Best free iPad games 2020

Do you like iPad games? How about free iPad games? Great, because our list includes 40 top-notch gaming experiences for iPad – none of which cost a penny.

We’ve taken care to play every game to death, so you know it’s definitely worth a download; moreover, our selection is geared towards titles optimised for (or that just play better on) Apple’s tablet, and so there’s little crossover with our free iPhone games selection. Fire up your thumbs and get playing!

New this month: Empty, Golf Skies, Astalo and Motorball

A quick note on IAP: Most free games feature IAPs, or in-app purchases. Our reviews outline key ones for each game and note whenever IAP hampers the title in question.

1. Super Cat Tales 2

Platform games on the iPad are something of a mixed bag, mostly because they tend to be so difficult to control. Given the difference in size between an iPad mini and the largest iPad Pro, on-screen controls only tend to work on all iPads if they’re fully configurable (rare) or you have banana fingers (hopefully more rare). Super Cat Tales 2 sidesteps all this by streamlining the entire control system to two buttons.

As you belt through the game’s vibrant world, you grip your iPad with two hands. Hold the left or right side of the screen to head in that direction. Double-tap to start running, and automatically leap on reaching a platform’s edge. Two thumbs are also all you need to clamber up vertical surfaces, wall jump, and obliterate enemies using giant yellow tanks they’ve carelessly left lying about the place.

The system is tricky to grasp at first, and you might initially hanker for a jump button. But Super Cat Tales 2 revels in its perceived limitations, offering levels that require clever choreography to crack. Combine that with a slew of secrets, plenty of variety (underwater sections; a level set on a speeding train), and you’ve one of the finest mobile platforms you’re ever likely to see.

IAPs: The £4.99/$4.99 premium option removes ads that occasionally appear. You can also pay to unlock sections of the game if you’ve not yet found all the collectables required to proceed.

For iPad & iPhone (Universal) | Download Super Cat Tales 2

2. Asphalt 9: Legends

The Asphalt series long ago left behind any indication that it was particularly concerned with reality. Instead, you know you’re going to be served with high-octane larger-than-life races, where your car’s regularly catapulted through the air, in a manner that would make the average mechanic shriek in terror.

Asphalt 9, though, heads towards the bizarre in a decidedly different manner, with a ‘TouchDrive’ control scheme that streamlines careening around a race course, largely by letting the game itself deal with steering. Although there is a ‘manual’ alternate system buried in the settings, you by default tap and swipe to switch lanes, perform stunts, drift and boost.

For long-time racing-game fans, this probably sounds horrendous. Surprisingly, though, it turns out to be a slice of genius. Sure, what you get is somewhat removed from a ‘proper’ racing game; but the end result manages to marry speed and adrenaline with a kind of puzzling, as you work out the moves required to grab the chequered flag. And when it clicks, there’s a ton of content to work through, and some of the most eye-poppingly dazzling visuals to grace an iPad racer.

IAPs: It’s an Asphalt game, which means a boatload of IAPs. However, if you’re prepared to grind a bit, no payment is really necessary.

For iPad & iPhone (Universal) | Download Asphalt 9: Legends

3. Super Fowlst 2

This third entry in the Fowlst series is the best yet – although you have to feel for a solitary chicken that’s taken on the responsibility of saving the world from an endless demon incursion. The basics remain much the same as in Fowlst and Super Fowlst – flap left or right by tapping the relevant half of the iPad’s display, dispatch demons by headbutting them, and grab coins you can use between games to upgrade your chicken.

Yes, you read that right. This heroic hen can be kitted out with all kinds of weapons, including explosive eggs and heatseeking missiles expelled from its bottom. And you’ll need all the help you can get, because the demons you face quickly evolve from doddering dimwits occasionally sending a fiery projectile your way to demented bosses that blaze around the screen, flinging all manner of horrible death in your general direction.

On iPad, Super Fowlst 2 really shines: the retro-oriented visuals are vibrant and beautifully detailed; and the larger screen ensures enemies never lurk beneath a digit. The entire production comes across like an old-school arcade game perfectly reimagined for the touchscreen, and it’s not to be missed. And that’s before even taking into account your chicken sometimes being able to stomp about in a giant mech suit.

IAPs: A one-off £3.99/$3.99 headbutts the adverts into oblivion.

For iPad & iPhone (Universal) | Download Super Fowlst 2

4. Void Tyrant

Your initial moments with Void Tyrant may not present the game in the best possible light. It pits you against a cartoon enemy, in what appears to be a greatly simplified take on blackjack. Cards are dealt, and if you end up not going bust and have a higher score than your opponent, you get to whack them with your weapon. Rinse and repeat until someone’s dead.

But there’s a lot more going on in Void Tyrant beyond these basics. The underlying story is simple, but provides varied adversaries to battle and environments to explore. And you also get to gradually build a battle deck, which is where the real strategy lies. These cards provide the means to cast spells, power-up attacks, and… eat a potato.

There is some grind. Void Tyrant’s cycle is built around you getting killed, using your spoils to kit out your successor with better starting equipment, and repeating the process. Even so, bar the odd moment where you really question quite why a boss enemy is getting quite so perfect hands (or perhaps we’re just bad losers), even the churn is fun; and taken as a whole, Void Tyrant is one of the nicest freebie strategy surprises on the platform.

IAPs: You can pay for individual warp rifts (stage skipping) and spirits (power ups); but if you enjoy Void Tyrant and don’t want to be interrupted, grab the £4.99/$4.99 premium game IAP. Along with removing ads, this nets you various benefits to help you progress more rapidly.

For iPad & iPhone (Universal) | Download Void Tyrant

5. SpellTower+

The magic in SpellTower+ comes from marrying traditional word puzzles with something that’s more recognisably a video game. You start off in Tower mode, facing a stack of letters that resembles a scrambled crossword. On dragging out and submitting a word, its tiles pop off the screen, and any left hanging fall down into the gaps. Rinse and repeat until you can submit no more words – and hope your score is worth bragging about.

When you venture into other modes, new lines of letters appear for every move submitted – or on a timer. If your letter stack hits the red line of doom, your game is over, just like in Tetris. A Daily Search mode adds another variation, giving you a single opportunity to form a word that utilises a starred tile – and preferably including as many gold double-score tiles as possible.

Most of this probably sounds familiar if you played the original SpellTower, released back in 2011. And, indeed, the free version of SpellTower+ is effectively that game, albeit polished a bit for modern devices, and with the new Daily Search. But also, SpellTower for iPad is no longer a bit of an oddball, with its own formatting and leaderboard. Now, you can play the entire world – for free. And should you wish to partake in the ‘plus’ bit, a one-off IAP unlocks the rest of this superb game.

