The Best iPad Games for 2021

With their shiny cars and blistering sense of speed, nothing shows off new graphics tech like a racing game.

Asphalt 9: Legends is no different.

This gorgeous free game will make you appreciate every penny you spent on your new tablet.

Blek is a simple game with intricate puzzles centered around touch-screen gestures and minimalistic art.

Create patterns of movement to complete each level.

It may not sound like much, but the game proved to be an excellent addition to the iPad's stable of games.

Carcassonne may be one of the more expensive iPad games, but this digital version of the German-style board game is worth it.

In this social game, you lay tiles and game pieces on a virtual board to build up a medieval landscape.

The goal is to own completed developments, like cities, farms, and roads.

But unlike that other property-ownership game Monopoly, Carcassonne is thought-provoking, and not too heavily reliant on luck.

It ranks among the best board game apps available.

Settlers of Catan sparked a revolution in board games, as the first so-called Euro-game to blaze the trail for worldwide popularity.

Catan HD is quite a bargain, considering the boxed set costs nearly $50, and it's suitable for kids and adults.

The popular turn-based 4x strategy series released a new iteration in 2016, and this time a mobile version came along with it.

Control a nation of people, gather resources, fight your enemies, and build a new empire in Civilization VI.

The best part is that you can play this for free.

Try to survive in the world of Crashlands as you crash land on a planet filled with wild animals and raw material.

Fight, craft, and strategize as you attempt to survive long enough for help to arrive.

Darkest Dungeon starts out as a typical dungeon crawler, but this RPG quickly devolves into a truly nightmarish survival game.

You manage a group of characters as you explore dungeons in a combination of real-time and turned-based combat.

Keep an eye on each hero's stress level, or bad things will happen.

Device 6 explores the concept of narrative and choice by using text to take you on a surreal journey.

Though Device 6 is mainly a text-based title, the game is not really a "text adventure." Device 6 is more akin to an enhanced digital novel with puzzles.

The game isn't for everyone, but gamers who dig experimental gameplay should give it a go.

Survival games are pretty popular these days, especially ones with random environments, permanent death, and other roguelike elements.

Don't Starve stands above the rest with its deep hunting and crafting systems as well as its sad but lovely gothic hand-drawn visuals.

Think of this game as something of a Tim Burton-meets-Minecraft adventure.

Donut County, you control a hole in the ground to eat up structures around you.

The more you suck up, the bigger the hole gets, allowing you to eat bigger and bigger objects.

Use the hole to solve puzzles and navigate the game's story.

Euclidean Lands was an Editors' Choice darling that asked you to solve architectural turn-based puzzles in order to defeat enemies in a beautiful medieval world.

With Euclidean Skies, you to do it again with more levels, enhanced graphics, and an augmented reality mode that lets the game interact with your surroundings.

Animatronic animals are horrifying.

Five Nights at Freddy's has finally turned that terrifying truth into a video game.

As you play the role of a lone security guard at Freddy Fazbear's Pizza, you'll soon learn that the only thing worse than being stuck in a Podunk Chuck E.

Cheese knock-off is being stuck there in the middle of the night as the furry robots try to kill you.

There's an entire cottage industry of teenagers screaming at this game on YouTube, but that can't compare with checking out the nightmare for yourself.

The indie platformer Forgotten Anne made it to iOS in 2019, giving a larger audience a chance to play this hand-drawn anime style adventure.

The game takes place in the Forgotten Lands, a magical world where lost things come to life.

Your job is to stop a rebellion from ruining everyone's chances of being remembered and returned to the real world.

If you like puzzles and narrative better than you like high-intensity gameplay, Framed is for you.

You control the events of the story by rearranging panels of a comic book in order to ensure that your character gets away from those pursuing them.

FTL: Faster Than Light simulates the tension, excitement, and sheer chaos of guiding your own spacecraft.

The randomly generated planetary systems always have new challenges to offer.

Gorogoa is a hand-drawn puzzle game with no text in the entire game.

While that means you get to look at the pretty pictures unimpeded, it also means you have to figure everything out yourself.

Good luck!

