Top 10 pixel-art iPhone games

Pixel-art, sprite work, and hand-placed coloured dots used to be the best that a game could achieve. But as console power increased and artists became more experienced, these pixelated graphics quickly grew from humble necessity to something of an art form.

Those raw, pixelated edges and simplified, bright colour palettes gave way to some of the most beautiful games, emotive characters and immersive worlds.

But much in the same way that retro chiptune beats were replaced by orchestral scores and horrfiying EA trax, 3D graphics have wiped out hand-drawn sprites with equally impressive efficiency.

But while the home consoles faff about with high-definition this and texture-buffer that, and even consoles like the DS focus on 3D with low resolution textures stretched across bulky, boxy, ugly polygons, there's still one refuge for this almost ancient art form.

The iPhone, with its limitless colour palette, fixed-resolution display, and jaw dropping LCD screen is the perfect home for impressive sprite work and pixel-artistry. With that in mind, here are ten of our favourite pixel-art games.

This unique rhythm game, which tasks you with replicating a beat on a nifty music grid, is packed to the gills with awesome pixel art stories between stages.

There's a battle royale of walking toothpastes squaring off against flying ice creams, a giant floating hamburger shooting ketchup blobs at bunnies, and robots taking over the Glu development offices.

It either looks like a Royksopp music video, or the fever dream of someone who played NES games for 20 hours straight. Whatever the case, it looks fantastic.

A gorgeous RPG that wouldn't look out of place back on the consoles of yore, Across Age has a retro charm that'll remind you of The Legend of Zelda and other 16-bit action RPGs.

In fact, it's hard to find a review for this charming RPG that doesn't name drop the golden era of Super NES and Megadrive role players

With tonnes of unqiue items, a giant sprawling world, and massive portrait images of the main characters, you can tell that hours of complicated artistry went into making this critically acclaimed game look so damn good.

It's like Katamari Damacy, mixed with Crazy Taxi, with a beatbox soundtrack. Okay, Taxi Ball isn't the easiest game to describe, but they say pictures speak a thousand words, so feast your eyes on these old skool pixels.

Taxi Ball sees you picking up passengers, and rolling them about a city like an urbanised Labyrinth. Don't bump into the buildings too hard, though, or you'll lose out on oodles of cash.

Painted entirely in emerald green, this Diner Dash styled time management game looks like it belongs on some sequel to the Game Boy, in a bizarro world where colour was never invented.

But despite the graphics being green, and ludicrously tiny, everything is drawn with style and finesse. You'll just have to peer into your iPhone like a blind nutter to see all the detail and care.

Remember back in the olden days, of BBC Micros and Commodore 64s, where the best way to make something look 3D was to present it from a jaunty, isometric angle? Well, even though the iPhone is capable of spitting out some proper 3D, its still a neat style.

That's why Aztec Quest, a sort of build-your-own Marble Madness style brain twister, looks so good. Everything had to be drawn from four angles as well, because you can snap the camera around to get a better view of the action.

On the PS3, Capybara's Critter Crunch might wow with 1080p visuals that look like they've been ripped from a Studio Ghibli anime, but there's something quite cute about seeing Biggs and the critters as exceptionally well-drawn sprites.

Critter Crunch might be a (yawn) match-three puzzler, but its got enough depth, clever twists on the formula, and beautiful artwork to rise above the hundreds of games that occupy this genre.

Hook Champ is one of the most retro-looking games on this list. Forget cavernous colour palettes and giant, emotive sprites - these characters are about 20 pixels tall.

But it makes for a great looking game that'll you swear you last saw on an Amiga or maybe the Gameboy Advance.

Hook Champ is about exploring old ruins, finding treasure, and out-swinging all manner of baddies and traps.

Everything about Canabalt is simple: not just its eye-catching retro visuals. There are no complicated levels, just randomly generated rooftops. No controls to master, just tap to jump. No story, no missions, no nothing - just plain old addictive one-button fun.

And you might not notice what's happening in the background, on account of one single mistake resulting in a bone-crunching Game Over, but the game uses nothing but simple silhouettes of invading robots to let you in on what little backstory the game has.

The iPhone is responsible for reintroducing and supporting a great number of new genres and styles. Take the rope swinging genre, the doodle style or, like The Horrible Vikings, the catapult game.

So no marks for originality there, but The Horrible Vikings does impress with its wonderful pixel-art depictions of the game's Nordic chappies, and the Samurai gentlemen (or cats) you'll be flinging them at.

File this one under some superbly clever marketing.

Much in the same way that the largely forgettable, rope-swinging shooter Bionic Commando was based on an NES game of the same name, Capcom dreamed up that the largely forgettable, jet-packing shooter Dark Void had a lost NES forbear, too.

It's not a real NES game, of course, but great care and attention went into making this iPhone game look and sound like an old '80s shooter. It might not look incredible, but it certainly looks the part.