The Other Brothers (iOS; $0.99)

The Other Brothers is a tongue-in-cheek homage to many of the platformers of yesteryear. The eponymous brothers (one short squat, the other tall lanky) are auto mechanics who must rescue the requisite distressed damsel from the mob, fighting through hordes of mafia goons, belligerent animals, ninjas, the occasional robotic menace…

I haven’t sunk my teeth too deeply yet as it was only released today, but I must admit I’m smitten. The soundtrack is fun lively, the six massive levels are full of dangers to avoid secret paths to explore.  The controls felt a bit odd, at first; there’s a directional pad, but you really only need to swipe the direction you’d like to send your mechanic. Attack enemies by jumping on them with the A button (double tap it to double jump), throw wrenches you find in toolboxes with the B button. Stard stuff, really.

Ditto for the rest of the game’s mechanics: collectable pigeons scattered around the levels serve as your health, using a similar mechanic to Sonic the Hedgehog’s golden rings—take damage they’ll flutter away leave you defenseless, but you can attempt to grab them before they escape.  Collect cans of oil (mechanics can never have enough oil) for points, search the non-linear levels for three golden pigeons to boost your high score.

The game is currently only available on iOS, but developer 3D Attack has plans to bring it to the upcoming Ouya console, Mac . If you own an iOS device, it’s definitely worth a buck—check it out.

Bad Hotel (iOS; $0.99)

I’m a little late to the party here, but I saw cky Frame’s Bad Hotel at last week’s Game Developer’s Conference its quite good. It’s ostensibly a tower defense game: you’ve got to build a large, profitable hotel while keeping ne’er-do-wells at bay. You’ll start with a single defenseless tower—the goal is to keep it safe from waves of enemies by placing offensive defensive hotel rooms around it. You’ll get points for keeping your rooms intact, netting a lot of profit, building impressively tall structures in the face of all those bad guys.

But hey, it’s also a rhythm game! Or a music creation game, rather: the rooms you place double as sound generators, with tones flowing from the base of your structures varying depending on room-type placement. The game-within-a-game can get a bit distracting, but in the best way: I’ve lost count of the number of levels I’ve botched because I was trying to maintain a pleasing melody while waves of belligerent storm clouds bomb-toting attack birds raged around me.  Room selection is limited at the start; a tutorial eases you in to the game by limiting the variety of hotel rooms you’ll have at your disposal, but you’ll unlock new, stronger ( more expensive) rooms as you complete levels throughout the game’s five worlds.

And what fabulous worlds they are: the game’s art deco style is charming colorful, belying an occasionally merciless difficulty curve that encourages quick thinking a bit of strategery, particularly for the occasional boss fight.  ay this one with headphones to get the most of the on-the-fly music generation, you won’t be disappointed.

Magicka: zards of the Square Tablet (iOS, Android; $1.99)

Remember Magicka? Released back in 2011 for ndows, teams of up to four wizards first took on a sorcerer’s evil minions through a hilarious campaign bolstered by an intuitive chaotic combat system. zards of the Square Tablet is a brilliant return to form, in spite of the sacrifices made to fit a finger-friendly format.

Magicka’s gameplay has been simplified, but mostly intact: you play as a wizard, taking on the forces of evil with up to three friends or strangers online—the game offers cross-platform play across Android iOS devices. There is no “mana” to charge your spells, not much in the way of equipment to juggle. Tap on up to four of the game’s seven elements to create spells with distinct effects. Here are some examples: select the fire shield elements tap yourself to defend against fire attacks, or tap the ground to create a wall a flame to thwart enemies. You can heal yourself by tapping the fe element a few times then tapping your character, or shoot a beam of healing life energy by tapping anywhere on the screen—useful for healing friends, or attacking the undead.

The rabbit hole gets deeper: use the water element to soak enemies, then follow up with a blast of ice to freeze them into place. Or follow up with a lightning bolt, only to realize there was a bit of splash back when you cast water so now you’ve gone electrocuted yourself, or your friends. Enemies flock onto the side-scrolling stages in waves but are nonetheless relentless, you’ll quickly find yourself overwhelmed as you juggle protecting yourself from enemy spells, constructing casting spells to exploit weakness, generally trying to keep yourself your allies alive.

In short, it’s all rather fun. Give it a shot, get some friends (or enemies) to tag along.