Mini Meme: the best retro remakes
New games are great and old games are great, but new old games are the greatest of all
Pac-Man has been reworked for a new generation, but it isn’t the only superb mobile game infused with the pixel-rich lifeblood of arcade classics.
Drop Wizard
Harking back to classic single-screen Taito platformers such as Bubble Bobble, Drop Wizard is also part auto-runner. You sprint left and right, blasting magic when you land, and punt dazed monsters about the place on colliding with them. It’s adorable, but there’s a sting in its tail with the vicious boss battles.
Download Drop Wizard for iOS (£1.99)
Geometry Wars 3: Dimensions Evolved
Few twin-stick shooters evoke the same sense of danger, panic, claustrophobia and excitement as 1982’s masterful Robotron. Geometry Wars 3 does. This is a gorgeous, intense, thrilling shooter, which tests your thumbs to the limits across a range of tiny 3D worlds full of vibrant nasties to destroy.
Download Geometry Wars 3: Dimensions Evolved for iOS (£3.99)
Download Geometry Wars 3: Dimensions Evolved for Android (£4.01)
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Panzerkampf 3
Battlezone in 1980 was one of the earliest first-person 3D shooters, finding you trundling about a sparse landscape, blowing away vector tanks. Panzerkampf 3 reboots the original, gives it Daytona-like arcade racer controls, ramps up the mayhem, speed and destruction, and then sits back, rightfully satisfied.
Download Panzerkampf 3 for iOS (£0.79)
Space Invaders Infinity Gene
These days Space Invaders looks a bit rubbish, and Infinity Gene seemingly agrees, dispensing with the feel of the original. It quickly evolves, flinging staccato set-piece stages at you in a flurry of neon and thumping beats. Before long, you’re careening through bullet hell, wondering how this got so tough.
Forget-Me-Not
Borrowing from Pac-Man, Rogue and Wizard Of Wor, Forget-Me-Not plonks you in procedurally generated destructible arenas to eat flowers, grab a key and make your escape. But every level inevitably descends into a frenzied free-for-all warzone, with tiny pixelated characters blowing anything within range to smithereens.
Download Forget-Me-Not for iOS (£1.49)
Pac-Man 256 (£free/Android & iOS)
Crossy Road‘s devs successfully rethought Frogger and now they bring their smarts to the dot-munching maze-wanderer. He finds himself beyond the glitch in the infamous 256th level, simultaneously outrunning digital oblivion and his ghostly foes. This time at least, he has power-ups beyond pills, including a spectre-frying laser.
Download Pac-Man 256 for iOS (£free)
Download Pac-Man 256 for Android (£free)
Craig Grannell
Contributor 
