Best mobile games of July 2014

Editor's Note: We'd like to acknowledge the relative dearth of Android content in the round-up this month. We didn't find many games that particularly leapt out as extraordinary, although it's entirely possible we missed some. If you did find a great Android game from July, please feel free to let us know about it in the comments -- and, as always, you can skip to the final slide for a list of games that were ported to Android from iOS recently.

Mountain by David O'Reilly -- the artist who created the hologram animations for the video game in Spike Jonze's "Her" -- won't be for everyone, for the simple reason that there's not really a lot to do in it. There's no shooting, exploring, puzzle-solving; the world is distilled to you and your creation, a mountain floating alone in space, in a bubble of atmosphere. You can watch artefacts grow on its surface, listen to its thoughts, observe weather. Tapping the bottom of the screen produces a two-octave keyboard where you can compose little tunes. Critics have penned long articles about the meaning of the game, but for us the beauty is in its simplicity: it's just you and the mountain, pondering the meaning of existence. It's almost a blank slate: you only get out of it what you want to put in.

Platform: iOS

Price: AU$1.29 | $0.99 | £0.69

Civilization is a classic for a reason: it stands so far above anything else in the turn-based empire-building simulation genre (nicknamed 4X) that it's almost a subgenre unto itself, spawning a series of ever-more complex sequels. After the mobile platform success of Civilization Revolution, Civ Rev 2 has been developed exclusively for mobile platforms (Android coming later this year), bringing new military units, new technologies, new buildings, and new leaders -- including Winston Churchill and JFK. It's priced a little on the premium side for a mobile game, though, so perhaps it's one for Civ fans only.

Platform: iOS

Price:$14.99 |AU$18.99 | £10.49

It's not often that you come across a game that makes you think -- really think -- about what it might be like to live another's experience. A Life Worth Dying For puts you in the position of a dying man. The catch: you have Alzheimer's, and your memories have slipped away. You can, however, catch snippets by remembering sequences of words and patterns -- but not in the way you might think. You have to remember two steps back, and signal when you recognise a repeated cue, which isn't as easy as it sounds -- especially once audio and visual cues are combined. It's unique, and thought-provoking, and unutterably sad.

Platform: iOS

Price:$2.99 |AU$3.79 | £1.99

We're always delighted to see a new experience by David Mondou-Labbe -- AKA Devine Lu Linvega -- pop up on iTunes. Ledoliel is his take on a sort of Tamagotchi dating sim, where the idea is to enter diplomatic encounters with a series of aliens, trying not to end up dead. Like most of his games, it's about language; not so much the language of words, but of custom, navigating each being's peculiarities carefully by saying the right things and giving the right gifts so as not to end up dead -- either from annoying the creature or through misunderstanding its physiology or etiquette.

Platforms: iOS

Price:$0.99 |AU$1.29 | £0.69

Capcom third-person monster-slayin' action game Monster Hunter has finally made the leap across to mobile with the port of PSP title Monster Hunter Freedom Unite. And although it comes at a pretty penny, the price is justified: the game is solid, with the short-burst format perfectly suited to casual play. A variety of weapons -- all requiring different battle styles -- and monsters of increasing difficulty keep things fresh, and the controls are magnificently designed -- although it does have MFi controller support for those who hate sliding their thumbs around on a flat surface.

Platforms: iOS

Price:$14.99 |AU$18.99 | £10.49

We've seen many "escape the room" games on mobile, but few with the polish of Hellraid: The Escape. It takes place in a wizard's dungeon: you, rising from a coffin, have no memory of how you got there, but a trail of notes reveals that you are dead (are you?) and that the wizard uses the souls of those he has entombed to replenish his own life. You must use your wits to solve the puzzles and escape, rather than brute force: as a prisoner, you don't have a lot of force to hand. You need to make your way through a series of chambers, finding items to aid your escape, and using stealth to avoid your enemies.

Platforms: iOS

Price:$2.99 |AU$3.79 | £1.99

You may remember Daedalic Entertainment from the award-winning Edna & Harvey. Munin sees you take on the role of one of Odin's ravens, stripped of her powers and earthbound in human form. As you journey through the nine worlds, you must find feathers, scattered across each level to return to Asgard and Odin. There are no foes to fight; instead, the game takes the form of 2D puzzles, with you rotating parts of your hazardous environment to create paths that allow you to reach the feathers and continue on.

Platforms: Android | iOS

Price:$2.99 |AU$3.97 |  £1.99 (Android);$2.99 |AU$3.79 | £1.99 (iOS)

Beyond Gravity employs a similar mechanic to Little Galaxy: you leap from planet to planet, using your trajectory to collect objects, completing objectives as you go. Where Little Gravity frustrated with its time limit on each stage, Beyond Gravity is a much more relaxed affair: you can jump for as long as you want. Although the objectives list is relatively small and easy to finish, when you reach the end, it resets, so you can play as many times as you like -- although some of the air goes out of the balloon once all the upgrades are purchased.