GTA: Chinatown Wars combines the modern Grand Theft Auto games' urban warfare with the top-down mayhem of the franchise's earlier games.

This overlooked gangster gem is secretly the best of both worlds.

Don’t miss out.

In most detective games, there's an answer for every question.

The solution may be confusing, obtuse, or unsatisfying, but ultimately every mystery can be solved.

The game can be finished.

But life isn't like that.

Life is ambiguous and often contains riddles that can never be completely understood.

What makes Her Story such a captivating crime game is that, like life, it has no real end.

As you watch its hundreds of video interviews with a murder suspect, the game only stops the moment you decide to walk away.

Hidden Folks is a fun little game that borrows from Where's Waldo to provide intricate hand-drawn scenes filled with hidden objects.

Since this is an iPad game, each scene contains many interactive objects.

All music and sounds in the game were produced with noises from the developers' own mouths.

Translating existing game franchises to iOS has always been tricky.

Not all games can make the leap from a console with controllers and buttons to nothing but a single touch screen.

However, Hitman Go skillfully captures the essence of everyone's favorite bald assassin, Agent 47, in a more mobile-friendly form.

You'll be shocked how satisfying this slick series of strategy board games feels as figures move across flat surfaces to take out their targets.

Paying tribute to 16-bit adventure games of the past, Hyper Light Drifter has you take control of a wanderer as you use advanced technology to defeat enemies and advance through the world.

The game has no dialogue, requiring the game's music and visuals to tell the bulk of its story.

If you like the Lara Croft franchise, you'll love what they did with this mobile game.

Taking cues from Hitman Go, Lara Croft Go went a step further and added elevations to the game board.

It feels just like a true Lara Croft game, with her having to climb up mountain cliffs and maneuver around chasms.

Lego Builder’s Journey (an Apple Arcade exclusive) taps into the unspoken sentimentality that makes these bricks such a beloved toy.

Instead of adapting a movie license, this game conveys the pure nostalgic joy of Lego itself as you play through its coming-of-age narrative.

The perilous platforming challenges of Leo's Fortune are so great they rival console classics like Rayman and Donkey Kong.

Instead of running and jumping, players take on the role of a sentient pile of fuzz named Leo with the power to inflate and deflate himself on command.

Looping levels force Leo to carefully control his momentum and size to solve puzzles and escape danger.

If that's not enough, Leo's constant grandfatherly narration and the game's overall old-world atmosphere never cease to delight.

Love You to Bits puts you in control of Kosmo, a space explorer, who must explore alien worlds in order to collect the broken pieces of his robot girlfriend.

Point-and-click to solve puzzles and collect items as you learn more about this relationship you are trying to put back together.

Fans of Minecraft will have no problem shelling out the money for this iPad app.

Gameplay blends creativity with strategy.

It's a 3D sandbox-building game in which you place blocks made of different kinds of materials to build anything you want.

In the survival and hardcore modes, the object is to survive when monsters land on the scene.

Meanwhile, creative mode gives the player complete freedom of invention.

Minecraft mega fans might also enjoy Minecraft Earth, an augmented reality app where you build and explore in the real world.

The minimalist puzzle strategy game asks you to construct a rail transit network for a series of rapidly growing cities.

Players must make the trains run efficiently by adding tracks, tunnels, and train cars in order to pick up riders in the station.

Mini Metro maps are based on major real-world cities and includes multiple game modes for a variety of gaming experiences.

Monument Valley is a puzzle game that's as beautiful as it is infuriating.

Players guide the tiny princess Ida as she attempts to ascend various abstract structures.

The focus on optical illusions and M.C.

Escher-inspired architecture means you'll be staring at these puzzles (and the dreamy landscapes) for a while before cracking them.

When you do, move on to Monument Valley 2.

Oddmar just wants to find his way to Valhalla, but does he really want to get there by burning down the forest? This platformer takes you on a story you can truly become invested in, and the adventure will look absolutely stunning along the way.

As the title promises, you take an old man through a journey, but there is so much more here.

Old Man's Journey tackles heartbreak and regret as you navigate the choices...

