The best iOS and Android games of March 2018: PUBG, Part Time UFO, Lichtspeer and more
Looking back on a month in mobile gaming
It's been a great year for games so far, and March comfortably maintained the standard set by January and February.
We had the stunning port of one of the biggest PC games of the moment, an utterly charming debut mobile effort from one of Nintendo's closest allies, an ambitious online FPS, and so much more.
It all means that as the days grow longer and the weather starts to improve, you'll still find us with our heads down over a little screen.
Have you been playing anything else in March? Let us know in the comments below.
Part Time UFOBy HAL Laboratories - buy on iOS/buy on Android
HAL Laboratories, the creator of Kirby and Smash Bros., really stepped out of Nintendo's shadow with its first mobile game. Part Time UFO is an impossibly charming casual physics puzzler that sees your flying saucer heaving objects around with its grabber claw.
LichtspeerBy Crunching Koalas - buy on iOS/buy on Android
Taking the Angry Birds drag-to-ping mechanic to brilliant new heights, Lichtspeer has you flinging laser spears at mythical creatures in a bid to appease a fickle god. It's as ridiculous - and fun - as it sounds.
MARVEL Strike ForceBy FoxNext - download on iOS/download on Android
It's not that MARVEL Strike Force does anything particularly new with the freemium RPG-lite template. It's that it does everything extraordinarily well, spectacular graphics, fluid animation, and loads of heroes from across the Marvel universe.
Shadowgun LegendsBy Madfinger Games - download on iOS/download on Android
This new challenger to the mobile FPS throne combines single player questing with multiplayer death-matches, all in a lush online sci-fi world. It's the closest thing to Destiny us mobile gamers are going to get, basically, and it's a pretty darned good effort.
OvivoBy IzHard Team - buy on iOS
Ovivo's two-tone art style and orientation-flipping mechanic isn't new, but the way it employs these familiar tricks of the trade feels super-fresh. It's one of the best and most interesting mobile platformers of the year.
PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds MobileBy Tencent - download on iOS/download on Android
PUBG on mobile. PUBG. On mobile. I can still scarcely believe that those words refer to an actual real thing. But here we are, with a surprisingly faithful port of the online shooter that kicked off the whole Battle Royale craze. No mobile game makes you feel tenser.
Holy Potatoes! We're in Space?!By Daylight Studios - buy on iOS
Take FTL's strategic spaceship management and multiple choice quest through the stars, ease back on the difficulty, add a healthy dollop of humour, and insert talking vegetables as your cast. That's HP!WiS?! for you.
A Normal Lost PhoneBy Plug In Digital - buy on iOS/buy on Android
Another lost phone game that uses the premise of rifling through someone's nearest and dearest gadget to piece together a story. It's a neat approach to the narrative puzzler, and A Normal Lost Phone's twists and turns are darker and more interesting than most.
.ProjektBy Stampede Games - buy on iOS/buy on Android
We do like stylish puzzlers that make us feel as smart as the designers, even though we're patently not. Projekt does exactly that, as it has you building 3D shapes that must cast different shadows on four facing walls. Very smart.
ArmelloBy League of Geeks - download on iOS
Not only is Armello a digital board game with real teeth, it also packs in an epic storyline and stellar visuals. Pick a fantasy faction and set off into a series of strategic battles across a verdant land.