Pocket Gamer

Punishing: Gray Raven is a heck of a ride with its adrenaline-pumping combat and ultra-smooth graphics performance. You don’t need to scale a paywall to excel at this game, so it’s a must-download for any RPG fan. Plus, the units you pull actually have a healthy dose of husbandos for a change (yay!).

The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword still doesn't wholly convince a decade on, with flaky controls, drab visuals, and a dull over-world. But it retains enough of that irresistible Zelda magic to warrant a place on your Switch. Just.

With its incredibly deep mechanics and aesthetically pleasing visuals, Runestrike takes the average CCG and injects its own unique flair into the genre. Regardless of which playstyle suits you best, the balanced decks, strategic Champion abilities, and varying Realms of Magic ensure that there’s definitely something for everyone here.

Unmaze is a stunning, one-of-a-kind visual novel with an interesting gimmick to spice up your gameplay. The mindblowing artwork is its saving grace, but other than that, the story is a little bit underwhelming. It’s a different kind of game than the rest of the cookie-cutter visual novels out there, though, so there’s that. Plus, you can give the first chapter a go for free if you want to get a feel of it before you buy the rest.

Short, sweet, and totally addicting, Overboard! is a hilarious murder mystery where you need to do everything in your power to get away with murdering your own husband. It’s a game that doesn’t really take itself too seriously, so you don’t have to feel too bad about your multiple attempts to pin the murder on a poor unfortunate soul.

At first glance, Ears and Burgers is pretty and weird, but after you play it you realize is just pretty weird. Even though it's a pretty simple game, it's still fun to play and you're probably going to like it.

The Longest Road on Earth is likely going to be a hit-or-miss for players since this kind of unconventional approach to gaming won’t be everyone’s cup of tea. It feels like “the longest game on earth” at times with its slow pace, but at the heart of it all is the lesson of finding joy in the mundane - and if you can find a reason to smile from brewing a cup of coffee alone, then that’s definitely a worthwhile endeavour.

Huntdown is a fantastic and challenging action-platformer that forces you to think tactically, but quickly. It wonderfully blends the chaos of a run and gun with modern-day sensibilities to create something that feels fairly unique on mobile.

While One Escape delivers a bunch of stealthy action, the levels begin to feel similar after a while. Bouncing between characters keeps the monotony subdued, but by the time you’ve found a rhythm, you’ll be done with the game’s sixty levels. There are some interesting gameplay mechanics, but they seem to borrow rather than innovate. I never found myself surprised by the abilities as they were used, but it did provide a linear, easily understandable control set that was somewhat refreshing to have, rather than learning a new thing every couple of minutes. If you’re looking for a new platform game to sink your teeth in, One Escape is a pretty good option.

Mechanicus is a great tactical turn-based game that offers some of the best uses of the characters and settings from the Warhammer universe to provide a deep and rewarding strategy loop that respects players' time and lets you play how you want. If you’re a fan of the Warhammer series or someone interested in getting into it without requiring too much effort, you could do a lot worse than Mechanicus, as it’s a strong turn-based tactic game that gives you a lot of control, a lot of content, and a lot of fun to be had as you enjoy the story and complex missions available here. If you’re not a strategy fan, this game’s quick mechanics and lack of cover system might make for the perfect opportunity to give the genre a shot.

Sixit offers a great amount of playability out of simple mechanics and the item-switching gameplay is a breath of fresh air in a genre mostly filled with gem-matching games. While it seems limited in its scope at first, once you unlock certain abilities, you will quickly be able to access and progress with an instant reward for clever planning. There are some things left to be desired with the control scheme, but it works for how the game is designed, for better or worse. The world and its story is interesting, the characters are charming and cute, and you’ll often get a chuckle out of what comes out of their oversized faces.

Dead Man’s Phone is a thrilling interactive “found phone” crime drama that goes beyond solving a mystery and tackles real-world issues we often struggle to face head-on. It’s completely free to download, so if you’ve got a strong internet connection and an even stronger sense of social justice, it’s definitely worth your time.

