40 Best iOS Games Of All Time

6. VVVVVV

Release date: June 12, 2014

Developer: Terry Cavanagh

Publisher: Terry Cavanagh

Talk about clever. The unpronounceable name of this game (technically, that’s not really true, as you just say the letter ‘V’ six times) isn’t just a hint that all the main characters in it have a V in their names, which they do, but also a visual depiction of the spikes that will cause your death many times over in the course of play.

Yes, VVVVVV is a challenging platformer, but it’s also an unusually creative one. Your space captain can’t jump but can increase or decrease gravity as he searches for the lost members of his crew. Along the way, he’ll have to figure out how to get past both enemies and environmental hazards while not staying too close to the Sad Elephant lest he also succumb to sadness. I’m not making that last part up.

This is Terry Cavanagh’s second entry on this list, so obviously he knows a thing or two about games that play great on mobile devices. He also clearly has a great love for games of the past, with the graphics and music (provided by Magnus Palsson) throwing things all the way back to the days of the Commodore 64.

If you’re too young to remember those bygone days, believe me when I say that no games for that early computer can hold a candle to this one. That’s not really a fair comparison, but if you want an imaginative, difficult retro game, this should be among your top candidates to scratch that itch.

Next: XCOM: Enemy Within