The Eight Best IOS Games (Summer 2016 Edition)

If you’re like us, summer means you’ll be doing a lot of traveling.  Whether it’s an uncomfortably packed plane ride or a painfully lengthy road trip, nothing helps a miserable travel experience go faster than a great IOS game (just remember to bring your charger).   We’ve noticed there’s been a slow down in truly great titles in the last year and we haven’t seen as many transformative blockbusters as we saw in previous years.  That said, there are some great titles out there for making a trip go smoothly (and just to provide a solid gameplay experience) and we’ve compiled a list of eight great ones from a variety of different genres; no matter what kind of game you like, there should be something on this list that appeals to you.  Here are eight relatively recent great IOS games that all gamers should try.

This game is so strikingly beautiful, emotionally resonant, and easy to play. It’s the perfect game to escape into while stranded in a hot, noisy, crowded airport on a long summer trip.

Monument Valley

Of all the games out there, the best of the best may still be Monument Valley.  This cute puzzle game is a well-realized, amazing adventure that is simple, interesting and perfect on the IOS.  Like all great IOS games, the gameplay is very straightforward and the puzzles are interesting but never frustrating.  The graphics are particularly top notch and the MC Escher style levels work here much better than they do in other games.  Its story is also remarkably affecting.  Monument Valley is one of those games you can recommend to almost anyone; it’s simple, interesting, beautiful and memorable.

This game lets me dream about how much I’d rather be traveling on a Mechanical Elephant to Benares rather than in my beat-up Nissan to my in-laws.

80 Days

80 days is the best game to take on any vacation.  In the game you play as Passepartout, trying to organize the most challenging trip ever as you guide your employer (the confident, fragile, and thankfully endlessly wealthy Phineas Fogg) as he tries to win his wager to cross the world in 80 days.  You get to plot the course you’ll take and the methods of transport, weighing the speed and direction of each option.  You also choose your own adventures in each location which can open up new routes and locate additional funds.  The world here is imagined as an 18th century steampunk universe with seemingly endless content; I’ve gone around the world numerous times and never had the same adventure twice.  In the world of interactive fiction, there are some fun games out there (To Be Or Not To Be comes to mind) but 80 Days is still the king of them all.  If you like this genre or just like a good story, this is a great game to pick up (read our full review here).

Love You to Bits is a great game about love and loss. No, not between the farmer and the cow, between the boy and his robot (though that actually sounds worse).

Love You To Bits

Man, we love Love You To Bits.  This beautiful little puzzle game casts you as a heartbroken astronaut traveling through the universe to revive his robot girlfriend (it’s much cuter/not as creepy as it sounds).  Each stage puts you in a unique little world and plays like a mini-story, and some of these mini-stories are really quite touching.  The beauty and creativity of these levels is really inspiring and the best levels incorporate elements of time-travel, cloning, horror, and some extremely cute monsters.  The game is our first must-play IOS title of 2016 and a perfect title for fans of puzzle games.  Check out our full review of the game here.

After multiple injuries and embarrassments, Alto’s Adventure is the closest I’ll ever come to going skiing again.

Alto’s Adventure

Nothing beats the simple beauty of Alto’s Adventure.  You play a snowboarder chasing down escaping llamas in a gorgeous procedurally-generated environment with terrific day cycles and weather effects.  The simple gameplay – you can only control when you jump – is easy to pick up and never gets old.  Later levels give you some additional items and characters to change up the gameplay, most notably a wingsuit that allows you to take flight for limited periods.  This is the kind of game that you’ll play for hours and that you may put down for months at a time and return to without missing a beat.  For our money, Alto’s Adventure is the king of the endless runners on the IOS.  The gameplay is beautiful and casual and endlessly replayable; once you download this one to your phone, you’ll never remove it.

Hitman GO doesn’t have much of a plot, and yet it’s arguably better written than any of the Hitman movies.

Hitman GO

I can’t believe how well Hitman GO works.  I was never was a big fan of the Hitman games; I always felt that Splinter Cell and Tenchu provided better stealth adventures than the Hitman series did.  Hitman GO does something unique; it reduces stealth gameplay into its basic elements and provides the essential experience in a way that plays perfectly on your phone.  All of the characters here are presented as characters in a board game.  You can move one space at a time, and the other characters move in prescribed ways (e.g., some follow circuits, some only move if move into their path).  Your goal is to navigate the board without getting “killed” by the other pieces; most of these boards take just a few minutes to figure out (though additional goals like finding a briefcase or a eliminating all targets can extend the playthrough).  I loved the game, and I look forward to trying the additional GO games that are coming soon.

I love how Silent Age celebrates so many elements of the point-and-click titles I grew up with. Celebrates, emulates, rips off…whatever.

The Silent Age

Silent Age is our favorite point-and-click adventure on this list.  The game integrates some of the fun time-traveling puzzle solving we loved in Day of the Tentacle with a very streamlined puzzle solving experience (no pointless inventory items here).  In the game, you play an average janitor for a shadowy corporation who gains the ability to time-travel.  You escape the present (where you are falsely accused of murder) into the future where some unknown apocalypse has killed the entire population.  You spend the game trying to clear your name in the present and avert the disaster you’ve seen in the future.  The best part of the game is that the first half of the Silent Age is free; you can try it for yourself before putting any money down.  Give the first half a shot and see how it goes; we think you’ll be back for the second half.  Check out our full review here.

It’s hard to get a good screenshot of Device 6. Just trust us, it’s really good.

Device 6

Device 6 is a wonderful experience on the IOS.  Described as a text-based adventure, the game casts you as an amnesiac The game strands you on an island prison with mysterious inhabitants and captivating puzzles which are challenging but, thankfully, never infuriating.  The game is really amazing.  The text is presented in ways consistent with your journey throughout the island (going vertical when you descend stairs, for example).  I played through this title while coincidentally reading the book House of Leaves and the similarity in presentation is striking (as others have noted).  The visuals and music provide a great sense of atmosphere with minimal presentation.  Device 6 is really a memorable IOS experience.  I had hoped really hoped that this interactive novel would be the first of a series of games like this; instead Device 6 is the first-and-still-best example of what an interactive novel can be on the IOS.  You can read more of our thoughts about the game here.

We think A Dark Room’s “light fire” may become one of the most memorable game quotes out there, like “You might be eaten by a grue,” “Our princess is in another castle” and “You have died of dysentery.”

A Dark Room

A Dark Room is our dark horse on this list.  This game is difficult to describe.  It has elements of interactive novels, elements of management simulations, elements of RPG, and…well, some other things we won’t spoil.  These elements come together amazingly well to make a game that provides an impactful experience with minimal graphics and a very streamlined interface.  We think this game might be a masterpiece (and we’re not the only ones who think so).  We won’t lie, this game requires some faith from the gamer to get past the initial difficulty curve the game throws at you, but we feel confident in asserting that this game is worth it.  Read our full review here.