Total War: Medieval II (£11.99)
Valuation: 
Alien: Isolation (iOS, Android, £12.99)
Valuation: 
Rocket League Sideswipe (iOS, Android, Free)
Valuation:
Oregon Trail (iOS, included with Apple Arcade)
Valuation: 
Gibbon: Beyond the trees
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The average smartphone, we are told, has many thousands of times the power of the navigation computer that sent Neil Armstrong and his fellow Apollonauts to the moon.
But what if you don’t get excited about extraterrestrial travel? What if you just want to play the greatest games from a few years ago on your way to your earthly job?
Luckily, smartphones can do this too.
Total War: Medieval II, which melted my PC when it was first released in 2006, has recently been translated to Apple and Android devices. It’s impressive to see how it works in my hand – and works so well.
All the modes and qualities of the original game are here, from its tactical battles where you direct your archers and your cavalry across a sodden field in Pomerania, to its detailed campaigns where you try to expand your influence throughout the Middle Ages. It adds up to dozens of hours of happy gaming.
The average smartphone, we are told, has many thousands of times the power of the navigation computer that sent Neil Armstrong and his fellow Apollonauts to the moon
Minor changes have been made to accommodate awkward fingers on touchscreens, but – if your fingers are as awkward as mine – you’ll still occasionally wish for the old-fashioned precision of a mouse and keyboard.
Until you remember the point: Medieval II on mobile isn’t meant to be desk-bound. What do a few compromises do when you can carry this classic around with you?
The same question could be asked for Alien: Isolation, except that miraculously this game feels even less compromised on mobile.
The original, released in 2014 for consoles and PC, is a masterpiece of horror: as the daughter of Sigourney Weaver’s Ellen Ripley, you are being pursued on a space station by the horrifying, greasy xenomorph from the Alien movies. This handheld version, released late last year, is very similar.
If there’s a problem, it’s because the graphics are so stunning that a phone screen feels too small to show them off. So I played it on my iPad. But that brings us back to the point: you can of course play Alien: Isolation on a giant TV, but that wouldn’t be a mobile game, would it?
The same question could be asked for Alien: Isolation, except that miraculously this game feels even less compromised on mobile
Rocket League Sideswipe, which also appeared late last year, takes a different approach. Instead of translating the original Rocket League – for my money, the best sports game of all time – to smartphones, it completely redesigns it.
The result is a more (literally) two-dimensional experience, pitting your car against that of your opponents in end-to-end matches of vehicular soccer, but it’s one that’s perfectly suited to touchscreens.
Without its relative slimness, Sideswipe would be the best sports game on mobile.
Rocket League Sideswipe, which also appeared late last year, takes a different approach
And last year’s Oregon Trail takes a different approach.
It takes the skeleton of a 50-year-old educational game designed to teach the struggle of a westbound wagon train and overlays it with prettier graphics and 21st-century sensibilities.
It’s fun enough, but I soon found myself sidetracked by another title from Apple’s brilliant arcade service, one that’s entirely new.
It’s called Gibbon: Beyond The Trees and it states that long-limbed monkeys are just perfect for games.
Just tap the screen to make your gibbon grab a branch, then release to make it fly through the air. If you time it right, you might be able to swing to the moon.
I was soon distracted by another title from Apple’s brilliant arcade service, which is entirely new. It’s called Gibbon: Beyond The Trees and it states that long-limbed monkeys are just perfect for games