Touch Arcade

It's quite different from any other shmup I've played. And it's the rare vertically-scrolling shmup that plays in landscape. Truly, a unicorn among horses. The experience could use a little more spark around it, but the core game is really quite fun.

Splitter Critters is inventive, well-presented, and most importantly, fun. I think it speaks well of a game that upon reaching the end, you wish there were more to play. You'll get a good value out of Splitter Critters, and the open-ended nature of the solutions means you can conceivably get a lot of replay out of each stage if you've a mind to trying different ideas. It feels a little short, but if you're looking for something interesting with a heavy dose of charm, you won't likely regret picking this one up.

Through being both accessible and welcoming to casual gamers or those unfamiliar with platforming games, and still a challenge to high-score chasing veterans, Collect or Die takes the best elements of the iPhone’s eclectic past, all the while providing an experience that is still highly recommended in 2017.

You'll certainly get your value out of the money spent, even if it doesn't offer quite the same impact or replay value as some other games in the genre on iOS.

All in all, it’s like I said at the start. This game is just pleasant to play, with a nice tone and gorgeous pixel art visuals. Dog Sled Saga isn't for everyone, but I’m very glad I played it.

Still, Don't Starve is a one of a kind experience that manages to marry survival mechanics that so many games have done before it, with a cartoonish, Tim Burton-esque charm. Once you've embarked upon a dozen runs or so the game runs like clockwork, and even the touch controls fall into place.

Still, with impressive production values and reasonably solid gameplay, this one might find fans among those who can't get enough of this genre. I can at least say it's the first game I've played in a while that let me hit someone so hard that their trousers fell off. That's got to count for something.

Sonny is just a solid casual RPG. The battle-based structure makes it easy to play this one for just a few minutes at a time. It's got challenging battles, but it gives you plenty of options to try and get a leg up on any tough enemies and battles. It's easy to play and dive into, but has a surprising depth to the combat. It's lacking a few things, but is overall a cohesive, well-made game that fans of the original Flash games and newcomers should both enjoy.

No game will give you more to find and discover than The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth will. This could conceivably be the only game you play for the rest of the year, considering how much time you'd have to spend to be good at the game, and then unlocking everything there is to see in Rebirth. And it's a ton of fun along the way. It took a long time to get here, but enjoy this one, folks.

If you're looking for some interactive fiction that has a fair bit of action but still feels like it's doing something fresh with its premise, Cannonfire Concerto is likely going to be your jam. It's interesting playing a less direct role than usual in a story like this, and I like that you're allowed to decide just how deep in the muck you want to be.