Games Now! The best iPhone and iPad games for Friday, October 30th

I don’t know about you, but I’m still mostly playing Downwell. Here are the best games, apart from Downwell, for your iPhone and iPad this week (along with a classic you may have missed).

Games Now! brings you recommendations for the best premium and freemium iOS games every Friday. If you want to get a push notification to your iPhone or iPad every time it goes live, download our app and opt-in to the Games Now! section.

The best PAID iOS games this week

Lumino City: $4.99 (iPad, iPhone)

Lumino City launched to critical acclaim on PC just over a year ago. State of Play has taken the year to optimize and tweak it so it plays wonderfully on your iThing. Lumino City is a puzzle adventure game. The game is made entirely out of paper, card, miniature lights and motors. It really is a sight to behold.

Please, Don’t Touch Anything: $4.99 (iPad, iPhone)

Please, Don’t Touch Anything starts in a room where the only interactive element is a big red button. You’re covering for a friend who is taking a bathroom break. He asks you not to touch the button. What initially seems like a limited experience reveals itself to be packed with fiendish puzzles and unpredictable outcomes. Great fun. Touch it!

Evel Knievel: $1.99 (iPad, iPhone)

This is what you hope it is. Relive Evel Knievel’s spectacular career, starting with a 250cc Scrambler all the way up to leaping over multiple buses in Las Vegas. Along the way you’ll wheelie, flip, loop the loop, and fall over a lot. Evel Knievel controls well, there’s plenty of content, and it all hangs together excellently in a fun campaign.

The best FREE iOS games this week

Sometimes You Die (iPad, iPhone)

Sometimes You Die isn’t a new game but it’s just gone free this week. It appears to be a standard screen-by-screen platformer. You’re tasked with getting a cube from screen to screen by jumping and evading hazards. There’s a twist, however. Every time you die your dead cube is left behind. This new object is the solution to many of the puzzles. Keeping playing, though: some far bigger, and very clever, revelations await.

Beneath the Lighthouse: (iPad, iPhone)

Nitrome makes really good mobile games. Beneath the Lighthouse is the latest. It's set inside a mysterious lighthouse comprised of puzzle-based levels. Each level has three rooms that you spin to guide the protagonist to the exit. The puzzles, art, and audio, are all excellent. There’s a single IAP available if you’d like to skip the heart-based free-to-play system.

Dead Effect 2 (iPad, iPhone)

Dead Effect 2 is a sci-fi horror first-person shooter/slasher. The first thing that hits you is that it looks absolutely superb. The game plays out like an extra-gory cross between Dead Space and Doom 3. There’s plenty of content available for you to shoot and hack your way through for free. Why not? It is Halloween after all.

This week’s golden oldie (that’s still fantastic)

Magnetic Billiards: Blueprint: Free (iPad, iPhone)

I still play this at least once a week. Magnetic Billiards is a truly unique mix of billiards and strategic puzzling. The game controls very much like a pool game. In Magnetic Billiards the aim isn’t to hit the pockets: balls of the same colour stick together magnetically, and are removed by creating clusters of connected balls. Clearing the table is relatively easy but clearing it with style and creating special bonus ball clusters along the way is how heroes are made. In addition to the marvellous gameplay, the whole package is a delight and has a real whimsical joy to it. Essential.