Taco Rain: Catch the Tacos app icon

Taco Rain

Casual

Sixty seconds, a basket, and a sky full of tacos. Fifty levels across five worlds, an endless mode, fourteen badges, and power-ups you catch instead of buy.

  • Fifty levels in five worlds (Taco Town, Deep Fryer, Dry Season, The Minefield and The Feast), each with its own sky and target score
  • An Endless mode with no clock and no target score
  • Today’s Challenge: the same level and the same falling tacos for everyone, with no streak to keep up
  • Five power-ups you catch rather than buy: magnet, slow-mo, wide plate, speed boost and shield
  • A multiplier that steps up every five catches in a row, to 5x
▶ Play in your browser Download on the App Store ▶ Get it on Google Play Learn more about Taco Rain

Free · iPhone, iPad, Mac & Android · Requires iOS 15.0 or later, or Android 7.0 or later · Rated 4+ on the App Store, Everyone on Google Play

Peel Frenzy app icon

Peel Frenzy

Casual

Put your thumb on the tab and pull. Stray off the line, or pull harder than the peel will come away, and the tension climbs toward a tear.

  • A hundred fruits, each with its own shape, color and line to follow
  • A tension meter that reads straying and yanking as the same mistake
  • Nine groves of ten, each asking for something the one before it did not
  • Tough rind, two and three strips at once, tangled lines, a turning fruit, a reversing turn, and stretches that must be pulled fast
  • 300 stars, so a cleared fruit still has something left in it
▶ Play in your browser ▶ Get it on Google Play Learn more about Peel Frenzy

Free · Android · Rated Everyone on Google Play

Asteroid Duel app icon

Asteroid Duel

Action

Two ships, one screen, and no fire button. Hand a friend the other end of the phone, or fly fifty levels and ten bosses on your own.

  • Two players on one phone, each steering from their own half of the screen
  • Two devices on the same Wi-Fi, paired with a number and no sign-in
  • A head-to-head record, first-to-three matches, and an agreed head start
  • No fire button — the ship shoots on its own and steering is the game
  • Fifty campaign levels with a boss on every fifth, across five pilots
▶ Play in your browser Download on the App Store ▶ Get it on Google Play Learn more about Asteroid Duel

Free · iPhone, iPad & Android · Requires iOS 15.0 or later · Rated 9+ on the App Store, Everyone (Mild Fantasy Violence) on Google Play

Pie Cannon: Carnival Shootout app icon

Pie Cannon

Casual

Ducks ride two belts across the midway and posts stand in the way of half of them. Splat a duck and it scores; splat somebody’s prize teddy and it costs you a ticket.

  • Fifty stalls in five districts, from morning over the lagoon to a near-black sky
  • Three goals on every stall and 150 stars down the midway
  • Districts that open on your star total, so no stall can block the rest
  • Twenty-six named twists — One Rail, Clay Day, Starlight, Prize Alley, Quick Draw, Slow Belt — printed before you commit
  • A grand prize at the end of every district, taking three to five hits to break
▶ Play in your browser ▶ Get it on Google Play Learn more about Pie Cannon

Free · Android · Rated Everyone (Mild Fantasy Violence) on Google Play

Ship It: Build an App Studio app icon

Ship It

Simulation

Walk round the office, sit down and write code, get up for coffee before your focus goes. Nine apps, about thirteen minutes, and the room gets dark around you.

  • Nine apps to build, each costing roughly two and a half times the one before it
  • Six upgrades, and every one of them visibly changes the office
  • A room that goes from morning to midnight across a run, with the desk lamps taking over as it does
  • An ending: seven minutes if you tap flat out, about twelve at a normal pace, and a finish card rather than an endless climb
  • No account, no sign-in, no purchases and no ads
▶ Play in your browser Learn more about Ship It

Free · Any browser · Not rated — it is in neither store

Bramble Knight app icon

Bramble Knight

Platformer

Early version · Coming soon to the App Store and Google PlayRun through a forest, jump the gaps, and bop friendly slimes with a sword or bow. Fifty levels, built for about a six-year-old.

  • Fifty levels in five worlds, with a boss on every fifth
  • A sword and a bow, and a button to switch between them
  • Coins spent on your knight in an armoury, never on cash
  • Four stat upgrades, and swords, bows and armour to buy with coins
  • A knight you dress up, and a grove that grows as you play
▶ Play in your browser Learn more about Bramble Knight

Free · Any browser · Not rated yet

Broadside app icon

Broadside

Arcade

Coming soon to the App Store and Google PlaySteer an old wooden ship up the sea and the cannons fire on their own. Twenty-five voyages, each ending with a sea monster.