IAPs: A single IAP of £4.99/$4.99 removes the ads, provides you with ongoing statistics, and unlocks several additional modes: Search; Zen; ExPuzzle; Double Puzzle; Bubble Puzzle; Blitz.

For iPad & iPhone (Universal) | Download SpellTower+

6. Dashy Crashy

You might initially consider Dashy Crashy yet another lane-based survival game, where you swipe to avoid traffic, getting as many points as possible before your inevitable smashy demise. But this game’s smarter than the average endless runner. It looks and sounds superb. There’s a breezy soundtrack and chirpy voiceover (apparently an excitable sat-nav), and dazzling visuals. The crisp cars look great, as does the day/night cycle as you belt along a suspiciously long and straight road.

But what sets Dashy Crashy apart is the variety within what’s ultimately a quite basic game. As you play, new cars are randomly dished out as prizes, but these aren’t just new skins – they bestow bonus powers. Drive a school bus and you get extra points for completing sums. A cement mixer surreally has a fruit machine lurking within. And a ‘Dinotaur’ jeep pursues green giants stomping along the highway.

Further treats await discovery: multitouch support enables you to quickly move across multiple lanes; you can boost for extra speed; and special events force you to quickly react to anything from a pile-up to a TARDIS knocking everything out of its path. All these twists make Dashy Crashy strategically superior to – and deeper than – its contemporaries; it’s also a lot more fun to play.

IAPs: You can buy a specific vehicle rather than hoping to win it at some point – they’re 99p/99c each. Want to test-drive one for a bit? Watch an ad.

For iPhone and iPad (Universal) | Download Dashy Crashy

7. Power Hover: Cruise

Much of the magic and mystery of the original Power Hover sits within its brilliantly choreographed set piece levels, which find you scything across futuristic deserts and oceans, trying not to turn your powerboarding robot into a heap of scrap metal by directing it into a rock. But that game also finishes each section with an exhilarating boss battle, which pits you against psychotic androids in cartwheeling tunnels of death.

Power Hover: Cruise takes those endless survival bits and transforms them into an entire game. Presumably the hero android is now a masochist, given that instead of a mission, it’s ‘continue until you get horribly blown up’. Still, for you, the player, Power Hover: Cruise is a dizzying, exciting ride.

The variety within is particularly impressive, given that you’re basically just moving left and right to avoid obstacles. Each stage feels distinct, whether you’re deep inside a laser-infested pyramid, atop a gigantic pipe snaking through the clouds, or zigzagging through blocky obstacles and spiked contraptions in the oddly named Metro (in the sense it has pretty weird design for even the grubbiest, least welcoming city imaginable).

With levels being randomly generated but based around pattern recognition, there’s plenty of scope for long-term play. Do particularly well and you unlock robots with better manoeuvrability and multiple lives, to further boost your high scores.

IAPs: You can buy characters for 49p/99c and up if you don’t fancy winning them through high scores. A one-off £8.99/$8.99 IAP unlocks everything at once.

For iPhone and iPad (Universal) | Download Power Hover: Cruise

8. Shadowgun Legends

First-person shooters aren’t a genre anyone tends to associate with touchscreens, unless it’s in a sentence like “first-person shooters are generally rubbish on touchscreens”. And that’s fair enough – a slippy pane of glass can’t compete with the precision afforded by a gamepad or keyboard, when you’re stomping about shooting things. However, Shadowgun Legends manages the improbable, bringing a high-octane FPS to your iPad in fine style.

Mostly, this game succeeds because it realises the limitations of the device. Controls are streamlined to a two-thumb system for moving and aiming. Autofire blasts projectiles at enemies daft enough to get in your firing line. Buttons are then used to trigger actions like punching door controls, or setting up special kit like sentry guns.

Everything else feels streamlined, too. Missions are linear, enemies are identikit angry aliens, and what passes for a storyline is instantly forgettable. But, my, is this game a blast, as you run around, blowing up everything in sight, or dabble in multiplayer shooty larks during your character’s supposed ‘downtime’.

You will, unfortunately, hit a fairly brazen IAP wall at some point, and have to decide whether to splurge on inventory slots. But otherwise Shadowgun Legends is the best game of its type on iPad, which is all the more impressive when you remember that it’s free.

IAPs: Loads of IAPs here, including one with a ridiculous £99.99/$99.99 price tag. Just grab the cheapest IAP to unlock extra inventory slots, and then save your pennies.

For iPad & iPhone (Universal) | Download Shadowgun Legends

9. Sticky Terms

‘Farpotshket’. That’s Yiddish for trying to fix something, thereby ruining it. There are 149 other broadly untranslatable terms to piece together in this tactile word game, which feels especially at home on the iPad. We mean ‘piece together’ in a quite literal manner, too. Each puzzle in Sticky Terms begins life in fragmented form.

Early puzzles are akin to someone having carefully sliced the solution into two or three parts, and then glued them back together in a very different arrangement. Parts separate by way of a satisfying pop when dragged, spin with a tap, and make a handy click when correctly joined. Success comes with a celebratory drum riff – along with an explanation of what the word means and where it’s from.

As you progress, though, Sticky Terms delights in stripping the letters of as much context as possible. You end up staring at abstract shapes, almost like an art canvas, trying to make sense of it, searching for recognisable letterforms you can join back together.

From the start to the very last puzzle, Sticky Terms is a delight. The iPad’s larger display and aspect ratio gives the puzzles space to breathe, and the textural visual design almost fools you into thinking you’re manipulating real-world objects atop a canvas.

IAPs: The game has no IAP. To unlock a word set, you must watch a video. This limitation can be removed by entering a code found in the credits of the creator’s own see/saw (£2.99/$2.99) or supertype (£1.99/$1.99), both of which happen to be great.

For iPad & iPhone (Universal) | Download Sticky Terms

10. Empty.

Are you of the opinion that life is better when your world is more minimal? Empty. allows you to apply such thinking to a virtual environment – and to an extreme degree.

Each of the game’s hand-crafted levels starts out as a simple room you can manoeuvre with a finger. Within the room are various objects, drawn in a stripped-back style that makes them resemble silhouettes. The idea is to merge objects into flat planes (walls; ceilings), whereupon they disappear.

This isn’t a game of brain-smashing challenge. Instead, Empty. comes across almost as a meditative experience. A gentle soundtrack serenades your ears as you play, and the game’s lack of timers suggests you should be in no hurry to blaze through everything.

