Top 10 best iPhone and iPad games of July 2012
Summer lovin'
Each month, we like to look at all the new iPhone and iPad games that have come out in the last four weeks and pick out the very best ones.
Between watching athletes smash world records and watching robots land on new worlds, we've found time to play some truly excellent new additions to the App Store.
This month is about puzzlers, physics, turn-based battles, and zombies. These are, we reckon, the very best iOS games of July 2012.
10000000By EightyEight Games - buy on iPhone and iPad
10000000 should have flopped. With its unmarketable name and icon, it's got 'disaster' written all over it. Thankfully, the actual game has been crafted with a lot more care.
It's an RPG, where you match puzzle game tiles to attack and defend. The bite-size battles move at lightning speed, and it's tough to ignore the call of 'just one more go'. Add in the well-tuned progression and you'll be up all night.
The Walking Dead: The GameBy Telltale - buy on iPhone and iPad
For a game about zombies, The Walking Dead surprisingly contains almost no headshots and health packs. Instead, it's about talking to your fellow survivors and making big decisions.
No choice should be made lightly. Any decision you make can cause irrevocable changes to the storyline, and will even affect chapters later down the line. It might not be your typical zombie game, but it's every bit as tense and engaging.
Blazing StarBy SNK Playmore - buy on iPhone and iPad
Blazing Star is a shooter for aficionados. For the hardcore Neo Geo fan who understands the intricacies of the game's scoring system, and has the well-honed reflexes to master the challenges ahead.
This SNK shooter is all about charging your shots and picking up power-ups. Master those (and the slightly cumbersome controls) and you'll command the top of the Game Center leaderboards in ultra-quick time.
SlydrisBy Radiangames - buy on iPad
Every handheld needs a star puzzle game - from Tetris on Game Boy to Lumines on PSP. Slydris might just become the iPad's flagship puzzler: original, perfectly suited to the device, and dangerously compulsive.
It's a twist on Alexey Pajitnov's seminal block-dropping title, in that in Slydris you're able to slide any piece in the stack. Add a raft of special blocks and loads of creative modes, and you've got one sharp new puzzle game.
ShellrazerBy Slick Entertainment - buy on iPhone and iPad
Think War Horse was cool? That nag doesn't have anything on Shellrazer: a War Tortoise with a multi-storey artillery nest on its back. As the slowpoke reptile plods through the stage, you can use its cannons and guns to mow down goblins.
The twin-stick shooting is fun, and it's got an addictive upgrade system, where you constantly obtain new weapons and powers for your tortoise tank.
Amazing AlexBy Rovio Entertainment - buy on iPhone or buy on iPad
Yes, yes, yes. We know. This is just a rehash of Casey's Contraptions with a Rovio logo at the start. Put down your magnifying glass, Sherlock, we already figured it out.
That's no bad thing, mind. Casey's Contraptions always was an inventive chain reaction contrivance maker with loads of ideas and a brilliant level maker. The House of Angry Birds gave it a fresh feel, and found it the audience it so rightly deserved.
The Big Big Castle!By Beep Games - download free on iPad
So many physics-puzzlers are about destruction. Toppling bricks and tumbling masonry. The Big Big Castle! is the opposite: you carefully place a random selection of fortress-building blocks to construct stable and steadfast towers.
Oh, and THEN you knock them down, in the cathartic Destroy mode. Both play styles are fun, and the wicked funny writing from Monkey Island creator Ron Gilbert is just an extra-special treat on top.
Fieldrunners 2By Subatomic Studios - buy on iPhone
Tower defence is so blasé. But, if anyone is going to rekindle our love affair with the genre, it'll be our very first crush: Fieldrunners.
This sequel has open fields where your turrets dictate the enemy's route, and more orthodox stages with pre-built paths. Both show off the game's complex strategies and perfectly tuned turrets. It's all presented with polish and care.
OutwittersBy One Man Left - download free on iPhone and iPad
Finally kicked that Hero Academy addiction? Too bad - a new asynchronous turn-based tactics game (try saying that three times fast) is here to swallow up all your free time.
Outwitters has got cute characters, a surprisingly deep set of strategic options, and a great sense of style. Whether you play online or via pass-the-handset, you'll be hankering for a rematch as soon as the bout finishes.
Great Big War GameBy Rubicon - buy on iPhone and iPad
July has been a particularly tactical month, and Great Big War Game is no exception. This is an Advance Wars-style turn-based game, where you send out an army of pint-sized units to do your bidding.
That bidding, it turns out, changes from match to match. It might involve wrecking your enemy's base or escorting a VIP. Good clean fun - in single-player mode or played asynchronously online.
The 10 best iPhone and iPad games: June 2012
The 10 best iPhone and iPad games: May 2012
The 10 best iPhone and iPad games: April 2012
The 10 best iPhone and iPad games: March 2012
The 10 best iPhone and iPad games: February 2012
The 10 best iPhone and iPad games: January 2012
