Best new mobile games on iOS and Android – March 2025 round-up
GameCentral’s round-up of the most interesting mobile games of the month include an excellent Tomb Raider spin-off and the almost self-explanatory Stair Quest.
GameCentral’s round-up of the most interesting mobile games of the month include an excellent Tomb Raider spin-off and the almost self-explanatory Stair Quest.
This month’s mobile releases include the touchscreen ports of first person shooter I Am Your Beast and Tomb Raider spin-off Lara Croft And The Guardian of Light, along with all-new roguelite Stair Quest – in what has proved to be an unusually iOS-orientated month.
Grand Mountain Adventure 2iOS & Android, free – full game £7.99 (Toppluva)
Although we’re long past the golden age of video game snowboarding, with 1080° Snowboarding, SSX Tricky, and Amped now distant memories, Grand Mountain Adventure 2 does a superb job of bringing the sport – and its close relative, skiing – to mobile.
Its perfect miniature recreation of mountain life has you picking your way through ski lessons and boarders of all standards, along with roads to cross and multiple varieties of ski-lift when you get to the bottom of runs.
It’s at least as much about exploration, across several huge and detailed mountains, as it is about time trials and pulling off tricks, and its touch controls are wonderfully intuitive. All that’s missing is the glühwein.
Score: 8/10
The Art Of Fauna: Nature PuzzlesiOS, free – full game £7.99 (Klemens Strasser)
With beautiful artwork sourced from the Biodiversity Heritage Library, Art Of Fauna’s succession of jigsaws chops up animal pictures into a jumble of rectangles, getting you to reassemble them onscreen.
While jigsaw solving is usually down there with hidden object games, in terms of low effort cash grabs, this has been developed with considerable love and attention, its moves feeling satisfying to make and the soundtrack and background sounds of nature supplying an almost hypnotic experience.
You can flip each picture over for a text description of the animal whose puzzle you’re solving and 20% of the game’s revenue is donated to nature charities, making you feel even better for playing it.
Score: 7/10
Stair Quest – the world under the stairs (Nord Unit) Stair QuestiOS, £2.99 (Nord Unit)
With a simple art style and well-engineered platforming and shooting action, Stair Quest is a roguelite set on a vast holy staircase, each of whose steps forms a procedurally generated level.
The onscreen controls work well with its heroes’ slightly floaty jumping style and it’s polished, has a warmly surreal sense of humour, and there’s a huge amount to unlock and upgrade as you make your way upwards.
If there is a complaint, it’s that progress proves exceptionally grindy, with stingy portions of loot buying only incremental upgrades. It makes momentum too slow after the opening few hours, but with a little rebalancing this has the makings of a great mobile game.
Score: 7/10
Lara Croft And The Guardian Of LightiOS & Android, £7.49 (Feral Interactive)
Originally released in 2010, this is a spin-off game featuring Lara Croft which tellingly does not have Tomb Raider in its title. Played from an isometric view it looks and controls quite differently from the main franchise.
There’s combat right from the start but it also has plenty of puzzles, and this outing can be played solo or with a co-op partner online – who joins the game as reanimated Aztec god Totec.
Coming with all three tranches of DLC, this is another roaring success from the team at Feral Interactive and a welcome return for a spin-off that is considerably more entertaining than some of the mainline entries.
Score: 8/10
PGA Tour Pro Golf – a nice quiet game of golf (HypGames) PGA Tour Pro GolfiOS, included with Apple Arcade subscription (HypGames)
PGA Tour Pro Golf is the Apple Arcade version of the free-to-play series, featuring its trademark high production values and massive array of clubs and golf balls with various buffs, now scrubbed of all its microtransactional shenanigans.
It may not bear much resemblance to actual golf, with its pared-back focus on just taking shots in head-to-head matches and tournaments, but it’s instantly addictive and very enjoyable.
The interface is silky smooth, rounds are quick and rewarding, and without the need to try and profit from you, unlocks arrive frictionlessly, making for a pleasing golf-themed mobile distraction.
Score: 7/10
I Am Your BeastiOS, free – full game £9.99 (Frosty Pop)
Released last year on PC and consoles, the mobile version of I Am Your Beast remains a brutal, cel-shaded first person shooter whose quick fire levels beg to be repeated, to perfect your performance and earn higher grades.
Shot through with a dark sense of humour, its text-only but fully voiced cut scenes precede each level and create a pleasing atmosphere of cynical ultra violence.
The mobile version is solid enough but the touch controls aren’t up to the job, despite generous auto-aim, meaning you’ll need to use a Bluetooth controller to navigate its twitchy, fast-moving scenarios.
Score: 7/10
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