The biggest tests are figuring out in which order to remove objects as the rooms become more cluttered and complex. Sometimes, you’ll find there’s not quite enough flat colour behind an item you’d singled out, and therefore have to try an alternative.

This might not sound like much, but Empty. is far from empty. With stylish design, smartly conceived controls and an inviting manner, it’s an excellent way to spend a few hours being entertained on an iPad.

IAPs: Free means free. There are no IAPs and no ads.

For iPad & iPhone (Universal) | Download Empty.

11. I Love Hue Too

When you think of a tile-swapping match game, Bejeweled or Candy Crush Saga may spring to mind. Such games force you to think at speed or against a moves limit, and can frustrate by lobbing plenty of randomness into the mix. I Love Hue Too is essentially the polar opposite of such titles, instead inviting you to relax while tackling puzzles at your own pace.

Each challenge begins life as a harmonious whole – a number of joined tiles painted with a single gradient. Those that aren’t pinned then vanish, and reappear in scrambled fashion. It’s up to you to swap pairs of tiles, with the aim of making everything harmonious once again.

This kind of thing works particularly well on the iPad, its large display making it easy to manipulate tiles (especially when they get smaller in later levels) and also to spot subtle differences in colour.

It’s a simple concept, but one that really sucks you in. Get hooked and there are more than 900 levels to work through, and six ambient soundtracks to keep your ears entertained while your eyes and fingers are busy. And if you hanker for a little competition, you’re informed on completing a level how you did compared to the rest of the world – and the fewest possible moves you could have taken.

IAPs: You can remove the ads for £4.99/$4.99.

For iPad & iPhone (Universal) | Download I Love Hue Too

12. OCO

With games like Oddmar, the iPad shows it can stand shoulder to shoulder with ‘proper’ games consoles when it comes to platformers. And elsewhere on this list, Super Cat Tales 2 offers an alternate slant, where platform gaming is stripped back for a heavily touch-screen-oriented approach. OCO, apparently, doesn’t think that goes far enough, and provides a minimalist experience that’d make even Jony Ive do a double-take.

Each circular level in this sleek world spins about its centre, with your auto-running block only able to leap when you tap the screen. Timing is everything, in your mission to scoop up every gold ‘bit’. Do so fast enough, or using few enough jumps, and you’re rewarded at level’s end.

It doesn’t sound like much, but OCO’s sense of style and precision is a winning combination. Sure, you can brute-force your way through much of the game, but reward here comes in matching OCO’s elegance – in figuring out how a level in which you just jumped a dozen times can in fact be completed in a mere two leaps.

Beyond the game’s 135 levels, there’s potentially endless fun on offer, too, through the built-in editor. Use it to create your own OCO delights – or delve into the many thousands created by the online community.

IAPs: OCO’s minimalist approach doesn’t exactly gel with ads that pop up now and again between levels. Remove them for £1.99/$1.99. You can also buy gold bits for various sums, although doing so is unnecessary if you’re happy to progress through the game by actually playing it.

For iPad & iPhone (Universal) | Download OCO

13. Williams Pinball

There are two sides to Williams Pinball – the authentic and the fantastical. This app seeks to recreate classic pinball tables, offering realistic lighting and physics. As you bat a metal ball about, it flies along ramps at dizzying speed, and you must figure out the table’s rules and secrets, in order to crack the high score table. (Or you could read the instructions, but who does that these days?)

But also, this app is by Zen Studios – and if you’ve played any of that developer’s tables, you’ll know they’re animatronic treats. Here, you can optionally add such effects to famous Williams fare, resulting in an optimistic army guy taking pot-shots at UFOs in the sublime Attack From Mars, or a grumpy dragon belching fire in Medieval Madness.

At least, eventually. To get to that stage, you must play a lot of pinball, due to the unlock mechanism. This is XP- and currency-based, with you levelling up and winning coins on completing daily challenges on unlocked tables. The balance is arguably a bit off – it takes an _astonishingly_ long time to get tables to the fully animated level four. By the same token, you’re grinding by playing classic pinball, which is pretty great; and the challenges are often score-attacks with unlimited balls, helping you learn a table’s secrets.

Just make sure you pick wisely for the initial solitary unlocked table: Attack From Mars, The Getaway, and Medieval Madness are good bets.

IAPs: Coins cost 99p/99c for 25, up to 5,000 for £99.99/$99.99. Fully unlocking a table costs 250 coins, which is expensive compared to other systems, but two stars is enough for unlimited (albeit online) play. Zen also offers a £19.99/$19.99 limited all-tables purchase to newcomers. If you don’t see it, contact Zen through the app and the developers may activate it for you.

For iPad & iPhone (Universal) | Download Williams Pinball

14. Golf Skies

There are no endless greens disappearing towards the horizon in this golf game. Instead, courses have been deconstructed and wrapped around tiny planetoids that hang in the air. Although the basic aim remains the same as in traditional golf – get your ball in the hole in as few shots as possible – the oddball nature of the courses demands a very different approach.

In normal golf, smack a ball into the air and it comes back down again. That’s easy to picture in your head. Here, each of the floating orbs has its own gravitational pull. Handily, the ball isn’t traditional fare either, and you can guide it left and right during its flight towards the putting green.

There are plenty of complications to make your job harder. Windmills, trees and other hazards inconveniently stick out of many planetoids, fish leap from lakes, and courses have a strict boundary around them. You must also be mindful that your ball can only fly for a limited time.

Success relies on memorising courses, figuring out the best route to the hole, and executing that sometimes labyrinthine path to the best of your ability. In that regard, Golf Skies is conventional. But the unique elements within make this one worth a download, even if you think you’ve had your fill of iPad golf games.

IAPs: You can remove the ads for £2.99/$2.99. Coins are available in batches of up to 1,000 (£3.99/$3.99), used to buy more powerful/manoeuvrable balls with which to lower your score. If playing friends on Game Centre, avoid new balls for best results, but the ads IAP is worth grabbing.

For iPad & iPhone (Universal) | Download Golf Skies

15. Time Locker

Vertical shooters tend to be frenetic affairs, marrying your ability to dance between showers of glowing bullets and blast everything in your path to smithereens. Often, death comes by way of momentary distraction, and you’ll wish you could go all Matrix and temporarily slow everything to a crawl.

Time Locker suggests this wouldn’t necessarily help. In its abstract minimal world, everything moves only as fast as you drag a finger. Stop and the world freezes. Drag and everything comes back to life, whether that’s you blasting away, or your many foes homing in on your position.

