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iOS Gaming June 2016 | Be still my growing backlog, summer is here

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Each month, the iOS GAF community hosts a thread for new game releases, rumors and discussion that define the fast-moving world of iOS gaming.

The OP will contain recommended games that released during the previous month. All the games listed will have been highlighted by the GAF community in one way or another. This way you can keep tabs on the best games and at the same time curate an excellent resource to look back on to find games you may have missed.

If you're a developer who wishes to have your game featured, please talk about your game in the thread and if the GAF community at large likes the game then your wish just might be granted. Please note that there's a difference between posting about a game you made and just advertising your game with no further interaction with the community, this thread is not for the latter and such advertising behavior is frowned upon.

Directory
1) Introduction & Recommended Games
2) Recommended Games continued
3) Upcoming Releases, Past Threads & Other Links


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Site | App Store: Hexcells | Hexcells Plus | Hexcells Infinite
Hexcells is an ambient logic puzzle game.
Mark or clear all the orange hexes to solve the puzzle. The number in a black hex tells you how many adjacent hexes need to be marked.
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Hexcells Plus is the second game in the Hexcells trilogy and features 36 new and more challenging puzzles.
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Hexcells Infinite is the third game in the Hexcells trilogy and features 36 new and more challenging puzzles as well as a random puzzle generator.

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YES! Love his puzzle design. Fits perfectly on the iPad, although it is a bummer it's not iPhone compatible...
Basically you're just trying to fill in all the hexes! Whether they're blue or grey the numbers and symbols give you clues and you get to logically figure it out.

The other thing about them is they're so calming. You get into this total zen state where you just start clicking and you don't stop and you're brain just knows what to do. The music is ripped straight out of Brian Eno's head and the sound effects just compliment it perfectly.
Since the game doesn't require any guessing, you should always try for 1 or less mistakes. It took me over 10 hours to perfect Hexcells Plus, and I'm already at 9 hours with Infinite. I have about 3 or so more puzzles to do, and they are kicking my ass.
These games are insanely good. Managed to perfect the 2nd game and now I've just bought the 1st and 3rd games. Again trying to do them perfectly without any help, and because I know they are logic based, I know they have to be completable. As much as I hate getting stuck for 10s of minutes at a time, it's so satisfying to actually solve the things

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Site | App Store
Survive in an ever-shifting labyrinth filled with vicious monsters and valuable gemstones. Choose your hero, arm them with magical weapons, spend runes to call on special powers, and aim for a high score in this deck-building tactics game where the deck is the dungeon.
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Ok, imbroglio is kinda addictive. Took a few minutes to get what was going on but once I got into the swing of things it became a very tactical and fun experience. Buy it guys!
Thoughts on Imbroglio - I'm liking it and it's obvious that there's layers and layers of strategic depth. You attack using the weapons on the tile you're standing on, and the weapon levels up as you kill more enemies with it, giving it more attack power, a new perk or something else. And since you can edit the tiles and choose from a whole range of weapons, there's an appeal in tweaking your "deck" and seeing what permutation works for you.

The one concern I have is a lack of options in what you can actually do. In 868-HACK, once you'd siphoned up a few programs, you had plenty of ways to deal with threats. Here, not so much - you seem to have only your attack, your character's special skill and the effect of any perks the weapon you're using has. This has led to this situation plenty of times - being one tile away from an enemy, wanting to kill it but having no way of getting close enough without taking a hit. You regain health very easily but it just feels a bit odd that there seemingly is no way of avoiding this (in 868-HACK, you could WAIT or PUSH, among many other options).
Taking a hit and choosing when to refill your health is part of the strategy, since you get some health and mana every gem you collect. Do you go for the gem now or use the current layout to your advantage? And since you know how much damage any enemy will inflict, you have to pick your battles and when to go for the gem. Think of it less as health and more of a resource you have to manage.

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Site | App Store
Leap Day is a fast paced action platformer with a brand new level every day!
...no really EVERY DAY!
...like until the END OF TIME!

