Due to the ever-changing nature of Apple's app store, many titles which deserve to be held aloft and showered with adulation sadly - for one reason or another - slip through the net. So, with that in mind, I'm going to highlight some cracking games which have found a permanent place, either on my iPhone or iPad, which are well worth checking out.

Sorcery!

When I was younger, my brother and I used to play a lot of Ian Livingstone and Steve Jackson's Fighting Fantasy game books. Armed with pencils, rubbers and dice, we explored Firetop Mountain, Deathtrap Dungeon, the Forest of Doom and the Island of the Lizard King. We tried not to cheat but sometimes the temptation was too hard to resist and - occasionally - multiple sneaky dice rolls were made in an attempt to bolster our attack score.

Despite my love of the original Fighting Fantasy books, an offshoot of the series stood out from the rest - Steve Jackson's Sorcery! Presented in four parts, these books enthralled me and gave me many happy hours of adventuring. What made this series special was the inclusion of spells and the incredible illustrations throughout by John Blanche. Fast forward to the present day, and developer Inkle have released the original gamebook - The Shamutanti Hills on iOS and it's a gem.

Rather than play it safe and churn out a standard page turning app, Inkle have created something truly special and the presentation and attention to detail throughout is simply stunning. Not only does the game look utterly gorgeous, it plays incredibly well. Combat isn't a case of rolling a couple of virtual dice either - Inkle have crafted a touch-based system which allows the player to choose between defensive styles and all-out attacks on the fly, while the magic system is beautifully implemented. John Blanche's illustrations are all here, but Inkle have also added a scrolling 3D map, added a wonderful soundtrack and created environmental effects which really add to the atmosphere.

Sorcery! is a fantastic app and I really can't wait for the remaining chapters to be released. One of my favourite iOS games this year.

Gentlemen!

I'm sure you'll agree that no iPad title is complete without a deadly game of brinksmanship involving two rather dapper Victorian gents, who like to use homing pigeons and devious methods to achieve their nefarious goals.

Enter, Gentlemen! the latest game by Edinburgh-based studio Lucky Break - the team behind the excellent Bad Hotel and Wave Trip.

Gentlemen! is a two-player game and takes elements from Super Crate Box and the gravity-defying antics from VVVVVV and throws them together to create a frantic face-off across beautiful stylised locations. Various modes are included and all involve the bowler-hatted duo scrambling around amidst chaotic scenes in the hunt for an imaginative arsenal of weapons.

It's not all about taking advantage of lucky breaks - see what I did there? - as tactics come into play and outwitting your opponent is made all the sweeter as they are sitting right across from you. Great stuff and another brilliant game from the talented team at Lucky Break.

Lineable

Another iOS game with a Scottish angle, this time from Physmo, the team behind Ghostracer, Seaglass and Mos Speedrun - which are all well worth a closer look if you haven't already.

On the surace it's another match-three type game, but Lineable has a twist - a long snaking one at that. By tracing three or more connected pipes, the player clears spaces on a tiled grid. So far so good, but what makes Lineable really interesting is that making and deleting longer lines gives you extra goodies such as extra time, coins, multiplier bonuses and ultimately a bigger score. Collected coins can then be be spent on a variety of power ups, which can be activated as you play against the game's tight time limit. It's incredibly addictive and climbing up the leaderboards brings a huge sense of achievement. It's free so there's really no reason not to check out this cracking puzzler. I'm currently top of the leaderboard with a score of 5,842,880 - see if you can beat me this weekend.

Ending

Aaron Steed's minimalistic puzzler is rather special, and fuses an old school Roguelike visual charm with maddeningly addictive brainteasers. The aim is simply to guide your character to the exit, but in your way are obstacles and hammers which will gladly splat your little @ sign into a dozen pixels with one careless swipe.

Working out a safe path through the levels in a set number of moves starts at a sedate pace, but make progress through the monochrome levels, and things start to get decidedly harder. To add to the challenge, there's a sprawling dungeon crawl mode, and if you ever get tired of the levels, you can even create your own. Great value and perfect for short, sharp bursts.