Looking for the best games for iPad, iPhone and iPod touch? You’ve come to the right place. With iOS games reviews, gameplay videos and links to the games on the App Store, this roundup lists the 100 very best games ever released for the iPad & iPhone, from strategy and action to puzzlers and RPGs.
New in our list this month: SpellTower+, Maze Machina, Song of Bloom and The White Door.
A quick note on IAP: Many games have IAPs (in-app purchases). Be wary of overspending on consumable IAPs. Our reviews note when IAPs impact on any particular game.
Adventure, point-and-click, and story games
From old-school point-and-click to thoroughly modern touchscreen adventures, these interactive stories will keep you engrossed for days.
Banner Saga
Banner Saga blends ingredients from adventure-style text-based decision-making and turn-based grid combat. In any given skirmish, you command a squad of up to six fighters, selected from a larger caravan of personnel that ebbs and flows in response to your decisions and performance. The battles play out like Final Fantasy Tactics or games of that ilk, with each turn providing the ability to move a hero a certain number of squares and then perform an action, whether it’s a melee or weapon attack or a magic/support interaction.
Outside of combat, things are just as dangerous. You make decisions about almost everything, and you’ll pay for slip-ups. Even dialogue selections feed into how the storyline twists and turns on the road ahead.
The world-building is breathtaking, drawing inspiration and more than a little of the bleak outlook from Scandinavian mythology and Viking storytelling, to create a set of characters that are totally unlike anything else in gaming – yet surprisingly easy to care about. And once you’ve replayed the game to death, you’ll be delighted to know an equally impressive sequel exists.
£9.99/$9.99 | For iPhone and iPad (Universal) | Download Banner Saga
Device 6
It’s safe to say that Device 6 is unlike any other adventure game you’ll play on your iPhone or iPad. The introductory sequence has all the swagger and verve of the sassiest spy movie, but then it dumps you in a mystery, not knowing who you are or how you got there.
The really clever bit, though, is how the game is constructed. The narrative becomes the paths and corridors along which you walk, sentences darting around corners, or taking on the appearance of stairs and ladders. Dotted about are clues and brain-bending puzzles. Arm yourself with a pencil and paper – you’re going to need it.
The notion of a text-oriented game might not appeal, but Device 6 is not to be missed. This isn’t your parent’s (or grandparent’s) adventure – Device 6 is as far from Zork as GTA is from Pac-Man. It’s an essential, unconventional gaming experience like no other, which simply wouldn’t make any sense on a more traditional gaming system. In short, buy it.
£3.99/$3.99 | For iPhone and iPad (Universal) | Download Device 6
Don’t Starve: Pocket Edition
This is an odd game, in that victory is non-existent and death both inevitable and frequent. You’re dumped in a hostile wilderness and expected to get on with it. All the while, the game’s more interested in killing you than exploring your creativity. At least everything looks great while this is happening – all endearingly whimsical, faintly steampunk, Tim Burton-esque hand-drawn scribbles.
You must survive, then, against all possible odds and the continually encroaching hazards of (in usual order of priority) darkness, hunger, insanity, man-eating animals and bad weather. At first, you scrabble together berries and fungi from the undergrowth, and then build tools, fell trees and mine metals from the earth, build a shelter, till the soil and keep livestock.
Every game offers a different map, resources, weather, and creatures that wander bloodthirstily into your path. And there are many different deaths – which are permanent, of course, because things weren’t cruel enough already.
Don’t Starve can be a painful and time-consuming obsession, but it’s one that we don’t hesitate to recommend.
£4.99/$4.99 | For iPhone and iPad (Universal) | Download Don’t Starve: Pocket Edition
Her Story
In Her Story, an interactive narrative mystery game, you play as an anonymous user looking through old interview tapes from a murder case in 1994.
Your job is to sift through hundreds of unorganised video clips; fortunately, these have been transcribed so you can search for words using a free-input search box. When you start the game, the first search term has already been typed in for you: MURDER. There are few other instructions, which means solving this mystery is entirely up to your detective skills.
