nation states

nation states is an interesting one, an humerous and satirical online only MMO about nation building & politics.
if you were a tinpot dicator what would you do? vote yourself out of existance? free malteasers for everyone? ban socks and sandals for those under 30?
just like real like life there are the destroyers playing the game as badassfully & evilly as possible (of course, it is more fun being a baddie) hehe! hilarious!
so choose your allies carefully...

aliens vs.pinball

ok this game plays wonderfully like the film, slow build up, save newt and then... MOVEMENT! MULTIPLE TARGETS! all the classic aliens scenes feature right down the to the very obvious but entirely nessescary GAME OVER MAN! GAME OVER! when you lose, which you will... you can play it here for free (ad supported) on your mobile device.

word boom

i'm really addicted to word boom right now.
a friendly cross between countdown and boggle.
at the end of each round you spin a fruit machine, which either gives you a bonus or a hinderance for the next round. the worst of which are bombs that fall down and destroy your already made words, which you cannot use again.
so to get a decent score you need a lot of respins and some extra hints in the bank.
you can earn extra respins or hints by beating a round in which you are hindered, or by completing a perfect round.

the minims

if babapapa met myst..?
superior kids point and click adventure game.

superbrothers: sword & sworcery EP

a charming, humerous and original fantasy adventure game,
superbrothers sword & sworcery
is definitely one worth downloading.
8bit graphics never looked so lovely...

mekorama

a tiny monumumentvalleyalike
where you have to navigate a ditzy robot around puzzling mechanical dioramas. dopey music? check.
lush chunky graphics? check.
interesting monetisation metric? check.
scan new levels using VR codes? check.
build your own levels? check.
what's not to like..?

hocus

another game that uses the escher mechanic to great effect is hocus a neat and minimal little puzzler, in this one all you have to do is navigate the little red cube around the impossible shape to the red exit.
easy...
sometimes...
nice ambience too.

echochrome

fiendishly difficult and different take on the escheresque puzzler, a la monunemt valley, from which this could have been inspired. (this one's circa 2008) gorgeous chamber music soundtrack. very ravelly.

soundshapes

this groovy little platformer is a hidden gem, jump and make your own ambient music mix! make your own levels! awesome!
unfortunately playstation only...

hex blitz 2.0

interesting take on the ubiquitous match three puzzler
which looks like a damien hirst dot painting.
strangely satisfying.

okay?

it's angry birds if angry birds was reinvented by the bauhaus movement

. and a very elegant monetization mechanic. plus it's a very usable musical instrument. nice.

ico

ico is a gorgeous atmospheric adventure puzzler, where cooperation with your seemingly helpless but actually quite powerful companion is essential. a metaphor for battling depression, you have to desperately hang on to the girl whilst banishing the gathering black clouds of miasma with your crude toy sword. kids will love this game i think, i would love to eavesdrop a couple of 7 year olds attempting to solve these puzzles.

sometimes you die

talking of dying a lot. in this innovative platformer dying is essential, the ghost of your former self helps you reach previously inaccessible places. a great piece of indie game design.

buster spirits

shoot it! great little bulletstormer. you will die. a lot.
but it's not so ridiculously difficult that you can get through the levels.

bondo

bondo is a very satisfying little merge puzzler in the vein of 2048, match three or more numbers on the rotatable tiles to change it to one tile of the next number up to six at which point you get a bomb tile. match three bomb tiles and you clear some free space. hex merged and merged++ are nice variations on the theme, hex merged coming in the lightest at a very keepable 18mb. it also has very relaxing background music.

saints row IV

'if you could a have any superpower what would it be?'
'all of 'em!'

A riot of colours, saints row IV is like a playful great dane cyber puppy licking your face with magnetism and ridiculousness on a sunny  Sunday morning.
Mechanically it's a GTAV vs Superman vs Destroy All Humans! hybrid, this game really throws the kitchen sink at it gameplaywise, and turns it up to eleventystupid.

(Spoiler Alert)
Whether you are bouncing up a skyscraper, hacking a gun shop, stealing a UFO, or fighting a super cyber monster, this game's acid dreamlike quality and lol sense of humour, will have you hooked from the start;
(oh look, there's a guy dressed as an energy drink dancing with a guy dressed as a hotdog in a high end clothes shop...)
and it's great to get around when you can glide like a flyingsquirrel...
As the President of the USA/ Head of a Gang, kidnapped by aliens, trapped in a matrix like simulation...

...there is a lot to do...
and if you get bored of that,
the reggae channel is awesome.

a brilliantly bonkers take on the crime sandbox genre.

qatqi

qatqi @qatqi #qatqi is scrabble for loners
lovely steampunk design and zen electro evolving soundtrack.
and great stats.
very relaxing.

uru: ages beyond myst

uru is my favourite iteration of the deeply wonderful myst series, being a third person adventure rather than the usual point and click mechanic. the environments are quite stark, by todays standards, but you still feel like you are in them. the puzzles are fiendishly difficult as ever. but you get to walk around them, which feels like progress.

it's a shame the online aspect didn't really happen although hardcore fans did set up functional servers that still work to this day i believe...

a curates egg of a video game for historians, poets, archeologists, cryptographers & mathematicians.
it would nice to see this game dusted off and revamped for tablets...

lines

Lines is a very visually pleasing sometimes infuriating strategy puzzler
Place your dots carefully to cover the most area of the shape.
The more you win the harder it gets...

doofus drop

this is a gloriously dumb game, very little skill required. but it is strangely compelling to fart your way into space...

the room 3

having just finished the room 2 and eager for more, I was quite happy to pay £3.99 for the room 3. it seems like a lot for a tablet game, but when you see the the amazing craft and intelligence of the design of the thing, you certainly don't feel cheated. puzzles haven't been this great since myst...