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Best of 2017: 8 cracking games from the past year

We never stop bringing you recommendations for the best games for iPhone and iPad. But the App Store’s so huge that we can’t hope to cover everything. So here’s our selection of amazing new and updated games from 2017 we think deserve more attention – and a place on your home screen.

We’ve focused on games that we’ve not written about before, and we’ve also avoided the more obvious choices that Apple feature heavily in their own best of 2017 lists.

Instead, here are some genuinely great games that are likely to have passed you by this year.

8 amazing games from 2017 to fun up your device

From retro platforming action to a futuristic touchscreen sandbox, there’s an amazing game here for everyone.

Campfire Cooking

A gorgeous puzzler with a twist. You toast marshmallows on rotating sticks, and cook fondue in metal pots that you drag about a tiled board.

Get Campfire Cooking ($3.99/£3.99)

Drop Wizard Tower

Retro-style single-screen platforming action, optimised for mobile. Auto-run left and right, blast magic when you land, boot stunned enemies, and scoop up all the bling.

Get Drop Wizard Tower (free)

Flower

In this etherial exploratory adventure, you’re a petal on the wind, interacting with the environment to bring color and harmony back to the world.

Get Flower ($4.99/£4.99)

Freeways

Engineering freeways has never been so much fun. Drag out roadways to connect routes, build bridges, set everything in motion, and hope you avoid a jam.

Get Freeways ($2.99/£2.99)

FROST

From the minds behind Euclidean Lands and Blek comes this stunning, tactile abstract sandbox puzzler, where you guide tiny flocking spirits to their home planets.

Get FROST ($4.99/£4.99)

Grid Autosport

Console-quality racing on your iPhone. Hundreds of cars and tracks, superb controls, tons of depth, and alternate customisable set-ups that should appeal to everyone from relative beginners to simulation nuts.

Get Grid Autosport ($9.99/£9.99)

PUSH

One for the button pushers. This puzzler starts out having you prod buttons to make a contraption disappear. But things soon become markedly more complicated.

Get PUSH ($0.99/99p)

Starman

In this immersive, laid-back puzzler, you guide the eponymous Starman through scenes of fantastical architecture, solving challenges to bring light back to his monochrome world.

Get Starman ($3.99/£3.99)