Slideshow

In Pictures: 20 best iPhone/iPad games

20 Photos Bob Brown (Network World)

Star Wars Rebels, Fireworks, Shakespeare and lots of quests are featured in top iPhone and iPad games.

  • Games As we head toward summer 2015, it’s time to check in and see how the mobile gaming industry has fared for Apple iOS platforms, the iPhone and iPad. Here’s a look at top rated games issued so far this year, based on App Store user reviews and professional reviewers on Metacritic. We hope you’ll discover a few hidden gems in here.

  • Legend of Grimrock Developer: Almost Human Price: $5 Ratings: 95 of 100 on Metacritic; 4.5 of 5 stars on Apple App Store; Ages 9+ This popular role-playing game for the PC brings its dungeon crawling to iOS. With Legend of Grimrock, enable prisoners who may or may not have committed the crimes for which they’ve been exiled to Mount Grimlock navigate its maze of tunnels and tombs.

  • Ryan North’s To Be or Not to Be Developer: Tim Man Games Price: $6 Ratings: 93 of 100 on Metacritic; 4 of 5 stars on App Store; Rated 12+ Shakespeare meets the iPhone and iPad in Ryan North’s To Be or Not to Be game. As the developer writes: “Play as Hamlet and revenge your father's death. Play as Ophelia and make scientific discoveries. Play as King Hamlet, Sr. and die on the first page!”

  • Implosion: Never lose hope Developer: Rayark Price: $10 Ratings: 93 of 100 on Metacritic; 4.5 stars on App Store; Rated 12+ Implosion transports you here: “Twenty years after the fall of Earth, the remnants of the Human race are once again faced with extinction. The time has come to justify our existence. A mysterious life form known as the XADA squares off against humanity's last weapon - the War-Mech series III battle suit.”

  • Attack the Light: Steven Universe Light RPG Developer: Cartoon Network Price: $3 Ratings: 91 of 100 on Metacritic; 5 of 5 stars on App Store; Rated for ages 9+. Attack the Light is a role-playing game in which 4 heroes team up for a magical adventure.

  • Sorcery! 3 Developer: Inkle Studios Price: $5 Ratings: 90 of 100 on Metacritic; 4 of 5 stars on App Store; Rated 12+ Sorcery! 3 is described as “An epic adventure through a cursed wilderness of monsters, traps and magic.” And you don’t need to have played parts 1 or 2.

  • Magic Touch: Wizard for Hire Developer: Nitrome Price: Free Ratings: 87 of 100 on Metacritic; 4.5 of 5 stars on App Store; Rated age 9+. In Magic Touch a wizard is wanted who has proficiency in spell casting for popping intruders’ balloons.

  • Halo Spartan Strike Developer: Microsoft Price: $6 Ratings: 86 of 100 on Metacritic; 4.5 of 5 stars on App Store; Rated for ages 12+. In Halo Spartan Strike, you are a supersoldier tasked with up to 30 challenging missions in city and jungle settings. Don’t worry, you have plenty of weapons, skills and vehicles with which to pummel and outwit enemies of Earth.

  • SwapQuest Developer: Constantin Graf Price: $3 Ratings: 85 of 100 on Metacritic; 3.5 of 5 stars on App Store; Rated for ages 9+. SwapQuest mixes easy-to-learn puzzles with role-playing action as you try to save the Kingdom of Aventana from a demon cloud dubbed the Horde.

  • Silly Sausage in Meatland Developer: Nitrome Price: Free Ratings: 85 of 100 on Metacritic; 4.5 of 5 stars on App Store; Rated for ages 9+. In Silly Sausage you’re a dog with an infinitely stretchy body, which can be handy but also exposes you to all sorts of meat cutting instruments.

  • Card Crawl Developer: Arnold Rauers Price: $2 Ratings: 84 of 100 on Metacritic; 5 of 5 stars on App Store; Rated for ages 12+. Card Crawl is solitaire with a dungeon crawler twist, in which you need to say monsters efficiently.

  • TouchTone Developer: Mikengreg Price: $3 Ratings: 84 of 100 on Metacritic; 4 of 5 stars on App Store; Rated ages 12+. TouchTone is a game that the likes of the NSA and Anonymous would love: decrypt suspicious messages to make the nation safer and stronger.

  • Flop Rocket Developer: Butterscotch Shenanigans Price: Free Ratings: 84 of 100 on Metacritic; 4.5 of 5 on App Store; Rated for ages 12+. Next best thing to flying a drone: “Pilot your Flop Rocket through a 5 kilometer cave filled with dragon-like Spaceducks, enormous rock-worms, and other space-time anomalies as you try to prevent an underfunded space program from going bust.”

  • Fearless Fantasy Developer: TinyBuild Price: $4 Ratings: 84 of 100 on Metacritic; 4.5 of 5 stars on App Store; Rated for ages 9+. Fearless Fantasy is a gesture-based role-playing game in which you are a bounty hunter intent on slaying weird creatures and saving a young woman from an awful marriage.

  • The Quest Keeper Developer: Tyson Ibele Price: Free Ratings: 83 of 100 on Metacritic; 4.5 of 5 stars on App Store; Rated for ages 4+. In The Quest Keeper, your mission is to help a peasant become a dungeon master, but you’ll need to dodge spikes, knives and scary creatures to do so.

  • Star Wars Rebels: Recon Missions Developer: Disney Interactive Studios Price: Free Ratings: 83 of 100 on Metacritic; 4.5 of 5 stars on App Store; Rated for ages 9+. Star Wars Rebels is based on the TV show, and lets you take on the Empire in this action platform game.

  • Blokshot Revolution Developer: Foxhole Games Price: Free Ratings: 82 of 100 on Metacritic; 4.5 of 5 stars on App Store; Rated for ages 4+. In Blokshot Revolution, experience “a beautiful firework display of hypnotic neon destruction” set against a pumping EDM sountrack.

  • Beast Quest Developer: Miniclip.com Price: Free Ratings: 81 of 100 on Metacritic; 4 of 5 stars on App store; Rated for ages 9+. The Beast Quest action-adventure game asks whether you are the hero Avantia has been looking for to free the magical beasts of this leand from the spell of a wicked wizard.

  • Marvel Future Fight Developer: Netmarble Games Price: Free Ratings: 81 of 100 on Metacritic; 4.5 of 5 on App Store; This Marvel role-playing game lets you assemble teams of super heroes for single or multiple player games, as you battle via weapons and skills to keep humanity alive.

  • MicRogue Developer: Crescent Moon Games Price: $2 Ratings: 80 of 100 on Metacritic; 2 of 5 stars on App Store; Rated for ages 4+. MicRogue does have a weak rating on the App Store based on limited reviews, but Metacritic reviewers gave it some love for packing fun into a small package. Climb a dark tower and avoid monsters with chess-like moves.

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