Sometimes while looking for the next awesome game to review I stumble across hidden gems and fall in love. Although they may be too simple and small to warrant a full review, they are, in my opinion, great big balls of awesome, and the world should hear about them. Who better to tell you then me, right? Some of the games are new releases, some are not, but they are all games I think worthy of recognition and praise. If you have heard of them you most likely know them to be as surprisingly addictive and fun to play as I do. If you haven’t heard about them, read on and find quick and entertaining games you can spend a few minutes or hours at a time playing.

Bardbarian

A game with a considerable fan base already Bardbarian (Free) may not be exactly a hidden a gem, there is a sizeable fan base who began playing the game when it was first published and reviewed by Touch Arcade in 2014. Developed by TreeFortress Games it was an instant hit and even made Game of the Week .

Unfortunately BulkyPix, the publisher TreeFortress Games chose, went Bankrupt in 2016, and the developers no longer saw any revenue for their game. Eventually came the day every Bardbarian fan dreaded, one iOS update too many and the original incarnation of this amazing game was no longer playable. TreeFortress Games have however re-released their hit game, as a self-published premium. In its newly released version the developers have made some improvements such as, increasing payouts, and making a faster paced game with a greater focus on skill. They have also added 3 new unlockable characters for you to discover.

If you have never actually heard of Bardbarian, boy have you been missing out. You play Brad, a barbarian who has become bored with his hack ′n′ slash life. He turns his trusty axe into a loot, thus becoming Brad the Bard. His tunes call members to his party and gives them bonuses during the fight to protect the towns crystal from the hordes of orcs. You run around dodging attacks while dealing damage to your enemies and collecting gold to upgrade skills and equipment. It sounds simple, but is so much fun you really have to give it a go. I would definitely give this one a 5 star rating in a full review.

Make Squares

]My second hidden gem is a game you may remember from my very first BetaWatch, I was crazy about it then and I am still every bit as enthralled with it now. <em>Make Squares</em> (Free) by Russell King of Kinoro Games make-squares takes a beloved classic and turns it on its head. It is everything you ever loved about Tetris [apprice url="https://itunes.apple.com/au/app/tetris/id480805652?mt=8"], but, jacked up on steroids, and dressed for modern audience.

I love a good puzzle game, and to be honest I never in a million years thought a game like Tetris could get any better, enter Make Squares. The principle is the same, organize the falling shapes to fit together, without running out of room. In Make Squares however, you need to make, (surprise, surprise) squares. Sounds easy right? It is far from it.

You use the little black square as your cursor and move it up and down and side to side to collect the falling bricks. You do not rotate the falling shapes, instead you rotate your collection of shapes to form squares around your little cursor. You can not let the falling bricks touch the ground, or go past the top when you collect them. You have extras like bombs and the ability to swap shapes, these are limited though so use them wisely.

I can not finish this review without letting you all know Congratulations are in order for Russell and his wife, who have just celebrated the arrival of a beautiful baby. Achievement Unlocked: New Addition! In a full review I’d give Make Squares 5 stars, but I’m going to add another one for releasing such an awesome game while preparing for a baby.
6 stars.

Plus+Plus

Plus+Plus (Free) by Lazy Cat is another great puzzle game using numbers. I really wasn’t sure about this one at first, it seemed too simple, too basic, make rows or columns of matching numbers, get points. I played for about 30 seconds before discarding it. Then I remembered another little gem I found called 13!, (Free) which, if you are curious about you can see in my first Hidden Gems Feature.

So with the memory of 13! urging me to look again, I reopened the app and had another go, figuring I would at least finish one game before discounting it. It doesn’t take a genius to work out the second look was worth it. Plus+Plus starts really easy, almost too easy, you have a five by five grid and the numbers one to five to fit into the grid making horizontal or vertical rows of the same number. After doing this for a while, bam they add the number six in, now it gets a bit interesting, five rows, six numbers.

To add to this fun you can stack numbers on top of each other, once only though so think carefully before you start piling useless numbers together. As you points get higher more numbers get added in, making it harder and harder to get whole rows of matching numbers. You can remove adds with an in app purchase, and collect little helpful boosters like delete to remove a number from a square. Its a fun little game, great for waiting rooms when you want to kill time but not get too involved in immersive game play. In a full review I’d say 4 stars.

Legendary: Game of Heroes

When I started writing for Touch Arcade I was Honestly surprised to find no one has ever written about this absolutely amazing game. I went looking, not one single word could I find, which is really disappointing. I would love to give Legendary: Game of Heroes (Free) by N3twork a full review and at least one comprehensive guide to help players starting out. So, if you download and love it as much as I do after reading this feature, start talking it up in our forums. Enough interest, and I will definitely come back and cover this one in more detail.

Legendary: Game of Heroes is a dark fantasy, social RGP, rogue-like, card, and match three puzzle game all rolled up into one big bad ball of brilliance. You collect cards of monsters and heroes and use catalysts you collect to evolve and level up. Your cards will all have an affinity, as well as an event skill, knowing the relationship between these elements helps you build the strongest deck possible for battle.

In battle your cards sit above a grid of colored gems (each attached to an affinity) which you now match to power up your attack. Attacks are turn based with you starting each round and the enemy attacking second. You have a main campaign, followed by many other unlockable campaigns and events. It’s highly desirable to join a guild and take part in the weekly events, guild wars and PVP wars. You win cards through the campaign as well as buying them with gems you win through events. The game has a paid VIP subscription, but you are not penalized for not paying. VIPs get 200 gems per day and other very minor perks. I have gone all the way to level 85 without ever being a VIP.

I’m not gonna lie this game is my obsession, I play at least once a day and promised my guild, The Unruly Badgers a plug in my review. So come join the fun, see if you can find me, my handle is Samarartu, and I hang out with the best unruly crew there is. You never know, if you are lucky, there just may be room for you in the Unruly Badgers. I know we only go to five stars and sometimes I slip in that one extra for my hidden gems, but I’m going all out on this one 10 stars. Go and download it NOW.

So, there you have it, four praiseworthy games you may not have heard of. There are many games out there worthy of making it into a roundup of underrated or unheard-of games and it’s my mission to bring more of them to you. Do you know of a great released game not getting enough deserved praise? If so drop me a line on twitter, it just might make it into my next Hidden Gems Roundup.