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Leap Day is very entertaining and I really like the levels offered each day. I also like the achievements, collect all fruit for 10 days and gold medal in the same days trophies, you will be mine. The level variety is great and gives all kinds of challenges, controls are perfect, only can blame yourself for a missed tap and for not seeing through the mace in time. There are a ton of ads but there is an option to turn it paid and premium. Well done, maybe their best game since Gunbrick
Leap Day is really good. The one-touch platforming feels just right, varied enemies and hazards, the perfect distances between checkpoints, no limited lives or anything like that, and the levels are surprisingly lengthy.

And a gameplay incentive that will actually make me play daily, that's not the usual "daily reward" variety
Leap Day is a really good idea for a game. I think I'm going to spring for the no ads upgrade.
Leap Day is sooooooooooo fun! Picked it up yesterday and I've gotten two golds (today and yesterday). Damn do they sometimes get tricky!

I wish there was a leaderboard so I could see how I'm doing in relation to my friends though.

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Site | App Store
Help a tiny robot stumble home through 50 puzzling mechanical dioramas.
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I was lucky enough to be beta tester and this game is just brilliant. A steady stream of 50 great puzzles.
Thanks for making me aware of that, that game is a rather top little puzzler.
Great little game. And absolutely amazing that it's like 6 MB.
Mekorama is ADORABLE and totally worth it.

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Site | App Store
Rush Rally 2 is the most authentic and thrilling rally simulation on your mobile, all running at an astounding 60fps.
Race at night or day in rain or snow! Rally through 7 Countries, over 72 unique stages each with different surface types including snow, gravel, tarmac and sand. Even take on the legendary 12.42 Miles Pikes Peak Hill Climb!

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Rush Rally 2 is astonishingly good. Best racer I've played on iOS... ever! Truly amazing.

What a time to be alive, when lonely solo developers can crank out games of this calibre. Brilliant.
Picked up Rush Rally 2 and it is fantastic. Actually, should say I got it on my Shield Tablet for controller support (which they're fixing a bug on currently).

But man, amazing that it's less than 75 MB, looks beautiful with weather and lighting effects and runs at a full 60 FPS on my Shield. Absolutely incredible that one man made this game.

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Site | App Store
Verreciel is a virtual space exploration project in which you must learn to use your Glass Ship's consoles, route them into one-another, and navigate the surrounding universes aboard this fragile habitat.
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It is beautiful
This and Mekorama are works of art. Absolutely fabulous.

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Site | App Store
From the makers of BAFTA-winning Lumino City comes INKS.
INKS updates pinball for a new generation. It combines the joy of pinball with skilful tactical challenges, and allows you to create wondrous works of art as the ball smashes around the canvas.
Blocks of colour burst like beautiful fireworks across the surface, building up in vivid layers and recording a visual history of your game as you perfect your score.

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I would say more like Pinball FX and not that realistic. A little slower. I'm still having fun with it. Very unique take on the genre, having to hit all the colors and watching the ink splatter. Starts out easy but gets pretty challenging to hit all the colors to get gold with just one ball.

But if you're looking for serious pinball physics, I don't think you'll find it here.
Picked up Inks. If you're looking for a straight-up pinball game, you won't find it here. This is an artistic minimalist puzzler first and foremost, with a pinball mechanic.

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Site | App Store
Romancing SaGa 2 takes the varied gameplay of other entries in the series and combines it with an open-ended free-form scenario system whose story is as vast as the world in which it plays out. The player takes the role of a succession of emperors, painting the history of the world with each and every action.
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Finally managed to put in about an hour into the game today. Good stuff. The localization is definitely unpolished, and the writing in general could do with a bit more flavor and punch. But goddamnit, it's Romancing SaGa 2 in English on a modern platform, purchased legally. Still feels surreal!
Wow, the visuals in this game are awesome. Reminds me of what they did with Pier Solar HD. They should have given the FF iOS ports the same treatment.
I'm really enjoying it. It's not as overwhelming as Romancing SaGa 1 was as far as having this huge open world that you can go practically anywhere in. It's slightly more linear so far (though you can still decide which order you want to tackle some things in).

And it's obtuse as ever, though I suppose that's part of the charm. The area I went to had a boss that is insanely hard for my character's "levels," so I'll have to come back later.
It's good so far. It takes a minute to get used to the touch controls. But I'm enjoying the game. It has the right balance of challenge and exploration so far. Although, I'm not that far in the game.