With their shiny cars and blistering sense of speed, nothing shows off new graphics tech like a racing game.

Asphalt 9: Legends is no different.

This gorgeous free game will make you appreciate every penny you spent on your new tablet.

Blek is a simple game with intricate puzzles centered around touch-screen gestures and minimalistic art.

Create patterns of movement to complete each level.

It may not sound like much, but the game proved to be an excellent addition to the iPad's stable of games.

Carcassonne may be one of the more expensive iPad games, but this digital version of the German-style board game is worth it.

In this social game, you lay tiles and game pieces on a virtual board to build up a medieval landscape.

The goal is to own completed developments, like cities, farms, and roads.

But unlike that other property-ownership game Monopoly, Carcassonne is thought-provoking, and not too heavily reliant on luck.

It ranks among the best board game apps available.

Settlers of Catan sparked a revolution in board games, as the first so-called Euro-game to blaze the trail for worldwide popularity.

Catan HD is quite a bargain, considering the boxed set costs nearly $50, and it's suitable for kids and adults.

The popular turn-based 4x strategy series released a new iteration in 2016, and this time a mobile version came along with it.

Control a nation of people, gather resources, fight your enemies, and build a new empire in Civilization VI.

The best part is that you can play this for free.

Try to survive in the world of Crashlands as you crash land on a planet filled with wild animals and raw material.

Fight, craft, and strategize as you attempt to survive long enough for help to arrive.

Darkest Dungeon starts out as a typical dungeon crawler, but this RPG quickly devolves into a truly nightmarish survival game.

You manage a group of characters as you explore dungeons in a combination of real-time and turned-based combat.

Keep an eye on each hero's stress level, or bad things will happen.

Device 6 explores the concept of narrative and choice by using text to take you on a surreal journey.

Though Device 6 is mainly a text-based title, the game is not really a "text adventure." Device 6 is more akin to an enhanced digital novel with puzzles.

The game isn't for everyone, but gamers who dig experimental gameplay should give it a go.

Survival games are pretty popular these days, especially ones with random environments, permanent death, and other roguelike elements.

Don't Starve stands above the rest with its deep hunting and crafting systems as well as its sad but lovely gothic hand-drawn visuals.

Think of this game as something of a Tim Burton-meets-Minecraft adventure.

Donut County, you control a hole in the ground to eat up structures around you.

The more you suck up, the bigger the hole gets, allowing you to eat bigger and bigger objects.

Use the hole to solve puzzles and navigate the game's story.

Euclidean Lands was an Editors' Choice darling that asked you to solve architectural turn-based puzzles in order to defeat enemies in a beautiful medieval world.

With Euclidean Skies, you to do it again with more levels, enhanced graphics, and an augmented reality mode that lets the game interact with your surroundings.

Animatronic animals are horrifying.

Five Nights at Freddy's has finally turned that terrifying truth into a video game.

As you play the role of a lone security guard at Freddy Fazbear's Pizza, you'll soon learn that the only thing worse than being stuck in a Podunk Chuck E.

Cheese knock-off is being stuck there in the middle of the night as the furry robots try to kill you.

There's an entire cottage industry of teenagers screaming at this game on YouTube, but that can't compare with checking out the nightmare for yourself.

The indie platformer Forgotten Anne made it to iOS in 2019, giving a larger audience a chance to play this hand-drawn anime style adventure.

The game takes place in the Forgotten Lands, a magical world where lost things come to life.

Your job is to stop a rebellion from ruining everyone's chances of being remembered and returned to the real world.

If you like puzzles and narrative better than you like high-intensity gameplay, Framed is for you.

You control the events of the story by rearranging panels of a comic book in order to ensure that your character gets away from those pursuing them.

FTL: Faster Than Light simulates the tension, excitement, and sheer chaos of guiding your own spacecraft.

The randomly generated planetary systems always have new challenges to offer.

Gorogoa is a hand-drawn puzzle game with no text in the entire game.

While that means you get to look at the pretty pictures unimpeded, it also means you have to figure everything out yourself.

Good luck!

