
Christmas is a time for sliding the lids off gleaming white iPad boxes and reverently peeling protective films from pristine screens.
But it's also a time for less fortunate souls to inherit scratched, battered, overstuffed old iOS devices from higher status family members.
For those poor weaklings, we've compiled a handy list of great games that came out during or before 2012, and therefore will run on Apple devices that are sliding into obsolescence.
Merry Christmas!
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Angry Birds Star Wars - Rovio - 79p Star Wars-themed take on the epochal casual game. |
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Anomaly Korea - 11bit - 79p Technically impressive tower defence in reverse. |
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Async Corp. - Powerhead Games - 79p Utterly addictive, original, and loveable puzzler. |
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Bad Piggies - Rovio - 79p Angry Birds from the pigs' point of view. Sort of. |
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Bastion - Warner Bros. - 79p Top notch touchscreen port of the acclaimed RPG. |
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Broken Sword: Director's Cut - Revolution - £3.99 One of the best point and click adventures ever made. |
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Call of Duty: Zombies - Activision - £3.99 Surprisingly good multiplayer shooter for touchscreens. |
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Candy Crush Saga - King - Free Notorious free-to-play monster, but surprisingly good. |
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Carcassonne - TheCodingMonkeys - £7.99 Excellent empire-building boardgame on iPad. |
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Catcha Catcha Aliens! - Hotsauce - Free Ace casual game from the mind of Jonathan Ross. |
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Chrono Trigger - Square Enix - £3.99 Indifferent port of a bonafide classic J-RPG. |
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Clash of Clans - Supercell - Free The pre-eminent free-to-play social multiplayer game. |
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Cut the Rope - ZeptoLab - £1.49 Adorable puzzler about feeding sweets to a monster. |
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DrawRace 2 - Redlynx - £2.29 Innovative touchscreen-friendly take on racing. |
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Edge Extended - Mobigame - £2.29 Formerly beleaguered isometric action puzzler. |
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Fieldrunners 2 - Subatomic Studios - £2.29 Charming and accessible tower defence classic. |
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Blood of the Zombies - Tin Man Games - £1.49 Marvellous facelift for choose-your-own-adventures |
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Final Fantasy IV - Square Enix - £5.99 See "Chrono Trigger" |
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Final Freeway 2R - Newtype - 79p Slick and faithful modern take on OutRun. |
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Flick Kick Football - Sidhe Interactive - £1.49 Clever, tactile casual game that popularised flicking. |
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Flight Control HD - EA - £3.99 This ingenious line-drawing classic works best on iPad. |
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Forget-Me-Not - Nyarlu Labs - £1.49 Ingenious, stylish, and artsy take on Pac-Man. |
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Galaxy on Fire 2 - Fishlabs - Free Ambitious and epic space trading game. |
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Game Dev Story - Kairosoft - £3.99 The original and best wacky Kairosoft strategy gem. |
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Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective - Capcom - Free Excellent port of a Phoenix Wright-esque cult classic. |
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GTA: Chinatown Wars - Rockstar - £3.99 Top-down GTA with an ace drug-dealing meta-game. |
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GTA: Vice City - Rockstar - £3.99 Indisputably the best of the noughties 3D GTA games. |
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Groove Coaster - Taito - 79p Sexy minimalist rhythm-action game. |
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Hypership Out of Control - Fun Infused - 79p Classic arcade action done by clever indie developers |
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I Dig It Expeditions - InMotion - £2.29 Addictive spiritual ancestor to Steamworld Dig. |
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iBlast Moki 2 - Godzilab - £2.29 Mostly immaculate bomb-themed puzzler. |
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Incoboto - Fluttermind - £2.99 Beautiful and charming heliocentric puzzler. |
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Infinity Blade - Chair Entertainment - 79p Visually splendid gesture-based fighting game. |
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Jetpack Joyride - Halfbrick - 79p Frenetic and addictive casual action game. |
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Kingdom Rush - Ironhide - Free Conventional but immaculate tower defence game. |
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Knights of Pen & Paper - Paradox North - £3.99 Charming take on pen and paper tabletop gaming. |
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Lego Harry Potter: Years 1-4 - Warner - £1.49 Just another lovely TT Lego game, but on mobile. |
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LostWinds 2 - Frontier - £2.99 Polished puzzle-platformer from the creator of Elite |
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Machinarium - Amanita Design - £3.99 Utterly adorable hand-drawn point-and-click adventure. |
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Magnetic Billiards: Blueprint - Zee 3 - Free Clever and fiendishly addictive puzzler. |
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McPixel - Sos - £2.29 Like WarioWare if WarioWare was a puzzle game. |
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Micro Miners - BonusLevel.org - £1.49 Unique mix of Lemmings and Where's My Water? |
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Need for Speed: Most Wanted - EA - £3.99 Polished high octane racing on your mobile. |
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New Star Soccer - New Star Games - Free Super smart and addictive free-to-play football game. |
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Organ Trail: Director's Cut - The Men... - £2.29 Amusing zombie-themed retro take on Oregon Trail. |
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Peggle Classic - PopCap - 79p Hugely popular videogame pachinko. |
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Pizza Vs. Skeletons - Riverman Media - £3.99 Zany action game with a huge variety of stages. |
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Plague Inc. - Ndemic Creations - 79p Strategy game about trying to kill everybody. |
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Plants vs Zombies - PopCap - 79p Excellent lane-based casual defence game. |
