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The best iPhone and iPad games this week - Time Tangle - Adventure Time, and more

Finn and Jacob

The best iPhone and iPad games this week - Time Tangle - Adventure Time, and more
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iOS
| New releases round-up

Every Friday, Pocket Gamer offers hands-on impressions of the week's best new iPhone and iPad games.

Time Tangle - Adventure Time
By Turner Broadcasting - buy on iPhone and iPad (£1.99 / $2.99)
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If you don't like Adventure Time, that's just fine – you're entitled to your opinion.

But even you would have to concede that you're completely wrong. Pendleton Ward's surreal and imaginative paean to childhood is a solid gold classic.

Unfortunately, mobile games based on the series haven't done it justice. And nor does Time Tangle. But it gets as close as any Adventure Time game has managed to do.

The basic gameplay involves running forwards into the screen, Temple Run-style, punching, dodging, and vaulting assorted fantasy objects and characters. It's an uninspiring mechanic executed with flair, imagination, and charm.

Jacob Jones and the Bigfoot Mystery: Episode 2
By Lucid Games - buy on iPhone and iPad (£1.49 / $1.99)
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Jacob Jones 2 is a charming little game. Scrap that - it's a charming TINY game. You play at the titular boy, a smug pupil on a school trip who likes to demonstrate his puzzle-solving abilities by solving puzzles.

The game is a series of these, as the puzzle-hungry Jacob flukes his way from one poseur to the next, rearranging cars to make a path through them or positioning birds so as to maximise their happiness. Stringing the puzzles together are some pleasant and polished cut-scenes.

And then - smack - it's over. We only gave Jacob Jones 2 a 6, because it would be immoral to award it a higher score given how appallingly parsimonious it is with content. But if brevity isn't an issue – or if you're looking for a way to introduce your children to the world of puzzle games – this is a good bet.

Touch Racing 2
By Marvelous Games - download for iPhone and iPad (free)
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Touch Racing 2 could rightly be called Drag Racing, because the default controls see you dragging your car around the track like bucket on a rope. It's not an unthinkable control method, but it feels quite odd in this case thanks to the huge blue line that appears on the screen when you have your finger on it (which is all the time).

These drag controls are useable with practice, but if you don't like them you can switch to a virtual steering wheel or even a physical controller, though sadly not straightforward virtual buttons.

Control eccentricities aside, Touch Racing 2 is, well, just another 3D top-down racer. You race laps in a variety of vehicles that you can upgrade and customise with currency that you accumulate or buy.

It's a solid effort in a genre blessed with some outstanding games, including VS. Racing 2, DrawRace 2, and Reckless Racing 2. Good enough for a slow week, but you can do better.

Rob Hearn
Rob Hearn
Having obtained a distinguished education, Rob became Steel Media's managing editor, now he's no longer here though.