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Quality Index: The week's best iPad games - Skylanders Cloud Patrol, Amoebattle

Critically acclaimed

Quality Index: The week's best iPad games - Skylanders Cloud Patrol, Amoebattle
Every week, Pocket Gamer sister site iPad Quality Index (iPad Qi) highlights the newest games to make a critical splash in the cool, seductive waters of the iPad pool.

Grabbing scores and opinions from all corners of the web, including from 148Apps, AppGamer, and AppSpy, Qi answers all your iPad-related questions before you've even asked them.

Today, we're going to focus on two new contenders vying to be crowned king of your iPad. Both are worthy, but do they have what it takes to win your head, your heart, and your wallet?

Toy story

Blasting its way through waves of trolls and into this week's iPad Qi Top 10 is action figure tie-in Skylanders Cloud Patrol.

For a game based on a line of children's toys, Activision's creature-iffic arcade shooter has surprised everyone by not being completely awful.

The aim is to rid the Skylands of pesky trolls by tapping or swiping targets to fire off artillery rounds. Completing goals and building combos are the keys to advancing through levels and unlocking more Skylanders.

Also, if you happen to own some of the toys, you can import their virtual avatars into the game by using the appropriate web code.
Skylanders Cloud Patrol certainly impressed 148Apps's reviewer, who deemed it "a shining example of how a big license can jump onto the platform".

Cellular levels

Meanwhile, inventive RTS Amoebattle is successfully waging a microscopic war on its Qi chart competition.

Doing away with the gunmetal mechs and historical settings we often associate with the genre, Grab Games has opted to put you in charge of a group of tiny alien organisms fighting for survival in a colourful but hostile landscape.

Rather than 'building' troops, you must mutate and replicate your miniature fighting force, allowing you to - literally - divide and conquer.

The folks over at Gamezebo found Amoebattle the perfect antidote to poorly implemented RTS conversions, calling this iPad original "a true gem of a title".

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

Video Editor

Enchanted from a young age by colour, motion, and sound, James divides his time between obsessing over all things digital and lamenting the death of VHS. He looks forward to a future where machines rule the earth and all political disputes are solved via one round of rock-paper-scissors.