With over 500,000 apps now available for download in the iTunes app store, the gaming options are nearly limitless. In the sea of games for the iPhone, some are worth your 99 cents (or download time) and others are not. We’ve taken on the burden of sorting through the endless games to bring you what we think are the best iPhone games for everyone from the intense console gamer to the casual word puzzle enthusiast.
Categories
Adventure Action & Sports Puzzle Role-playing Platform Strategy
Adventure
Dragon Up (Free)
You’re building a Dragon Roost, which is like a high rise for dragons. There are various kinds of dragons, but they all vomit coins which you have to collect. You can also get your hands on treasures and equip your dragons to supercharge them so they can collect more coins, and you can hatch more dragons. It’s quirky and comical, but there is a game in there too. Despite being a freemium game, with a little patience, it’s possible to progress and have fun without vomiting up any coins of your own. Check out our full Dragon Up review to learn more.
Walking Dead: The Game ($5 per episode or $20 for all five)
The Walking Dead comic book series already spawned a successful TV show and so a licensed game was inevitable. The surprise here is that developer, Telltale Games, has crafted a decent release in five episodes. It features a new storyline set in the same universe and players take on the role of Lee Everett, a former history professor. If you’re looking to blow heads off with your boomstick then keep looking, rather than zombie slaying action this is all about characters, exploration, quick time events, and puzzles.
Horn ($7)
You can hardly fail to be impressed by this third-person action adventure. Horn casts you as a blacksmith’s apprentice intent on unraveling a curse that has transformed everyone into mechanical creatures. The story will draw you straight in and the blend of combat and puzzle gameplay is a lot of fun. A rich fantasy world has been brought to life in Horn and it’s a polished title that’s looking to push mobile boundaries.
Nihilumbra ($3)
A clever and puzzling adventure that tasks you with escaping from The Void which wants to reclaim you, Nihilumbra is original, engaging, and challenging. It looks very stylish and you’ll unlock new colors to bring life to your drab world and give you powers as you progress. It’s essentially a mixture of platform and puzzle gameplay. The story and the art really elevate this game, but be warned, it gets very tough toward the end.
Minecraft – Pocket Edition ($7)
The chances are good that you’ve heard about the smash hit indie sandbox game, Minecraft. It challenges you to explore, mine, construct, and survive in a series of randomly generated environments. You are free to choose how you want to play the game, which has virtually infinite replay value, but the main focus is on building. The initially disappointing iOS version has been updated in the last few months and now offers crafting, a survival mode, mobs, and a creative mode.
Action & Sports
Into the Dead (Free)
Zombies, zombies are everywhere in this apocalyptic twist on the endless runner genre. Your task is to survive for as long as you possibly can. You’ll find weapons and other pickups to help you last a bit longer, but in the end the undead get everyone. You’ll earn coins as you go and you can use them to buy perks before the next round of relentless zombie attack. Naturally there’s the option to spend real cash to boost your survival chances, but you can have plenty of fun without spending.
Temple Run (Free)
This addictive game has you running from a pack of gorillas as fast as possible through a temple-like obstacle course. You must make quick turns, jump over logs and bridges, slide underneath rings of fire, collect gold coins and make it as far as you can without getting trampled by the gorillas or meeting your death from a fall or smack in the face. This one’s good for adrenaline junkies and those who like a good race.
Fruit Ninja ($1)
Like Angry Birds, this action game is extremely simple but extraordinarily addictive. Users swipe a finger across the screen to slice fruit as it flies across the screen. Miss slicing one too many and you’re out. Slice multiple pieces of fruit with one swipe for combination points and watch out for flying bombs, which will kill you and your score in an instant. The game features classic and arcade modes as well as multiplayer for Game Center-enabled devices. Turn the sound up because, trust us, hearing your fruit be slashed and splattered is the best part.
Epoch ($6)
This newly released action game has you controlling a robot as it struggles to survive a post-apocalyptic world where humans are no longer around and robots live to fight a never-ending war. The game utilizes a unique cover system and features stunning visuals not typically matched on mobile devices. Endless customization awaits you as you configure your robot with salvaged parts and battle waves of robots in arena-style action.
Heroes and Castles ($2)
This is an engaging combination of third-person action combat with castle building strategy. Can you and your castle survive against hordes of undead, orcs, and goblins? You’ll recruit big armies, construct buildings and improve your castle defenses, and you can also leap into the fray yourself to lay waste to the enemy. You can play as one of three heroes with all the fun of leveling up and looting, but don’t forget to improve your castle and recruit more troops to help you. The two player co-op mode adds to the fun.
Ski-On-Neon (Free)
This skiing game is addictive thanks to the difficulty of getting the slopes just right. It’s a simple game where all you have to do is press your finger to the screen when you want to crouch (going into a downhill slope) or not. The slopes make for tricky timing and you must get to a certain height jump before making it to the next level.
