Instead of getting a PS4, Xbone, or Wii-U, my christmas present to myself was my very first smart phone.

So far it's been incredible and I have been repeatedly hitting myself for not doing this far, far earlier. But, being my most respected gaming community, I was wondering what the people here consider the best games to download on the iPhone. I'm fine with paying a little bit of money for the good stuff.

I haven't played it yet but infinity blade 2 is free right now. http://www.ign.com/prime/promo/infinity-blade-2-free

The big craze kind of came and went but I had fun with asynchronous multiplayer games like Drawsomething, Words with Friends, and Letter Press. Of course also you're obligated to check out Super Drake Tracker.

Carmageddon . Seriously its carmageddon on a phone. Not a big ass beige box with a CRT , a phone. A mobile phone.

The ones I still have installed are Rayman Jungle Run, Plague Inc, 10,000,000 and Injustice because I'm going to get that stupid Superman outfit....

If you like card games, Ascension is pretty fun. I play it a ton. Star Command and Kingdom Rush: Frontiers are both quite fun too. There's always the staples like Bejeweled (the mining mode is the BEST), and Super Stickman Golf. Ridiculous Fishing is mad addictive. Ski Safari and Organ Trail are also high up on my list. Organ Trail is zombie apocalypse Oregon Trail.

EVERYTHING BY KAIROSOFT. EVERYTHING. Especially Game Dev Story, Dungeon Village, Mega Mall Story, and Grand Prix Story. Cafe Nipponica and Oh! Edo Towns are pretty dope too. Pocket League Story is also fun. So yeah, pretty much everything made by Kairosoft is great. Crazy addicting too.

OH SNAP THEY HAVE A NEW GAME WHERE YOU RAISE RACE HORSES. GOODBYE FOR TWO WEEKS

i bought XCOM on my iPhone because i think it is a great game and want to support the developer by buying it on every platform. I have never played it. that was my only essential iPhone game purchase.

Tiny Wings

Super Hexagon

not really any essential games... but i do play Puzzle & Dragons more often than any others.

There's tons of essential games, like:

Tiny Wings

Fruit Ninja

Cut the Rope

Flight Control

Beat Sneak Bandit

10000000

Catch-22

ZONR

Ghost trick for sure.

I would also see about getting phoniex wright.

I also second 10,000,000

Puzzle and Dragons - has grabbed me as a free to play energy based game, get a team of monsters and train them up to fight in dungeons using a match 3 board to attack / heal, a game like this I find good for just firing out before you sleep.

The Infinity Blade series still looks impressive and though quite simple can keep you entertained for a good long time as you try to get the full weird story out of it. tap left/right to dodge enemies attacks and strike back by comboing slashes of your finger across the enemy in a one on one duel.

Kairosoft games - are fantastic but you need only 1 or 2 of them as they're the same formula repeated with a different them, they're either a take on game dev story or a take on hot springs story. in the game dev style one you set up a company that produces products and hires employees with stats that help contribute to how good your product is, in the hot springs story style games you set up some kind of store and then kit out your new hot spring / mall / floating space station with buildings to accommodate needs and profit.

The Room - is a wonderfully eerie puzzle game that just looks great even on the small screen of the Iphone, with some good headphones on you can lose yourself in it for a good 2 hours, short yes but a good experience.

Home - is also a creepy ride that despite the fact that I've only put 10-20 minutes into seems very intriguing and well worth a look if you enjoy the silent hill 'demakes' like last survivor. A very simple control scheme and it seems to focus on setting.

Super Hexagon - Is a simple idea done brilliantly and can be enjoyably difficult but not in a frustrating way. simply tap either side of the screen to move a small marker around a central point to avoid walls as they encroach on the centre of the screen.

Letterpress - If you have someone to play it with is a good bet. Plays like turn based boggle but by using a letter you score with that letter and tag it your colour, surround a letter with your colour and you'll lock it down so your opponent can't score using that letter. the sort of game that you can play a round in 20 minutes or over weeks.

That's some that come to my mind immediately, tried to give an idea of what each game entails but keep it short. I've unfortunately no experience with the experience style games of year walk and device 6 so someone else can speak to those better. Hope you find some good suggestions.

I mean Angry Birds is pretty essential if you haven't played it elsewhere. Outside of that the Infinity Blade games are surprisingly deep and fun. I have spent more time with Tiny Wings than should be allowed. It's a great game to play on a bus or while waiting for a doctor or something. Super simple but super addictive. Kingdom Rush is great. Brad did a quick look of both of them if you want to check them out. Fruit Ninja and Jetpack Joyride from Halfbrick Studios are both fun. And there are a handful of good racing games out there as well if you don't mind dealing with tilt controls or are willing to shell out for an actual controller add-on.

I like NimbleBit and Ravenous Games