Happy New Year! We’ve chosen a varied and surprisingly reflective selection of delights to welcome in 2017 – read on to see what we think you should be downloading from the App Store this week!
Milkmaid of the Milky Way
Price: $3.99/£2.99 • Version: 1.0 • Size: 215 MB
A puzzle-filled point-and-click game with a unique art style that combines both paint and pixels. Set in 1920s Norway – and 1920s outer space! – it’s a quirky adventure along the lines of Monkey Island, written entirely in rhyme. Explore the world around you to find out what happens to Ruth and her four beloved dairy cows!
Brian Eno: Reflection
Price: $39.99/£29.99 • Version: 1.0 • Size: 112 MB
Only someone with as much experience toying with the avant-garde and the ambient as Brian Eno would dare to release a $40 audio app. Reflection creates peaceful music that unfolds differently on every listen. The app is the “infinite” version of Eno’s latest album, which itself is a mere one-hour snippet of the algorithmically generated experimentation found here.
Five Nights At Freddy’s: Sister Location
Price: $2.99/£2.29 • Version: 1.0 • Size: 104 MB
We reviewed the last two FNAF games and found them to be dripping in atmosphere but lacking somewhat in gameplay. The latest installment in the series aims build on that, with more late-night tension on the menu as you try to survive five nights in a haunted pizza parlor.
Little Kitten
Price: $2.99/£2.49 • Version: 1.0 • Size: 748 MB
If your little ones are feline mad but you don’t have a cat, this could could be the next best thing. It’s an interactive app encouraging exploration and creativity, aimed at kids aged 3-5. Play a series of mini games with a cute photorealistic kitten, including hide and seek, airplane rides and paw painting. Cute!
Letter Club
Price: Free (+optional IAP) • Version: 2.1.1 • Size: 187 MB
If you can ignore the slew of in-game currencies and letter upgrades, this is actually a very fun quick-fire word game from the makers of LEX. In one-on-one online battles, make words on a grid as quickly as you can to reduce your opponent’s health bar. The longer the word, the more points, so think fast!
1 Second Everyday [UPDATE]
Price: $4.99/£3.99 • Version: 1.50 • Size: 99.7 MB
The beginning of January is the best time to invest in a video diary app that compiles tiny snippets of activities into week, month, or year long compilations. If you snap a second a day for a year you’ll have a ten minute video to watch back in 2018 and you’ll never forget a day again. The app has been around for a while, but a big update over Christmas added lots of new features including Instagram mash-ups!
Bonus: Mega Man Mobile [WARNING]
Price: $1.99/£1.49 • Version: 1.00 • Size: 73.7 MB
Our roundups usually contain apps and games we think you should download, but as a special extra this week we’re including a high-profile series of games we think are best avoided. If the release of the first six Mega Man games on iOS triggers pangs of nostalgia, it’s best to ignore them. These titles may look tempting at $2 a pop, but the quality of these remakes is so astonishingly bad as to be almost unplayable. Even the biggest fan of 90s platform gaming should give them a miss!