Interlocked, Punch Quest, and Word Wonders: The Tower of Babel are the highest-reviewed iPhone games of Q4 2012

Seeking inspiration from public game companies' announcements of financial sales numbers every three months, the iPhone Quality Index (iPhone Qi) publishes its own quarterly figures.

But, instead of assaulting your ears and eyes with talk of operating profit, DAUs, and monetisation (brrrr), this here iPhone Quality Index quarterly round-up ranks the top 20 best-reviewed iPhone games that were released during the period October 1st - December 31st, 2012.

Simple as that.

As for the reviews themselves, the iPhone Quality Index boasts over 250,000 of them from the world's leading online sources, including 148Apps, Slide To Play, Pocket Gamer, and AppSpy.

The last quarter of 2012 turned up some high-quality fresh IP, expertly delivered sequels, and well-produced conversions in abundance on iPhone.

Don't believe me?

Well, check out the table below of the iPhone Quality Index's Top 20 iPhone games of the last quarter. There! Told you. Silly boy. Pffff.

Taking the top spot, we have Interlocked, a beguiling puzzler in which you studiously remove interlocking sections of a series of three-dimensional shapes. It's one of those iPhone games that feels perfectly suited to the platform, making it a worthy Q4 winner.

Following closely behind, Punch Quest has proven a knockout with a great many reviewers. Rocketcat's game presents a novel twist on the endless-runner genre, incorporating a deceptively nuanced beat-'em-up system into the run-for-your-life experience that lifts it above the ordinary.

At #10, Sky Gamblers: Storm Raiders demonstrates that the iPhone is as comfortable with lush 3D flight sims as it is casual treats. To be able to offer wannabe pilots a remarkably flexible control system, which allows for full or heavily automated control of your fighter plane, is quite an achievement.

Mash-up. There, I said it. It's not a dirty word. Angry Birds Star Wars is, of course, one of the biggest IP mash-ups in iOS history. Rovio has managed to make these two distinctly different properties sing together in perfect harmony, producing arguably the best Angry Birds experience yet in the process.

Speaking of successful follow-ups, Minigore 2: Zombies debuted in early December to all manner of critical acclaim. In truth, it's a lesson to app developers the world over in how to pull off a successful sequel. Give punters more of everything, and polish the core action (twin-stick, in this case) to a fine sheen. Simples.

Behold Studios's Knights of Pen & Paper, meanwhile, harks back to the era of tabletop RPGs and early video game RPGs, serving as both a warm-hearted tribute to games from that epoch and a thoroughly modern iPhone gem.

iPhone Quality Index's Top 20 games of Q4 2012

Methodology #1

To qualify for an iPhone Quality Index rating, a game must have received three or more reviews from the 60+ sites that feed into iPhone Qi's database. Methodology #2

In the event of a 'tie', titles are separated in the first instance by number of reviews - the higher the total, the better. Should the number of reviews also be identical, the iPhone Quality Index rating comes back into play, for while we only display the average score to one decimal place, the list is generated to further significant figures. You can always keep up to date with the hottest-reviewed iPhone games at the iPhone Quality Index.