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Arcade Games
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Anodia ($1.99) The game that tried to reinvent the brick breaker genre and succeeded, with more than 100 handcrafted levels. |
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Bejeweled ($0.99) A PopCap classic on the iPhone, with three game modes to fit any mood – classic, frantic and casual. |
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Carmageddon ($1.99) A faithful iOS port of the classic ultra-violent 90s open-world racer, complete with Game Centre support and action replays. |
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Doodle Jump ($0.99) Using your iPhone’s accelerometer, tilt to guide Doodler the Doodler higher and higher. |
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Diamond Dash This app describes itself as a “60 second gem rush” and will have you furiously tapping at coloured gems in your spare time. |
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Fieldrunners 2 ($4.99) One of the best tower defence games for iOS with lovely graphics and a wacky art style. |
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Fish Fury Take down all the birds with a variety of power-ups in this addictive game that’s perfect to pick up and play anywhere. |
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Fruit Ninja ($0.99) No space for the Kinect version? Worry not, you can slice and dice fruit with your fingers in this iOS edition. |
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Flight Control ($0.99) Land as many planes as you can without any collisions in this frantic game that keeps you coming back for more. |
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Harbor Master ($1.99) Just like Flight Control except this time you’re in control of a harbor and must guide boats safely into port. |
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iStunt 2 Insane Hills Fast-paced 2D snowboarding action from Miniclip with ragdoll physics, buzz saws, boosts and more. |
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Jetpack Joyride Avoid lasers, electricity as you test your reflexes in this free to play side-scrolling jetpack adventure! |
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Kingdom Rush What many have called the iPad’s best tower defense game is now available on the iPhone. |
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Nosferatu: Run from the Sun Play the role of Nosferatu, the cutest and fastest vampire who must outrun the rising sun. |
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Plants vs Zombies ($2.99) A timeless classic from PopCap games with more than 50 levels and new mini-games to complete. |
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Paper Toss 2.0 The ultimate time-wasting activity goes digital and comes to your phone. Play it at work without annoying your boss! |
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Peggle ($0.99) Clear all the orange pegs from the 55 included levels in this incredibly simple yet hopelessly addictive game. |
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Pinball Fantasies ($2.99) This Amiga pinball classic makes it to iOS and remains one of (if not the) best pinball games ever made. |
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Simple Brick Breaker The clue’s in the name: this is a quality free Breakout clone with tons of levels. |
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Ski Safari ($0.99) A “goal runner” style game with animals, avalanches and beautiful graphics in one casual gaming package. |
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Swordigo ($1.99) A lovely little action adventure game that brings elements of your favourite retro platformers to iOS in an adorable package. |
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Tap The Frog Mindless fun to test your reflexes, Tap The Frog 2 is also worth checking out once you’ve finished. |
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Tiny Wings ($0.99) An addictive arcade game that you can play with one finger that takes time to master. |
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Temple Run Indiana Jones inspired action – can you outrun the boulder by swiping and tapping fast enough? |
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Temple Run 2 More of the same, Temple Run 2 expands on the concept of running away from a boulder with new graphics, obstacles, power-ups and more! |
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The Creeps Use a variety of power ups and objects to defeat things that go bump in the night in The Creeps, a free tower defense game. |
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Towers N’ Trolls HD A free fast-paced tower defense game with a fantasy twist. |
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Tower Defense An insanely addictive tower defense game for those who love waves and waves of enemies. |
Action Games
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Brothers in Arms 2: Global Front Free Play this highly acclaimed World War II themed first person shooter for free, at your own pace or with optional purchases. |
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Dead Trigger Blast your way through hordes of infected in this great-looking first person shooter that pulls out all the stops. |
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i Love Katamari ($6.99) A challenging Japanese game that fits in its own “rolling” genre, this is the best iOS version out there. |
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Sky Gamblers: Air Supremacy ($4.99) Probably the best flight sim on iOS complete with beautiful graphics, single player and multiplayer modes. |
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Spaceteam A free multiplayer co-op game in which you must shout instructions at your friends and press buttons to avoid your spacecraft blowing up. Awesome. |
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Superbrothers: Sword & Sworcery EP ($4.99) Sword & Sworcery is an exploratory action adventure with a unique and beautiful graphical style. |
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Soosiz ($1.99) Beautiful graphics, enchanting level design and simple controls combine to make this one of the best platformers on iOS. |
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Grand Theft Auto 3 ($4.99) Rockstar Games’ 10 year anniversary edition of GTA’s first 3D outing, on your iPhone. |
Board and Card Games
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Solitaire Because sometimes all you need is a simple game of Windows 95-esque Solitaire. |
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Carcassonne ($9.99) A highly acclaimed edition of the classic boardgame with both online and offline multiplayer. |
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Summoner Wars A digital card game with the tactical elements you’d usually find in a board game, and it’s free to play to boot! |
