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Best mobile games of November 2014

Looking for a new game to play on your mobile device? Here's our pick of the best released in November 2014.

Michelle Starr
Michelle Starr is CNET's science editor, and she hopes to get you as enthralled with the wonders of the universe as she is. When she's not daydreaming about flying through space, she's daydreaming about bats.
Michelle Starr
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1 of 18 Simogo

The Sailor's Dream

Simogo's The Sailor's Dream is more like a folded story than a game, the conclusion of the informal trilogy started with Year Walk and continued with Device 6. It's a gentle exploration of a marine dreamscape, a series of buildings you wander, finding pockets of text to unravel the sailor's story in a non-linear fashion.

Unlike Year Walk and Device 6, it's not laden with puzzles, although there are a few secrets to figure out. The idea behind it is to explore, discover and enjoy.

You can read our full impressions here.

Trailer

Platforms: iOS

Price: $3.99 | AU$4.99 | £2.49

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2 of 18 Five Nights at Freddy's 2

Five Nights at Freddy's 2

Freddy Fazbear's has reopened, the animatronics dismantled and rebuilt, and yet something is still awry.

They're still walking around at night, and once again, you have to work the night shift. This time, though, things are a little different: there are no doors keeping the control room safe. Instead, you're handed a Freddy Fazbear head to wear in order to fool the animatronics, but wearing it greatly reduces visibility and access to your items. It's definitely on the cruel and unusual side of jump-scare horror.

Trailer

Platforms: Android | iOS

Price: $2.99 | AU$3.43 | £1.99 (Android)

$2.99 | AU$3.79 | £1.99 (iOS)

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3 of 18 Loveshack Entertainment

Framed

Words can't possibly do Framed justice: it really is one of the more unusual concepts we have seen in some time. The entire game takes place without words; it's laid out as a silent noir comic, with our protagonists avoiding being spotted by law while double-crossing each other. Gameplay is not action-based, but context-based: you have to examine each page, shifting the panels around to make sure that events occur in the order that sees our hero escape clean, getting the jump on police or sneaking past. Although it may sound good, that's nothing compared to how magnificent it is to experience. And yes, a pair of headphones is an absolute must.

It's also worth noting that Metal Gear Solid's Hideo Kojima named it his top game of 2014.

Trailer

Platforms: iOS

Price: $4.99 | AU$6.49 | £2.99

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4 of 18 Nimblebit

Golfinity

It's going to be pretty difficult for any mobile golfing game to supplant Wonderputt in our hearts, but NimbleBit's Golfinity is running pretty close. The game is low-stress and no-penalty, with a series of minimalist mini-golf levels. You do, of course, have a par for each hole, but you can take as many shots as you need, with the end result being a game that's simple, intuitive, relaxing and enjoyable. Golfinity is also both free and ad-free, and, while we're not entirely sure we're down with devs not getting paid for their work, we're sure players will love it.

Trailer

Platforms: iOS

Price: Free

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5 of 18 Jonathan Schneider

Vigil RPG

Vigil RPG isn't, we confess, the prettiest game we've ever seen -- but that is all part of its charm. It's taken the concept of the RPG and stripped it down to pretty bare elements -- moving around a fantasy world, killing monsters (starting, of course, with the ubiquitous rat), collecting loot and upgrading gear -- and turned it into an 8-bit game. The system is quite beautiful in its simplicity, with touchscreen buttons that allow you one action per turn; the challenge lies in analysing each foe's subtle attack patterns, then choosing the action that allows you to deal the most damage while taking the least. It's quite tough, too, for that retro authenticity.

Platforms: iOS

Price: $2.99 | AU$3.79 | £1.99

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6 of 18 2K Games

XCOM: Enemy Within

XCOM: Enemy Unknown for mobile was a spectacular port of a superb game, so we were initially delighted to see standalone expansion XCOM: Enemy Within hit iTunes and Google Play. Those feelings became a little mixed when we realised that EW was a replacement for EU, which was removed from both app stores -- perhaps to stop new players from purchasing both games, since EW has more or less the same plot and core gameplay of EU.

