We continue with our countdown of the best 50 iPhone games on the market at present with numbers 20-11.
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20. Primrose



Publisher: Jason Rohrer
Developer: In-house
Direct App Store link
Jason Rohrer’s blocky puzzler is a delicately balanced headache, grinding great strategy out of its harsh restrictions. Players drop blocks on to the grid in pairs, ensuring that the second is placed in the same row or column as the first. With the aim of surrounding nodes to change their colour, Primrose is a sedate, yet claustrophobic, take on Go, and the dirty neon presentation means you’re unlikely to confuse it with any other titles.

19. Zen Bound



Publisher: Chillingo
Developer: Secret Exit
Direct App Store link
Brace yourself: yet another game in which you entangle objects in rope. Tempting as it is to lay much of Zen Bound’s appeal on its entirely novel mechanics, it’s the dreamy presentation, filled with Chinese lanterns and watery light, that lingers longest in the memory, and ensures that any forthcoming wrap ’em ups will be faced with a hard act to follow. Organic, gentle and mysterious, it’s tricky to imagine a game like this thriving on any other platform. And, surely a first-time compliment for this magazine, developer Secret Exit’s moss-rendering technology is second to none.

18. Backbreaker Football



Publisher: NaturalMotion
Developer: Ideaworks Game Studio
Direct App Store link
The showboating loopiness of American football gets a thorough airing in this brilliant slice of gridline violence, as an entire sport is reduced to a series of bone-crushing gauntlet runs. The animation is excellent, as might be expected given the publisher, but the real joy is the focus on arcade scoring, each shuffle, twist and dodge giving you an extra smattering of points, each new arrangement of defenders causing you to rethink your old strategies.

17. Eliss



Publisher: Steph Thirion
Developer: In-house
Direct App Store link
A multitouch marvel and indie favourite, it’s impossible to say whether Eliss plays out in a pastelised universe, or in the darker reaches of someone’s handicraft drawer. With music-box sound effects, spindly designs and a mechanic that defies sensible description, this is puzzle gaming at its most intuitive.

16. Space Deadbeef



Publisher: IDP
Developer: In-house
Direct App Store link
IDP’s free glossy side-scrolling shooter feels like a tech demo – and one you hope others would hurry up and build upon. Smear enemies with your finger to get a lock on them, release to fire, and move yourself out of danger by tapping the top or bottom of the screen, Space Deadbeef is short, but incredibly sharp.