I know January is supposed to be the month where everyone is understandably broke because of Christmas and the New Year, but we’re now deep within February and my bank account does not look any friendlier. To be fair, a lot of it is self-afflicted, as there have just been so many fantastic gaming releases on every platform in the few weeks of 2018 we’ve had so far. If you’re similarly spent, but also are keen to fill up that backlog with even more essential iOS titles, you’re in luck – some seminal App Store classics have been heavily reduced in price over the past few days. If you’re missing any of these games from your collection, you truly have no excuse now.

You Must Build A Boat, $2.99 Kicking off our sales round-up is the phenomenal puzzler You Must Build A Boat from Luca Redwood of EightyEight Games fame. There’s very little I need to say about this excellent title, as it has received numerous accolades at TouchArcade since its release in 2015, including an emphatic five star review and our coveted Game of the Week award. In my opinion, this is one of the best match-3/puzzle games on the platform, and in many ways You Must Build A Boat feels like the sequel to Dungeon Raid that we never got – which is even more pertinent considering the latter game’s demise at the hands of iOS 11. This puzzle RPG title is full of content and irreverent charm, and at a bargain price of $0.99 (down from $2.99 for only the second time in three years), it really is essential for any iOS gaming fan.

10000000, $2.99 Read the above paragraph and replace You Must Build A Boat with 10000000, and you know my thoughts on this landmark iOS release. Seriously though, while the former title may be a spiritual sequel to this game, 10000000 is an incredible game in its own right, and is truly iconic in the illustrious history of the App Store. Dropping quite literally out of nowhere in 2012, 10000000 was our Game of the Year runner-up at the time, and its hopelessly compulsive gameplay loop of hitting the dungeons, solving puzzles, upgrading your skills and repeating it all for hours was perfection. 10000000 hasn’t been on sale since 2014, so even though it’s more than worth its normal $2.99 cost of entry, this is another must-have for anyone with a passing interest in puzzle games.

MONSTER HUNTER FREEDOM UNITE for iOS, $14.99 While finding the iTunes link for Monster Hunter Freedom Unite, I stumbled upon an App Store review that stated “At only $15?! Such a freaking great deal". This sums up why Capcom’s latest promotion for its flagship beast-slaying series on iOS is an absolute bargain, as Monster Hunter Freedom Unite is on sale for only $3.99. It may be a bit old in the tooth now, despite its notoriety for not actually working on iOS for the longest time, but Monster Hunter Freedom Unite is still one of the best console-size experiences on the App Store to date. With the console version of Monster Hunter World dominating gaming headlines over the past few months, Freedom Unite is an excellent place to dive into the series in its classic portable guise.

Life Is Strange, Free Life is Strange has been somewhat of a revelation amongst console gamers since its 2015 debut, as the story of Max and her devastating attempts to change the future through a gift of being able to rewind time. While we noted minor performance and control niggles in our review, this is the game episodic console classic in arguably its most intuitive form yet, and $0.99 for the first episode is a great price to try the series out for anyone on the fence. Life is Strange does require relatively recent iOS devices to run – and I really would only recommend it for those with powerhouses such as the iPad Pro – but this is really a title that needs to be experienced at least once by every gamer.

While these four titles are the highlights of the past week’s App Store promotions, I’ve undoubtedly missed a few classics from the list, and many essential releases are being discounted every day. Let us know which games you’ve picked up recently, or any sales you’ve managed to sniff out, on our Price Drops forum and Discord server.