Even though the majority of major App Store releases are clustered around the traditional Thursday launch date, it’s always fantastic to start the week with some games that, for whatever reason, avoided this trope of iOS gaming. Frost ($3.99), from the critically acclaimed graphic designer Jérôme Bodin, is one such release, and while RPG titles infused with card game mechanics is not necessarily a new concept, the predictably brilliant aesthetic direction of the title could go far in distinguishing it from the crowd. Having already launched on Steam to almost universal positive feedback, Frost describes itself as a ‘solo survival card game’, and requires you to build your deck in the vein of similar titles such as Dominion (Free) and Ascension (Free) to survive a perpetual Arctic winter.

While the survival gameplay may be somewhat derivative, it is the graphical style that is most impressive, and gives Frost its own flair over its contemporaries that generally focus on a tired fantasy RPG aesthetic. Everything in Frost, from the UI and text to the cards themselves, looks beautifully hand drawn, which, apart from the Gilded Skull Games’ back catalogue or the old classic puzzler Gesundheit! ($3.99), hasn’t been too common on the App Store. Furthermore, with a variety of game modes, scenarios and difficulty settings, Frost appears to offer a significant challenge for fan of in depth card-centric games, while still offering an immersive experience for newcomers to the genre, which is certainly the ice-ing on the cake (sorry!). For our community impressions, or to share your own thoughts on Frost, be sure to visit the thread on our forums.