I'm really interested to see more generational leaps in the game. The large generational progression of the story is something that I found interesting in SaGa Frontier 2, so it will be nice to see that style again.

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Site | App Store
One of the best hack-and-slash games of all time now fits in your pocket!
Originally released on PC in 2006, Titan Quest is an action RPG set against a mythological backdrop. The Titans have escaped from prison and are hell-bent on destroying the Earth. The Gods alone can’t stop them -- a hero is needed to lead this epic struggle. Victory or defeat will determine humanity’s fate and that of the Olympians.

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Just got through playing. And for those 10-15 minutes I actually forgot I was playing on a moble device. I was that immersed. I was taken back to the days of playing an oldschool hack n slash rpg on my PC. I'm glad they included a pinch to zoom feature for those of us on phones.
Disappointed with Titan Quest's performance on my iPhone 6. Crappy frame rate and some weird stuttering. Kind of unacceptable for a 10 years old game. Titan Quest was never a very well optimized game in the first place, but still.
I haven't experienced the constant crashes that other users have had with Titan Quest (6+ user here) but the frame rate drops are definitely apparent from time to time. Really hope Dotemu can get that fixed soon.
 
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Site | App Store
RYB is a logic puzzle game full of beautiful, minimalist puzzles. Each level has a logical, unique solution. Can you find it?
Standardized grids and complicated rulesets are exchanged for beautiful, minimalist puzzles where you discover the rules.

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Guys, RYB is really really good. If you liked Hexcells, you'll like this too. It's an abstract Minesweeper-style game where all the clues are told through symbols, shapes, and colors, which allows for unusual level designs that Hexcells and similar games never could have
Good recommendation, I've been having a lot of fun with that game. Although the puzzles are starting to turn very brain melty now I am (I assume) nearing its end
Can I just say, without a doubt, that this is amazing.
It is utterly utterly utterly brilliant. I was aggravated by the first few images. I didn't know what I was doing. And then it clicked, and it actually really excited me, because some really cool puzzles could be made. And then the second level went and gave some smart designs.
Up there with my all-time puzzle purist favorite Hexcells.

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Site | App Store
Regicide is a brutal take on one of the greatest turn based strategy games of all time. The game fuses multiple phases of combat with dynamic action. Maneuver your army into place and unleash a devastating array of tactical abilities to crush your enemies. The game offers two distinct modes:
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incredible version of battle chess ever.
Definitely one of the better Warhammer games on iOS. Like the combo of chess and turn based strategy. In the beginning there are only space marines and orcs and the ingame prices for the unlocks are a bit high imo.
I find this game to be super fun and tactical. But first and foremost I think you have to like or at least respect chess in order to get into it. you move your pieces like chess so you can castle or if a pawn makes it to other side(slim chance here lol) etc. then you spend action points for shooting your gun, cloaking or a special ability that's available to that specific unit or the faction. So in a sense you have an xcom type game between movement phases.

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Site | App Store
Unmatch is a puzzle game about not matching. Separate similarly colored hexagons to complete puzzles, and reveal the potential patterns that chaos can provide. Open your mind to the power of diversity and a new understanding that similarity is not the only way to organize. Stop matching, UNMATCH!
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More_Badass said:
No doubt there are a lot of match-three games on mobile, but Unmatch turns the concept on its head; in this minimalist puzzler, your goal is to separate similar colors through careful moves. Each of the game's 90 puzzles features a grid of colored hexagons, and through swapping tiles, you must manipulate the level so none of the same colored tiles are adjacent. The simple concept evolves with an array of mechanics such as multi-colored tiles, blank tiles, barriers, among others.

It reminds me of Dwelp in a way, due to its tight level grids and every move needing to be considering, Definitely a game for fans of challenging simple-but-challenging minimalist puzzlers

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Site | App Store
Warp Shift is a unique puzzle game set in a mysterious world. It takes you on a marvelous journey that challenges your mind and stimulates your senses. Experience beautiful visuals, challenging puzzles and intriguing sound design.
Guide the little girl Pi and her magical companion through the maze-like confines of the enigmatic ancient chamber that keeps them trapped. Think ahead and alter your surroundings wisely to usher Pi back home – one swipe after another. Embark on an audio-visual voyage through time and space, never knowing where your next step will lead you.

