The best iOS and Android games of December 2016: Super Mario Run, Silly Sausage: Doggy Dessert, The Walking Dead 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.

The last month of 2016 saw the release of arguably the biggest mobile game of the year. But it would be wrong to overlook the rest of December's offerings, so let's take a closer look.

Super Mario Run
By Nintendo - download on iOS

Undoubtedly the biggest game of the month, if not the year, Super Mario Run brought autorunning joy to the world over the festive period. Unless you owned an Android phone, that is. Don't worry, it's coming!

Silly Sausage: Doggy Dessert
By Nitrome - download on iOS / download on Android

More twisty canine fun from Nitrome. Once again, you're stretching a dog through mazy levels, collecting gems and avoiding pitfalls.

Glitch Fixers - Powerpuff Girls
By Cartoon Network - download on iOS / download on Android

Continuing a string of really-very-good Powerpuff Girls games, Glitch Fixers is a quirky platform-puzzler that has you programming in your leaps and punches ahead of time.

Galaxy on Fire 3 - Manticore
By Deep Silver Fishlabs - download on iOS

It's fair to say that Galaxy on Fire 3's shift to a freemium structure hasn't pleased everyone, but it remains a beautiful and content-packed space blaster.

Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney
By Capcom - buy on iOS

The fourth game in the Ace Attorney series comes to iOS, providing more improbable cases, methodical guess-work, and one of the most brilliantly twisted villains in the entire series.

The Walking Dead: Season Three
By Telltale Games - buy on iOS / buy on Android

A new season brings an interesting shift in perspective to a completely new protagonist for the Walking Dead series. You're still indulging in the same light puzzles and dialogue trees, but fans will lap up this fresh tale nonetheless.

Island Delta
By Noodlecake Studios - buy on iOS

A late entry to the list, Island Delta is an accomplished third-person action-puzzler. It plays a bit like a twin-stick shooter, but with a gravity gun in place of any conventional firearms.

Bully: Anniversary Edition
By Rockstar Games - buy on iOS / buy on Android

Bully is a bit of a cult classic from the minds that brought you GTA. Rather than tearing up a whole city, you're running rampant around a stuffy prep school. This smaller, more intimate scale gives the game a unique charm.

Fieldrunners Attack!
By Subatomic Studios - download on iOS

An interesting, Clash of Clans-inspired change of approach from the Fieldrunners team. This is familiar casual strategy, but with a bit more tactical depth.

Dawn of Titans
By NaturalMotion - download on iOS / download on Android

A technically impressive real-time strategy game with the headline feature being that you have hulking Titans supplementing your tiny troops.