New releases round-up: Gemini Rue, Dungeon Hunter 4, Mr. Crab, and more

Every Thursday, we take time out to look at the week's new and noteworthy iOS games both in words and in video.

This week, the headline games are Wadjet Eye's evocative sci-fi adventure Gemini Rue and Gameloft's free-to-play monstrosity Dungeon Hunter 4.

There's also a game about solving murders in a quaint English village, a dungeon-crawling boardgame, a crustacean platformer, and a game about shooting aliens with guns. How novel!

Anyway. Let's get to the video. Text, prices, App Store links, and pretty pictures are down below.

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Cartoony platformer Mr. Crab LOOKS like a casual game. But looks can be deceiving.

This rotating auto-runner, from Blast-A-Way developer Illusion Labs, can actually get quite tough in the later levels.

The goal is simple: you bounce your crustacean hero over gaps, obstacles, and enemies on your way to the top of the spiralling tower.

Getting there's quite easy. But collecting enough crabs and gems to get a good score - and doing it under a time limit to boot - makes it a challenging little game and a half.

Lumber Jacked
By Everplay - iPhone, iPad (69p / 99c)

There's no beating around the bush here: Lumber Jacked is a lot like Ravenous Games's slick speedrun platformer League of Evil.

So, you've got super-short levels, double-jumps, and wall-jumps, plus you end each level by punching someone in the face.

In League of Evil, that 'someone' is a bespectacled scientist. Here, it's a beaver. But the point still stands.

Still, while it's not massively original, Lumber Jacked is a lot of fun. Furthermore, the pixel-art is dashing, and you get a lot of levels for your buck.

Gemini Rue
By Wadjet Eye Games - iPhone, iPad (£2.49 / $3.99)

Gemini Rue is a science fiction point-and-click adventure, in which your time is evenly divided between a pair of stories.

There's a film noir-style detective story in a moody city where it's always raining, and a dystopian prison piece in some spotless white research lab where an omnipresent director is watching everything you do.

It has a really engrossing story, and a wonderfully evocative atmosphere. It also has sterling voice work, clever (and logical) puzzles, and - in this iOS port - a director's commentary track from lone designer Joshua Nuernberger.

Bottle Cap Blitz
By Big Pixel Studios - iPhone, iPad (69p / 99c)

A quickie now...

Bottle Cap Blitz - from Big Pixel Studios - is about flicking bottle caps at ice cubes. And that's about it.

Sure, there are power-ups and special cubes and the clichéd 60-second timer you see in every game with the word 'Blitz' in the name.

But it's not a very involving game. And it's about as enthralling as popping bubble wrap.

Mighty Dungeons
By Laylio Games - iPhone, iPad (69p / 99c)

Put simply, Mighty Dungeons is a boardgame mashed up with a dungeon-crawler. In fact, its developer namechecks boardgames like HeroQuest and Warhammer Quest, and ancient PC RPGs like Diablo and Dungeon Master.

Not my cup of tea, then, but if you like schlepping around dank crypts and swapping stats with skeletons and goblins, you'll discover it's well put together, filled with content, and is a good mixture of the two abovementioned genres.

There's even a build-your-own-board element. If you submit your quest, creature, or board idea to the Mighty Dungeons website, you might just see your creation pop up in a future update.

Blue Toad Murder Files: A Touch of Mystery
By Relentless Software - iPhone, iPad (£1.99 / $2.99)

Made by the guys behind the Buzz quiz games, the Blue Toad Murder Files was an episodic adventure on the PlayStation Network.

Well, now, it's available on iOS, in this three-episode compilation.

It's like Professor Layton, but with a British sense of humour and lots more murder. You'll bounce around the town of Little Riddle, and then get stuck into tricky logic puzzles.

I've only just cracked the surface of the Blue Toad Murder Files, but it seems pretty fun and you're getting a lot of game for not much cash. Puzzle fans should definitely check it out.

Enemy Strike
By Killer Bean Studios - iPhone, iPad (Free)

Enemy Strike - contender for 'World's Most Generic Game Name 2013' - is a fixed-position FPS, where you hunker down behind some cover and take out waves upon waves of alien invaders.

The shooting feels responsive and fun, and calling in for an air strike as a last-ditch effort is a thrill.

But this is a free game, so you can expect to grind quite heavily before you unlock the most exciting weapons.

Dungeon Hunter 4
By Gameloft - iPhone, iPad (Free)

This next paragraph costs 500 gems to read. Come on. Pay up.

Yes, it's the latest free-to-play atrocity from Gameloft. A game where everything is for sale, everything is on a wait timer, and where the richest will always win out.

It's a shame. Because while Dungeon Hunter was always a low-rent Diablo clone, it was our low-rent Diablo clone. It was the closest you got to a true loot whore action-RPG on mobile.

And this latest Dungeon Hunter looks fantastic, and is full of stuff like crafting, putting charms in armour, and a huge online mode.

But then you have to wait an hour to get a potion and you ask yourself, "what am I doing with my life?"