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Decided to bite on Warp Shift. Very well done puzzler with beautiful animation. Starts with what seems like a simple premise of moving/flipping boxes around to help a girl find the portal to the next one on her way to escape a strange hole she fell into. But the puzzles ramp up and get pretty challenging.

Extremely polished and well worth a buy the if it looks like something you'd enjoy.

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Site | App Store
VOEZ invites you to embark on the remarkable journey of teenage dreams,
Following after Cytus and Deemo, two titles that took the world by storm,
Bringing out the most of Rayark’s developing forces is the rhythm game VOEZ which has officially arrived!

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VOEZ surprised me - I live for good rhythm games. This one delivers. Much better than Cytus in my opinion.
Voez is truly fun as hell, but it's unfortunately a fantastic example of just how fucking frustrating mobile gaming can be. The app is free, but it costs a significant amount of money to unlock songs past the initial 8. Hey, whatever, I love rhythm games and this is a great one so I'd gladly drop a lot of money (by mobile standards) into it, but I honestly can't tell if I'm getting ripped off here.

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Site | App Store
The flames of war rage across the galaxy.
All delays in war will be dangerous.
Only to be a raider or a prey in Galaxy Reavers.
Command your fleets and conquer galaxy with your real-time strategy!

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Anyone else try Galaxy Reavers? Pretty fun space combat RTS. Has the usual F2P aspects like timers to repair ships, but it doesn't seem too bad so far. Other than the Engrish, I'm impressed so far.

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Site | App Store
Be a space goat and build a space colony by headbutting people and taking their money. Who knows best how to spend it but a goat? Build a Command bridge training simulator, a space museum or even your very own spaceship. Shoot down asteroids and space pirates or travel to a nearby planet.
You no longer have to fantasize about colonizing space as a simulated goat. Your dreams have finally come true!

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Site | App Store
Joan Mad Run is a gory endless run’n’gun, that takes your enemies straight into the underworld. Run through the infinite chords of well-armed guards and eerie bosses. Train your dexterity to avoid dangerous traps and deadly shots. Unlock unique weapons and cut, explode, burn, freeze, melt, incinerate, squeeze and send your enemies' souls right into the blazing inferno. Collect lives and ammo to always be ready and show them who's boss!
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Site | App Store
The hit PC game that everybirdie loves has now migrated to your mobile device! Now you are free to explore the wonders of St. PigeoNation’s Institute wherever you may be, which birdie will you meet while on your travels?
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Site | App Store
Alone in a frozen wasteland with no memory of how he got there, a lost adventurer’s only hope is his last line of communication – to YOU! Guide him to safety and help him find his identity in this gripping story of survival. Your choices shape the story as you play!
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Star Nomad 2 - June 1st
Lost Frontier - June 2nd
Sky Force Reloaded - June 2nd
Human Resource Machine - June 2nd
Dig Deep - June 2nd
Rok - June 2nd
Pixel Cup Soccer 16 - June 2nd
Flipominos - June 6th
Crush Your Enemies - June 9th
AlphaPit - June 9th
Dawnbringer - June 16th
Never Alone: Ki Edition - June 23rd
Perchang - June 23rd
Hyperburner
Space Marshals 2
Heroes of Loot 2
A Trail
Elise: Unpainted Memories

More releases to be added soon
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iOS Gaming May 2016 | April jests bring Titan Quests
iOS Gaming April 2016 | Fool's Gold
iOS Gaming March 2016 | Your backlog grows in tiny bits
iOS Gaming February 2016 | Crashlands Bandicoot
iOS Gaming January 2016 | Should old applications be forgot?

Visit the January 2016 thread for links to all 2015 iOS Gaming threads
Visit the January 2014 thread for links to December 2013 through November 2012 threads!

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This website keeps track of all the controller enabled games. It gets updated regularly.

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Genuine thanks to our iOS Gaming community for keeping these monthly threads alive!
Special thanks to Saucycarpdog for the thread title inspiration and Tunesmith for his fantastic thread format and month after month of hard work in maintaining these threads
 

Emarv

Member
Great OP, MB!

