Features

Hidden Gems: 154 great iOS games that you forgot existed [91-120]

Volume IV - Penny Time to Soul

Hidden Gems: 154 great iOS games that you forgot existed [91-120]
|
iOS

This is the fourth instalment in a five-part series looking at 150 hidden iOS gems. The mathematicians among you will have already worked out that 150 divided by five is 30. That's why there are 30 entries in this instalment. Click on the following hyperlinks for Volumes I, II, III, and V.

We're now comfortably over the halfway point. If you've been following the series, you're now 60 percent of the way to being a certified App Store historian.

You can hold forth on the early games of ZeptoLab, Zach Gage, and Simogo; write an essay on the birth of Jetpack Joyride star Barry Steakfries; and conspicuously lament the failure of games that your friends have never heard of to achieve the success that clever people like you know they deserved.

And if you can bear with us for another 30 entries, you'll be a full 80 percent of the way to being an insufferable iOS know-it-all.

Penny Time
By Penny Skateboards Australia - buy on iPhone and iPad If you can get over the indignity of having to pay for an advert, you'll have a blast with Penny Time's awesomely stylish endless-runner-meets-rhythm-action gameplay.

Perfect Cell
By Mobigame - buy on iPhone and iPad This polished 2D action game from acclaimed developer Mobigame is a bit like Shadow Complex, but the aim is to finish levels quickly. And you're a pink blob.

Phoenix HD
By Firi Games - buy on iPhone and iPad The bullet-hell genre can be menacingly tough. Phoenix HD looks like a bullet-hell shmup, but its gameplay is stripped back to the point of supreme accessibility.

Piczle Lines
By Score Studios - buy on iPhone Take the numbering of Picross and the non-overlapping lines of Flow Free: Bridges and you have a puzzler with numbering and non-overlapping lines.

Piyo Blocks 2
By Big Pixel Studios - buy on iPhone or iPad Colourful match-three puzzler Piyo Blocks 2 achieves the impossible feat of standing out despite being a colourful match-three puzzler.

Pizza Vs. Skeletons
By Riverman Media - buy on iPhone and iPad Excellent, beefy arcade casual game set in a universe where pizzas are somehow more frightening than skeletons.

Primrose
By Jason Rohrer - buy on iPhone This generic-looking puzzler from indie superstar Jason Rohrer is distinguished not only by its deceptively rich and challenging gameplay but also by its surprisingly poncy name.

Quell
By Fallen Tree Games - buy on iPhone and iPad This quietly bizarre-looking game is one of those puzzlers where you have partial control over an object that moves until it hits something. It's pretty good.

Raid Leader
By Red Zebra Games - buy on iPhone and iPad With everything stripped away bar the boss fights, Raid Leader is a sort of mobile take on Shadow of the Colossus re-imagined as an RPG.

Retro Racing
By Mr Qwak - buy on iPhone and iPad Real Racing 3 may have all the gleaming polygons, but Retro Racing is every bit as accomplished in its own little way.

Rick O'Shea
By YoYo Games - buy on iPhone and iPad Nominative determinism is the phenomenon whereby people enter professions that reflect their names. Rick O'Shea is but one example.

Ring Fling
By mugathur - buy on iPhone and iPad This simple but ingenious multiplayer mash-up of Hungry Hungry Hippos and air hockey turns your iOS device into a group gaming hub par excellence.

Rinth Island
By Buzz Monkey - buy on iPhone and iPad Puzzle-platformer Rinth Island is about re-arranging the scenery as much as it's about moving your sprite, because, in the case of this game, sprite men can't jump.

Robot Wants Kitty
Buy on iPhone This cutesy indie take on the Metroidvania formula boasts some trendy retro stylings, responsive controls, and smartly designed levels. Plus, cats and a robot.

Robotek
By Hexage - buy on iPhone and iPad Yet more splendidness from Hexage, this turn-based battler with RPG levelling and fruit machine twists of fate looks great and plays just as well.

Roboto
By Fenix Fire - buy on iPhone and iPad You probably think that the best platformers are on devices with physical controllers, and you're probably right. Roboto is a great platformer all the same, mind.

Scarlett and the Spark of Life
By Launching Pad Games - buy on iPhone The point-and-click adventure genre has seen a resurgence on iOS, and Scarlett and the Spark of Life is one of the best examples in this field.

Sentinel 3: Homeworld
By Origin8 - buy on iPhone and iPad If the pared-down tower defence gameplay of Fieldrunners is too simplistic for your liking, try this huge, detailed, serious, and ultra-tough game instead.

Shellrazer
By Slick Entertainment - buy on iPhone and iPad In Shellrazer, Slick Entertainment takes one of Mother Nature's most lugubrious children and turns it into a death machine in this slick, thumping, thoroughly touchscreen action romp.

Siberian Strike
By Gameloft - buy on iPhone 2009's Siberian Strike is a thumpingly fun and authentic homage to the top-down arcade blasters of yore. And a reminder of better days for Gameloft.

Siege Hero
By Armor Games - buy on iPhone or iPad What if Angry Birds were viewed from a first-person perspective? And what if you had to hit vikings instead of pigs? Siege Hero, that's what.

Silverfish
By Frank Condello - buy on iPhone Forget everything you know about silverfish. This whip-quick neon twist on Geometry Wars's Pacifism mode is unlike anything you'll find in your cutlery drawer.

Slice It!
By Com2uS - buy on iPhone and iPad Fruit Ninja is all very well, but what do you play if you're training to be a maths surgeon? You play Slice It!

Slingshot Racing
By Snowbolt Interactive - buy on iPhone and iPad In this clever racer, your input is limited to firing out a grappling hook to slingshot your car around corners. If it's good enough for Batman, it's good enough for you.

SlitherLink
By Tatsuya Kaido - buy on iPhone and iPad SlitherLink may sound like something out of Harry Potter, but it plays like something out of Puzzler Magazine. In a good way. If you're over sudoku, try this.

Slydris
By Radiangames - buy on iPhone and iPad You can work out what it is from the name. Radiangames's clever puzzler represents one of the few instances of a developer taking on Tetris and surviving.

Solipskier
By Mikengreg - buy on iPhone and iPad In this achingly stylish take on the Canabalt ouevre, you control the landscape rather than the runner, creating jumps and hills with your finger as he barrels along.

Song Summoner: The Unsung Heroes - Encore
By Square Enix - buy on iPhone Square Enix is known on the App Store for RPGs and rhythm-action games. Song Summoner is both. Squeenix uses your song library here to create units and experience points.

Soosiz
By Touch Foo - buy on iPhone or iPad Rolando is the LocoRoco-esque platform game that everybody remembers from the dawn of the App Store, but Soosiz is every bit as enjoyable.

Soul
By Kydos Studio - buy on iPhone and iPad What happens after you die? Your soul emerges from your body and you have to steer it past the horrors of the spirit world and get it to safety.

It goes without saying that there are bound to be literally trillions of other games that could have qualified for this list. It would be immensely useful if you could point out how thick we are for omitting them by sharing your suggestions in the comments section below.
Rob Hearn
Rob Hearn
Having obtained a distinguished education, Rob became Steel Media's managing editor, now he's no longer here though.