Pocket Gamer's Top 10 Games of the Year 2012 - iPhone Edition

It's been another incredible year for Apple and its increasingly-popular App Store.

iOS developers have conjured up a staggering number of Pocket Gamer Award-winning titles over the course of the past 12 months.

To be honest, it's been rather difficult to whittle an entire year's worth of excellent new iPhone apps down to just ten.

Beat Sneak Bandit, Squids Wild West, Angry Birds Star Wars, and dozens more iPhone games could easily have been included on the list below. But, they didn't.

These, however, did...

Rayman Jungle Run is great for many reasons. It looks amazing, for starters, but that's hardly surprising considering it's powered by the same engine that powers console hit Rayman Origins.

It's challenging enough to keep you entertained throughout, too, and it's been designed specifically for touch-enabled devices.

It's an auto-run platformer, you see, meaning you can focus all your attention on avoiding obstacles and making precision jumps.

In Madgarden's brawler, the developer employs the same auto-run mechanic that Ubi does in Rayman Jungle Run. This is a good thing.

Instead of worrying about the speed at which you're running, then, you can concentrate on uppercutting skeletons in the face, jabbing mean ogres in the solar plexus, and riding on the back of a dinosaur that fires lasers out of its gaping gob.

Enough said.

New Star Soccer
By New Star Games - buy for iPhone

If you're looking for a casual kickabout, New Star Soccer definitely isn't for you.

If you're wanting to buy expensive apartments, date gorgeous women, and generally live the life of a real-world footballer, on the other hand, it'll be right up your alley.

Need for Speed: Most Wanted is proof that Apple's iPhone can compete with dedicated gaming handhelds like the PS Vita and Nintendo's 3DS.

Put simply, there's no doubting that this is a 'triple-A' title.

This iPhone version of EA's latest racer bagged an extremely shiny Pocket Gamer Gold Award at review, while its Vita counterpart picked up a Silver. I refer you to the opening paragraph of this segment. Yep, exactly.

Super Hexagon is a minimalist action-packed title from indie sensation Terry Cavanagh, who's the guy behind both rock-solid platformer VVVVVV and Don't Look Back.

This game is all about survival. You take control of a small craft that's stuck in orbit around a hexagonal sun, and attempt to avoid the waves of barriers that move towards you.

Simple, right? Wrong. Very wrong. It's tough as nails.

Fancy yourself as the next Tony Hawk, do you? Think you can pull off the fabled 900, do you? Here's your chance to prove your skills.

True Skate is one of the most authentic skating games on the App Store. In it, you can perform a multitude of cool-looking tricks with simple flicks and taps of your device's display.

Our favourite feature: the fact you can mess up a trick without breaking your neck.

ZiGGURAT
By Action Button Entertainment - buy for iPhone

You're the last human on earth.

You're stood atop a large pyramid watching never-ending waves of aliens assault your once-precious homeland.

Your death is inevitable.

ZiGGURAT is an endless-shooter in which you're tasked with a single mission: wipe out as many intergalactic invaders as you can before they melt your face clean off.

We'll be blunt: Zookeeper Battle is a crazy match-three puzzler. And we do mean CRAZY. We're talking John Wayne Gacy crazy.

In this game, Kiteretsu gives you 30 seconds to match three or more cute and colourful animals. Certain animals increase your defense capabilities, whereas others improve your attacks.

Once your 30 seconds are over, your in-game avatar will duke it out with the avatar of another player from somewhere else in the world.

FIFA 13
By Electronic Arts - buy for iPhone

FIFA 13 for the iPhone may not be as complex or as challenging as its console counterparts, but, boy, is it fun.

It's fast and fluid, and it handles perfectly.

You know the drill here. You can choose your favourite team (Barcelona) from some of the world's most prestigious leagues, and then spend 90 minutes trying to slide tackle Wayne Rooney.

VS. Racing 2
By Maciek Drejak Labs - buy for iPhone

This top-down racer doesn't look very special from afar, but didn't your mother ever teach you not to judge a book by its cover?

VS. Racing 2 is incredibly fun. Play on your own, and it's a pretty standard racing game. Get some friends involved, however, and it becomes a Mario Kart-style title full of oil slicks and other power-ups.

There's no blue shell, though. Thankfully.