A further complication comes by way of a universe destroying darkness that pursues you from the moment you set off. Lift your finger and your enemies halt, but the inky blackness won’t, eventually ending your journey through this surreal world. Successful ventures therefore combine short breaks to figure out a next move, followed by frantic scrabbling to eradicate nearby enemies and move yourself onwards at speed.

Last long enough and colossal bosses appear, making it clear this isn’t your day if survival was your goal. To counter this, green enemies drop credits you can spend on boosts during your next game, and blue foes ditch pick-ups that augment your critter’s arsenal – initially a rubbish pea shooter – with multi-directional shots, massive rockets, and more.

IAPs: You can buy characters for 99p/99c each, and ramp up your boost credits for £2.99/$2.99.

For iPhone and iPad (Universal) | Download Time Locker

16. Pico Rally

A perceived problem with gaming on mobile is the lack of tactile controls. Although some developers have got around this with clever use of tilting, swiping and virtual D-pads, others reduce everything down to players prodding the screen. Such one-thumb controls might seem reductive, but in the hands of canny creators, this system has breathed new life into tired genres.

One-thumb racing games, though, are rare, and yet Pico Rally shows how a single digit provides plenty of commands as you belt along. Your car automatically steers, and you press the screen to slam your foot down on the accelerator. You must time this carefully, so as to navigate the track efficiently, zoom ahead of rivals and take the chequered flag.

The overall effect is like classic slot-car racing, except your car isn’t restricted to a single lane. Instead, cars in Pico Rally jostle for the lead, not least when you’re careening along being pursued by cops more interested in beating you to the finish line than pulling you over for speeding.

The 60 tracks are diverse in terms of hazards and course design, and the physics feel suitably solid, yet keeps you on your toes as new surfaces arrive. The two-player mode is disappointing (no split screen, meaning you often find cars vanish off-screen), but there’s loads to keep the solo racer engrossed.

IAPs: You can remove the ads for a one-off £3.99/$3.99 payment.

For iPhone and iPad (Universal) | Download Pico Rally

17. Missile Command: Recharged

Although not lodged as firmly in the public consciousness as Pac-Man and Space Invaders, arcade classic Missile Command remains memorable for the right reasons. Fighting off an endless hail of ballistic missiles was exhilarating. And when your inevitable demise came, the game avoided a traditional ‘game over’, instead ominously stating ‘the end’.

So how has Missile Command been ‘recharged’ for iPad? Although it still has the same basic setup, this modern take replaces strategy with immediacy. Rather than choosing which silo to use, missiles are randomly dispatched from one as you tap the screen to aim. There’s also an upgrade path, so you can gradually improve your weaponry.

Old hands might grumble, but unless you’re dead set on slavish recreations, Recharged hits the spot. Its high-octane thrills are geared towards the touchscreen, rather than the physical controls of a real arcade cab. It works well on iPad, with the larger display dazzling your eyes with neon visuals, and giving you a fighting chance of accurately placing shots that trigger chain reactions.

Entertainingly, the game does offer one slice of 1980s authenticity, in the form of an AR virtual arcade cab you can project into the room. It’s fun, but a gimmick – holding your iPad in front of your face and playing is tough. In its more standard mode, though, Recharged is a blast of old-school cool.

IAPs: By default, the game gives you limited game ‘charges’ that are gradually replenished. A one-off £2.99/$2.99 IAP blows them to smithereens.

For iPad & iPhone (Universal) | Download Missile Command: Recharged

18. The King of Fighters ALLSTAR

Traditional brawlers don’t tend to fare well on mobile, hence a tendency for developers to create one-thumb fare like Beat Street or stripped-back tappy fighters like Transformers: Forged to Fight. ALLSTAR is an exception – a game that while not an equal to console brawlers nonetheless brings across enough from the genre to pack a punch.

Based on the famous titular series, this game mostly features side-on scrapping, in the vein of classics Double Dragon, Final Fight and Renegade. At any given moment, you’re surrounded by thugs who are in need of a good kicking. Defeat them without getting walloped yourself, and you get to take on a boss.

Although robbed of the traditional joystick-fired combos associated with King of Fighters, ALLSTAR has plenty of nuance. The touch controls enable you to execute eye-popping special moves; and players can switch between a more automated system or manual control, depending on their preference and level of skill.

Like most brawlers on iPad, there’s grind, and the menu interface and currency system are both needlessly complex. But when you’re on the streets, battling for survival, the iPad’s big screen ensures the touch controls work well, and the visuals and action alike combine to make for arguably the best fighter on the system.

IAPs: This is a gacha title with the usual slew of IAPs. There are various deals, and virtual currency purchases all the way up to an eye-watering £99.99/$99.99. But if you’re happy playing for free, keep your wallet shut.

For iPad & iPhone (Universal) | Download The King of Fighters ALLSTAR

19. XOB

Although also available for iPhone, XOB makes most sense on iPad, whereupon it converts your device into a kind of bizarre retro-television experience you physically manhandle to impact the in-game world. In fact, with its lashings of CRT fuzz and visual glitches, you suspect XOB would be happiest beaming forth from an old-school telly; it’ll have to make do with an Apple-branded slab of metal and glass.

The game itself is essentially a path-finding puzzle-platformer. You tilt the screen, and your square block trundles. Tap and it hurtles towards the ceiling, whereupon the world flips 180 degrees. If the square falls on to its side, the screen lurches a quarter turn. Throughout, you must figure out how to get to the exit, first collecting the targets that unlock said doorway.

You might argue there’s style over substance here; and it’s true that in lesser hands, XOB may not have been anything special. This style of puzzler has been done before on iOS, after all. But a great game is a fusion of all its parts. XOB nails the puzzling, with smart design; but it cements its claim to a place on your iPad by way of a psychedelic aesthetic that’s excitingly fresh.

IAPs: Ads show up now and again, but max out at just 24 in total, and you can burn through those in the settings. Alternatively, support the creator for offering such a user-friendly approach by way of a one-off payment.

For iPad & iPhone (Universal) | Download XOB

20. Little Alchemy 2

Alchemy is best known for transmutation: the dream of turning base metals into gold. That’s a whole lot less wacky than what’s going on in Little Alchemy 2. Here, you start with four classical elements – air, earth, fire and water – and set about combining them to fashion anything from cities to spaceships.

The means of doing this are simple. Discoveries sit at the right-hand side of the screen, and you drag them to the canvas. If nothing happens when you drag one on top of another, try a different combination. If something new appears, momentarily feel smug before realising you’ve many dozens of items left to find. As you might expect, this works particularly well on the iPad’s large touchscreen display.

