10 New iPhone and iPad Games You Should Know About This Week

The closer we get to the holidays, the more presents the App Store seems to give to us. This week brings a number of games we’ve been eagerly anticipating, and a few nice surprises too.

If there’s nothing here you’re interested in, don’t worry: Gamezebo’s “best of the year” coverage is rolling out as we speak, and it should give you plenty of great games to play that you might have missed.

Tales from the Borderlands

Whether you’re a fan of Borderlands, a fan of Telltale, or both, you’ve been on the edge of your seat waiting for this one. And now, much to our surprise, it’s here! Will it continue the tradition of great Telltale adventures? Or might it be a rough stumble like the recent mobile release of Game of Thrones? Check back with Gamezebo shortly to find out in our review.

• Download ($4.99)

SimplePlanes

The team behind SimpleRockets and SimplePhysics is back, and this time they’ve really upped things in the visuals department. That said, the gameplay here should be familiar to anyone who enjoyed SimpleRockets; but swapping the goal of reaching space with the need to simply build a craft that won’t fall out of the sky.

• Download ($1.99)

Marvel Contest of Champions

It’s gorgeous, it’s accessible, and it’s packed to the rafters with Marvel superheroes. What more could you ask for from a fighting game?

• Download (free)

Chain Chronicle

This clever mix of lane defense and role playing launched on the App Store earlier this week, and met with a fair bit of praise in our four star review. Think Plants vs. Zombies meets Fire Emblem, and you’ll be in the right ballpark. There’s a good deal of strategy to be had here.

• Download (free)

Seabeard

The second noteworthy game this year to draw influence from Animal Crossing, Seabeard is a good game trapped behind wait timers. Our review says it all, but as a free download, there’s no reason you shouldn’t decide for yourself first-hand.

• Download (free)

Sneaky Sneaky

Stealth combat meets puzzling fun in this exceptional little game from Naiad Entertainment. It fell just shy of a perfect score in our review this morning, which, if you ask me, means that anyone with three dollars and a love for mobile games should be giving Sneaky Sneaky a download this week.

• Download ($2.99)

Highrise Heroes

Can you escape 90 stories of a crumbling skyscraper using only the power of WORDS? No, this isn’t a game about making a rope ladder out of dictionaries (though that gives me an idea…)

• Download (free)

Rick and Morty Present: Jerry’s Game

I’m ashamed to admit that I don’t know what Rick and Morty is. If you watch Adult Swim, there’s a good chance that you’ve bested me on this. Today they see their first mobile game, a… balloon-popping simulator? Whatever. It’s an Adult Swim game. Nothing is ever as it seems from these folks.

• Download (free)

ShakePop

Continuing their 2014 tradition of releasing cool, unique, original projects, FreshPlanet have just released ShakePop: a party game in the vein of Bop It. With titles like BoxPop and TravelPop under their belt this year (and their big hit, SongPop, from a few years back), they’ve really turned into a studio to watch.

• Download (free)

Corto Maltese Secrets of Venice

We haven’t seen many point-and-click adventures on the App Store recently, so if you’ve been waiting, Corto Maltese might just be the game you’re looking for. BONUS: it’s based on a well-loved Italian comic book from the 60’s, which will no doubt be well worth a read if you can find it.

• Download ($4.99)

Jim Squires

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Jim Squires is the Editor-in-Chief of Gamezebo. Everything you see passes his eyes first, so we like to think of him as "the gatekeeper of cool stuff." He likes good games, great writing, and just can't say no to a hamburger. Also, he is not a bear.