I've spent the past few days zapping aliens and maneuvering troops in the iPad version of XCOM: Enemy Unknown, and I'm happy to report that it's XCOM: Enemy Unknown on iPad, which is really all that you need to know.

Everybody loves quick time events, those timed button presses utilized in today's high-tech interactive entertainment programs to help the user feel a modicum of control over grand cinematic sequences. the problem with quick time events, however, is that the graphical spectacle going on behind the prompts always…

Since the early days of the Cyberpunk pen-and-paper role-playing setting, I've been fascinated by the idea of highly-skilled computer hackers roaming the plains of cyberspace looking for a fight; digital cowboys with their fingers twitching inches away from their plastic 101-shooters. The realization that real hackers…

As a rule, I like sports in video games better than I do in the real world. For someone like me who's never been great on the court or field, taking an athletic endeavor and adding a layer of the fantastic to it is one of the best joys that a sports title can offer. It's a joy that Super Stickman Golf 2 delivers in…

Music is enough of a puzzle already. You've got your parts, your sections, your structure. Then, you have to make those parts fit a into whole, and get them to make sense together. Say, wouldn't that make for a fun game?

Magnets, man. They make you go fast.

Up until this week, I hadn't really played a game on my iPad that gave me the creeps. Games that made me laugh? Yeah. Games that challenged my brain? Absolutely. But nothing yet has made me feel as unsettled as Year Walk.

Whenever I feel like the physics puzzle format is completely played out, Fahey slides me another download code, and the thing turns out to be pretty good. Stick To It, ahem, adheres to the basic principles of the genre, but shows there are still clever ways to challenge players to finish a puzzle with an economy of…

As far as sharp looking iOS games go, Hungry Oni must be one of the most dazzling I've seen all year. And yes, I know it's only February. (It is only February.)

Sure, the venerable kart racing genre revolves around wacky track designs and a rotation of goofy-lethal power-ups. But, no matter how fun the chaos is, I still need to feel like I'm going really fast.

To paraphrase A League of Their Own, there's no molerats in pinball. But this game—filled with rolling, bouncing mammals—this is a pinball adventure. And that makes all the difference.

Yeah, it's a "runner" game. You control a character that's perpetually moving forward, and all you have to do is move them left to right and sometimes roll or jump as well. And yeah, it's a "freemium" game, something I will likely never really embrace.

Swapping colorful objects to create rows of three or more is about as simple as a puzzle game can get. After years of playing titles like Bejeweled and Candy Crush Saga, seeing the patterns that make the best matches is almost second nature to me. Match-three games have become a mindless relaxing pursuit. Then came…

The iTunes description for Heroes & Castles, a new third-person tower defense game that hit iOS yesterday, says it has "incredible console quality graphics."

It's been a silly week for mobile games with suggestive names. First there was this. Then Fahey handed me something called "Noble Nutlings" for the iOS. Its icon was a beetle-browed, bucktoothed squirrel. I had no idea what to expect.

When I first caught wind of Hello Games bringing their stunt-racing hero Joe Danger to iOS, I imagined a straight port of the original PlayStation Network release, complete with a screen cluttered with virtual controls. Instead they've delivered a game that fully embraces the touch-based platform, one that's as…

You know what Temple Run is missing? Kids with guns.

If Gameloft ever wants to shed its reputation as a studio that copies other people's ideas and repackages them, then they probably shouldn't be releasing games like Shark Dash.

I want to go fast—faster than modern day street vehicles are capable of travelling. I've felt the need for ground-based speed since I was a small-ish boy, so games like F-Zero, Wipeout and Extreme-G (remember Extreme-G?) have always been a passion. Plenty of mobile developers have attempted to capture the power and…

I think I know what you're thinking: Game of the Year 2013? Already? That's crazy talk.