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The best iPhone and iPad games this week - World Cruise Story, Shin Megami Tensei, and Cardinal Quest 2

Demons, cruise liners, and rogues

The best iPhone and iPad games this week - World Cruise Story, Shin Megami Tensei, and Cardinal Quest 2
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iOS
| New releases round-up

Every Friday, Pocket Gamer offers hands-on impressions of the week's three best new iPhone and iPad games.

World Cruise Story
By Kairosoft - buy on iPhone and iPad (£2.99 / $4.99)

World Cruise Story

After letting you be a game designer, headmaster, football manager, and sushi chef, Kairosoft continues to simulate every career path in the universe.

This time around, it's cruise liner management. You're given a big boat here - it's your job to kit it out with the right amenities and luxuries to keep your passengers happy.

"If this is your first Kairosoft game, we recommend it wholeheartedly," Mike said at the game's Android launch. But "if you've played them all before, we recommend it with the rather predictable caveat that it's nothing new. It would have been nice to see some innovation."

Shin Megami Tensei
By Atlus - buy on iPhone (£3.99 / $5.99)

Shin Megami

Shin Megami Tensei is not the game for those new to the world of role-playing games. It's glacially paced, it looks ancient, and it's so complicated our reviewer recommended playing it with a GameFAQs walkthrough by your side.

But for dedicated JRPG fans, this is something special. You're getting to play the original demon-hunting dungeon-crawler in English for the first time. Well, the first official Atlus localisation, that is (there have been a few fan translations).

Stick with it, and you'll get to see how the Shin Megami Tensei, Persona, Devil Summoner, and Devil Survivor franchises all got their start. It's like an archaeological dig for obscure satanic RPGs.

Cardinal Quest 2
By Kongregate - download on iPhone and iPad (Free)

Cardinal Quest 2

Developer randomnine calls Cardinal Quest 2 a turn-based hack 'n' slash. Which is a wild oxymoron, of course. It does, however, sum up the game's streamlined roguelike gameplay quite succinctly.

It's one of those grid-based games where your enemies only shift about when you move. Hence, the 'turn-based' bit. But you can dart through levels; there's no fussy inventory management; and everything is snappy and fast paced.

Don't mistake all that for the game being simple, though. It still features permadeath; stealth mechanics; hundreds of items to loot and buy; skill trees to manage; and a cast of playable characters all very different from one another.

Mark Brown
Mark Brown
Mark Brown is editor at large of Pocket Gamer