100 awesome games for the battered old iPhone or iPad you inherited this Christmas
Give that obsolete gadget a final fling
Christmas is a time for sliding the lids off gleaming white iPad boxes and reverently peeling protective films from pristine screens.
But it's also a time for less fortunate souls to inherit scratched, battered, overstuffed old iOS devices from higher status family members.
For those poor weaklings, we've compiled a handy list of great games that came out during or before 2012, and therefore will run on Apple devices that are sliding into obsolescence.
Merry Christmas!
Angry Birds Star Wars - Rovio - 79p Star Wars-themed take on the epochal casual game. | |
Anomaly Korea - 11bit - 79p Technically impressive tower defence in reverse. | |
Async Corp. - Powerhead Games - 79p Utterly addictive, original, and loveable puzzler. | |
Bad Piggies - Rovio - 79p Angry Birds from the pigs' point of view. Sort of. | |
Bastion - Warner Bros. - 79p Top notch touchscreen port of the acclaimed RPG. | |
Broken Sword: Director's Cut - Revolution - £3.99 One of the best point and click adventures ever made. | |
Call of Duty: Zombies - Activision - £3.99 Surprisingly good multiplayer shooter for touchscreens. | |
Candy Crush Saga - King - Free Notorious free-to-play monster, but surprisingly good. | |
Carcassonne - TheCodingMonkeys - £7.99 Excellent empire-building boardgame on iPad. | |
Catcha Catcha Aliens! - Hotsauce - Free Ace casual game from the mind of Jonathan Ross. | |
Chrono Trigger - Square Enix - £3.99 Indifferent port of a bonafide classic J-RPG. | |
Clash of Clans - Supercell - Free The pre-eminent free-to-play social multiplayer game. | |
Cut the Rope - ZeptoLab - £1.49 Adorable puzzler about feeding sweets to a monster. | |
DrawRace 2 - Redlynx - £2.29 Innovative touchscreen-friendly take on racing. | |
Edge Extended - Mobigame - £2.29 Formerly beleaguered isometric action puzzler. | |
Fieldrunners 2 - Subatomic Studios - £2.29 Charming and accessible tower defence classic. | |
Blood of the Zombies - Tin Man Games - £1.49 Marvellous facelift for choose-your-own-adventures | |
Final Fantasy IV - Square Enix - £5.99 See "Chrono Trigger" | |
Final Freeway 2R - Newtype - 79p Slick and faithful modern take on OutRun. |
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Flick Kick Football - Sidhe Interactive - £1.49 Clever, tactile casual game that popularised flicking. | |
Flight Control HD - EA - £3.99 This ingenious line-drawing classic works best on iPad. | |
Forget-Me-Not - Nyarlu Labs - £1.49 Ingenious, stylish, and artsy take on Pac-Man. | |
Galaxy on Fire 2 - Fishlabs - Free Ambitious and epic space trading game. | |
Game Dev Story - Kairosoft - £3.99 The original and best wacky Kairosoft strategy gem. | |
Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective - Capcom - Free Excellent port of a Phoenix Wright-esque cult classic. | |
GTA: Chinatown Wars - Rockstar - £3.99 Top-down GTA with an ace drug-dealing meta-game. | |
GTA: Vice City - Rockstar - £3.99 Indisputably the best of the noughties 3D GTA games. | |
Groove Coaster - Taito - 79p Sexy minimalist rhythm-action game. | |
Hypership Out of Control - Fun Infused - 79p Classic arcade action done by clever indie developers | |
I Dig It Expeditions - InMotion - £2.29 Addictive spiritual ancestor to Steamworld Dig. | |
iBlast Moki 2 - Godzilab - £2.29 Mostly immaculate bomb-themed puzzler. | |
Incoboto - Fluttermind - £2.99 Beautiful and charming heliocentric puzzler. | |
Infinity Blade - Chair Entertainment - 79p Visually splendid gesture-based fighting game. | |
Jetpack Joyride - Halfbrick - 79p Frenetic and addictive casual action game. | |
Kingdom Rush - Ironhide - Free Conventional but immaculate tower defence game. | |
Knights of Pen & Paper - Paradox North - £3.99 Charming take on pen and paper tabletop gaming. | |
Lego Harry Potter: Years 1-4 - Warner - £1.49 Just another lovely TT Lego game, but on mobile. | |
LostWinds 2 - Frontier - £2.99 Polished puzzle-platformer from the creator of Elite | |
Machinarium - Amanita Design - £3.99 Utterly adorable hand-drawn point-and-click adventure. | |
Magnetic Billiards: Blueprint - Zee 3 - Free Clever and fiendishly addictive puzzler. | |
McPixel - Sos - £2.29 Like WarioWare if WarioWare was a puzzle game. | |
Micro Miners - BonusLevel.org - £1.49 Unique mix of Lemmings and Where's My Water? | |
Need for Speed: Most Wanted - EA - £3.99 Polished high octane racing on your mobile. | |
New Star Soccer - New Star Games - Free Super smart and addictive free-to-play football game. | |
Organ Trail: Director's Cut - The Men... - £2.29 Amusing zombie-themed retro take on Oregon Trail. | |
Peggle Classic - PopCap - 79p Hugely popular videogame pachinko. | |
Pizza Vs. Skeletons - Riverman Media - £3.99 Zany action game with a huge variety of stages. | |
