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Best mobile games of March 2014

Looking for a new game to play on your mobile device? Here's our pick of the best released in March 2014.

Michelle Starr Science editor
Michelle Starr is CNET's science editor, and she hopes to get you as enthralled with the wonders of the universe as she is. When she's not daydreaming about flying through space, she's daydreaming about bats.
Michelle Starr
6 min read

Looking for a new game to play on your mobile device? Here's our pick of the best released in March 2014.

(Credit: Kitfox Games)

Shattered Planet

Trailer

Montreal-based studio Kitfox Games is launching with a bang with Shattered Planet. The procedural death labyrinth takes place in a sci-fi setting that sees you exploring a broken planet, collecting information on its inhabitants for the Galactic Union. Each time your clone dies, though, you lose all your gear and have to start again — so there's enough tension to keep things interesting, and it has done a brilliant job of making sure the IAP isn't manipulative. It's an excellent debut.

You can read our interview with Kitfox studio head Tanya Short here.

Platform: iPhone and iPad
Price: Free

(Credit: Nicolas Saraintaris)

Faif

Trailer

A little like Dungeon Raid, a little like slot roulette, Faif uses a game of chance to pit you against your foes. It looks like a match-three grid, showing swords, gems, skulls and hearts; however, rather than matching symbols, you draw a line through five squares, and the game will randomly select one of those five squares as your next move. A skull will lose you health, a heart will gain you health, a gem will get you currency to buy power-ups, and a sword will hit your opponent — but only if you select one or more skulls. There's no gain, you see, without risk — and the more skulls you select, the harder you hit. It's a perfect little pocket game, striking a fine balance between deliberate action and random chance.

You can try it for free on the developer's website (Unity web player required)

Platform: Android; iPhone and iPad
Price: AU$2.15 (Android); AU$2.49 (iOS)

(Credit: Foursaken)

Block Fortress: War

Trailer

Voxel-based Block Fortress took the visual appeal and creative freedom of Minecraft and married it to the tower defence genre. This time, developer Foursaken has taken those Minecrafty elements and paired them up with the RTS genre. You can play one of a dozen heroes in one of five races, each with its own troops, equipment and blocks, across both single- and two- and four-player multiplayer campaigns.

Platform: iPhone and iPad
Price: AU$2.49(iOS)

(Credit: Tom Janson)

Wave Wave

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Wave Wave is one of those games that can best be described as "fiendish". It has a minimal interface, and the aim is to navigate a line through a jagged, zig-zagging path at a cracking pace. There are a few different gameplay modes of varying difficulty, but the core mechanic remains the same. You'll crash. A lot. But somehow, it's nearly impossible to stop playing.

You can read our full review of Wave Wave here.

Platform: iPhone and iPad
Price: AU$3.79 (iOS)

(Credit: Philipp Stollenmayer)

Sometimes You Die

Trailer

Sometimes you get the power up and win the game — and sometimes, you die. Sometimes You Die is a game all about this. You control a little black box with an arrow on it indicating which way the box is facing (actually a less-than sign and greater-than sign) navigating through a hazardous 2D platform environment, including spikes and buzz-saw-like blades and giant obstacles to jump over. Sometimes, you have to sacrifice your little black box in order to survive. The result is a game that asks the question: just what is a game?

Platform: iPhone and iPad
Price: AU$2.49 (iOS)

(Credit: Mediocre)

Smash Hit

Trailer

The premise of Smash Hit is simple: break all of the things. It's a species of first-person rail shooter, only instead of shooting, you're throwing metal balls at glass objects. However, the game is over when you run out of balls, which means conserving balls is in your best interest, and smashing into things — which makes you drop 10 balls — is not. It's also been rather clever about monetisation, too. The full game is available for free — but a one-time IAP unlocks checkpoints. It's a move that has landed the game in the top 200 grossing iOS and Android apps for nearly a month.

You can read our full review of Smash Hit here.

Platform: Android; iPhone and iPad
Price: Free

(Credit: Index Digital Media)

Shin Megami Tensei

Shin Megami Tensei has been a pipe dream for English-speaking JRPG fans for a long time. The 1992 game has never received an official English translation — until now. This is the original title, ported across to iOS, with 40-60 hours of gameplay. If you ever wanted to play — this is an excellent buy.

Platform: iPhone and iPad
Price: AU$9.99

(Credit: DinoMerguez)

Noah Should

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Noah Should is an odd little game. You're Noah, and you are practising putting together an ark for the deluge. There are three parts to this: first, you have to collect the animals. You do this by jumping in the air and throwing a grappling hook mid-jump to toss the animal into the sky. Then you have to fit them in the ark. This involves Tetris-style finagling. Finally, you have to keep everything in the boat by tilting your phone to keep the boat level, all the while tapping on fish to keep them away. The better you do, the more points you get in the store to spend on new areas (for new animals) and boats in preparation for the real flood.

Platform: Android
Price: Free

(Credit: HeroCraft)

Quest in Peace

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If you like skellingtons and point-and-click adventure games, Quest in Peace is going to hit all the right buttons. You play the undead King Simon, resurrected 100 years after you died of grief when an evil usurper poisoned your queen. Now, your mission is to overthrow the evil queen and save Bellyworld. The story brings a fun new twist to the "save the world" cliché, and we absolutely adore the art. It's free to download and try (the full game is a one-time IAP of AU$6.49), which is absolutely worth a go.

Platform: iPhone and iPad
Price: Free

(Credit: Tabasco Interactive)

Star Horizon

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We love a good space shooter. Star Horizon is better than good. John is a fighter pilot with the Federation, battling to put down the Rebels. Your ship is controlled by AI Ellie (which conveniently takes navigation out of your hands; you can dodge around the screen, but you're effectively on rails), and your role is to carry out missions that will cripple the Rebels' resources. It's fun, exciting gameplay and looks great — with an engrossing story to boot. You get to make decisions: will you follow orders and advance your career, or choose your own path?

Platform: iPhone and iPad
Price: AU$4.99

(Credit: Rainbow Train)

oO

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oO is a game that ticks all the right boxes for an addicting little arcade experience. It's very minimal: you control a dot travelling the circumference of rings. Tapping the screen pops you out of your current ring — which is where the challenge comes in. You have to travel a series of connected rings, tapping at just the right time to jump into the next ring. If you miss and crash into the outside of the connecting ring, that racks up a death. Throw some spikes into the mix, both inside and outside the rings, and you have a very addicting time-waster on your hands.

Platform: Android; iPhone and iPad
Price: AU$2.20 (Android); AU$2.49 (iOS)

(Credit: Matthias Titze)

CLARC

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CLARC was originally developed for the Ouya, and has made the leap across to iOS and Android. In it, you control a little worker forklift robot — the eponymous CLARC — picking up and placing boxes on switches to solve mazes and rescue his friends. It's got some solid gameplay going on, but we're absolutely in love with the visuals. The era of cel-shading thankfully didn't last terribly long, but CLARC is a perfect example of how to do it right.

Platform: Android; iPhone and iPad
Price: AU$4.99 (Android); AU$4.49 (iOS) (Lite and HD versions for Android also available)

(Credit: Uppercut Games)

Epoch 2

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Uppercut Games released the sequel to its third-person shooter to iOS last November, and now it's finally made the transition to Android. Epoch 2 picks up where the first game left off, and now Epoch — having reached the princess — must find the means to release her from Cryosleep. New weapons, new enemies and new stages give the gameplay a bit of a freshening, and the art — as per the first game — is superb.

You can read our full take on Epoch 2 here.

Platform: Android; iPhone and iPad
Price: AU$2.50 (Android); AU$6.49 (iOS)