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Pocket Planes - NimbleBit - Free Charming ultra casual free-to-play game. |
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Prince of Persia Classic - Ubisoft - £1.49 Well-judged update to the classic platformer. |
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Punch Quest - Rocketcat - Free Ill-fated but brilliant casual arcade game. |
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Puzzle Quest 2 - Bandai Namco - £2.29 Influential mash-up of puzzle game and RPG. |
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Random Heroes - Ravenous Games - Free Impressive and slick pixel-art platform-shooter. |
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Rayman Jungle Run - Ubisoft - Free Super-smart mobile version of Ubisoft's classic series. |
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Real Racing 2 - EA - £3.99 Visually splendid and playable arcade racer. |
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Reckless Racing 2 - Pixelbite - £1.49 Pretty and fun top-down racer with drifting. |
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Retro Racing - Mr Qwak Limited - £1.49 Simplistic but mechanically perfect racer. |
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Robot Unicorn Attack - Adult Swim - 79p Exuberant high score chaser complete with Erasure. |
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Saturday Morning RPG - Joystick Labs - Free Solid RPG stuffed with knowing '80s references. |
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Score! World Goals - First Touch Games - Free Relive a number of glorious moments in football. |
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Sentinel 3: Homeworld - Origin8 - 79p High quality early tower defence game. |
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Shantae: Risky's Revenge - WayForward - Free Well-made port of a well-made DS platformer. |
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Sid Meier’s Pirates! - 2K - £2.29 Top quality port of a vast and innovative classic. |
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Sky Gamblers: Storm Raiders - Atypical - £3.99 Accessible and technically impressive WWII flight sim |
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Skylanders Lost Islands - Activision - Free Loveable and astute free-to-play game based on toys. |
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Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing - Sega - £2.99 Flawless port of Sega's triumphal kart racer. |
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Sonic CD - Sega - £2.29 Faultless port of arguably the best Sonic platformer. |
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Space Invaders Infinity Gene - Taito - £1.49 Super-slick and stylish update of Space Invaders. |
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Space Miner - Venan Entertainment - £2.99 Mine stuff in space, upgrade your gear, do it again. |
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SpellTower - Zach Gage - £1.49 Tasteful letter puzzle from an acclaimed developer. |
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Spider: Secret of Bryce Manor - Tiger Style - 79p Creepy action game with an intriguing story. |
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Splice: Tree of Life - Cipher Prime - £2.99 Stylish puzzler based on manipulating genes. |
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Street Fighter IV - Capcom - £3.99 The '90s arcade cabinet crammed into your phone. |
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Street Fighter X Tekken Mobile - Capcom - £2.29 Capcom's best brawler adapted perfectly to mobile. |
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Super Crate Box - Vlambeer - £1.49 Frenetic, difficult, and oft-copied arcade masterpiece. |
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Super Monsters Ate My Condo! - Adultswim - Free Surreal, funny, and polished casual puzzler |
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Sword & Sworcery - Capybara Games - £3.99 Beautiful, mercurial pixel-art adventure. |
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Temple Run: Brave - Disney - £1.49 Polished 3D endless runner with a Brave theme. |
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The Big Big Castle! - Beep Games - 79p Frustrating but compelling casual architecture sim. |
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The Journey Down - SkyGoblin - £3.99 Well-written and tightly constructed adventure game. |
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The King of Fighters-i 2012 - SNK - £2.29 Generous mobile brawler for genre enthusiasts. |
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The Lords of Midnight - Chilli Hugger - £2.99 Well-considered iOS port of an ages-old classic. |
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The Room - Fireproof Games - Free One of the biggest and best puzzle games on mobile. |
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The Sims 3 - EA - £4.99 Live vicariously though small people on your phone. |
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The Walking Dead: The Game - Telltale - £14.99 Utterly devastating adventure game about zombies. |
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The World Ends with You - Square Enix - £13.49 Reassuringly expensive port of the acclaimed JRPG. |
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Ticket to Ride - Days of Wonder - £2.29 Brilliant mobile version of a brilliant boardgame. |
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Tiny Wings - Andreas Illiger - 79p Inventive and hugely successful casual game. |
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Tongue Tied! - Mojo Bones - 79p Very strange but undeniably polished platformer. |
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Total War Battles: Shogun - Sega - £1.49 Stripped down version of the respected franchise. |
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Trainyard - Matt Rix - 79p Ingenious train-based puzzler from a celebrated dev. |
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Triple Town - Spry Fox - Free A cute match-three puzzler with a killer hook. |
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True Skate - True Axis - £1.49 Polished and playable sim made for touchscreens. |
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Virtua Tennis Challenge - Sega - £3.99 The gold standard tennis sim, but on a mobile. |
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Waking Mars - Tiger Style - 79p Explore Mars in this unbelievably likeable game. |
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Where's My Water? - Disney - £1.49 Surprisingly inventive, unsurprisingly polished. |
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World of Goo - 2D BOY - £3.99 Making bridges with goo is as fun as it sounds. |
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Worms Crazy Golf - Team17 - £1.49 An obvious and perfect use of the Worms licence. |
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Zen Bound 2 - Secret Exit - £2.29 Meditative and beautiful proto-touchscreen puzzler. |
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