The 5 Best iPhone Games You Should Play This Week

Had enough Candy Crush and looking for something new to play on your iPhone? We rounded up some favorites worth a download this week. Have fun!

Game of Thrones

Although perhaps not the gore- and sex-filled video game one might expect of a Game of Thrones iPhone app, this game series is fascinating nonetheless. Take the helm of a posh Westeros family in the throes of war and decide the fate of your clan. Interact with characters from the show as you try to sort our family business. No, it isn’t season 5, but it might just be involved enough to tide you over until next spring.

Game of Thrones is available for $4.99 in the App Store.

Bean Dreams

A game with a title this banal shouldn’t be so much fun to play. Bean Dreams combines the simple ambitions of video games of yesteryear like Super Mario with the graphic component of an iOS game. Bounce your sombrero-wearing bean through almost 50 levels—an excellent way to keep you busy on a long plane ride. As you pounce on enemies to destroy them, it’s easy to realize this game would have quickly become a darling of the Game Boy era.

Bean Dreams is available for $2.99 in the App Store.

Noda

Few games can be as as infuriating and as absorbing as Noda. The rules take about a full hour to understand, but it is perhaps one of the finest puzzle games released for iOS. The goal is to swipe numbered dots to form matching numbers. Your attempt to clear a stage in the fewest moves possible will be completely undercut by the game’s challenging rules, one of which is that two dots cannot be combined if their sum is greater than nine. But for all the hours this timesuck has stolen, it’s sleek enough to make you forget how long you’ve spent playing it. Worth a download for every puzzle aficionado.

Noda is available free in the App Store.

Clarence’s Amazing Day Out

Fans of Cartoon Network’s game packages will enjoy Clarence’s adventure through a series of minigames. Follow Clarence, of the new, eponymous CN game, as he goes about his day, running into all sorts of nonsense adventures, like piñata smashing or watermelon bowling. In the end, it feels a lot more like a cartoon than an iPhone game, and in an excellent way it pulls you out of the 9-5 world and into one of uninhibited childhood inanity.

Clarence’s Amazing Day Out is available free in the App Store.

Ancient Legacy

Back in a time when RPG games were more about strategy than fire-bearing swords and armor dyes, games like Ancient Legacy taught us to prioritize strategy and economy over slashing maneuvers. Ancient Legacy really is a game from a simpler time, or one in which sophisticated games didn’t exist. Develop different players, each with their own abilities. Explore weapon classes, win battles by rolling dice, and beat bosses with good old fashioned nerdy number crunching — and praying the dice will roll in your favor.

Ancient Legacy is available for $1.99 in the App Store.