered totem and reach the exit platform. Each level contains four totem pieces, and while the early levels are straight forward, easing you into the mechanics, soon the game becomes quite tricky. With each piece you collect, your character becomes taller, preventing you from passing through openings that you could jump through before. Figuring out where you need to move the totem pieces and which order you need to collect them so that you can gather all four pieces and still reach the exit can be challenging, especially once mechanics such as portals, pressure switches, and movable blocks are introduced. At one point, actually in the first few levels, I was stumped on how to collect all four pieces, until I had a great "aha!" moment, which allowed me to see new solutions I hadn't considered before. Moments like that is what makes a puzzle game surpass others in my opinion, and The Day of the Totems has no shortage of those. 
Cute colorful visuals, a nice amount of levels, solid controls, and a fun puzzle mechanics makes The Day of the Totems a puzzle platformer worth checking out.
You can purchase The Day of the Totems for $0.99.
Developer: Cesar Varela
Platforms: IOS Universal
Price: $0.99
---
The Day of the Totems is a puzzle platformer. Now there are a lot of puzzle platformers on IOS, but Day of the Totems stands out due to its cute style and interesting gameplay.
Title: Ion Bond
Developer: Smiling Bag
Platforms: IOS Universal
Price: $0.99
---
Ion Bond is the newest game from developer Stewart Hogarth. You may know him thanks to his indie I Am Level, which mixed platforming, pinball, and retro visuals to craft a fun hidden gem. Ion Bound is neither a platformer, a pinball game, or retro; instead it's a slick, stylish puzzle game, one that constantly new mechanics and offers challenging scenarios that test both your mind and skill.
Rather than ions and particles, it's easier to think of the game as about magnets in zero gravity. Same-charged nodes repel each other, differently-charged nodes attract. By linking nodes, you can manuever them around the screen, to both collide like-colored nodes and to collect the three pick-ups in each level. It's all about figuring out how to use the bonds and different node charges to your advantage and when to break bonds and conserving momentum. The chapters start out simple enough, and each adds a new mechanic, from particle-destroying dark matter surfaces, neutral white nodes, static unmoving modes, undecided nodes whose charge can be changed, and that's only the four out of the six chapters. The mechanics are simple but when combined, allow for a variety of challenging puzzles. Ion Bond may sound complex, but in fact it's easy to control, only requiring you to drag between nodes to link them together and tap on these links to separate nodes.
You can purchase Ion Bond for $0.99.
Developer: Smiling Bag
Platforms: IOS Universal
Price: $0.99
---
Ion Bond is the newest game from developer Stewart Hogarth. You may know him thanks to his indie I Am Level, which mixed platforming, pinball, and retro visuals to craft a fun hidden gem. Ion Bound is neither a platformer, a pinball game, or retro; instead it's a slick, stylish puzzle game, one that constantly new mechanics and offers challenging scenarios that test both your mind and skill.
Rather than ions and particles, it's easier to think of the game as about magnets in zero gravity. Same-charged nodes repel each other, differently-charged nodes attract. By linking nodes, you can manuever them around the screen, to both collide like-colored nodes and to collect the three pick-ups in each level. It's all about figuring out how to use the bonds and different node charges to your advantage and when to break bonds and conserving momentum. The chapters start out simple enough, and each adds a new mechanic, from particle-destroying dark matter surfaces, neutral white nodes, static unmoving modes, undecided nodes whose charge can be changed, and that's only the four out of the six chapters. The mechanics are simple but when combined, allow for a variety of challenging puzzles. Ion Bond may sound complex, but in fact it's easy to control, only requiring you to drag between nodes to link them together and tap on these links to separate nodes.
Title: OTTTD
Developer: SMG Studio
Platforms: IOS Universal
Price: $2.99
---
The tower defense. By now, we all know what to expect from one of those. Lanes, enemies, tower placement, upgrading and repairing. OTTTD takes the TD framework and offers a unique take on the genre with RTS and RPG elements, humor, and copious gore.
It should be noted that OTTTD stands over Over The Top Tower Defense and that name couldn't be more accurate. Across the three worlds, you face diverse enemies, such as flying armored shark, killer eyeballs, and chopper-riding squids,...and leave them littered across the battlefield in pieces. You have four towers at your disposal - rocket, plasma, gatling, and shock, and while that may seem limiting, you unlock two upgrades for each tower, so rocket tower can become an anti-air battery or you shock tower can become a shield generator.
So far, OTTTD sounds like any other tower defense game, but what makes it stand out is the heroes. While Kingdom Rush has a similar system, OTTTD injects an RPG-style leveling system, complete with skill trees, special skills, and weapons to equip. The game offers seven hero classes, from the long range Recon to the rocket-wielding Rocketeer, the clone-crafting Scientist, and others; you can only bring three onto a map, allowing you to customize your playstyle. Like an RTS, you can move your heroes around the map and use their abilities to turn the tides of battle; those mechanics makes OTTTD feel more hands-on and involved than other TD games I've played. You're not waiting for enemies to reach your turrets; you're moving your Heavy into position, using the Engineer's tower boost skill to take out an incoming boss, while you call in a missile strike with your Rockeeter.
Besides the involved gameplay and hero mechanics, OTTTD rounds out its action-packed package with vibrant visuals and a silly humorous tone. You can purchase the gamr for $2.99. The developers plan to update the game with another set of levels and other content in the future and a PC version is also in development.
Developer: SMG Studio
Platforms: IOS Universal
Price: $2.99
---
The tower defense. By now, we all know what to expect from one of those. Lanes, enemies, tower placement, upgrading and repairing. OTTTD takes the TD framework and offers a unique take on the genre with RTS and RPG elements, humor, and copious gore.
It should be noted that OTTTD stands over Over The Top Tower Defense and that name couldn't be more accurate. Across the three worlds, you face diverse enemies, such as flying armored shark, killer eyeballs, and chopper-riding squids,...and leave them littered across the battlefield in pieces. You have four towers at your disposal - rocket, plasma, gatling, and shock, and while that may seem limiting, you unlock two upgrades for each tower, so rocket tower can become an anti-air battery or you shock tower can become a shield generator.
