Roman Backgammon, GoNinja, and LostWinds 2 are the highest-reviewed iPhone games of Q2 2012

Seeking inspiration from public game companies' announcements of financial sales numbers every three months, the iPhone Quality Index (iPhone Qi) publishes its own quarterly figures.

But, instead of assaulting your ears and eyes with talk of operating profit, the iPhone Quality Index quarterly round-up ranks the top 20 best-reviewed iPhone games that were released during the period April 1st - June 30th, 2012.

Simple as that.

As for the reviews themselves, the iPhone Quality Index boasts over 200,000 of them from the world's leading online sources, including 148Apps, Slide To Play, Pocket Gamer, and AppSpy.

There are some games which stand the test of time. I mean, no amount of 3D tomfoolery or fancy-shmancy bloom effects can compete with the draw of a rock-solid, time-honoured mechanic.

Case in point: eoz games's Roman Backgammon. This mobile conversion of a classic game has found its way to the top of the iPhone Quality Index Q2 2012 chart.

Going back to the boardgame's ancient beginnings, Roman Backgammon presents you with a slightly tweaked, subtly simplified version of the well-known tabletop time-killer.

Its attractive mosaic visuals and intuitive interface have earned it critical acclaim. So much so, in fact, that the game has acquired a superb 9.4 Qi rating.

Representing the endless-runner genre in second place on this quarterly round-up, meanwhile, comes the bloodthirsty vengeance sim GoNinja.

Your master has been killed, and - as is always the way with these things - you must avenge his passing by wiping out the clan responsible for his murder. Yep, all 50,000 of them.

It's a gruesome quest, but one that has resonated with iPhone reviewers across the planet, helping it to secure an extremely honourable 9.3 iPhone Qi rating.

Floating gracefully onto the third-placed podium is the seasonally sensational platform-puzzler LostWinds 2.

In Frontier's wonderfully inventive title, you take control of the wind itself to blow protagonist Toku past enemies and over obstacles, thus bringing him ever closer to rescuing his mother and saving the world of Mistralis.

There are some novel control mechanics at work in this charming adventure, on which a number of critics have heaped praise over the past couple of months. A well-deserved 9.0 iPhone Qi rating, indeed.

Other iPhone games of note to surface on the App Store during the last quarter include handsome aquatic strategy sequel Squids Wild West, Ayopa's inventive match-three puzzler Light Byte, and the endlessly entertaining hidden object follow-up Little Things Forever.

iPhone Quality Index's Top 20 games of Q2 2012

Methodology #1

To qualify for an iPhone Quality Index rating, a game must have received three or more reviews from the 60+ sites that feed into iPhone Qi's database. Methodology #2

In the event of a 'tie', titles are separated in the first instance by number of reviews - the higher the total, the better. Should the number of reviews also be identical, the iPhone Quality Index rating comes back into play, for while we only display the average score to one decimal place, the list is generated to further significant figures. You can always keep up to date with the hottest-reviewed iPhone games at the iPhone Quality Index.