What EW brings new to the table are new subplots -- which are pretty cool -- and new items, upgrades, abilities, units and enemies.

Although the spine of the EW is the same as EU, its body is different enough that it almost feels like a whole new game.

Trailer

Platforms: Android | iOS

Price: $12.99 | AU$14.91 | £8.99 (Android)

$12.99 | AU$16.99 | £8.99 (iOS)

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7 of 18 Big Bucket Software

Space Age: A Cosmic Adventure

Between The Incident and Blackbar, Neven Mrgan has distinguished himself as a writer to watch -- and his latest collaboration with Matt Comi, a throwback to old-school exploration/puzzle games in the style of LucasArts, is something of a gem. It follows the crew of a space exploration mission in 1976, crash-landed on the seemingly uninhabited planet of Kepler-16 and having to unravel the mystery of just why it seems so strangely familiar. The puzzles and combat can take a little getting used to, but the love that has gone into the art, music and story is a delight.

Trailer

Platforms: iOS

Price: $3.99 | AU$4.99 | £2.49

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8 of 18 Skyfish Studios

A Mechanical Story

An entire game based around gear puzzles: that's A Mechanical Story. There's actually something charmingly zen about it, as you take the role of Mr Mechanic trying to build a robot friend. Each level consists of placing gears and other parts in the correct place in order to make the machine run smoothly. There's not a lot more going on than that, but the puzzles are so cleverly designed -- forcing you to think ahead, step-by-step, to figure out what goes where and what it will do -- to distinguish it from the puzzle pack.

Trailer

Platforms: iOS

Price: $0.99 | AU$1.29 | £0.69

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9 of 18 Ironhide Game Studio

Kingdom Rush Origins

When it comes to tower defense, Kingdom Rush is one of the finest franchises around. Origins offers a prequel, with a new playable race -- the elves -- new towers, new enemies and new legendary heroes to upgrade.

Trailer

Platforms: Android | iOS

Price: $2.99 | AU$3.44 | £1.99 (Android)

$2.99 | AU$3.79 | £1.99 (iOS)

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10 of 18 Super Evil Megacorp

Vainglory

If you ever wanted a touchscreen MOBA, Vainglory is it, no question. Aside from some absolutely stunning, top-notch graphics, it offers some genuinely riveting competitive gameplay, with 20-minute, 3x3 online matches. The controls have been optimised for a touchscreen in order to offer a PC-level MOBA experience on the iPad, and it's free to play. Although it's a first game from a new startup, its team includes Riot and Blizzard veterans, and it's as highly polished and thoughtfully designed as you might expect.

Trailer

Platforms: iOS

Price: Free

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11 of 18 SMG Studio

One More Line

Every now and again, an arcade title comes out that is just beautifully put together. One More Line has a simple premise, but everything about it is a brilliant example of elegant game design. You control a little icon, flying along a track, trailing a three colour-changing lines behind. Along the track are circles -- which will cause you to explode if you crash into them. However, by holding down on the screen, you can latch onto them, swinging around to latch on to the next at high speeds. And when you crash and burn -- which you will -- you're left with the lovely loops of your journey and that magnificent feeling that you'll beat your high score if you just have one more try.

Trailer

Platforms: Android | iOS

Price: Free

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12 of 18 Secret Crush

Sunburn!

Sunburn! is kind of like Lemmings in space. We say "kind of", because while you are, indeed, collecting your peeps to reach an objective on a series of levels, that's more or less where the similarity ends. Your spaceship has been struck by a comet, and it's the end for you and your crew. You can die, drifting in space... or you can take the Sunburn! route, which means gathering up your lost crew members and hurtling into the sun to die together. Each level sees you dealing a number of elements; oxygen, which depletes while you jump; your jetpack; the gravity of planets; obstacles such as meteors; hazards such as gravity wells and comets; and making sure no one gets left behind. It's actually rather sweet, in a morbid sort of way.

