A simple but beautiful game involving flapping a weird winged creature-thing through alien shadow-worlds. The sequel adds forward and backward movement, a lot more levels and -- bonus! -- 3D Touch support for new iPhones, if you have one. Price: $3.99, £3.99, AU$6.99. Cute, colorful, simple to control, Bean Dreams feels like a retro platform game from the Nintendo era reinvented for phones and tablets. There are plenty of games like this on the App Store, but the multiple in-stage goals and weirdly challenging premise (control a constantly jumping bean with a hat) make this one stand out. There are sequels, too.
Price: $2.99, £2.99, AU$4.49, Like a dark Zelda, this randomly generated game is never the same twice, Even so, there are ways to survive and go deeper through dungeons, puzzles and a wide variety of grisly nightmares, It's thoroughly cute-disgusting, Price: $14.99, £14.99, AU$22.99, A free game that's a combination of territorial strategy and word game, Capitals pits you against friends as you battle turn by turn to capture the board, Play it, Price: Free (with optional in-app purchases), A classic board game in its own right, this port is still one of the best board game adaptations on a tablet, period, Online and local multiplayer and a weekly solitaire puzzle challenge add up to a ton of replay value, and in-app iphone 3 cases ebay expansions offer tons of extra modes, If you're board-game apprehensive, don't worry: Carcassonne is a must-buy, and it's great for pass-and-play multiplayer, Price: $9.99, £9.99, AU$14.99..
A brilliant rhythm-dungeon crawler, where you'll have to keep exploring to the beat. Just give in and let the music take over. You'll figure it out. Price: $4.99, £4.99, AU$7.99. It feels like an arcade racing game, but the puzzles unfold as you realize you're controlling multiple drivers at the same time, trying not to crash or run out of time. It's free, or you can pay for the ad-free unlock. Price: Free (pay to unlock full game). Simple, mind-bending challenges involve rotating landscapes like parts of a Rubik's Cube, then hopping to avoid obstacles and find goals. A solid grasp of spatial relations will help.
Price: $3.99, £3.99, AU$6.99, A PC cult hit, indie game FTL has made it onto the iPad with all the trimmings and bonus content of the PC iphone 3 cases ebay versions, plus a perfect set of touch controls, Manage your ship across various missions, all randomly generated, It's strategy, not action, and the graphics are as simple as they come, but it's endlessly addicting, Price: $9.99, £9.99, AU$14.99, Originally a physical board game, this tablet adaptation starts as a timed battle to build your own ship out of interconnecting puzzle pieces, Then you "battle" against other players in card-based missions across the galaxy., trucking cargo, Online play, tons of missions and it still feels like a board game..
Price: $4.99, £4.99, AU$7.99. Geometry Wars has been around for years on consoles and even on the iPad, but it's made a triumphant return as a richer 3D arcade game with deeper challenges and crazily warped arenas. Recent updates also add two-player gaming and iPad Pro optimizations. Price: $9.99, £9.99, AU$14.99. Hearthstone, a free-to-play game from Blizzard and a hit on PC, is a game worth paying money for. You may do that via in-app purchases, but you don't need to; keep playing matches of this collectible card game online to earn extras instead. And don't be surprised to see hours melt away from your life.. as long as you're online.