Little Alchemy 2 plays fast and loose with the laws of the world. Some combinations have logic at their core – for example, drop ‘pressure’ on a volcano and you end up with an eruption. Others are more fanciful, such as an airplane being a bird combined with metal.

There are moments of frustration, not least when you’ve been sitting there for ages, unable to unearth a new discovery. But it’s always a pleasant surprise when you find a new object, and Little Alchemy 2 is ideal for dipping in and out of.

IAPs: You can buy research points to purchase hints. These start at 99p/99c for two. Video ads provide a free alternative when you’re stuck.

For iPhone and iPad (Universal) | Download Little Alchemy 2

21. A Way To Slay – Bloody Fight

This game’s subtitle – ‘bloody fight’ – is on the mark. Your lone hero begins each challenge surrounded by enemies looking to turn his innards into a bloody Pollock on the minimalist terrain. Your only hope of survival: slice them up before they can get to you.

That probably sounds like you’re in for a fast-paced fighting game, but A Way To Slay is, in fact, a turn-based strategy puzzler. For each move, you can spin and tilt the landscape to get a better look at your surroundings. Double-tap an enemy and you zip towards them and get all stabby – at which point all your other foes make their move.

Success depends on figuring out the order in which to dispatch everyone – no mean feat when you’re facing a dozen or so heavily armed knights, samurai, orcs or assassins. If that’s not challenging enough, A Way To Slay pits you against the clock as well – so once you’ve cracked a solution, you must try to pull it off in a handful of seconds.

Assuming you can stand the blood spatter, A Way To Slay is an excellent freebie, and one that cleverly subverts existing genres.

IAPs: £2.99/$2.99 gets rid of the adverts and completes all levels without delay. For £5.99/$5.99, you can remove ads and unlock all levels, characters and weapons. The first of those is a good bet if the fairly regular ads impact your enjoyment of this frantic and engaging game.

For iPad & iPhone (Universal) | Download A Way To Slay

22. Sky: Children of the Light

Although the critically acclaimed Journey now exists on iPad, Sky almost renders it irrelevant, taking that game’s lush 3D environments and exploration-oriented gameplay, and opening it up for massively multiplayer adventures.

In this particular adventure, you are one of a number of children aiming to bring hope to a seemingly abandoned kingdom. This is achieved by returning fallen stars to the skies. That’s quite a lot to lump on a bunch of kids, but they at least get to work together, tackling puzzles as a group.

This aspect of Sky can be frustrating, comical, flat-out amazing, or a combination thereof. You may find yourself before a door, which requires two people to open, and urge a temporary companion to help by way of your limited number of noises and gestures. Occasionally, someone will take your hand and a group of you will soar into the sky together.

This freeform nature and sense of freedom sets Sky apart. Yes, it can be irritating when you’re unsure how to unlock the next barrier, or make a jump when torrential rain and cold are robbing your wings of power; but few games give you such a sense of unbridled glee as Sky, when you’re sliding down hillsides on your heels, or just flying because you can.

IAPs: You can buy bundles of consumables, which start at 99p/99c and top out at £19.99/$19.99. There’s also a £4.99/$4.99 starter pack with wing upgrades, and season passes that let you grab yet more rewards. Our advice: play for free, and just chill.

For iPad & iPhone (Universal) | Download Sky: Children of the Light

23. Hoggy 2

The original Hoggy 2 was an indie darling at the dawn of the App Store. This sequel is more of the same – only better. You’re a pink blob, figuring out how to munch all of the fruit within smallish levels that take place inside TARDIS-like jars (they’re bigger on the inside). Get all the fruit and you’re awarded a key; collect enough keys and you unlock new portions of a substantial map, in order to reach more jars.

Hoggy 2 impresses on a number of levels. Beyond its bright visuals and jaunty audio, it has an imagination and thoughtfulness about its level design. Although this sometimes results in dexterity-oriented arcade tests (often making use of the game’s ‘jump’ mechanic that flips you between ceiling and floor rather than having the hero briefly leap upwards a bit), most levels have puzzles at their core.

Jars are therefore peppered with hazards, switches, enemies and blocks that temporarily bestow special powers, and you must figure out how and when to make use of each, in order to progress. Add in customisable controls and a level editor, and you have one of the best freebies on the platform.

IAPs: Hoggy 2 has a single £4.99/$4.99 IAP to disable non-intrusive adverts that sometimes appear when you restart a jar.

For iPhone and iPad (Universal) | Download Hoggy 2

24. Friday the 13th: Killer Puzzle

There are no happy campers in this sliding puzzler, which features horror flick antagonist Jason Voorhees hacking his way through a campsite and beyond. Each grid finds you swiping Jason around, who slides until he smacks into a wall, comes a cropper due to a hazard, or reaches a victim. In the last case, said unlucky person is dispatched in a flurry of cartoon gore.

For the faint of heart, there’s an off switch for all the red, although all the bloody violence is more South Park than 18-certificate film. After all, this is a game where the decapitated head of the lead’s mother provides helpful advice from the corner of the screen, urging her murdery son onwards.

As the player, your brains also tend to get bashed in, albeit in a rather different manner. As Killer Puzzle progresses, the challenges become extremely tricky. You must figure out labyrinthine routes to targets, in order to avoid drowning in a lake or getting captured by guards.

The mechanics still aren’t really anything you’ve not seen before, but the puzzle design is good to the point that this alone would make the game worth a recommendation. But the absurdist cartoon horror trappings, black humour, and polish make this a killer game in more ways than one.

IAPs: Eight of the 12 level packs are entirely free to play. Four require IAP, ranging from £1.99 to £2.99. Unlocking a level pack prior to completing previous ones also costs £1.99. Alternatively, a one-off £9.99 IAP instantly unlocks everything. Any purchase removes ads from the game.

For iPad & iPhone (Universal) | Download Friday the 13th: Killer Puzzle

25. Threes! Free

Every platform needs a perfect puzzle game, and on release Threes! made its claim to be that for iOS. As with all brilliant examples of the genre, Threes! has at its heart a simple mechanic, which in this case involves merging cards within a tiny four-by-four board. But it’s the details that propel Threes! beyond the competition.

The idea is to match numbers. Slide a blue ‘1’ into a red ‘2’ and they combine to become a single ‘3’. Two 3s make a 6. Two 6s make a 12. And so on. The snag is every move you make slides every non-blocked tile on the board as well. If you’re fortunate or have planned ahead, this can result in several merges in one move; if not, you end up with a mess to clear up. And since after every turn a new card enters the board in a random spot on the edge you swiped from, planning is key.