Puzzle
Cyto ($1)
Can you help Cyto gather his fragmented memories and unlock his story? There are 81 levels of gentle puzzle action here that’s suitable for the whole family. The soundtrack and the polished artwork show off the quality and there’s a lot to get your teeth into for just a dollar. The physics based gameplay will be familiar and accessible for puzzle game fans and while it’s hardly groundbreaking it should satisfy casual puzzle gamers.
Wave Trip ($2)
At first glance this looks like a 2D left-to-right scrolling challenge in the mold of Tiny Wings, but there’s a musical element here and the ability to create your own tuneful landscapes. As you fly along, you create a song by hitting colored shapes. The orange ones are essential and you’ll loop around until you hit all of them – the blue ones are good, but optional; the pink ones are bad, and they’ll destroy any multiplier you’ve built up. It’s addictive, accessible, and frustrating all at the same time. The simple level editor is easy to use and you’ll soon get sucked into creating your own experimental tracks and sharing them.
Rise of the Blobs (Free)
In this quirky, freemium puzzle game you are battling to save a marshmallow from creeping lumps of jelly by throwing various bits of fruit at them. Matching colors will see the fruit absorbed and then you can pop the jelly with a tap and any similarly colored lumps nearby will also pop. You’ll earn coins that can be spent on helpful power-ups as you go and you’ll need them because the action gets harder and harder as it speeds up. Various goals and rewards, along with a ranking system, will keep you coming back for more.
Pixel Defenders Puzzle ($1)
Retro-styling is still going strong in the App Store as everything in sight gets the pixel art treatment, but Pixel Defenders Puzzle also brings some powerfully addictive match-3 gaming to the table. It builds on the excellent Triple Town (also worth checking out) as you match three basic tiles to create a low-level unit like a barbarian, match three low-level units and you can create a tougher unit like a ninja, and further up the chain you can create units like the plague doctor. Your defender units attack invaders and protect your VIP who wanders through the map.
Pudding Monsters ($1)
This is essentially a sliding block puzzle game except that the blocks are live blobs of pudding that babble endearing gibberish. It’s classic puzzle gameplay and it strikes that balance between easy progress through each level and a real challenge to snag a three star rating. There are 75 beautiful fridge-based levels to beat offering a wide range of puzzle mechanics to master. A new batch of levels has already been promised by developer, ZeptoLab (makers of Cut the Rope). Check out our in-depth Pudding Monsters review for more information.
Cut the Rope ($1)
Is it a good idea to feed a cute little monster candy? That’s the aim of this addictive puzzler and you’ll be feeding Om Nom for more than 300 levels. This is physics-based puzzle gameplay at its finest and it’s a game for the whole family. Instantly accessible when you pick it up and very hard to put down again, you’ll find Cut the Rope is well deserving of its place in the pantheon of casual gaming.
Angry Birds ($1)
This notoriously obsession-inducing game begins with the story of some ugly green pigs who stole eggs from their neighboring birds. These birds are now, as you would assume, very angry. Users fling the angry (and squealing) birds at fortified castles inhabited by the green pigs in an attempt to destroy the pigs and get to the next level. It’s a game of trial and error, but birds with different advantages (extra power, wider coverage) and pigs with extra protections (hardhats, etc.) keep things interesting.
Draw Something Free (Free)
Insanely addictive and occasionally laugh out loud funny, Draw Something is essentially a one-on-one version of Pictionary without the time limit. You pick one of three words, sketch it, and then the other player uses their available letters to guess what it is. You score points for correct answers but they don’t really matter. If you can’t cope with intrusive ads then you might feel the $2.99 premium version is worth splashing out for.
SpellTower ($2)
An odd blend of Tetris and word search puzzles, SpellTower is extremely addictive. Letters on tiles fall from the top of the screen and you have to find words to clear them away. The longer the words you find, and the rarer the letters you use, the more tiles you’ll eliminate. The aim is simple: stop the letters from reaching the top of the screen. The local multiplayer mode is a great addition.
Amazing Breaker ($1)
If you’re a fan of addictive and challenging puzzle games then check out Amazing Breaker. The goal of the game is to blast the various ice structures with bombs from your launcher. Each blast takes away bits of ice, leaving tiny shards behind. The fewer amounts of shards left over at the end of each round, the better your score. With over 80 levels and full high-resolution retina display graphics – Amazing Breaker is one of those games that is easy to learn but hard to master.
Sparkle the Game ($3)
This action puzzle game puts speed and accuracy to the test as users shoot orbs into a constantly moving line, hoping to make them disappear fast enough that they don’t fall into the dreaded abyss. Users tap the screen where they want to shoot orbs; match three orbs of the same color to make them disappear. Three game modes, different scene locations, and hidden bonuses and secrets keep the action fun. The game is simple in concept, but the entertainment will last hours.
