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GAMES OF THE WEEK - The 5 best new games for iOS and Android - January 24th

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| GAMES OF THE WEEK
GAMES OF THE WEEK - The 5 best new games for iOS and Android - January 24th

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Hello again and welcome to the latest entry in our long-running GAMES OF THE WEEK series. If you're looking for the best 5 games which have hit the iPhone, iPad or Android stores this week then you've landed yourself at the exact right place at just the right time.

Here's where we discuss the best five games that have launched over the last week, across any of the aforementioned devices. 'But, wait a minute!' I hear you exclaim, 'There are loads of games out every week, you must have some restrictions!?'

You're right, we do. With this article, we skirt around the droves of subscription services (Apple Arcade, Google Play Pass, GameClub, Hatch, Playond et cetera) which have launched onto mobile platforms, and we also don't factor in things like Steam Link or Google Stadia which allow streaming to handheld devices. That means that our list is a finely curated list of brilliant, fresh titles which you can download and play without subscribing to, or installing, any third-party initiative. Of course, there are some great games on those services, but, let's focus on the stuff that you can grab right now.

This week there's a deck-building, dungeon diving game with an amazing art style, a freeform snowboarding experience and a tile-twisting puzzle game - among others.

Remember, if you're looking to check through some of our previous selections then you can always do that at our Games of The Week Hub, it's a great way to find games to fill out that empty storage space on your phone. Or, if you like your news in bitesize chunks, delivered straight to your palm then maybe follow us on Twitter.

Anyway, without any further delay, click through on the big, blue button below to find out more about the 5 best new games for mobile this week.

Click Here To View The List »

Deck & Dungeon - iOS (New)

Deck & Dungeon is a delightful little surprise. While the translation could definitely have done with a little bit more care, there's an incredibly fun and deep card-based run-based game here, one brought together through delicate colour-coding and a lot of balance.

It's all about short dungeon dives, tiny side-quests, and careful hand management. If you mess up then it's fine, the earliest dungeons are normally only about 6-8 rooms long, and there's even time to rest and prep between each room. Even with the aforementioned translation, the mechanics are quick to learn and things like clever visual design and tooltips make it easy to dive back in after a break.

You've only got four cards to pick from at any given point in time, but you can equip items as well as take items into your hands. Most interestingly you can also use weapons to solve puzzles, and also use puzzle items (like a key) as a weapon — although throwing a key at somebody doesn't really do much damage.

Click here to go to the Deck & Dungeon App Store page, for your iPhone or iPad

Vilmonic - iOS (New) / Android (New)

Back in 2008 Spore was meant to take the world by storm. It didn't quite manage that, but it did create a massive, public interest and understanding of procedural design - as No Man's Sky did recently. Vilmonic slips into the same paragraph as those two games because it makes amazing, logical use of procedural logic.

If that's all a bit confusing, then let's simplify things. Basically Vilmonic's creatures are created by a series of logic which means that their habits, nature and more are betrayed by their physical appearance. This is handy, because you will be taking on the role of caretaker to these creatures, protecting them from encroaching, expansive creatures which don't care about them.

It's part preservation commentary, part automation commentary, but mostly building and pet-keeping. It's a lot of fun, it's easy to pick-up-and-play and it's chipper. So chipper.

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Click here to go to the Vilmonic App Store page, for your iPhone or iPad
Click here to go to the Vilmonic Google Play page, for your Android device.

G.I Joe: War on Cobra - IOS (New) / Android (New)

The G.I Joe franchise is one which completely flew over my head - maybe you've experienced similar to a big brand: they've managed to release every entry at points in time where they simply don't apply. That said, maybe this is the time.

G.I Joe: War on Cobra appears to channel the joyful chaos of the (unfortunately) shuttered Rush Wars, while also offering up a few more strategic options. Check out the trailer and let us know what you think.

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Click here to go to the G.I Joe: War on Cobra App Store page, for your iPhone or iPad Click here to go to the G.I Joe: War on Cobra Google Play page, for your Android device.

Grand Mountain Adventure - iOS (New) / Android

If you didn't catch Grand Mountain Adventure when it initially launched then, well, that might be because it didn't launch on iOS. If that's the case then now is the time to pop in because it's just launched for iPhone and iPad and, as Android users will tell you, it's a fantastic snowboarding experience.

Grand Mountain Adventure has you tackling a series of mountains (now 8), with over 100 challenges to take on across those very steeps.

Much like the best snowboarding games out there (*Cough* Shaun White Snowboarding, SSX On Tour, Snowboard Party 2's freestyle mode *Cough*) Grand Mountain Adventure features free-form gameplay, which means that you can truly set the pace and level of complexity that you want to play at.

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Click here to go to the Grand Mountain Adventure App Store page, for your iPhone or iPad Click here to go to the Grand Mountain Adventure Google Play page, for your Android device.

TaniNani - iOS (New)

There are always new puzzle games coming out, so it is essential that anybody designing new ones focuses on innovation. TaniNani feels familiar, and I could certainly name a couple of games which it feels like a fusion of, but it does everything extremely well.

TaniNani is a refined puzzling experience where you must move tiles around a screen to allow the wandering, titular duo to reunite. It plays with dimensions and projection, and it's incredibly clever in how it keeps scaling up as the levels rack up.

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Click here to go to the TaniNani App Store page, for your iPhone or iPad
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Dann Sullivan
Dann Sullivan
A job in retail resulted in a sidestep into games writing back in 2011. Since then Dann has run or operated several indie game focused websites. They're currently the Editor-in-Chief of Pocket Gamer Brands, and are determined to help the site celebrate the latest and greatest games coming to mobile.