It takes a few games for Threes! to click, but once it does, it never lets go. You’ll be dying to see new cards (each is infused with a unique personality), and will soon spot how reaching higher-numbered cards boosts your score substantially. The free-to-play aspect is also generous: watch a video ad and you get three more games in the bank, which can be built up into a substantial reserve.

This gives the game a fighting chance against a raft of inferior Threes! clones (most of which have 1024 or 2048 in their names) that litter the App Store, and sucked life out of the paid version of Threes! Our advice: stick with the original; you’ve no excuse now you can play for free.

IAPs: This game has no IAP.

For iPhone and iPad (Universal) | Download Threes! Free

26. Crashy Cats

Cats exist in a world where they think you should be grateful to share their space. Now and again, they will remind you of this, by nonchalantly pawing a treasured ornament off a shelf, before giving you a look to make it clear the subsequent sickening crash was entirely your fault. Crashy Cats takes such attitudes to a logical conclusion.

Fortunately, you get the fun of being the cat, blazing along horizontally scrolling levels and causing mayhem by smashing stuff to pieces. As you send everything from TVs to suits of armour flying, you’ll spot dogs that are out to stop you (some are tied to floating balloons; others have jetpacks) and are best avoided. But there are companions, too, if you can run past a snoozing moggie.

Your part in this is extremely simple: tap to jump (and again to double jump). In effect, this is moggie Canabalt – a Catabalt, if you will. But the execution is first-rate, and makes it worth a download. Sure, your iPad can run Grid Autosport and Civilization VI, but sometimes quick-fire arcade fun is what you want. With its superb visuals, smart level design, varied environments, and Nyan Cat tribute bonus stage, Crashy Cats is a casual game that deftly lands on its feet.

IAPs: There are two currencies: coins and fish, used to unlock cosmetic upgrades and new cats. Some cats can also be purchased using cash. Probably the best option is 20 fish for £1.99/$1.99. That won’t buy you a lot in-game, but it will disable the ads.

For iPad & iPhone (Universal) | Download Crashy Cats

27. Astalo

Dungeon crawlers tend to find you exploring vast gloomy underground lairs, fending off hordes of deadly foes. Astalo has one foot in that particular camp, but marries it with the DNA of claustrophobic panic-inducing single-screen shooters.

Unfortunately for the sword-wielding protagonist, they lack a rapid-fire laser to obliterate enemies that encroach from all angles. However, one thing your fighter does have is a serious dose of speed. Drag a finger and an arrow denotes the direction and distance of your subsequent lunge, which takes but a fraction of a second.

Get your aim right and you’ll dispatch anyone daft enough to get in your way. Stop too short and fail to be quick enough to move again and you might lose your own innards – and in Astalo, you don’t get the traditional three lives. Mess up once and that’s your lot.

Visually, the game shines, with minimalist and varied landscapes seemingly situated atop unreal massive columns of rock. There are two modes as well, one of which has you kill everything within a room before continuing, and another that’s endless in nature – if not in a literal sense, because you’ll probably die within 30 seconds. Still, this is a fun one to play and always good when you have a few spare minutes and a hankering to play something exhilarating.

IAPs: The ads can be removed for £3.99/$3.99. You can also buy coins that are used to unlock new characters, rather than acquiring them through gradual grind. 100,000 (£4.99/$4.99) is enough for them all.

For iPad & iPhone (Universal) | Download Astalo

28. Saily Seas

With its hilly terrain, ambient audio, and gorgeous weather effects, there are hints of Tiny Wings and the Alto games in Saily Seas. However, as the title suggests, you’re braving an environment that’s a mite more splashy in this survival game.

The protagonist has set out to navigate rough seas in a vessel that doesn’t exactly scythe through the waves. Their ramshackle boat appears to be constructed from a few planks of wood and a sheet; it’s constantly at the mercy of terrifyingly large waves, and various critters that lurk above and beneath the surface.

Everything’s controlled by a single digit. You tap up waves to build speed, and hold the screen to hang in the air. Timing is everything. Go too slow and you’ll be gobbled up by a hungry whale. Mess up your hang timing and you’ll clatter into sharks and icebergs. And although you can dive under the sea for extra goodies, doing so comes with the risk of smacking into an angry octopus.

All this would be nice enough as-is, but Saily Seas introduces checkpoints. This is a rarity in an endless survival game, but welcome, transforming your efforts into an ongoing quest rather than having to start from scratch every time you play.

IAPs: You can remove the ads for the frankly bargain price of 99p/99c.

For iPad & iPhone (Universal) | Download Saily Seas

29. Deadword

Your boss wants to see you. You head to their office, but they start growling BRAINZZZ and trying to eat your face. With a sigh, you realise you’re stuck in the middle of the zombie apocalypse, and no-one even thought to arm you with a handy cricket bat first. Bah.

In Deadword, though, you’re not dashing about in a frenzied mash-up of twin-stick shooter and stealth, nor hoping multiple choice decisions won’t later return to bite you. Instead, Deadword’s all about evolving words.

Each level gives you a radar scanner and a four-letter word. During any turn, you can change one letter – and the word you create must be something from an actual dictionary. (Sorry, Xzyp fans.) Your aim is to reach supplies and exit targets by matching their words. But the undead lurk, with their own letters floating next to them.

Should a zombie hear you, it will update one of its own letters, aiming to get closer to yours – and, by extension, you. If it matches your word, it’ll take a chunk out of you, and you’d best hope you’re carrying something suitably solid to fight back, and a medical patch to ensure you don’t die.

The entire game is quite odd, and can sometimes get repetitive. But as a unique take on its component parts – zombies; word games; turn-based strategy – it’s a no-brainer download. Mmm. BRAINZZZZZ.

IAPs: $1.99/£1.99 unlocks endless mode (no story) and bliss (puppies rather than zombies).

For iPad & iPhone (Universal) | Download Deadword

30. Microbian

Much like you wonder what the little boy has done to deserve his fate in the hellish Limbo, you might ask why a spider has found itself in such hostile surroundings in this game of silhouette nightmares. But, well, nature. Here, though, we’re in auto-runner territory, rather than puzzle platforming, in an experience that echoes Canabalt and VVVVVV.

Your sole aim within the game is survival. Unfortunately, the sole aim of the game is to cruelly kill you. So as your spider scampers along, it meets all manner of terrifying beasties, traps, and set pieces that at first will flummox, but that you’ll eventually commit to memory, in order to progress.

