Orbit and Justice Monsters Five: this week’s top mobile games

Welcome to Gearburn’s Mobile Game Picks of the Week, a weekly series in which Hadlee takes a look at the latest, most entertaining, or time-consuming mobile games on portable screens.

Have a hankering for more mobile gaming goodness? Don’t fret, because we’ve got a few noteworthy titles as usual this week.

Personally? I’ve been playing Orbit: Playing With Gravity and, strangely enough, The Hangman. Check these and three more titles below.

Line Defense (free – iOS)

What happens if you take Missile Command and add some Arkanoid? You get this interesting title, spotted by Touch Arcade.

Line Defense has you protecting cities from alien strikes, but you’ll need to swipe to create walls, being used to deflect attacks back to the enemy. It’s a novel concept indeed.

Line Defense is free on iOS, but the developer says an Android version will be available “very soon”.

Justice Monsters Five (free – Android, iOS)

Final Fantasy XV fans will be happy to see Justice Monsters Five being released in a few countries, so what’s it about?

The title is basically the pinball minigame from FFXV, being ported to mobile devices. Throw in a flashy, comic book style and RPG elements and it might stand out from the crowd upon widespread release.

It’s worth noting that it’s only available in a few countries (SA isn’t one) so you’ll want to sideload or switch to a US iTunes account.

Space Marshals 2 (R120 – iOS)

It’s rather pricey for a mobile game, but Space Marshals 2 is a solid follow-up to the excellent original.

Much like the first game, Space Marshals 2 is an isometric cover shooter, effectively being a space western of sorts. You’ll be tossing grenades, accruing all manner of weapons and firing from cover in this franchise.

Space Marshals 2 ups the ante with takedowns, silenced weapons and better visuals. Expect an Android release in “the fall”.

The Hangman (free – Android)

There are loads of hangman-type games on mobile devices, but this one might be one of the best picks of the lot.

The Hangman offers simple but polished aesthetics, and a slew of words to guess (along with their Spanish and French translations). In a cool move, there are a few dozen game modes to unlock as well, although this requires an increasingly large amount of virtual currency.

Speaking of currency, the game also employs a cooldown timer for lives, but other than that, it’s a fun experience.

Orbit: Playing With Gravity (free – Android, iOS)

There’s something really satisfying about playful orbital mechanics in video games (see Astra), and Orbit: Playing With Gravity scratches that same itch.

The game is a minimalistic and playful planetary simulator, as you fling planets into orbit around black holes and all sorts of other celestial objects. It quickly gets tough though, so you’ll want to pay special attention to your trajectories.

Our only wish is that there was an obvious in-app purchase (if any at all) to remove ads — there’s a donation button but no mention of ad removal.