  • Twenty-five voyages across five seas, each ending with a sea monster
  • Steer and nothing else: the cannons fire on their own
  • Two broadsides a voyage, and a setting that fires one to save your last heart
  • Three stars a voyage, for winning, rescuing and sinking
  • Four upgrades and a paint locker, bought with doubloons, never with money
▶ Play in your browser Learn more about Broadside

Free · Any browser · Not rated yet

Acorn Trail app icon

Acorn Trail

Puzzle

Coming soon to the App Store and Google PlayAn otter and a goat, one burrow, and sixty boards between them. Each can go where the other cannot, so neither gets home alone.

  • Sixty hand-built levels across six meadows, every one checked solvable by a solver
  • Two animals with different abilities, so the puzzle is always about both
  • Play alone, or two on one screen with an animal each
  • Seven kinds of critter, each with its own fixed rule
  • Free, unlimited undo, and red marks where a critter is about to step
▶ Play in your browser Learn more about Acorn Trail

Free · Any browser · Not rated yet

Wobble Wheelie app icon

Wobble Wheelie

Arcade New

Coming soon to the App Store and Google PlayOne button, a motorcycle and a desert road at dusk. The higher the nose, the more every second pays, right up until it goes over.

  • Eighty levels across eight worlds, each with a target score and three stars
  • One control: hold to open the throttle, let go to bring the nose down
  • Endless, Time Attack and a daily challenge beside the level ladder
  • Backflips and front flips off ramps, with a gold ring that shows when to let go
  • Five power-ups, from a magnet to one that saves your next crash
▶ Play in your browser Learn more about Wobble Wheelie

Free · Any browser · Not rated yet

Tilt Duo app icon

Tilt Duo

Arcade New

Coming soon to the App Store and Google PlayThe table tips toward whoever's waiting, so neither end is ever safe. Drop the ball at either one and you've both lost it.

  • Two-player co-op pinball: flippers at both ends, one ball, one score
  • A table that tips away from the middle, so neither end is safe
  • A separate one-player table with orbit lanes and a shooter lane
  • Twelve tables, each with its own target, and Endless once one is cleared
  • Multiball, passes, jackpots, a spinner and shared capsules
▶ Play in your browser Learn more about Tilt Duo

Free · Any browser · Not rated yet

Hoverline app icon

Hoverline

Racing New

Coming soon to the App Store and Google PlaySeventeen circuits, a target time on every one, and a ghost of your best lap to beat next time. Pick your line and keep the speed.

  • Seventeen 3D circuits, each with a target time and three medals
  • An always-open throttle, so the whole game is the line you steer
  • A ghost of your best lap, with a live split against it
  • A rivals mode with four computer craft and, later, a bolt to fire
  • Upgrades, two thruster families and four hulls, bought with coins
▶ Play in your browser Learn more about Hoverline

Free · Any browser · Not rated yet

Mix a Beast app icon

Mix a Beast

Casual New

Coming soon to the App Store and Google PlayA flip-book with 13,824 animals in it. Whatever you build, you race, and its legs, body and head decide how it runs.

  • Twenty-four creatures, 72 parts and 13,824 beasts to find
  • A generated name for every beast, colored a part at a time
  • Eighteen obstacle courses, each with three medals and five eggs
  • The Long Run, a fresh course every time with no finish line
  • Parts that change how a beast runs, jumps, smashes and glides
▶ Play in your browser Learn more about Mix a Beast

Free · Any browser · Not rated yet

Sizzle Swap app icon

Sizzle Swap

Casual New

Coming soon to the App Store and Google PlayTwo cooks, one kitchen, and a pass that holds three. Run ahead of your partner and you stall just as badly as if you'd fallen behind.

  • A two-station kitchen where neither cook can serve an order alone
  • Forty two-minute shifts across five kitchens, three stars each
  • Ten dishes from eight ingredients, each a different shape as well as a different color
  • Play alone, or share one screen with a station each
  • A pass that holds three, so pace matters as much as speed
▶ Play in your browser Learn more about Sizzle Swap

Free · Any browser · Not rated yet

Two things worth knowing

Nothing here pays you. No balance, no redeem screen, no cash-out, and nothing for sale in any of them. The apps that do pay are on their own page, at a published rate, and a game that makes no such promise would be misread sitting next to them.

Asteroid Duel does have coins, and they are not those coins. You earn them by playing and spend them in a hangar on hull plating, cooling and engines. They cannot be bought, they convert to nothing, and they are worth nothing outside the game. Bramble Knight’s coins work the same way: coins you spend on your knight in an armoury, not coins you redeem. Pie Cannon has stars, which go the other way again: they are won three to a stall, they open districts and pies, and they are never spent on anything. Taco Rain and Peel Frenzy have no currency at all.

Coloring pages

There are free printable coloring pages made from the art in Taco Rain, Asteroid Duel, Peel Frenzy and Pie Cannon. Two sheets a game, as PDFs.

Writing about other people’s games

We also research the games we did not make, and ask what a free one costs once you are past the free part: games like Flappy Bird, games like Fruit Ninja and games like Crossy Road. That research found the in-game price list both app stores are usually said never to publish.