Plague Inc. - Ndemic Creations - 79p Strategy game about trying to kill everybody. | |
Plants vs Zombies - PopCap - 79p Excellent lane-based casual defence game. | |
Pocket Planes - NimbleBit - Free Charming ultra casual free-to-play game. | |
Prince of Persia Classic - Ubisoft - £1.49 Well-judged update to the classic platformer. | |
Punch Quest - Rocketcat - Free Ill-fated but brilliant casual arcade game. | |
Puzzle Quest 2 - Bandai Namco - £2.29 Influential mash-up of puzzle game and RPG. | |
Random Heroes - Ravenous Games - Free Impressive and slick pixel-art platform-shooter. | |
Rayman Jungle Run - Ubisoft - Free Super-smart mobile version of Ubisoft's classic series. | |
Real Racing 2 - EA - £3.99 Visually splendid and playable arcade racer. | |
Reckless Racing 2 - Pixelbite - £1.49 Pretty and fun top-down racer with drifting. | |
Retro Racing - Mr Qwak Limited - £1.49 Simplistic but mechanically perfect racer. | |
Robot Unicorn Attack - Adult Swim - 79p Exuberant high score chaser complete with Erasure. | |
Saturday Morning RPG - Joystick Labs - Free Solid RPG stuffed with knowing '80s references. | |
Score! World Goals - First Touch Games - Free Relive a number of glorious moments in football. | |
Sentinel 3: Homeworld - Origin8 - 79p High quality early tower defence game. | |
Shantae: Risky's Revenge - WayForward - Free Well-made port of a well-made DS platformer. | |
Sid Meier’s Pirates! - 2K - £2.29 Top quality port of a vast and innovative classic. | |
Sky Gamblers: Storm Raiders - Atypical - £3.99 Accessible and technically impressive WWII flight sim | |
Skylanders Lost Islands - Activision - Free Loveable and astute free-to-play game based on toys. | |
Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing - Sega - £2.99 Flawless port of Sega's triumphal kart racer. | |
Sonic CD - Sega - £2.29 Faultless port of arguably the best Sonic platformer. | |
Space Invaders Infinity Gene - Taito - £1.49 Super-slick and stylish update of Space Invaders. | |
Space Miner - Venan Entertainment - £2.99 Mine stuff in space, upgrade your gear, do it again. | |
SpellTower - Zach Gage - £1.49 Tasteful letter puzzle from an acclaimed developer. | |
Spider: Secret of Bryce Manor - Tiger Style - 79p Creepy action game with an intriguing story. | |
Splice: Tree of Life - Cipher Prime - £2.99 Stylish puzzler based on manipulating genes. | |
Street Fighter IV - Capcom - £3.99 The '90s arcade cabinet crammed into your phone. | |
Street Fighter X Tekken Mobile - Capcom - £2.29 Capcom's best brawler adapted perfectly to mobile. | |
Super Crate Box - Vlambeer - £1.49 Frenetic, difficult, and oft-copied arcade masterpiece. | |
Super Monsters Ate My Condo! - Adultswim - Free Surreal, funny, and polished casual puzzler | |
Sword & Sworcery - Capybara Games - £3.99 Beautiful, mercurial pixel-art adventure. | |
Temple Run: Brave - Disney - £1.49 Polished 3D endless runner with a Brave theme. | |
The Big Big Castle! - Beep Games - 79p Frustrating but compelling casual architecture sim. | |
The Journey Down - SkyGoblin - £3.99 Well-written and tightly constructed adventure game. | |
The King of Fighters-i 2012 - SNK - £2.29 Generous mobile brawler for genre enthusiasts. | |
The Lords of Midnight - Chilli Hugger - £2.99 Well-considered iOS port of an ages-old classic. | |
The Room - Fireproof Games - Free One of the biggest and best puzzle games on mobile. | |
The Sims 3 - EA - £4.99 Live vicariously though small people on your phone. | |
The Walking Dead: The Game - Telltale - £14.99 Utterly devastating adventure game about zombies. | |
The World Ends with You - Square Enix - £13.49 Reassuringly expensive port of the acclaimed JRPG. | |
Ticket to Ride - Days of Wonder - £2.29 Brilliant mobile version of a brilliant boardgame. | |
Tiny Wings - Andreas Illiger - 79p Inventive and hugely successful casual game. | |
Tongue Tied! - Mojo Bones - 79p Very strange but undeniably polished platformer. | |
Total War Battles: Shogun - Sega - £1.49 Stripped down version of the respected franchise. | |
Trainyard - Matt Rix - 79p Ingenious train-based puzzler from a celebrated dev. | |
Triple Town - Spry Fox - Free A cute match-three puzzler with a killer hook. | |
True Skate - True Axis - £1.49 Polished and playable sim made for touchscreens. | |
Virtua Tennis Challenge - Sega - £3.99 The gold standard tennis sim, but on a mobile. | |
Waking Mars - Tiger Style - 79p Explore Mars in this unbelievably likeable game. | |
Where's My Water? - Disney - £1.49 Surprisingly inventive, unsurprisingly polished. | |
World of Goo - 2D BOY - £3.99 Making bridges with goo is as fun as it sounds. | |
Worms Crazy Golf - Team17 - £1.49 An obvious and perfect use of the Worms licence. | |
Zen Bound 2 - Secret Exit - £2.29 Meditative and beautiful proto-touchscreen puzzler. |