Controls are down to a single thumb, which flips you to the ceiling, VVVVVV-style. A second tap while in mid-air flips you back. At first, such manoeuvres are just showing off; but as you head deeper into the game, such tricks are vital for dodging whatever’s thrown at you.

Visually, this game is stunning – an arresting mix of scratchy illustration that’s equally beguiling and hypnotic. It’s simple stuff, but wonderfully realised – and only by you learning and recognising the patterns and being steely of thumb can the spider have any hope of completing its journey.

IAPs: An ad will mostly – although not always – play when you come a cropper, rather wrecking the atmosphere of this bleak, spellbinding title. Get rid of the ads for £1.99.

For iPad & iPhone (Universal) | Download Microbian

31. Race The Sun Challenge Edition

What we have here is an endless flyer, featuring a pilot who likes to live dangerously – but in a manner that’s relatively green. Their craft zips about landscapes populated with solid structures – some of which inconveniently move as you head towards them. Said craft happens to be solar-powered. This poses a tiny snag, given that the protagonist has decided to go for a fly at sunset.

Your reactions keep you alive; but your race is ultimately against darkness. By grabbing glowing speed boost beacons, you can temporarily reverse the path of the sun, gaining a few precious extra seconds. Staying out of the shadows is also a smart move – albeit one that becomes tougher as you head deeper into the game, which increasingly becomes packed with towering structures.

Like the original Race The Sun, this freemium take is a visual delight, which looks superb on the iPad’s large screen. But its best feature remains how it plays – the controls feel solid, and the game is relentlessly exhilarating, if also frustrating when you lose concentration for a split-second during a record-breaking run, and watch aghast as your craft is rather permanently ‘sunsetted’ on hitting a wall.

IAPs: There’s a lives timer here: die five times, and you’ll have to wait for a bit unless you watch some ads. £4.99 gives you unlimited lives, and some ‘tris’, used to upgrade/change your ship. Tris can also be bought, but isn’t really necessary.

For iPad & iPhone (Universal) | Download Race The Sun Challenge Edition

32. Ilu

Games that play with light are nothing new to the App Store. The classic Helsing’s Fire had a dynamic approach to experimenting with puzzles and shadows, as does modern effort Where Shadows Slumber. But Ilu is markedly more minimal in outlook.

Somewhat reminiscent of ustwo’s Blip Blup, Ilu has you place lanterns on a grid. On setting one down, its light shines horizontally and vertically (but not diagonally) until it reaches a wall. Your aim is to illuminate all of the darkness.

The twist is Ilu’s nodes. These have markers that denote how many lanterns must be placed next to them. Also, two lanterns cannot shine light into each other. Doing so rapidly depletes your energy bar, and if it empties entirely all of the lights go out, forcing you to start again.

The result is a strategic, organic puzzler, where you gradually and methodically work your way towards a solution – and there’s only a single, unique one for each level. On iPad, Ilu works especially well, the screen acres not only presenting the game’s visuals in the best possible light (pun very much intended), but also affording you more accuracy in deciding where the next lantern should go.

IAPs: You can buy 100 ad-free puzzles for 99p. £7.99 permanently removes adverts from the game. Avoid the ship/suit upgrades, though, which seem to be purely aesthetic in nature.

For iPad & iPhone (Universal) | Download Ilu

33. Hexonia

In the grand tradition of Civilization, and various other games where you rampage about, giving anyone you meet a serious kicking, Hexonia offers you an entertaining, visually dazzling slice of turn-based strategy. As ever, you start with a lone unit surrounded by the unknown. It’s then down to you to decide what happens next.

You can explore, find villages to conquer, and build a miniature empire. Technologies can be researched, providing access to buildings that boost your coffers or arsenal. If you’re feeling a bit violent, amass a small army, march about until you meet another tribe, and then get into an almighty scrap.

On playing Hexonia, you can’t help but notice a whiff of Polytopia, which sits at the top of this list. Structurally, the games are similar, sometimes to the point you might narrow your eyes in suspicion. But there are key differences. Hexonia is a faster game, and more suited to newcomers. It looks nicer, and super units created when cities expand to a certain size are unique for each tribe. One has a stompy laser-spewing steampunk robot, while another gets a terrifying giant tiger; each provides scope for different tactics.

Polytopia remains the better title, but Hexonia nonetheless deserves a place on your iPad if you’re into turn-based strategy that prizes immediacy, fluidity, and plain looking fantastic.

IAPs: Extra tribes cost £1.99 or £2.99 each, and open up larger maps. Each has a distinctive unit and visual appearance. They are, however, optional.

For iPad & iPhone (Universal) | Download Hexonia

34. Mekorama

It’s tempting to look at Mekorama and think you’re getting a free take on Monument Valley, but although there are similarities, the pair are very different. Mekorama does have an isometric viewpoint, along with levels and components that can be manipulated and rotated with a finger, but it has no truck with Escher-style impossible objects. Instead, Mekorama is more straightforward, based around simpler pathfinding, helping a robot find its way to level’s end across 50 dioramas.

It’s a touch finicky at times, and it can be infuriating when an errant digit sends the robot flying from the diorama when you’re a couple of minutes in. However, any grimaces soon fade, largely due to the thoroughly charming nature of the game. From the robot’s goofy design to the gorgeously rendered surroundings, Mekorama begs to be interacted with. It’s also generous to a fault, offering a free level designer in addition to its many challenges.

IAPs: All IAPs are optional ‘tips’ for the game’s creator, ranging from 99p up to £30.99.

For iPhone and iPad (Universal) | Download Mekorama

35. Motorball

Whether you’ve watched Car Football on Top Gear or delved into soccer/driving mash-up Rocket League, you’ll know there’s a certain fascination in combining a giant-sized ball, a couple of goals, and several tons of speeding metal. Motorball takes this concept and makes it accessible by way of straightforward controls, an overhead view and vibrant cartoonish visuals.

Matches are against online opposition and so you’ll need an internet connection to compete. After a brief tutorial that shows you the ropes (left thumbstick to drive; buttons to boost and trigger power-ups), it’s time to make like a combination of Manchester United and Lewis Hamilton.

The basic gameplay is a lot of fun, in part because – as you might expect – trying to marshal a massive ball into a goal using a car is amusingly tricky. Sensibly, matches are short: the first to three goals wins. If you’re getting a pasting from a Motorball expert, chances are you’ll have a more even match-up within a minute or two.

On iPad, the game works particularly well because you can see more of the pitch. On iPhone, it’s too easy to cover up vital power-ups. With that larger display, you’ve got a better chance of scoring a majestic goal and then doing doughnuts on the pitch until the referee asks you to stop.