GTA: Chinatown Wars combines the modern Grand Theft Auto games' urban warfare with the top-down mayhem of the franchise's earlier games.

This overlooked gangster gem is secretly the best of both worlds.

Don’t miss out.

In most detective games, there's an answer for every question.

The solution may be confusing, obtuse, or unsatisfying, but ultimately every mystery can be solved.

The game can be finished.

But life isn't like that.

Life is ambiguous and often contains riddles that can never be completely understood.

What makes Her Story such a captivating crime game is that, like life, it has no real end.

As you watch its hundreds of video interviews with a murder suspect, the game only stops the moment you decide to walk away.

Hidden Folks is a fun little game that borrows from Where's Waldo to provide intricate hand-drawn scenes filled with hidden objects.

Since this is an iPad game, each scene contains many interactive objects.

All music and sounds in the game were produced with noises from the developers' own mouths.

Translating existing game franchises to iOS has always been tricky.

Not all games can make the leap from a console with controllers and buttons to nothing but a single touch screen.

However, Hitman Go skillfully captures the essence of everyone's favorite bald assassin, Agent 47, in a more mobile-friendly form.

You'll be shocked how satisfying this slick series of strategy board games feels as figures move across flat surfaces to take out their targets.

Paying tribute to 16-bit adventure games of the past, Hyper Light Drifter has you take control of a wanderer as you use advanced technology to defeat enemies and advance through the world.

The game has no dialogue, requiring the game's music and visuals to tell the bulk of its story.

If you like the Lara Croft franchise, you'll love what they did with this mobile game.

Taking cues from Hitman Go, Lara Croft Go went a step further and added elevations to the game board.

It feels just like a true Lara Croft game, with her having to climb up mountain cliffs and maneuver around chasms.

Lego Builder’s Journey (an Apple Arcade exclusive) taps into the unspoken sentimentality that makes these bricks such a beloved toy.

Instead of adapting a movie license, this game conveys the pure nostalgic joy of Lego itself as you play through its coming-of-age narrative.

The perilous platforming challenges of Leo's Fortune are so great they rival console classics like Rayman and Donkey Kong.

Instead of running and jumping, players take on the role of a sentient pile of fuzz named Leo with the power to inflate and deflate himself on command.

Looping levels force Leo to carefully control his momentum and size to solve puzzles and escape danger.

If that's not enough, Leo's constant grandfatherly narration and the game's overall old-world atmosphere never cease to delight.

Love You to Bits puts you in control of Kosmo, a space explorer, who must explore alien worlds in order to collect the broken pieces of his robot girlfriend.

Point-and-click to solve puzzles and collect items as you learn more about this relationship you are trying to put back together.

Fans of Minecraft will have no problem shelling out the money for this iPad app.

Gameplay blends creativity with strategy.

It's a 3D sandbox-building game in which you place blocks made of different kinds of materials to build anything you want.

In the survival and hardcore modes, the object is to survive when monsters land on the scene.

Meanwhile, creative mode gives the player complete freedom of invention.

Minecraft mega fans might also enjoy Minecraft Earth, an augmented reality app where you build and explore in the real world.

The minimalist puzzle strategy game asks you to construct a rail transit network for a series of rapidly growing cities.

Players must make the trains run efficiently by adding tracks, tunnels, and train cars in order to pick up riders in the station.

Mini Metro maps are based on major real-world cities and includes multiple game modes for a variety of gaming experiences.

Monument Valley is a puzzle game that's as beautiful as it is infuriating.

Players guide the tiny princess Ida as she attempts to ascend various abstract structures.

The focus on optical illusions and M.C.

Escher-inspired architecture means you'll be staring at these puzzles (and the dreamy landscapes) for a while before cracking them.

When you do, move on to Monument Valley 2.

Oddmar just wants to find his way to Valhalla, but does he really want to get there by burning down the forest? This platformer takes you on a story you can truly become invested in, and the adventure will look absolutely stunning along the way.

As the title promises, you take an old man through a journey, but there is so much more here.

Old Man's Journey tackles heartbreak and regret as you navigate the choices...