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Naval Warfare Multi-Shot It’s Battleships for the mobile generation, with less restrictions, play-by-mail gameplay and it’s completely free with a few adverts. |
Racing Games
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Asphalt 7: Heat ($0.99) Gameloft’s latest rendition of its famous racing game. |
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Death Rally ($0.99) A combat racer with global multiplayer, lots of unlocks and great top-down 3D graphics. |
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Jet Car Stunts ($1.99) A beautiful and unique stunt racer that looks glorious at 60fps on the iPhone 4 and 4S. |
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Reckless Racing ($0.99) Top-down 3D Micro Machines-style racing with a sweet physics system and lovely graphics. |
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Real Racing 3 The iOS equivalent of Gran Turismo or Forza, Real Racing combines stunning graphics with solid controls for high-octane fun. |
Role-Playing Games
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Aralon: Sword and Shadow HD ($6.99) A fully 3D RPG with over 80 unique locations, caves, dungeons and temples to explore. |
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Galaxy on Fire 2 ($5.49) A full-on “proper” space-based RPG game for your iOS device, with space combat, questing and discovery. |
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Hunters 2 ($5.49) Build the best team of bounty hunters in the galaxy in this RPG space sim with a single player campaign and daily extra missions. |
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Please Stay Calm A zombie apocalypse massively multiplayer online role playing game which encourages exploration, scavenging and survival! |
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Pocket Legends The first massively multiplayer online RPG for the iPhone, and the biggest to date. Play for free with in-app currency purchase options. |
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Infinity Blade 2 ($7.49) Probably the prettiest game on the iOS platform, Infinity Blade 2 is a 3D hack and slash RPG that is sure to please. |
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Minecraft Pocket Edition ($6.99) The sensational building and crafting sim comes to iOS, now with crafting and furnaces! |
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Junk Jack A 2D sandbox game in which you must build a home and survive the horrors thrown at you by the procedurally generated world. |
Sports Games
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FIFA 13 ($1.99) New controls, new multiplayer abilities, new teams and statistics – is this the best mobile football game to date? Probably. |
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Flick Soccer Fun for football fans and non-fans alike, sports meets puzzle in this free kick simulator. |
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Frisbee Forever 2 After the success of the original, Frisbee Forever 2 ramps up the flying disc fun with more levels, hidden items and unique unlocks. |
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NBA Jam ($0.99) Over-the-top, high-flying 2-on-2 basketball action with all your favourite NBA teams and local multiplayer. |
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Virtual Table Tennis 2 A fully 3D ping pong game with online and local multiplayer and realistic physics, for free! |
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Can KnockDown Simple to pick up, easy to play, difficult to master – Can KnockDown is a simple and fun addictive physics game. |
Simulation Games
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Air Wings Take command of a paper plane and blast your foes out of the sky in this awesome dogfighting paper-plane ‘em up! |
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DragonVale Build a dragon park, collect different types of dragons and breed brand new ones in this free to play fantasy simulation. |
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Galaxy on Fire 2 There aren’t enough space exploration games made these days but this iOS attempt with great graphics, solid story and free roam rocks. |
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Jurassic Park Builder Just your average farming game with one small difference… dinosaurs! |
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Hack RUN Ever wanted to be a computer hacker? Now you can at least pretend in this challenging simulation-meets-puzzler. |
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Middle Manager of Justice Double Fine’s time-based free-to-play management sim is as cheeky as it is gorgeous, with plenty of character to boot. |
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My Horse If you like either horses (a lot) or time management simulations (a lot) then there’s plenty here to entertain you. |
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Pixel People Create your very own pixellated sprawling metropolis in this casual free to play combining and building game.Create your very own pixellated sprawling metropolis in this casual free to play combining and building game. |
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Plague Inc. ($0.99) If you’ve ever played Pandemic then you’ll love Plague Inc., the iPhone’s premier population control simulator. |
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Pocket Planes Micro-manage your own airline in another free to play simulation, with tons of customisation and social elements |
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Pucca’s Restaurant Start out as an unknown chef and work your way up to a culinary genius in this free restaurant managing sim. |
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Simpsons Tapped Out Build your very own virtual Springfield and interact with friends in this free-to-play city building sim. |
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The Settlers ($5.49) A faithful reproduction of the classic 90s resource management sim in which you build a new settlement for your people. |
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Tiny Tower A delightfully 8bit tower simulation in which you manage a building and the businesses within. |
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Tiny Farm Manage your own farm with tons of animals, seasonal updates and a special breeding system. |
Puzzle Games
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Amazing Alex ($0.99) Rovio have another crack at the physics puzzler genre in this game which tests your Rube Goldberg abilities. |
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Angry Birds ($0.99) The original and incredibly addictive physics puzzler, Angry Birds is to iOS what Mario was to the NES. |
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Angry Birds Space ($0.99) The true sequel to the original Angry Birds games sees your favourite airborne avians venture into space. |
