What's new? FIFA 14, Shadowrun Returns, Trouserheart, Buddy & Me, and more
Hands-on with this week's new iPhone and iPad games
At the end of every week, we take time out to look at the new and noteworthy iOS games from the past seven days in both words and video.
This week, we're going for more games and shorter descriptions.
If you want full, lengthy impressions from someone who has put hours into the game, wait for the review. If you want off-the-cuff thoughts from 20 minutes of play, keep reading.
This week, we've got a king with no trousers, two Kickstarter success stories, a footy sim, a robot runner, tiny trains piled high with pickles, and more.
See them in action below, or read on for pretty pictures and links to the App Store.
Trouserheart
By 10tons - buy on iPhone and iPad (£1.99 / $2.99)
A top-down brawler starring a tubby king with a bushy Brian Blessed beard and no trousers.
Don't expect a Diablo-esque dungeon-crawler here - the game's RPG elements boil down to simply levelling-up a few key stats.
Instead, it's a simple and fun little button basher with top touchscreen controls and fetching cartoon art.
Boson X
By Ian MacLarty - buy on iPhone and iPad (£1.49 / $1.99)
Think Super Hexagon as an auto-runner and you're about halfway there.
You play as a professor who discovers new elements by running and jumping through a spinning CERN-style super-collider.
The controls are easy to get to grips with, and it's suitably challenging. If you like Expander or Impossible Road, make this your new jam.
Pocket Trains
By NimbleBit - download on iPhone and iPad (Free)
Pocket Planes dev NimbleBit has gone back to its aborted locomotive sim, and we're jolly glad it did.
This is another woefully addictive free-to-play transport sim, only now with crisscrossing railway tracks and intercontinental deliveries.
It's a huge game, and a smart strategic backbone makes it even better than Pocket Planes.
Drop That Candy
By Greenfly Studios - buy on iPhone (69p / 99c) or buy on iPad (£1.99 / $2.99)
If you thought there were no new ideas left in the three-star physics-puzzler genre, think again.
In Drop That Candy, you tap on like-coloured and touching sweets, and have to carefully plan your moves so you can banish the candy in as few taps as possible.
It's cute, has loads of twists on that central idea, and is another worthwhile puzzler for your iPhone.
FIFA 14
By EA Sports - buy on iPhone and iPad (Free)
FIFA is not normally a game series subject to dramatic re-designs, but in FIFA 14 there are two huge changes.
Firstly, there are new (and very tricky) gesture controls that enable you to tap, swipe, and drag to pass, shoot, and move.
And there's the fact that its free-to-play. But those cheeky micro-transactions only really affect Ultimate Team. The 'regular' modes are unaffected (and unlocked with a £2.99 / $4.99 in-app purchase).
Buddy & Me
By Sunbreak Games - buy on iPhone and iPad (£1.99 / $2.99)
We've been following Buddy & Me - a Ghibli-esque endless-runner from some ex-Metroid Prime devs - since it hit Kickstarter back in May.
The game is finally here, and it's still the darling, detailed, and dreamy platformer we were promised.
It's a little easy, mind (according to its App Store listing, it's for kids), and there are some nuisance performance issues. But it's still the genuinely lovely little game we backed in the spring.
Shadowrun Returns
By Harebrained Schemes - buy on iPad (£6.99 / $9.99)
Another day, another Kickstarter alumnus.
This is a faithful reboot of pen-and-paper RPG (and SNES game) Shadowrun, now dolled up as a fancy isometric game on iPad.
The game takes place in a dystopian Seattle, where cyberpunk-meets-orcs and shamans. You'll take on contracts, talk to people, level-up your crew, and get into XCOM-style fights.
It's off to a promising start, and has good writing and fun combat. I was disappointed to learn, however, that one of the coolest elements of this remake - the ability to craft and share your own missions - is missing from this tablet edition.
Chainsaw Warrior
By Game The News - buy on iPhone and iPad (£2.99 / $4.99)
Chainsaw Warrior started life as a Games Workshop boardgame in 1987. Now, it has been lovingly recreated for the touchscreen with gorgeous comic-style art and chunky 3D dice.
Unlike most boardgame conversions, this is a solo affair. It's just you, your weapons, and your deck of cards as you try to save Manhattan in 60 minutes. A review for this will be up on the site soon.
Fading Fairytales
By Crescent Moon Games - download on iPhone and iPad (Free)
This is Fire Emblem with fuzzy fairytale critters.
You'll fight turn- and tile-based battles against woodland enemies, and level-up your crew of rats, bears, wolves, and duckbill platypuses.
It's generally good fun and a nice slice of strategy, but we'll need to play more to see if it's deep enough to entice tactics vets to put down XCOM.
T.E.C. 3001
By Bulkypix - buy on iPhone and iPad (£1.99 / $2.99)
In this robotic auto-runner, featuring a Terminator without its Schwarzenegger suit, Bulkypix tries to mix things up by offering different spins on the well-worn genre.
It's a 'well-meaning' game, sure. But by combining a mess of action buttons, a cluttered interface, and noisy graphics, Bulkypix has often made it impossible to see what's happening and made it tough to react to obstacles.