The Game of Life 2 is a fun version of the board game, with the addition of different maps, but ultimately it's still a lot of waiting around if you don't have friends.

V4 offers players a wealth of content, but little of it is compelling. A decent combat system and beautiful graphics aren't enough to overcome a bloated upgrade system, poor voice acting, and a generic gameplay experience.

Cyberika is a decent cyberpunk fantasy RPG, but it has some design flaws that keep it from greatness. While it’s amazing to have an experience like this on the go, you won’t find a sprawling MMO here, with very limited interactions between players. Gameplay can be engaging and fun, but most of what you’ll spend your time doing is driving back and forth between locations and clicking through seemingly endless dialogue boxes. It’ll provide you with an intriguing adventure if you’re a fan of the genre, but there’s not much here to convince you otherwise.

Overall, Sheep Squad isn’t a game for me. It’s possible but those that play a lot of the game Worm might really enjoy it - especially with the adorable range of animals to play with and their cool weapons, however the UI being the way it is makes the game just too challenging and hard to understand for me. Also there are a lot of pop-ups.

TMNT: Mutant Madness is a standard idle-RPG with a layer of Ninja Turtle paint. It doesn't do much wrong, but unless you're a huge fan of the series you might be put off by its overly simplistic gameplay.

Northgard brings all the action from real-time strategy games into Norse mythology. It's your time to explore new lands, fight ungodly beasts, and avenge your father!

Zeptolab, a company known for the addictive and fun game Cut the Rope, has released a new game about battling robots: Robotics! Can this game be as good as their other games, or is it just going to malfunction?

The Everlasting Regret’s beauty is in its simplicity. The gorgeous ink painting art style is essentially just eye-candy disguised as a puzzle game, and - coupled with a stirring soundtrack and a tragic love story to boot - it’s bound to be one of the most underrated free-to-play games out there today.

Fantasian is a classic RPG at its core, with plenty of new tricks and a fresh art style to keep it relatable in the age of AAA cinematic experiences. The unique characters are delightful and full of intrigue, the story is engaging, and the visuals speak for themselves.

Whether you’re shooting wildlife, caravaning across a perilous river, or playing doctor with your crew, you’ll find that this life-management sim provides hours of entertainment, with a constant push to go further, see more, and explore the wild yonder. Adding a new graphical sheen to a game that began as a text adventure is a welcome addition, and seeing the Trail again at its best is enough to trick my nostalgic memory to think that it looks just the same as when I sat down to play it during class, and that’s a ticket I would buy again and again. While The Oregon Trail may not be for everyone and it doesn’t add too much to make it the best game it could be, it’s a great title to play when you’re looking for adventure, or peril to overcome.

Taiko no Tatsujin Pop Tap Beat is a really well-made rhythm game, with so many polished details, fun songs and cool designs. The only issues I have found with the game is the way the treasure chest works and, always, wanting more songs - but hopefully, we will see some changes to the song list in the future. For now, I’ve got a lot of HARD levels to crown!

MTG Arena is a wonderful translation of a great game that does one thing really well: brings new players to love and enjoy Magic: The Gathering. With its exceptional tutorial and ease of play, there’s never been a better way to play the classic card game, and there’s all manner of fun to have, regardless of your skill level. It’s not perfect, as the community available through the app is basically non-existent and the cost of cards is still a bit high for something you don’t actually own, but the rest of the game more than makes up for it. MTG Arena on iOS brings to life the card battler in new ways and really excels at delivering a top-level experience on the go.

Cozy Grove is a really interesting game, I love the style of it and I enjoy the story with each of the characters. It’s a game I find myself going into, at lunch time each day, as a part of my daily routine - much like Animal Crossing was about a year ago - so it seems to replace the need for a daily bit of casual and cute gaming.