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Angry Birds Star Wars Easily the best Angry Birds game yet, blending new gameplay and classic Star Wars locations and characters into one neat package. |
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Bad Piggies ($0.99) Rovio’s spin-off of the Angry Birds series sees you building vehicles and trying to steal eggs – with the company’s usual golden touch. |
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Bag It! ($0.99) A critically acclaimed grocery bagging game that makes a perfect pick up and play time filler. |
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Cover Orange ($0.99) Taking the premise of Angry Birds and turning it on its head, protect the oranges in this citrus themed brain teaser. |
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Cut The Rope ($0.99) A physics puzzler in which you must feed Om Nom candy by cutting the various ropes in the correct order. |
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DOOORS Break out of the rooms in this challenging puzzle game with a total of 50 stages. Frustrating but rewarding! |
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Flow Free Play more than 600 levels for free in this simple yet highly addictive puzzle game. |
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Ghost Trick Epic puzzler which first showed up on the DS makes its debut on iOS, with an in-app purchase to unlock all levels ($9.99). |
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Gravity Maze ($1.99) A maze game with a twist, tilt, rotate and move your phone to manipulate the maze and free the ball in this stylish tilt game. |
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Guide the Light ($0.99) Use mirrors and crystals to help explore lost pyramids in this engaging puzzler. |
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Safari Party An evolved match-4 action puzzler that promises a real challenge as well as real-time multiplayer. |
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Scribblenauts Remix ($0.99) Solve puzzles using your brain and keyboard by adding characters, objects and more with a few taps. |
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SEQ Beautifully minimalist, dangerously addictive and devilishly difficult in areas, SEQ is a connect the dots game with a twist. |
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Slice It! A charming little puzzle game that’s all about slicing objects into pieces of equal size. |
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Traffic Rush ($0.99) Can you keep the roads accident-free? It’s not as easy as it sounds in this addictive and challenging puzzle game. |
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The Plateau Unravel holographic structures of orbs in this “untangling” puzzler featuring atmospheric ambient music and gorgeous artwork. |
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The Room ($1.99) A puzzle game enshrouded in mystery set in a beautiful 3D world – can you escape? |
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Trucks and Skulls NITRO Smash nitro-burning monster trucks into piles of giant skulls in this crazy physics puzzler. |
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Triple Town An original puzzle in which you must grow the largest town possible by combining pieces on a board – highly addictive! |
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Where’s My Water? ($0.99) An intuitive physics-based puzzler from Disney with 3 stories, over 400 levels and 3 new puzzles each week. |
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World of Goo ($2.99) A beautifully weird but wonderful puzzle game that is as therapeutic as it is challenging. |
Trivia and Word Games
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Draw Something Pictionary for the iDevice generation – test your drawing skills and challenge your friends. |
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Letterpress Spell out words and take over the board in this multiplayer mix of wordplay and strategy. |
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Logos Quiz Game Test your brand knowledge or shock yourself at how well advertising has worked on you in a free logo quiz game. |
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Jambalaya Try and make as many words as possible in the time limit with the supplied letters. |
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Words With Friends Fancy yourself as a bit of a Scrabble champion? Play Words With Friends for free and prove it! |
Disclaimer: All applications listed were thoroughly reviewed. MakeUseOf is not responsible for any damage and/or data loss
that might result from use of any of the above mentioned applications.
Hide 15 Comments
I must disagree. Fifa 12? Field Runners 2? Pocket Legends?Modern Combat 3?
Thanks for your feedback, these will be taken into account when we next update!
Yeah, Field Runners 2 is one of the best tower defense games out there
&
Amazing Alex, Where’s My Water?, Where’s My Perry? for Puzzle section are also really great…
I’d love to see an Android version of this page, please.
in progress!
Sticking with my DROID!
Thanks for such a wonderful site. I think this app Sudoku Block Puzzle is worth mentioning to your user who are interested in Sudoku Games. it is a new way of solving Sudoku Puzzles.
cheers
Thanks for the recommendation, we will check it out next time the page is updated
This great tower defense game have something that the other TD doesn’t: Kinetic Novel Story Style and Editor Mode.
Try BattleBox for $2.99 and bring back the fun creating your own level and sharing it so your friends could play it too: http://itunes.apple.com/app/battlebox/id527855572?mt=8
Thank you for having a site like this. This is very useful. I really appreciate it. I am also working on a blog that looks into various aspects of iPhone games, marketing and application development for iPhone and the like. If you would like to see great YouTube videos I found on going Viral, check out: http://appandemic.blogspot.com/2012/10/not-appologizing-for-these-videos.html.
This is so helpful, thanks! I really want to try ‘I Love Katamari’ but I’m not willing to fork out $6.99 on an app.
i agree with 80 % of the list mentioned above, but i am really missing some new games which are using augmented reality and gesture features to really enhance the gameplay. I am currently playing EYE JUMPER – ur face is the controller in this game…try it out its loads of fun:
https://itunes.apple.com/si/app/eye-jumper/id566603845?mt=8
I agree 85% above them, but I think all the “best” should be update continually. Such as the game iSwinging I recently got, really addictive, and it’s free.
i would like to add one… it is pretty good now comes with a multiplayer-online mode “CSR Racing” drag racing, amazing HD view.
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/csr-racing/id469369175?mt=8
Oh how I love Real Racing 3!! Beautiful and smooth graphics with no lag whatsoever!
The best racing game I’ve ever played on my iPhone 5 and best of all, it’s free!!