What's this all about? Why it's the weekly Quality Index (Qi) round-up. If you hadn’t already realised, the Quality Index is one of Pocket Gamer’s many sister sites.

In many respects, Qi is a lot like Metacritic for iPhone games, collating everybody's opinions in one handy resource. It’s managed to accumulate over 100,000 reviews already, and shows no sign of stopping any time soon.

Every Friday, this column takes a look at the games that have made the biggest critical splash in the world of iPhone gaming over the past seven days.

So, let's dive in.

Creepy crawlies

Scurrying past the rest of the competition to the top of the Qi leaderboard this week is Image and Form's Anthill: Tactical Trail Defense, a strategy title that currently holds a sweet 8.3 Qi rating.
Utilising the basic structure of a tower defence title, this bug-filled app sees you drawing pheromone trails with your finger in order to destroy ladybirds and drag their carcasses back to your abode for a spot of lunch.
Slide to Play praised its casual approach to strategic action: "While the game isn’t exactly a full-on RTS, it’s a nearly perfect compromise between casual fun and strategic action. Combine that with the superb presentation and Anthill is definitely worth the download."

Pixel Ranger

Also shooting up the Quality Index chart this week is Chillingo's Pixel Ranger, a colourful shooter in which you take on the role of an 8-bit cowboy.

Instead of facing off against other gun-toting Wild West explorers, you'll be tackling over 70 alien-like enemies, each with different attack patterns.
148Apps thought Pixel Ranger was one of the best games in its genre: "When it comes to sci-fi/western mash-up arcade games, I can’t think of a better example than Pixel Ranger. It’s just simply…endearing. And fun, of course."

You can get the up-to-date information about which games are reviewing best over at the Quality Index.