Above: Five Nights at Freddy’s 2
Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 ($3)
Want some survival-horror on your tablet? Scott Cawthon’s Five Night’s at Freddy’s series fills the bill. Even in the original game, you were trapped in a small room, closing doors and triggering traps to keep the animatronic creatures of a Chuck E. Cheese’s-style restaurant from abruptly ending your job as a night security guard.
The limited action plays out well on tablet in the original and in this sequel, which eliminates the doors (because who needed that protection, anyway?) in favor of a bear mask that should fool the animatronic mascots into thinking you’re one of them. …
Above: Leo’s Fortune is one of the finer platformers on mobile.
Leo’s Fortune ($1)
Leo’s Fortune puts you in the role of a mustachioed pom-pom with a heavy accent. You guide him through this platformer in search of gold coins through some of the most beautiful graphic environments ever seen in a mobile game.
This is truly console-level gameplay on the small screen; Leo’s story of grumpiness and family betrayal is a hoot, and the hazards of the game are well-designed. 1337 & Senri have set the bar high for other mobile platform developers.
Above: Limbo is creepy, moody, mysterious fun.
Limbo ($5)
Playdead’s black-and-white, 2D side-scroller will suck you in and leave the rest of your life in limbo. It’s definitely worth the $5 price. You play a boy in search of his sister, and the creepy, moodily lit environments you travel through feel seemless because of the well-executed touch controls.
This game has been out for a while, but it’s still worth checking out; it’s a surreal story with a spooky soundtrack.
Above: King of Opera
King of Opera ($3)
A simple party game, King of Opera exhorts you (and your character) to steal the spotlight, overshadowing the other singers (who the other players control).
King of Opera is especially well suited to the iPad, because its multiplayer controls require each player to take command of one corner of the device — much easier to do on the iPad’s larger screen real estate. Tuokio Inc.’s operatic battler best entertains a group, so get playing now before people go home after the holidays.
Above: The Room Two
The Room Two ($1)
This room escape/puzzler features gorgeous graphics, and Fireproof Games did a good job of making the controls silky-smooth and intuitive for iPad.
Each chapter takes about a half hour, and you can choose whether to delve into the game’s adventure plot or just focus entirely on the puzzles themselves.