Apps, mobile games
Data Wing £free / Android, IOS
This game starts off as if Asteroids had a baby with a top-down racer: your triangular craft blasts around circuits, gaining speed when its bum scrapes neon track edges. Soon you discover you’re part of an OS ruled by a deranged AI. Story and game quickly expand, as you glimpse the world beyond the screen and battle gravity in cavern-based sections that recall 8-bit classic Thrust. Rarely do mobile titles pack in so many hours of clever, thoughtful narrative. Pretty much never are such games free.
Stuff says ★★★★★ A mobile game we’d happily recommend if it cost a fiver – for nowt, it’s an absurdly generous bargain
Sky: Children of the Light £free (IAPS) / Android, IOS
Now available on Android as well as IOS, this achingly gorgeous free-roaming adventure with a smattering of puzzling and a dollop of social multiplayer sees you locating spirits and returning them to the stars.
Stuff says ★★★★★ Beautiful and meditative, this one’s essential
Drop Wizard £2.99 / Android, IOS
Another IOS game that’s made the jump to Android, Drop Wizard reimagines the fixed-screen platformers of the past and challenges you to blast your way through an army of cute but evil critters.
Stuff says ★★★★★ A tiny arcade romp squished into your phone
Jumpgrid
★★★★★ £2.89 / Android £2.99 / IOS ● Pac-man and Frogger meet Super Hexagon in this twitch/arcade/punishment hybrid.
GRID Autosport
★★★★★ £9.99 / Android, IOS The best racing game on mobile is an astonishing achievement.