Top 10 best iPhone and iPad games of April 2014
Assassins! Cards! Totems! Souls!
April has been pretty incredible for iOS games.
Between amazing PC ports like FTL and Hearthstone, and juicy iOS originals like Monument Valley and Leo's Fortune, gamers of all stripes have had something good to try this month.
Plus, we had our first Platinum Award of the year, and we'll no doubt see some of these games again, later in the year, for our best of 2014 roundups.
UnpossibleBy Acceleroto - buy on iPhone and iPad
We've had so many of these twitchy arcade avoid-'em-ups that it's only natural that they would start breeding.
Unpossible is the unholy lovechild of Pivvot and Impossible Road, which means you're spiralling around a winding cable to avoid big obstacles, but you're doing it from a nauseating first-person perspective.
It might not be the best of its ilk, but Unpossible is tight, polished, and rewarding.
YomiBy Sirlin Games - buy on iPad
Making a tabletop card game out of a twitchy arcade beat-'em-up is kind of like making a racing game about snails or an audiobook about silence. They just don't compute.
But the utterly bizarre iPad conversion Yomi is just such a card-battling brawler, and it pulls it off with aplomb. It's fast, it encourages you to predict your opponent's next move, it features outlandish combos, and it lets you play as a panda.
Hitman GOBy Square Enix - buy on iPhone and iPad
Hitman GO is a weird, weird game. Everything is dressed up like a super fancy boardgame, with chrome-domed murderer Agent 47 turned into a resin ornament, and his hunting grounds recreated as '60s style dioramas.
Once you get past the unique presentation, however, you'll find a smart and sophisticated puzzler that feels like a Hitman game but with a clever turn-based spin.
Hearthstone: Heroes of WarcraftBy Blizzard Entertainment - download free on iPad
For many, Hearthstone on iPad is just an opportunity to carry your PC addiction into the bathroom. Which is totally doable, thanks to seamless Battle.net integration.
But if you're all new to Heroes of Warcraft, expect a fast-paced and strategic card-battler with unbelievably high production values and a horrendously compulsive online mode.
David.By Andrew Armstrong - buy on iPhone and iPad
If I told you that David. was a game about exploring foreign lands and taking down massive beasts, you might expect something that looks like Shadow of the Colossus.
You would, as usual, be dead wrong. This is actually an abstract indie game about squares beating up other squares as if the entire game was made with a ruler.
That doesn't matter though. Detailed graphics or simple shapes, this is an inventive and rewarding game and - a few frustrations aside - it works wonderfully on the touchscreen.
Monument ValleyBy ustwo - buy on iPhone and iPad
We've played games that have played with perception, impossible geometry, and Escher-like paintings before. But few have been as drop-dead gorgeous as the ethereal wonder Monument Valley.
As you explore these insanely ingenious puzzle box worlds, teasing out the next walkway with a curious touch, it becomes apparent that every screen in this game is a work of art.
But it's not just a pretty face. The puzzles are inventive, the restrained story is intriguing, and Monument Valley can be surprisingly moving.
FTL: Faster Than LightBy Subset Games - buy on iPad
Do you make a deal with a space pirate, or will you blow them out of the galaxy with a charged laserbeam? Do you send a crew member into a burning space station to retrieve supplies, or play cautiously and jet off to the next waypoint?
This ruthless spaceship survival game is constantly asking you to make weighty decisions, and the success or failure of your almost mission can hang on these choices.
And even if - or rather when - you explode into a shower of spaceship litter, FTL is so good and so satisfying that you'll want to jump straight back into the cockpit and start all over again.
Wayward SoulsBy Rocketcat Games - buy on iPhone and iPad
Wayward Souls is our first Platinum Award winner of 2014, and I think we can all agree that this ruthless, randomised action-RPG is a worthy recipient.
Part Dark Souls, part Secret of Mana, part Spelunky, this 16-bit adventure is all about positioning yourself in combat, making smart use of limited supplies, and then dying - permanently - at the hands of some big baddy.
But, like FTL above (only set in a dungeon, instead than the cold expanse of space), you'll be raring to go back in for just one more go as soon as you kick the bucket.
AngerForce - StrikersBy Screambox - buy on iPhone and iPad
So you want an intense bullet-hell shooter, but you don't want to deal with the crazy ear-spitting music and bizarre prepubescent anime girls of a Japanese Cave game. That's fine, you big racist. Here's AngerForce.
It might not be the most taut shooter ever made. And veterans of the genre might not be incredibly impressed. But it's accessible, it's fun, and the cartoon graphics are some of the best on iOS.
Leo's FortuneBy 1337 & Senri - buy on iPhone and iPad
How many games on this list allow you to be a quasi-Russian, moustachioed ball of fluff? Sure, Leo's Fortune isn't the most original platformer ever made, but its fuzzball hero is certainly not one we've seen before.
He's the hero of a solid little physics-driven adventure, which is filled with content and derives plenty of good ideas from hero Leopold's curious ability to inflate and shrink.
Previously...
March 2014 - February 2014 - January 2014
