Mobile gaming is taking your pocket by storm, but for every Doodle Jump, there are thousands of games that are completely, and sometimes cruelly overlooked. Read on, as we pick out some of the very best mobile games you’ve never heard of.
Apparatus
£1.30 (Android)
Rovio’s Angry Birds is a puzzler of sorts, but there’s an element of ‘shoot first, see what happens afterwards’. Apparatus on the other hand requires devilish thinking from the get go: using real world physics, you’ll have to set up obstacle courses from the supplied kit to guide a ball into a cage. It’s fiendish, and nevertheless than great fun, especially when catapults enter the mix.
EVAC
£1.49 (Android)
EVAC plays like Pac-Man meet The Lost Vikings, trapped inside the grid from Tron. You play a small cube trapped inside a deadly labyrinth, and it’s up to you to collect all the bits, push blocks to open up an escape route, and dodge the security bots. All while marveling at the serene, captivating music. The lo-fi graphics are disguised by the beautiful design and colour, and mean this will run on almost any Android phone, big or small: there’s also a HD version for more powerful devices.
Giant Fighting Robots
£1.21 (Android)
Simulator games don’t have a great reputation on smartphones, but this one deserves a second look. It does what the title suggests: lets you beat seven bells out of giant robots with your own giant robot. A great strategy game that requires forward planning as well as whip-smart reflexes.
The Incident
£1.49 (iPhone)
In a world of high quality 3D and HD graphics, The Incident’s retro animation is a glory to behold. It plays a little bit like a vertical version of jumping game Canabalt: something has gone horribly wrong in the world, and everything is falling down around you. It’s up to you to use the debris to scale the heights and find out just what’s caused it all.
Secret of Mana
£5.99 (iPhone)
We wouldn’t blame you for never having heard of Secret of Mana. It is, after all, two decades old – centuries in game history. But this RPG, far more popular in Japan than the West, has proved to be vastly influential and as an iPhone game it still stands the test of time. The action is thrilling, the artwork charming, and the gameplay more than deep enough to justify the price of admission.
Sticky
£0.69 (iPhone)
Although it’s failed to attract the same levels of success as Cut The Rope and Doodle Jump, Sticky is every bit as adorable. Your task is to flick and fling a ball of gloop along the levels, taking out evil toxins – although as with all the best games, it’s never quite that simple. Regularly updated with new content, it’s well worth a slice of your morning commute.
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