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Wayward Souls and Xac USA: Pop Culture Trivia the top rated iOS and Android games of Q2 2014

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Wayward Souls and Xac USA: Pop Culture Trivia the top rated iOS and Android games of Q2 2014

In the same way that public game companies announce their financial sales numbers every three months, the Quality Index (Qi) publishes its own quarterly figures.

But instead of assaulting your ears and eyes with talk of operating profit, ROI, and monetisation (brrrr), this here Quality Index quarterly round-up ranks the top 20 best-reviewed iOS and Android games that were released during the period April 1st - June 30th, 2014.

Simple as that.

As for the reviews themselves, the iPhone, iPad, and Android Quality Indexesboast over 650,000 (in total) of them from the world's leading online sources, including 148Apps, Slide To Play, Pocket Gamer, and AppSpy.

Not so-wayward

The iPhone Qi games chart for Q2 throws up a number of starkly beautiful delights that borrow aesthetic and gameplay elements from the past, but forge them into something new.

Take Wayward Souls, which tops the chart for the second quarter. It looks like a classic 16-bit action RPG, but it stirs in random level design, perma-death, and some advanced lighting and physics systems to create something fresh.

Monument Valley, at number two, is the kind of block-shifting puzzler that could have been made at any time over the past 20 year. Yet, its otherworldly art style and twisted Escher-inspired level design make it unique.

Just behind at number three, KeroBlaster looks - and to a certain extent plays - like a long lost action-platformer from the late '80s. But its unorthodox control system and varied gameplay place it firmly in the here and now.

Finally, at number seven, we have VVVVVV. Terry Cavanagh's latest is another retro-looking platformer, but it plays like a sprawling adventure-puzzler, with a challenging gravity-flipping movement system literally turning everything on its head.

Qi's Top 20 iPhone games of Q2 2014

As always, the iPad Qi games chart for Q2 shares a great deal with its iPhone sibling. However, there are several notable differences.

For one thing there's the card-battling colossus that is Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft sitting astride the chart. If you like pitching fantasy-themed card decks into multiplayer skirmishes, there's nothing better.

Further down the list, at number five, is FTL. We always suspected that Subset's interstellar strategy-adventure would convert well to iPad, and so it has proved.

Such a predictably ace conversion was less of a foregone conclusion for indie champ Thomas Was Alone, but we needn't have worried. This stripped back narrative-led platformer made the grade at number six thanks to a well executed virtual control system.

Finally, down at number 14, Broken Age sees the return of gaming genius Tim Schafer with a Kickstarter-funded point-and-click adventure. This is the first of four acts in an unexpectedly warm and gentle narrative, so watch out for more.

Qi's Top 20 iPad games of Q2 2014

With Monument Valley and VVVVVV also scoring well on the Q2 Android Qi games chart, it's been another strong period for Android gaming. But there were some other, unexpected delights too.

Dragon Quest VIII landed at number 11 with an uncommonly thoughtful console conversion from Square Enix. It's the same lush JRPG, but with a portrait view and one-handed controls enabling easy mobile play.

Down at 18, Flappy Golf was born of a silly mash-up idea: take Flappy Bird's unforgiving gameplay and apply it to the crazy courses of Super Stickman Golf 2. It works, too.

Then there's Tales of the Adventure Company at number 15, which takes the Battleship-like grid scouring of Disco Zoo and places it within a roguelike RPG template. Again, it works a treat.

Qi's Top 20 Android games of Q2 2014

Methodology #1

To qualify for a Quality Index rating, a game must have received three or more reviews from the 75+ sites that feed into the Quality Indexes's databases.

Methodology #2

In the event of a 'tie', titles are separated in the first instance by number of reviews - the higher the total, the better.

Should the number of reviews also be identical, the Quality Index rating comes back into play. For, while we only display the average score to one decimal place, the list is generated to further significant figures.

You can always keep up to date with the hottest-reviewed iOS and Android games at the iPhone Quality Index, iPad Quality Index, and the Android Quality Index.

Jon is a consummate expert in adventure, action, and sports games. Which is just as well, as in real life he's timid, lazy, and unfit. It's amazing how these things even themselves out.