IAPs: Two-currency hell: you buy gems (up to a nauseating £99.99/$99.99) and swap them for tokens to buy upgrades. These increase your XP, unlocking new arenas. Fortunately, upgrades are cosmetic, and so play as much as you like at level one and just buy a few gems if you’d like to reward the creators for making the game.

For iPad & iPhone (Universal) | Download Motorball

36. Outfolded

This simple, elegant puzzle game dumps you in a minimal, isometric landscape, with a distant goal. Your means of getting there are trundling 3D shapes that look like Tetris rejects.

The catch is every time a shape’s surface hits the floor, it disappears. You, therefore, have a maximum of six moves per shape. (Hit a dead end, with no more possible moves, and subsequent goes are forfeit.) This forces you to think carefully about the order in which shapes are used, and the directions you take.

This could have proved onerous, but Outfolded’s design smartly tends towards the relaxing and meditative. The ambient soundtrack is soothing, and you’re provided with an unlimited number of undos, so you can freely experiment and fix bad moves.

None of this means you’ll blaze through the game – later levels are tough, and you might be tempted to start using in-game hints when you fall tantalisingly short time and again. Either way, Outfolded is an engaging, deceptively clever puzzler that works brilliantly on the iPad’s large display.

IAPs: You start with ten free hints. If you want more, you can get six by watching an ad, 100 for 99p, or an unlimited number for £2.99.

For iPhone and iPad (Universal) | Download Outfolded

37. Silly Walks

The evil Blender has kidnapped your friends. And he’s a literal blender – and your friends are fruit, who are terrified, caged, and don’t fancy being juiced. The tiny snag is the heroes in Silly Walks are also edible – and have a very silly walk.

Figuring out a path to your friends – across kitchen tables and patio furniture; past angry tenderising mallets and psychotic knives – is the easy bit. Moving is the hard part. Tap and your character (a pineapple drink by default, although others can be unlocked) rotates on one foot. Tap the screen and the other foot is planted, at which point the semi-sentient foodstuff starts rotating in the other direction.

With practice, you can get up a reasonable dodder – just as well, given that some levels come with severe time constraints. In one case, you must reach a stopcock before a kitchen floods; in another, you’re being pursued by a deranged appliance.

As you might have gleaned, Silly Walks is very odd. But it’s also a combination of platforming, one-thumb survival, and cartoon visuals that proves to be rather tasty – and very silly.

IAPs: For 99p, you can buy unlimited dashes, making some levels easier. IAPs also exist for buying sugar, to more rapidly unlock later stages.

For iPhone and iPad (Universal) | Download Silly Walks

38. Train Conductor World

Developer The Voxel Agents have been refining Train Conductor games for years, and this latest entry in the series is by far the best. It’s essentially all about routing trains to their destinations, and avoiding horrible crashes. Each single-screen level has a number of coloured entry and exit points, and as trains appear, you must draw temporary tracks to point them in the right direction.

Trains can be tapped to stop them, but this costs you a bonus star and a crack at a perfect 100 per cent score. (Top tip: you can tap-hold a train to slow it down, which is sometimes enough in close shaves, and you don’t lose a star that way!) Do well and you win bits of track you can lay to connect stations, thereby unlocking new locations and puzzles.

Train Conductor World is a gorgeous game, and the controls are tight. It has a wonderfully tactile feel, and never appears unfair; you always know how you could have avoided a crash, and resolve to do better next time. There is IAP, primarily for buying sections of track if you want to speed things along; but if you don’t fancy dipping into your wallet, you’ll merely have to replay certain locations a number of times, and the game’s so much fun this isn’t something you’ll rail against.

IAPs: As noted, you can buy containers and track pieces. A better bet is the £4.99 IAP for removing ads and giving you a free undo per round.

For iPhone and iPad (Universal) | Download Train Conductor World

39. Sky Chasers

We’ve no idea where you get the kind of cardboard box Sky Chaser protagonist Max owns, but we want one – it has thrusters and can fly! We are, mind, less jealous of the predicament Max finds himself in: lost in a massive jungle full of dead ends, deadly creatures and locked passageways.

Visually, Sky Chasers is a treat. There’s an old-school pixel art charm, but this isn’t a game of sharp edges threatening to poke your eyes out. Instead, backgrounds, characters and environments have been precisely crafted, and they look gorgeous on the iPad’s screen.

The controls, too, are spot-on. You hold your device and tap on the left or right of the display to activate the related thruster. You do, however, have limited fuel, and so cannot blast about the place willy-nilly. This is even more apparent when you eventually find yourself faced with corridors of twisted branches packed with huge thorns and rotating wheels with giant spikes nailed to them.

Fortunately, you refuel by collecting hovering bling, and there are regular checkpoints where you can rest up and also restart if you later blunder into a death-trap. Unlocking checkpoints does cost coins you’ve collected, but you can alternatively activate one by watching a video advert. As freemium goes, that’s one of the least obnoxious approaches we’ve seen – another reason this is a game you should chase down immediately.

IAPs: New characters are available for 99p each. A £2.99 IAP unlocks free checkpoints forever, rather than you watching videos or using collected in-game coins.

For iPhone and iPad (Universal) | Download Sky Chasers

40. Silly Sausage: Doggy Dessert

This strange arcade treat finds the titular stretchy hound picking his way through landscapes of sugary treats that also happen to be packed full of deadly hazards. A mash-up of several superheroes in canine form, Silly Sausage can cling to any surface, and then as you swipe stretches indefinitely until reaching another edge. At that point his bottom pings back into place, ready for you to head somewhere else.

This oddball mechanic fuses dexterity, timing, and pathfinding, as you figure out the best way to grab gems en route as your elastic dog snakes its way around deadly acid drops, whirling saw blades, and giant rolling pins. Now and again, you can enter challenge rooms – intense time-based tests that make the main game seem like a walk in the park by comparison.

The game stretches across 50 varied sections, and a kennel restart point’s situated at the beginning of each. If you’re feeling particularly hardcore, you can try taking on the entire game at once; mere mortals, however, will want to use collected gems to buy restart points, to avoid starting from scratch after every death. Either way, on iPad the game works particularly well, the larger display affording greater accuracy as you work your way through increasingly devious tests.

IAPs: Rid yourself of adverts that appear when your dog snuffs it for £3.99. You can also buy gems (50 for 99p; 400 for £2.99) if you run out and don’t fancy watching ads to unlock restart kennels.

For iPhone and iPad (Universal) | Download Silly Sausage: Doggy Dessert