Bejeweled 2 ($1)
This addictive game is one of the top paid apps of all time, and for good reason. The puzzle game challenges users to match sparkling jewels to get points to get to the next level. The premise is simple but the fun of beating each level is addicting. Different modes allow for intense or relaxed play, and new Facebook integration allows users to challenge their friends to a match.
Where’s My Water? ($1)
This extremely popular game revolves around an alligator named Swampy who is desperate to take a nice hot shower. To get the water to him, you must cut through rock in just the right places, avoid obstacles, and figure out the puzzle in time before Swampy starts to shiver. The game has over 200 levels and is surprisingly fun and addictive, despite the game’s strange initial premise.
SongPop (Free)
SongPop is a music quiz where you compete against people to guess the song that’s playing or the artist faster than they do. It’s a simple idea, but it’s great fun and fiendishly addictive. You can earn coins for wins or buy extra coins to remove some of the wrong multiple choice options or to unlock new playlists. The music is organized into various categories so you can play in a genre that you’re comfortable with. Speed is the key thing here and the faster you answer, the more points you earn, and the more likely you are to win.
Role-playing
Kingdom Conquest II (Free)
You might feel overwhelmed when you first tumble into the monster-ridden world of Kingdom Conquest II, but this unique mix of real-time strategy, role-playing, and card battling is worth sticking with. You’ll be dungeon crawling with a band of other players, constructing a formidable city, and compiling a deck of monster cards so you can send your minions out to claim more land. You can spend cash to speed things along with in-app purchases, but you don’t have to. There’s a lot of gameplay on offer here for a free title, even if it is a bit disjointed.
Bastion ($5)
Take on the role of the warrior kid and explore a range of lush environments to uncover the secrets you’ll need to rebuild the world around you. There are plenty of creatures to battle and an amazing range of weaponry to unleash on them. This is a highly polished action RPG adventure with high production values and an absorbing story mode. The visual style, music, and narration combine to create a story book feel and a memorable gaming experience.
Platform
Punch Quest (Free)
Combining popular mechanics and genres can easily result in disaster, but sometimes it just works. Punch Quest is an action brawler that blends platform gameplay, endless-running, and combat to create a deceptively deep game. It’s also just fun to punch things in the face. You can build up combos as you complete quests against an array of weird creatures and there are all kinds of awesome power-ups and collectibles. It is free so in-app purchases are a necessary evil, but don’t let that put you off, this is not to be missed.
Joe Danger ($3)
Who wouldn’t like a taste of motorbike stuntman action? Joe Danger is a comical, larger-than-life console title that has been reworked for your touchscreen. It’s platform gameplay as you focus on negotiating side-scrolling Joe and his bike through 50 increasingly difficult tracks packed with crazy obstacles. The difficulty curve ramps up gently enough to see you over the majority of the shark tanks and there’s a lot of replay value as you try to grab all of those coins. The gestures are quick to master and you’ll be glued to the vividly bright visuals for hours.
Strategy
Fieldrunners 2 ($3)
It has taken a while, but the sequel to one of the most popular tower defense games ever is finally here. The original Fieldrunners helped to spawn the tower defense craze and this follow up does not mess with the basic formula. It is graphically gorgeous and highly polished with tons of satisfying gameplay to get your teeth into. If you’re a tower defense fan, this is an essential purchase.
Outwitters (Free)
Turn-based strategy is not a well-represented gaming niche on iOS, so Outwitters’ blend of accessible multiplayer battle is a welcome addition. You build up resources called “wits” that you can spend on moves, attacks, or new units. The basic aim is to destroy your opponent’s base. The factions are well balanced, the art style is cute, and you can play one-vs-one or two-vs-two player games. The basic game is free, but there are in-app purchases.
Total War Battles: Shogun ($5.50)
Real time strategy addicts are not well served on the iPhone but Total War Battles aims to change that. This is a gorgeous game with stylized Japanese artwork and fluid animations. You must guide your clan through a series of battles on hex-based maps. Basic resource management is thrown into the mix with the same split between the turn-based management and the real-time battles as you find in the PC games. Naturally, this is simplified and scaled down by comparison but there’s plenty on offer to get strategists frothing at the mouth.
Plants vs. Zombies ($3)
The much-loved tower defense game that started out as a hit on PC is now available for the iPhone, to the relief of countless fans. Users must defend their homes against hoards of angry zombies attempting an invasion. Planting a variety of zombie-zapping plants will fend off the walking dead, and the more zombies you kill the more plants you can get to defend your home. The game has 50 different levels that feature different scenes and backgrounds. The game stays interesting thanks to the variety of zombies with special skills and tricks.
By Jeffrey Van Camp — March 7, 2013
