The power of Apple’s iPad tablet means that it boasts a roster of incredible premium games — including titles that were originally conceived for and released on PCs and video game consoles. Here are the top 10 essential premium games to snag for your iPad.
XCOM: Enemy Unknown ($19.99)
Turn-based strategy title XCOM: Enemy Unknown was one of the best titles of 2012 on PC and consoles, and its iPad port is similarly great. Players work to repel an alien invasion of Earth by commanding squads of fighters in battle, researching alien technology and building the XCOM base to be more versatile through the course of the game. XCOM is difficult, though, so make sure you bring your strategic A game.
Infinity Blade III ($6.99)
The Infinity Blade franchise has long been a flagship of Apple’s mobile devices, but as cool as those games are on iPhones, they’re better played on iPads. The extra screen real estate gives players better control over the one-on-one, swipe-controlled sword duels for which the series is known, and make it easier to execute deft dodges and blistering counter-attacks. Infinity Blade III packs the great graphics the series is known for, along with tons of missions to complete and a new character for players to use.
Bastion ($4.99)
A top-down action title, Bastion marries beautiful graphics and music with a slow, sad story and great presentation. It’s also a challenging game of blasting enemies and dodging attacks as players work through the strange, destroyed world of Celandia. Bastion packs a fairly lengthy story as well as a number of additional challenge modes to keep you working on your fighting skills.
Limbo ($4.99)
Searching a strange, black-and-white world for his lost sister, Limbo is a puzzle-platformer in which you’re bound to die horribly at least a few times. Giant spiders, angry natives, vicious traps and mind-controlling slugs make up a deadly world filled with fun, tough challenges. Uniting it al is the game’s silhouette-based art style that adds plenty of dark, deadly atmosphere to the game’s levels.
Year Walk ($4.99)
Year Walk is based on Swedish folklore and uses those legendary underpinnings to create a mystical, frightening point-and-click adventure experience. Players venture through a snowy, abstract nighttime world, encountering spirits along the way. You’ll need to solve a number of puzzles and find your way through the frightening world in order to uncover Year Walk’s strange, atmospheric story
The Room ($0.99)
You’re trapped in a strange, mystical place in The Room, and the only way forward is to investigate the weird objects found within. You’ll have to manipulate 3-D boxes and artifacts to find the way forward, discovering hidden comparents and secret properties as you love forward. The Room is filled with challenging, smart puzzles, and its mystical story adds another layer of mystery.
Oceanhorn ($8.99)
An action-adventure game in the vein of games like The Legend of Zelda, Oceanhorn has players fighting off monsters, learning magic spells, and working to uncover the mystery of the main character’s missing father. With a lengthy story and beautiful 3-D graphics, Oceanhorn presents a beautiful gaming experiences, bringing a console-quality experience to your iPad.
World of Goo HD ($4.99)
Your goal in World of Goo is to create structures out of, well, goo. Each of the puzzler’s levels gives who weird goo balls that create structures when they’re placed near each other, and you have to work toward a goal while using as few goo balls as possible. Lots of devious levels await players, and the game’s sense of humor and art style add a lot to the fun.
Angry Birds Space HD ($2.99)
The follow-up to developer Rovio Mobile’s insanely popular Angry Birds adjusts the formula of flinging birds to destroy buildings in some very smart ways. The space theme of Angry Birds Space provides players with new challenges as they need to use planetary gravity wells and the vacuum of space to tap different strategies in each of the arcade title’s many levels.
Call of Duty: Strike Team ($6.99)
Bringing the polished first-person shooter experience of Call of Duty to mobile devices is one thing, but Call of Duty: Strike Team does one better by adding new layers to the super-popular franchise. Strike Team lets you quickly shift between fighting enemies on the ground with a gun of your own, to commanding the action from above in a strategy game format.
