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Zoi: Survival is an addictive precision game with visuals that will take you back to your Gameboy: advanced days; This playful app combines stress and anxiety with a sense of achievement and progression. Much like other games of its kind, it can make you want to throw your phone at a brick wall and check to see if it's still working afterwards so that you can beat your last score.

 This game revolves around an avatar, named Zoi, who's mission is to get to the top of the world. There are moving platforms, that are randomly generated, that will slide in from the sides of the screen in order to make this process harder; you must jump on each platform before it smacks you off the screen. The sensitivity around this will remind you of Flappy Bird with how easy it is to miscalculate your move and completely mess up your flow. The game is extremely simple and easy to get into but hard to master (much like other successful games on the market) so it has the potential to become a front-runner in an industry of stress-inducing fun.

 What makes this game interesting, is the nostalgic feel you get from the visuals and background; there is a pixilated theme that will remind you of earlier 21st century material and it does this very well. However, whether or not these visuals add to the success of the game or not is unknown and I would much rather see some crisp vector art. The game does lack features such as multiplayer, power boost (or bonuses), and has pretty bare achievements that don't give the user and sense of accomplishment. I wish I was able to get more out of the game, but being that it is straight forward and simple, it does its job well.

I wish I had read this a few days ago. Spent a good 20 minutes going through and deleting useless photos.

It seems frustration is an endless source of entertainment and the winning formula for a successful mobile game. From the same teamthat brought us 2048, Stick Hero jumps on the masochistic bandwagon that is simple games of frustration.

Take control of a shadowy ninja-esque character and help the enigmatic entity build bridges across treacherous gaps. Sounds easy enough, right? Well, as it turns out, it is much more difficult to gauge the proper measurements to cross a gap, as an optical illusion is created when comparing vertical to horizontal distances. This causes players to over and underestimate the length of the bridge, and this game is unforgiving towards miscalculation. To make matters worse, the platforms are randomly generated sizes and distances apart; this makes finding a solid rhythm nearly impossible.

Two Dots, developed by Betaworks One, is an addictively fun and galvanizing connection-game, which boasts a colorful art style and playful story progression. This game is a puzzle game that, at first glance, resembles Connect Four. However, this game provides a wide range of gameplay from connecting just two dots for points, or squares for higher success. 

The game follows a linear path in progression but offers "boss battles" to add depth and story to the game. Essentially, you must connect dots of a specific color a certain amount of times in order to progress to the next round (i.e. connect 15 yellow dots, 15 green dots, and 15 blue dots to win). This provides a particular type of challenge to the game because you have to strategically connect dots in order to make sure you fill your color quotas before you are out of moves (you are initially allotted 15-20 "moves" per round). If you do not complete all the colors with the amount of moves provided, then you have to start that round from the beginning. This type of puzzle game can be infuriating to some and an adrenaline rush for others.

What makes this game really stand out is the art style that accompanies the gameplay. Two Dots has an impressive vector art-based style of vibrant colors and geometrical shapes that successfully tell a story and add character to the app overall. Although these themes don't have a direct affect on the gameplay, they add an atmosphere to the app that instantly puts a smile on your face.

At first glance, this may appear to be your typical Flappy Bird clone that somehow survived the death of the viral phenomenon. However, Ironpants manages to revive the addictive frustration of the instant classic with its own twist on the genre. Not only does Ironpants boast a set of querky, unlockable characters from Chickenpants to Discopants, it includes four different gameplay modes: Classic, Tap, Voice, and Survival.

  The default for gameplay is setting off as Ironpants in the “touch and hold” Classic mode, which is arguably more difficult than the “tap to jump” method found in Flappy Bird, making a high score that much more satisfying if you can fight the urge to throw your phone. The starting character, Ironpants, is very touchy to control, making navigation through each barrier a stressful escapade. Ironpants is very sensitive to rising and falling, so players must be wary with their touches. However, if the player can survive for 16 barriers, the much slower and arguably less stressful Chickenpants may be unlocked.

  Equipped with the addition of unlockable characters that *gasp* don’t require or even give players the option of spending their own money to get, Ironpants gives the player an achievable goal, outside the bragging rights of the high score. Each character has different speed and movement ratings, making gameplay with each new character a new experience. Couple that with addictive frustration, and this game has a very high replay value.

  Perhaps the funniest addition to this game is the Voice mode. Using the built-in microphone, players use their voice to navigate characters through the barriers in a similar manner to that of the Tap mode. The characters are very sensitive to sound, so any noise could completely throw a player off course.