Trailer

Platforms: iOS

Price: $2.99 | AU$3.79 | £1.99

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13 of 18 Hipster Whale

Crossy Road

Sometimes things just need a bit of a tweak. Although there are plenty of official Frogger options from Konami available for mobile, they've all just been a little bit disappointing, really. Crossy Road takes the basic premise of Frogger and adds "endless" into the mix. Alongside some rather adorable voxel art and a whole bunch of unlockable, road- (and river-, and railway track-) crossing animals. And, if you don't move fast enough, you get eaten up by a giant bird of prey. It's mixed things up enough to give the gameplay a fresh, competitive new feel -- and something to keep coming back for.

Trailer

Platforms: iOS

Price: Free

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14 of 18 Oddworld Inhabitants

Oddworld: Stranger's Wrath

It's a little peculiar that Stranger's Wrath hit the iPad before Abe's Oddysee, but hey; Oddworld is Oddworld, and it's pretty impressive to see a 2005 Xbox title arriving on the mobile platform, no matter how you slice it. Stranger's Wrath is like Red Dead Redemption, before RDR was a thing: a sort-of open-world western, bounty-hunting game where you play a grim cowboy doing what's right. The port isn't perfect and the controls are a little fiddly, but it's definitely playable, and it looks fantastic.

Trailer

Platforms: iOS

Price: $5.99 | AU$7.49 | £3.99

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15 of 18 CD Projekt RED

The Witcher Adventure Game

To coincide with the launch of the physical board game based on the novels by Andrzej Sapkowski, The Witcher developer CD Projekt RED also launched digital editions on PC, iOS and Android. Players can take on the role of one of four characters from the game: Geralt, Triss Merigold, Dandelion and Yarpen Zigrin, each with their own abilities to develop and their own dice mechanics for a different game every time you play, whether against friends or AI. Each character has their own story arc and objectives, fighting monsters and solving problems -- but at the end of the game, there can only be one winner.

Trailer

Platforms: Android | iOS

Price: $5.99 | AU$7.49 | £3.99

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16 of 18 Cubus Games

Necklace of Skulls

Barcelona-based digital gamebook developer Cubus looks to be a pretty ripe contender in the space. Necklace of Skulls is an adaptation of the 1993 interactive novel by bestselling author Dave Morris -- with new features, including absolutely stunning animated art by Xavier Mula -- especially for the digital edition. You become Evening Star in a Mayan adventure -- a warrior, huntress, wayfarer or sorceress -- who swears to take revenge on the demon-wizard Necklace of Skulls, killer of your brother. Also, wear some headphones -- the sound design is great.

Trailer

Platforms: Android | iOS

Price: $2.99 | $2.99 (Android)

$2.99 | AU$3.79 | £1.99 (iOS)

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17 of 18 Concreterose

Satis-Factory

Satis-Factory is a little bit like Plague Inc -- if that kind of strategic gameplay floats your boat -- a little bit like Pandemic and a little bit like Risk. Aliens have invaded the Earth to manufacture a toxic compound they call Satis -- and you're tasked with eliminating both the Satis and the aliens. Each turn, the player gets to roll the dice, allowing them to gather resources, then use them to combat the aliens and the spread of Satis. The best part, though, is that it can be played cooperatively with up to four players -- and it's compatible with the Google Chromecast.

Platforms: Android

Price: Free

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18 of 18 Stoic

Out last month for Android

Waiting for a particular game that got an iOS release a while ago? Here are our picks.

Banner Saga($4.99 | AU$5.99) (iOS)

Two Dots(Free) (iOS)

Tilt 2 Live Gauntlet's Revenge ($2.99 | AU$3.49 | £1.99) (iOS)

Civilization Revolution 2 ($14.99 | AU$17.06 | £11.27) (iOS)

Valiant Hearts: The Great War(AU$21.94) (Also available just as Episode One) (iOS)

Godus (Free) (iOS)

Etherlords (Free) (iOS)

Secret of Mana ($9.00 | AU$9.50 | £6.00) (iOS)

Run Sackboy! Run! (Free) (iOS)

Beyond Gravity (Free) (iOS)

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