Platforms: Android | iOS

Price:$0.99 |AU$1.29 | £0.69

It's not as well designed as Plague Inc, but DryGin Studios' take on the epidemic management sim is still a nice take. Instead of taking over the world, you're taking over a body, using similar principles: giving your patient diseases, evolving their symptoms, boosting risk factors and developing immunities to treatments before the doctors can find a cure.

Platforms: iOS

Price:$1.99 |AU$2.49 | £1.49

Usually games get ported from iOS to Android, not the other way around, so it's nice to see popular Google-owned Niantic Labs' AR capture-the-flag game Ingress make its way across to iPhone. You must coose a side: The Enlightened, who have embraced a strange new energy uncovered by scientists; or the Resistance, determined to protect humanity. As you wander the real world, you will find portals -- sources of the energy -- and claim them for your team if they are owned by the opposition, or protect them if they are owned by your faction, all the while communicating around the globe. It is, of course, much deeper than that; once you fall down the rabbit hole, you may never emerge.

Platforms: Android | iOS

Price: Free

Gameloft has come out with the fifth installation in its Modern Combat FPS series, and it's a beauty: absolutely stunningly rendered, with top-notch controls and -- unusually for the developer -- a complete absence of IAP. Included in the game are four customisable classes to be played and levelled up, a solo campaign with new spec-ops missions, and squad vs squad multiplayer online.

Platforms: Android | iOS

Price:$6.99 |AU$7.49 | £4.99 (Anrdoid);$6.99 |AU$8.99 | £4.99 (iOS)

The first game from newly minted indie studio Giant Spacekat, Revolution 60 is an epic adventure inspired by Heavy Rain and Mass Effect, where the decisions you make and the relationships you form can impact the game's final outcome. You take the role of Holiday, the assassin in a team of four operatives, with a dangerous mission to disarm a global weapon. The game includes a unique combat system combining quick-time events with timing-based dodge-and-attack, all wrapped up in a 1960s retrofuturistic package.

You can read our interview with Giant Spacekat co-founder Brianna Wu here.

Platforms: iOS

Price: Free

We do like a good spook story, and a good detective game can be pretty fun too. There isn't, actually, a lot of detecting to be done in Phantom PI: you're chasing a squat spectre through a spooky house to retrieve the belongings of one undead Marshall Staxx, the greatest rock star of the afterlife. You have to solve the (admittedly rather easy) puzzles to make your way to the final portal and catch up to Baublebelly -- although making sure you pick up all the collectibles along the way poses more of a challenge. Great for anyone who wants something fun that looks great and doesn't make you want to throw your iDevice at the wall.

Platforms: iOS

Price:$1.99 |AU$2.49 | £1.49

Ettetetta is one of those bite-sized puzzlers that is bound to become a staple in your bus stop rotation. The gameplay is a little unusual, but simple once you get the hang of it: on the left is a falling column of red and blue squares, on the right is a random selection of red and blue squares. You draw a horizontal line from a red square and a blue square on the right to the same coloured squares respectively on the left. The right-hand side squares then fall down onto the lines, and each square that is "caught" by its same-coloured line gets you a point. If it sounds confusing, there's a gameplay video here.

Platforms: iOS

Price:$0.99 |AU$1.29 | £0.69

If you like turn-based strategy, fantasy football and Warhammer, then boy howdy do we ever have the mash-up for you. Blood Bowl for tablets -- based on the tabletop version -- sees you pitting one of six Warhammer factions -- Humans, Orcs, Dwarfs, Skaven, Wood Elves and Chaos Warriors -- in a football league battle to the death. It has three game modes: casual (Solo Player) for one-off matches; a Campaign mode, where you can develop your team; and a brutal, Multiplayer global league. Waaagh!

Platforms: Android | iOS

Price:$4.99 |AU$6.49 | £2.99

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

Wayward Souls ($5.99 | AU$5.89 | £2.73)

Leo's Fortune ($4.99 | AU$6.49 | £3.19)

Lost Toys ($2.99 | AU$3.19 | £1.99)

Bounden ($3.99 | AU$4.99 | £1.99)

Blek ($2.99 | AU$3.16 | £1.75)

Thomas Was Alone ($3.99 | AU$5.84 | £2.49)

Watercolors (Free)

Lionheart Tactics (Free)

Storm of Darkness (Free)

John Woo's Bloodstroke ($0.99 | AU$1.05)

99 Bricks Wizard Academy (Free)