There’s no award issued to iOS games with titles that are “Most Likely to Make a Seven-Year-Old Grin,” but if there was, Chillingo’s Dingle Dangle would walk away with it in two seconds. This arcade/puzzle game is fully aware of its cheekiness, however, which sets the stage for a clever experience shot through with cuddly mascots and a wry sense of humor. Unfortunately, a couple of notable problems will keep Dingle Dangle from sticking to your heart forever.

Reflecting on it after having put it down, Dropple is not all that different from games I've rated quite highly. Games that - in the formative days of the iOS landscape - represented all the wonderful novelty of mobile as a platform. And yet here, at the beginning of 2013, that fact represents not only a welcomed strength, but telling weakness for this recent Apple Editor's Pick. It's a pleasant, energetic distraction, sure - but like the central water droplet under the pressure of extreme heat, the fun factor here quickly evaporates under the weight of prolonged exposure. 

Puzzle Retreat is a new puzzle game from The Vogel Agents, the folks who brought us the popular track-switching Train Conductor series. But while this new venture proves to be a solid touch-based puzzler that offers a brisk challenge for mobile gamers, there’s nothing that really stands out about its presentation or controls, and its repetitive nature will leave most gamers feelings as cold as the ice blocks that make up each puzzle.

In a deep jungle, adorable floating idols are threatened by a purple blob-like creature that threatens to eat them all and destroy the fabric of space-time. At least, that’s what we’ve guessed is going on in Rolling Idols, as this beautiful match-three game comes with little in the way of a storyline, and is fairly hit or miss when it comes to its actual gameplay.

Welcome to Utopia, population: one mayor (that’s you!), one gene-splicing mechanic, and an infinite supply of clones.  Your ability to build a bustling city in space is the only hope left for the entire civilization of Earth after a sudden disaster left it, well… destroyed.  Luckily, your Pixel People want nothing more than to take on whatever lifelong job you assign to them and become productive members of this fledgling society.  Let’s get splicing.

If you've never played Stratego before, well friend, you're a little late to the party. It's a classic board game of capture the flag that’s simple enough to learn quickly, but full of subtle strategies. While it's been around for ages, it's never been given a treatment like Jumbo and Keesing Games just put together, playable on iPad or any web browser and with plenty of great new features.

Despite touting itself as "this year's most hotly anticipated racer" (January isn't even over yet), Cracking Sands sings a familiar tune across its dusty landscapes: A game which seems like it might have had some potential, but instead wound up falling well short of it.

TetDraw is an intriguing puzzler that attempts to combine the sophistication of graph paper puzzles with the spatial puzzles of Tetris and other similar games. It's charming in a fifth-period math class kind of way, chock-full of special activities to help you better understand the relationships between shapes and puzzle pieces. 

The major critique with sports games is the lack of change from one year to the next. Bugs from one year often appear in the future installments, and poorly-built features receive no modifications for the next season. Then, there's Baseball Superstars 2013. The newest installment in the series doesn't just learn from its previous mistakes - it makes extra adjustments that improve the experience. 

At this point it seems like the differences among the host of city-building strategy games on the App Store come down to mere aesthetics. Do you like your strategy with castles, knights, and rote fantasy trappings? Pick up your sword and frolic in the Kingdoms of Camelot. Prefer your strategy narrated by steampunk women clad in leather and brass? Then by all means, go play Arcane Empires. And you folks in the back--do you like your strategy to unfold in a post-apocalyptic universe where gas-masked thugs lord over the ruins of Western civilization? Then Downfall: Clash of Factions might be for you.

Not all console games can make a smooth transition to mobile, but Mushroom Wars isn't just any game. IGN named it one of the top 25 PlayStation Network titles of all time, so it makes perfect sense that Creat Studios and i-Free Innovations would want to put its fungus-to-fungus RTS game on iPads to get it in front of a wider audience.

If there’s something strange in your neighborhood, it is prudent to call the Ghostbusters. Unlike the rest of the population, they’re ready to believe your story about the demonic Chinese-crested dog living in your fridge. The bizarre events and devilish creatures that define the Ghostbusters movies have made for mixed success on video game platforms across the years. Beeline takes another crack with Ghostbusters for iOS, and the results are fun, if a little predictable and safe.

Have you ever wished that you could just buy a more powerful attack to give to Ryu and obliterate every Street Fighter opponent you met down at the arcade? Well, it turns out you aren’t alone. Blade Lords is here to blend the classic gameplay we all know and love from those 2D arcade-style fighters, and throw in some neat RPG and adventure twists to keep mobile combatants alert and on their toes.

No doubt there are plenty of people who deserve a cranial readjustment courtesy of some sports equipment: movie patrons that leave their phones on, commuters who have full-volume conversations on the train, and anyone who gets more than three samples at a crowded Baskin Robbins.  For Tennis in the Face protagonist Pete Pagassi, that type of person is anyone affiliated with the creation, distribution, or consumption of Explodz Energy Drink.

Gorillas have always loved their bananas, but what happens when the bananas say “no more?” You can find out with Banana Kong for iOS, a 2D endless running game that challenges you to run, run, run away from an ever-toppling pile of banana peels. Banana Kong doesn’t hit the lofty standards set by Rayman’s Jungle Run, but it’s still one of the genre’s top bananas thanks to slick controls, polished graphics, and tons of fun Donkey Kong Country references.

Tic is a HoverBot who looks like a unicycle with long wobbly arms. That's not even the strangest part of Tin Man Can, either, as when the game opens a wormhole appears and drags Tic into another dimension, stranding him in a colorful world full of hills and hovatrons and holes. Now the little guy has to ride his way home, and you're just the arcade game expert to do it!

If you're a fan of Android gaming, you may have found yourself wondering, “Where are all the games that have you race through tunnels?” I never thought such a thing, but I'm sure someone has. Those folks may be interested in checking out Death Track. Just a quick heads-up before you do: You're likely better off saving your time and money and holding onto hope for the future.

Developers are getting quite good at giving us more in our mobile games, whether its higher production values, deeper gameplay or multiple genres mashed together. That doesn't always mean that more is better, though, which is why Kingdom Conquest II is so frustrating. Despite its noble attempt to combine an action RPG, a city builder and a card game on your iOS device, the end result is too muddled to call a real success.

Jell-O has been many things for me over the course of my life: comfort food when I'm sick, a dessert at parties and after dinner; even a staple to subsist on during university. Easily its most fun role, however, is its recent turn as gelatinous antagonist in developer Robot Invader's Rise of the Blobs. Fair warning, however: attempts to eat through the screen will prove unsuccessful.

How many children have looked up at the stars at night and dreamed impossible dreams of being an astronaut? If you were ever one of them, then your iDevice now offers you the chance to find out just how impossible it actually is, all thanks to Space Agency.