This week I have had slightly more time than usual to peruse all things game-wise on the iPad. I am currently away from work and so have more flexibility in exploring the world of tablet apps. This is, of course, dangerous to both my wallet and time with friends and family. For the sake of my profession, and so that all you nice people get a heads up about some of the better games out there, I’m willing to sacrifice both my money and my friends. So without further ado here are this week’s recommended iPad gaming apps.

GeoSociety

First up we have GeoSociety, which is quite new to the iPad App store. Don’t be fooled by the name, however, as it hasn’t anything to do with a geography themed hiking society. It has everything to do with monster taming, battling, breeding and hunting. Yep, there is more than a whiff of Pokemon here, but this is a fun RPG in the same vein as Dragon Warrior Monsters and Revelation Demon Slayer. If you ever played Pokemon on any Nintendo handheld, you should feel right at home with GeoSociety. The game looks cute (enough for my fellow commuters to cock quizzed eyebrows at me during play), and a recent upgrade has improved its playing interface. All your favorite monster types are included (fire, water and earth), and there are tons of attacks and mutations with which to progress them. The monsters have their own abilities (attack, defense, speed or intelligence) and through experience points can be trained. Additionally, monster breeding is alleged to be on the way (and I can just see more looks of concern from the folks on the train), and currently sports a themed plot with sub-plots and random encounters with over 350 monsters.

I must admit that GeoSociety surprised me. I found it fun and engaging and it made my travel to and from from work that much more bearable. Despite its cutesy look this game isn’t by any means limited to children with high pitched voices and chocolate smeared lips. The overall plot keeps you intrigued and there are plenty of side diversions for you to explore. Customization plays a significant part, as you earn money to buy such things as healing salves, and potions to train other monsters to add to your group. The only slightly annoying aspect is that to save your progress you have to leave the map you are currently exploring to go back to your HQ, and once saved you go back to the start of the mission map (minus the things you’ve found or people you’ve already interacted with). Overall this is a fun and immersive game.

100 Rogues

The next game that I can fully recommend to waste away more hours of your life is 100 Rogues. This is a turn based dungeon explorer, in which your traverse various levels (each stage getting harder than the one before), in an attempt to rid the labyrinth of its arch boss – Satan, himself. Along the way you defeat monsters, and loot items from dead enemies and treasure chests to power up your Rogue. Every few floors there is a boss to defeat, and increasingly powerful monsters. The enemies are one of the selling points of the game – and a lot of humour and originality has gone into their design. Suffice to say that each enemy, requires a unique strategy to beat it effectively. With new enemies appearing every few floors, you’ll constantly be kept on your toes.

The game is quite charming in many senses, from the retro-styled pixel graphics, to the humor written into the gameplay, right through to the items and weapons you can collect and use. There is infinite replayability here as each new dungeon has a random layout with random item and monster allocation. And don’t be fooled by its simple appearance. Lurking below the surface is an app that’s both quite addictive and very challenging. I’ve gotten quite attached to some of my characters – who sadly have all since perished! Although simple to learn, 100 Rogues is the sort of game that takes a long time to master. You will be forced to develop strategies to deal with the different monster types and will have to learn when to use what skills and in which combinations. Expect to die a lot! I’ve had this game for several months now, and I still have yet to find Satan and apprehend him!