The script is well-written, unsettlingly realistic, and dark. And no two people will have the same experience playing Her Story: the experience depends on how you search, in what order you watch the tapes, how many tapes you watch, and what conclusions you want to draw.
£4.99/$4.99 | For iPhone and iPad (Universal) | Download Her Story
Machinarium
This classic robotic point-and-click adventure offers a unique experience with more heart than the average tin man. Each room has a puzzle for you to solve, moving you forwards as you try to find your lady-friend and thwart a dastardly plot by some robo-bullies. You scan environments for items to interact with, combine objects in your inventory and solve a variety of brain-teasers.
Machinarium manages to feel both electronic and organic. The hand-painted visuals feel both cartoony and believable, and the soundtrack blends ambient electronica, jazz and dubstep. Rarely has a game felt so thematically and aesthetically unified.
£1.99/$1.99 | For iPhone and iPad (Universal) | Download Machinarium
Minecraft
Minecraft is a hugely popular, widely available game, which provides you with the opportunity to create whatever you desire. Set in a blocky world, users must learn to survive the ever-changing environment, and to thrive and build weapons, armour, castles and more.
The default controls are a little fiddly at first, but after some tweaking, you’ll find your ideal play style; and if touchscreen isn’t the way forward, the game supports MFi controllers.
Part of the joy of Minecraft is multiplayer, and the iOS edition enables you to create, explore and survive alongside friends using mobile devices or Windows 10. Splash out for a monthly Minecraft Realms subscription, and you can also create your own always-on Minecraft world. This is great for worlds where groups of people are active, as it doesn’t require the host to be online all the time.
It’s a barrel of laughs and with a bit of help from online Minecraft tutorials, you’ll be sold on this blocky sandbox game.
£6.99/$6.99 | For iPhone and iPad (Universal) | Download Minecraft
Walking Dead: The Game
Telltale’s point-and-click adventure series, based as much on the original comic book as on the TV show, pretty much single-handedly brought the genre back to the mainstream. Multiple short episodes mean it doesn’t take four hours to play through one sitting, and a ‘moral choice’ gameplay mechanic lets characters remember the actions you took in previous episodes – and treat you accordingly. (Tread carefully, basically, unless you want your arrogance to come back and bite you later on.)
It also features one of the greatest child characters in the history of gaming. Clementine is brave, resourceful, and heartbreakingly sweet, and is about as far away from the whiny, matricidal Carl as it’s possible to be. Two seasons and a couple of spin-offs are available on the App Store; any fan of good storytelling should seek them out.
FREE + IAPs | For iPhone and iPad (Universal) | Download Walking Dead: The Game
The White Door
You are Robert Hill, and you’re in what appears to be a hospital or asylum. That much is obvious; little else is. You’ve no idea how you got here, and your memories remain frustratingly out of reach. Your only option is to explore your claustrophobic monochrome confines.
Almost immediately, you’ll discover a routine pinned to the wall. By obediently following along, the day progresses. You go to the toilet and brush your teeth. Physical touchscreen interactions you make echo iPhone darling Florence – although The White Door has no truck with that title’s sense of hope, instead giving you a feel of unease.
Over time, the routine shifts and changes. Making the clock turn requires you to poke around in every nook and cranny, gradually immersing yourself in increasingly obscure mental tests. All the while, a narrative plays out that’s in equal parts weird, sinister, and gut-wrenchingly sad.
If you’ve played Rusty Lake games before, this will feel like another building block in that universe, albeit with very different mechanics and presentation. Newcomers may miss some of the details, but nonetheless get a window into a mesmerising, convincing game world that frequently and effortlessly shifts between mundane reality and dreamlike peculiarity.
With stylish presentation – part comic book; part point-and-click; solid voiceover work – The White Door is a title you may blaze through in a matter of hours, but won’t forget in a hurry.
£2.99/$2.99 | For iPhone and iPad (Universal) | Download The White Door
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