Lost Frontier all the way for me! My #1 game this month.

Got my eyes on Crush Your Enemies and AlphaPit, too.
 

RustyO

Member
Awesome stuff as always. Thank you as always.

Copy/paste from last month as you've done such an awesome job, just like you did last month ;)
 
Awesome stuff as always. Thank you as always.

Copy/paste from last month as you've done such an awesome job, just like you did last month ;)
Ha. Hey, the template helps a lot, but it still takes between 90 minutes and 2 hours to get the OT ready each month
 

RustyO

Member
Beacon 38 may be of interest... just popped into my head for some reason.

Ha. Hey, the template helps a lot, but it still takes between 90 minutes and 2 hours to get the OT ready each month

Whoops... not what I meant. Just saying you did an awesome job, just like you did last month, thats all :)
 
And it begins

Human Resource Machine is out
$4.99, https://appsto.re/us/Evj67.i

Totally worth it. If you enjoyed The Sequence and Perfect Paths, and thought TIS-100 was too complex, this is the programming puzzler for you. It being from the creators of World of Goo and Little Inferno doesn't hurt

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Also Verreciel was updated to support iPad
 

Shearie

Member
And it begins

Human Resource Machine is out
$4.99, https://appsto.re/us/Evj67.i

Totally worth it. If you enjoyed The Sequence and Perfect Paths, and thought TIS-100 was too complex, this is the programming puzzler for you. It being from the creators of World of Goo and Little Inferno doesn't hurt

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Also Verreciel was updated to support iPad

As someone who's taking an assembly language class over the summer, TIS-100 is too simple :)
 

Anilones

Member
Very much looking forward to Mika Mobile's new game tonight, as soon as it was announced any interest in Warbits disappeared.
 

Emarv

Member
A lot of good sales atm

Down to $1.99
Autumn Dynasty Warlords - https://appsto.re/us/g8MEW.i
Autumn Dynasty - https://appsto.re/us/o8APW.i
Wizards and Wagons - https://appsto.re/us/oPoA9.i

Down to $0.99
Dark Echo - https://appsto.re/us/yfDS4.i
Tsuro: The Game of the Path - https://appsto.re/us/9-id5.i
Astrå - https://appsto.re/us/Oz1N3.i
Tiny Rogue - https://appsto.re/us/x4fJ-.i
Last Voyage - https://appsto.re/us/kJtm2.i

I was just asking about Wizards & Wagons! Gonna jump in for the price and check it out.
 
Clearly the only explanation is that I'm some long-awaited messiah of the mobile gods as my birthday month is marked by a legendary bounty of releases the likes of which we haven't experienced in quite a while

:p

And it begins

Human Resource Machine is out
$4.99, https://appsto.re/us/Evj67.i

Totally worth it. If you enjoyed The Sequence and Perfect Paths, and thought TIS-100 was too complex, this is the programming puzzler for you. It being from the creators of World of Goo and Little Inferno doesn't hurt

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Also Verreciel was updated to support iPad

Bought so hard. Saw HRM on steam and kept waiting on an iPad release.
 

Rlan

Member
Some amazing friends of mine who used to work with me at Halfbrick have released their own first indie game: Steppy Pants. These guys were the original artist and programmer on Fruit Ninja.

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I've been playing early versions of it and can't put it down. It's my favourite "Verby Noun" style of game. It also exports GIFs out of your death - which is fantastic and something nobody else is doing at all.

It's out now! Download it here!
 

colinp

Banned
Great op, MB!

I'm still playing a bit of Leap Day each day. I gold'd the first week but haven't had as much time for the rest, usually getting at least silver though there are a few bronze.

There is a weird thing where if you buy the ad free version you're hindering yourself getting all the fruit because if you accidentally miss some fruit and reach the next checkpoint it automatically unlocks the checkpoint and so the missed fruit are lost. If you have the ad version you can just kill yourself and be sent back to the last checkpoint you unlocked to try to get the fruit again.

It's a weird oversight and someone who talks to the devs should really raise the issue. It's kinda dumbfounding how that happened.
 
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