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The best iOS and Android games of March 2017: Kingdom: New Lands, Oxenfree, Pavilion and more

Looking back on a month in mobile gaming

The best iOS and Android games of March 2017: Kingdom: New Lands, Oxenfree, Pavilion and more
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Hello and welcome to our round-up of the best games to have been released on iOS and Android over the preceding calendar month.

It's a tricky business, monitoring the gaming output of the App Store and Google Play Store. Take your eye off them for a few days here and there and you could well miss the release of a bunch of classic games.

Don't worry. We've got you covered. These are the best mobile games to have hit iOS and Android over the past 30 days.

March was filled with excellent games, with nine out of our eleven recommendations securing a Pocket Gamer Gold Award. However, Android gamers will rightly feel short-changed. Has a dual-platform approach really become that unprofitable for developers?

Oxenfree
By Night School Studio - buy on iOS

An excellent adventure game that thrives off its creepy atmosphere, compelling narrative and cool art style.

Super Mario Run
By Nintendo - buy on Android

A glance around this list will tell you that it's been an extremely thin month for Android gamers. Still, the arrival of Super Mario Run - belated though it may be - provides an effective salve.

Kingdom: New Lands
By Raw Fury - buy on iOS

Build your tiny kingdom up by trotting left and right on a majestic horse, empowering subjects to do your bidding. It's a beguiling concept, and one that's effectively sold by a beautiful pixel-art world.

TypeShift
By Zach gage - download on iOS

Just how cool can a word game be? Very, if TypeShift's slickly minimalist word jumbles are anything to go by.

Golf Zero
By Colin Lane Games - buy on iOS

Golf Zero is essentially a Super Meat Boy-esque hardcore platformer, but when you get near the 'exit' you need to sink a slow-mo putt. Why hadn't someone thought of this before?

Pavilion: Touch Edition
By Visiontrick Media - buy on iOS / buy on Android (Nvidia Shield)

This beautiful isometric platform-puzzler has you controlling the environment rather than the hero through a detailed gothic environment. Add in a classily enigmatic narrative and we think we're in love.

Death Road to Canada
By Madgarden - buy on iOS

In Death Road to Canada your motley car-load of survivors must make their way across the US, gathering supplies and tackling the undead along the way.

Ticket to Earth
By Robot Circus Party - buy on iOS

Puzzle RPG games are ten-a-penny, but Ticket to Earth is no ordinary example. From the production standards to the writing to its gameplay, this is exceptional stuff.

Euclidean Lands
By Kunabi Brother - buy on iOS

A real brain-twister that combines elements of Monument Valley and Hitman GO with a delightfully tactile Rubik's Cube twist.

Card Thief
By Tiny Touch Tales - buy on iOS

Did you struggle to stop playing Card Crawl? This stealth-oriented follow-up will suck up a similar amount of time, as you use cards to sneak your way across a game board.

Sunless Sea
By Failbetter Games - buy on iPad

It's the month for highly detailed, slightly gothic adventures. Sunless Sea tasks you with charting the vast underground zee of the Fallen London universe, which is packed full of ghoulish surprises.

Jon Mundy
Jon Mundy
Jon is a consummate expert in adventure, action, and sports games. Which is just as well, as in real life he's timid, lazy, and unfit. It's amazing how these things even themselves out.