Hidden Gems: 154 great iOS games that you forgot existed [31-60]
Volume II: Diggin' Dogs to Inferno+
This is the second instalment in a five-part series looking at 150 hidden iOS gems. The mathematicians among you will have already worked out that 150 divided by five is 30. That's why there are 30 entries in this instalment. Click on the following hyperlink for Volumes I, III, IV, and V.
Just as the mathematicians among you can enjoy the division of this list of 150 games into five equal parts, the lexicographers may appreciate the way in which the entries have been arranged alphabetically.
Last week, we took you all the way from 2079 Tilt! to Don't Look Back, by way of forgotten experiments like Alternate Endings and transitory hits like Bike Baron.
It was a journey that took us from the dark, fumbling days of 2008 right up to the gleaming bustle of 2012.
This week is more or less the same, but for the letters D, E, F, G, H, I, and even - yes - J.
Diggin' Dogs By Soap Games - buy on iPhone If you take DigDug and Mr Driller, cross-breed them both with Where's My Water?, and then chuck in three dogs, this is what happens. | |
Don't Look Back By Terry Cavanagh - download free on iPhone and iPad Terry Cavanagh's iOS port of this retro Flash platformer is pleasingly arty, viciously difficult, and surprisingly free. | |
Dream Track Nation By PowPowGame - buy on iPhone and iPad Take Jet Car Stunts and make it 2D. Now, design the tracks to look vaguely like Rolando stages. Throw in a level editor. Hello, Dream Track Nation. | |
Dungeon Raid By Fireflame Games - buy on iPhone Dungeon Raid belongs to the puzzle / RPG hybrid genre pioneered by the maker of Puzzle Quest. The key difference between the two games is that Dungeon Raid lets you create strings. | |
Eliss By Steph Thirion - buy on iPhone Moving circles into other circles has to be easy, right? Wrong. Eliss is best enjoyed by dexterous geniuses, though everybody should give it a try. | |
Evac By Hexage - buy on iPhone or buy on iPad Evac is a fairly blatant Pac-Man clone, but it earns its place here on account of Hexage taking the Namco template and creating something thoughtful and mentally stimulating. | |
Extraction: Project Outbreak By ShortRound Games - buy on iPhone and iPad Cannon Fodder and Syndicate are both tragically absent from the App Store, but Extraction: Project Outbreak does a decent job of channelling their spirits. | |
Extreme Lawn Bowls By Mediatonic - buy on iPhone Lawn bowls is normally the preserve of retirees. Mediatonic manages to make this slightly pedestrian sport look exciting while retaining the real game's thoughtful pace. | |
Fibble By Crytek - buy on iPhone Crytek's first iOS game is a typically polished effort, with stunningly nice Pixar-esque graphics and solid casual-puzzler gameplay. | |
Final Freeway 2R By Oyatsukai - buy on iPhone and iPad This heavily OutRun-inspired retro arcade racer is most noteworthy for demonstrating how effective tilt controls can be. | |
Finger Balance By Coconut Island - buy on iPhone Finger Balance may not be pretty or slick, but Coconut Island executes its unusual central balancing mechanic so neatly that it's worth experiencing. | |
Forget-Me-Not By Nyarlu Labs - buy on iPhone and iPad Forget-Me-Not is a deceptively poncy name for a game that's best described as 'Pac-Man with guns! And then some!' | |
Formula Micro GP By Chris Razmovski - buy on iPhone and iPad Formula One is a fearsomely technical and complicated sport. That's why it's so boring. Formula Micro GP's simple top-down retro gameplay means it's anything but dull. | |
Galcon By Phil Hassey - buy on iPhone An unfussy but surprisingly deep neon strategy game that does for the RTS what Geometry Wars does for the shoot-'em-up. | |
Gears By Mobile Games Garage - buy on iPhone and iPad Rolling a ball about takes a lot of skill. Not enough for Gears, though, whose developer ups the ante with platforms, elevators, time limits, and, yes, gears. | |
Gesundheit! By Revolutionary Concepts - buy on iPhone or buy on iPad Video games are all about wish fulfilment. In this ingenious and charming puzzler, you can fulfil your wish of being a fat pig with all snot coming out of its nose. | |
Get Outta My Galaxy! By Ookoohko - buy on iPhone and iPad Some aliens are stowing away on your planet. Unfortunately for them, you're a monster with four giant arms and the ability to slap stowaways into space. | |
Go! Go! Rescue Squad By Mforma - buy on iPhone Puzzle-platformer Go! Go! Rescue Squad is an insight into a world where firemen extinguish fires and rescue endangered citizens solely by chucking stuff about. | |
Gomi By Bovinedragon Software - buy on iPhone There has never been a great Katamari game on iOS. Well, unless you count Gomi, a planet-based pencil-drawn platformer about getting bigger, that is. | |
Gravity Guy By Miniclip - buy on iPhone This now-familiar gravity-flipping game deserves a look-in thanks to its chase theme and the inclusion of an outrageously fun four-player multiplayer mode. | |
Greed Corp HD By Invictus Games - buy on iPad Bleak futuristic strategy game Greed Corp came to console first, but its hex-based depleting-resource-management gameplay works much better on a touchscreen. | |
Groove Coaster By Taito - buy on iPhone and iPad This surreal wireframe rhythm-action game from Reisuke Ishida is a vision of an alternative Tron in which Flynn takes acid and becomes a DJ. | |
Halcyon By Zach Gage - buy on iPad High score chaser Halcyon is a simple but ingenious casual game about bringing little triangles together. Also contains trendy procedurally generated music. | |
Hambo By Miniclip - buy on iPhone At a glance, Hambo looks a lot like Angry Birds. On closer inspection, though, it's richer and more satisfying than Rovio's underground hit. Oh, and there are no birds in it. | |
Helsing's Fire By Ratloop - buy on iPhone In this clever action-puzzler, you are attacked by waves of werewolves, mummies, and vampires, all of whom are conveniently vulnerable to torchlight. | |
HexDefense By Gotow - buy on iPhone and iPad Soldiers and zombies are window dressing that HexDefense does without. Gotow has built an incredibly rich tower defence game from a simple neon hexagonal foundation. | |
I Dig It Expeditions By InMotion Software - buy on iPhone Digging a hole, recovering stuff from the ground, selling it, and then buying upgrades to let you dig an even-deeper hole was never so much fun. | |
iBlast Moki 2 HD By Godzilab - download free on iPhone and iPad Are timed explosions the best way to propel your friends around? Probably not, but iBlast Moki 2 HD makes it look like fun all the same. | |
Incoboto By Fluttermind - buy on iPad The Corporation has made all the suns go out. Boo! This charming, ingenius, and presumably left-leaning indie puzzle-platformer is all about re-igniting them. | |
Inferno+ By Radiangames - buy on iPhone and iPad With just 40 bite-size stages to romp through, Radiangames's Xbox 360 indie shooter is like a linear Geometry Wars with upgrades. |
It goes without saying that there are bound to be literally trillions of other games that could have qualified for this list. It would be immensely useful if you could point out how thick we are for omitting them by sharing your suggestions in the comments section below.