The best iOS and Android games of November 2016: Football Manager Touch 2017, SteamWorld Heist, Rome: Total War and more

Welcome to our monthly round-up of the best games on iOS and Android from the preceding calendar month.

Have you taken your eye off the App Store or Google Play Store for a week or two of late? It's okay, we understand. You were busy. We won't hold it against you.

In fact, we're going to help catch you up on the choicest morsels of mobile gaming from the past 30 days.

November 2016 was a great month for footy fans, with not one but two top management sims released, several great PC and console conversions, and a couple of unique gems.

Hop Swap
By Nitrome - buy on iOS / buy on Android

Nitrome squeezed onto this list late in the day, but Hop Swap is well worth shuffling a few things around for. It's an autorunner with an ingenious colour-swapping mechanic and oodles of that hard-to-define Nitrome magic.

Football Manager Touch 2017
By Sports Interactive - buy on iPad / buy on Android

There were two mobile Football Manager games released this month, but Football Manager Touch 2017 is clearly the best (provided you have the hardware). It offers a suitably streamlined yet dauntingly deep footy management experience.

SteamWorld Heist
By Image & Form - buy on iOS

There's loads to admire in SteamWorld Heist, from its cartoon robot-western aesthetic to its tight 2D turn-based battles. But taking out a robo hench dude with a ricochet beats them all.

Rome: Total War
By The Creative Assembly - buy on iPad

Rome: Total War is viewed as one of the best PC RTS games ever made. Now it's on iPad, and it works surprisingly well.

Party Hard Go
By Pinoki Games - buy on iOS / buy on Android

Like a mobile-optimised Hitman, Party Hard Go has you skulking around various environments, taking out targets in various grisly ways.

Neon Chrome
By 10tons - buy on iOS

Neon Chrome is a seriously accomplished twin-stick shooter with destructible levels, multiple upgrade paths, and a well realised dystopian sci-fi setting.

Go Rally
By Chillingo - buy on iOS

Rallying is a distinctive form of time trial racing where your main opponent is yourself, followed closely by your environment. Go Rally nails its charms particularly well, then throws in a track creator for good measure.

New Star Cricket
By New Star Games - download on iOS

Everyone loves New Star Soccer, right? New Star Cricket is very similar in the way it charges you with taking control of a young sportsperson's career, but with the multi-phase nature of cricket making for more fractured match day action.

Super Cat Tales
By FDG Mobile Games - download on iOS

It's achingly cute and obviously influenced by classic Mario games of old, but don't let that fool you - Super Cat Tales is a very smart game that expertly hones the classic platformer for mobile.

Little Lords of Twilight
By Bkom - download on iOS / download on Android

Little Lords of Twilight takes a completely different approach to strategy to, say, Rome: Total War. It's an expertly distilled turn-based strategy game with elements of MOBA and card collecting.