Cliff Notes – Best new mobile games on iOS and Android July 2025 round-up
- Persona 5: The Phantom X offers a faithful adaptation of the original game, featuring engaging characters and turn-based combat, despite some monetisation issues through gacha mechanics.
- No Way Home combines twin-stick shooting with RPG elements, providing responsive controls and a humorous narrative, making it a polished mobile experience.
- Kingdom Rush 5: Alliance TD+ enhances the classic tower defence gameplay by removing previous monetisation frustrations, solidifying its status as the definitive version on Apple Arcade.
Best new mobile games on iOS and Android – July 2025 round-up
July is a bumper month for smartphone games, including the all-new Persona 5: The Phantom X for iOS and Android.
Although the summer months are traditionally a period when video game release schedules enter their version of hibernation, on mobile things are still bustling. Supercell in particular have been busy, with a major update for the ailing Boom Beach and an even bigger one for Clash Royale; that adds a new turn-based auto battler game mode based on Clash Mini, a game the developer abandoned last year following a multi-country test launch.
Also out this month is the English subtitled version of Persona 5: The Phantom X, which is far from ruined by the addition of light gacha mechanics; the Apple Arcade version of Kingdom Rush 5: Alliance TD; and a fresh outing in the excellent Meteorfall deck builder series, Rustbowl Rumble.
No Way Home
iOS, free – full game £4.99 (SMG Studios)
Marooning you light years from Earth, No Way Home is a twin stick shooter with role-playing elements, blending exploration and shooting with an addictive drip feed of upgrades for your ship, each of which looks, sounds, and feels satisfyingly consequential.
Appropriately for a game focused on shooting, weapons handling and the feel of piloting your ship are refined and responsive, working perfectly on touchscreen and obviating the need for a Bluetooth controller.
Although the majority of missions boil down to flying somewhere and shooting up a bunch of aliens, the wry script and voice acting help provide a solid distraction, in this polished and hugely entertaining mobile port, that was previously only available to Apple Arcade subscribers.
Score: 8/10
Feed The Deep
iOS, free – full game £6.99 (Luke Muscat)
Borrowing some of its mechanics from the relatively little known Ocean Keeper: Dome Survival, Feed The Deep has you diving into darkened, procedurally generated 2D cave systems in search of a giant beast, and a morsel to drop into its maw.
To do that you’ll need to power up your diver, boosting oxygen tanks, swimming speed, and the ability to drag heavier loads of treasure to the surface with you, using bombs to blast new paths through the subterranean water-filled maze.
With a gradually escalating sense of difficulty and complexity, the sense of progression, as you tease the secrets out of each labyrinth while making sure you don’t accidentally drown or get eaten by squid-like monsters, proves compelling.
Score: 8/10
Persona 5: The Phantom X
iOS & Android, free (Sega)
Already out in open beta for a year in Asia, The Phantom X worldwide release retains the original Japanese voice acting, but now features well translated English subtitles, in a game that retains the style and gameplay of the long running Persona franchise.
It effortlessly blends mundane secondary school shenanigans with more fantastical goings on, while maintaining the series’ mechanically involved turn-based combat, albeit adding gacha microtransactions, which for once feels relatively inoffensive.
The only time its monetisation gets in the way is deliberate level gating that forces you either to pay or endure days of relatively uninspiring grind, a process that’s additionally hampered by the slowly regenerating stamina that governs whether you can collect rewards at the end of levels.
Still, if you love Persona, this supplies a new set of interesting characters and successfully translates the flair of Persona 5 into a portable format, although it also features cross-save functionality with the PC version.
Score: 7/10
Ultimate Chicken Horse
iOS & Android, free trial – full game £9.99 (Noodlecake)
Originally released on PC nearly a decade ago, the wonderfully named Ultimate Chicken Horse is an absurdist party game for two to four players.
Starting on the left of the screen, each player grabs a prop, which could be a door, a platform, a deadly spiked ball, or any number of other comedy objects, to position it on the screen. The aim is to collaborate in building a path to the goal on the right of the screen, while making it as hard as possible for other players to get there with you.
Its fast-paced gameplay and cute hand-animated art style emphasise the humour, but playing against online opponents removes the fun and banter of same-screen couch multiplayer. Although local play is possible, all of you will need to buy the game, cranking the cost up to untenable levels. It’s a great game but one that’s not well suited to mobile.
Score: 6/10
Kingdom Rush 5: Alliance TD+
iOS, included with Apple Arcade subscription (Ironhide Studios)
Ironhide Studios’ Kingdom Rush series is the unchallenged king of tower defence games, letting you build and upgrade turrets while also commanding heroes, spells, and support troops that you can guide individually around the battlefield.
Outside battle you’ll be selecting buffs and new skills for your heroes and towers, and purchasing consumables to get you out of any especially tight spots you might encounter.
The only thing that used to rankle about Kingdom Rush: Alliance TD was its insistence on trying to flog you add-ons – including heroes that would otherwise be inaccessible – even though it was already a paid-for game. The Apple Arcade version naturally nixes all that, instantly making it the definite version of the game.
Score: 8/10
Meteorfall: Rustbowl Rumble
iOS & Android, £6.99 (Slothwerks)
Rustbowl Rumble is the latest deck builder to emerge in the gradually expanding Meteorfall franchise. Like its predecessors, this is a turn-based card battler, but this time fights involve up to four pugilists on each team.
As well as paying careful attention to the turn order, to make sure your attacks, defences, and healing occur in time to be useful, there are also wild cards that change the rules for a single turn, and feats demanded by the crowd, which can bring fairly hefty bonuses if you manage to complete them.
There’s such a huge range of combinations of brawlers, perks, attacks, status effects, and buffs that you’ll keep discovering new approaches to even after many hours of play. A genuinely deep and complex mobile strategy game, with pleasing handcrafted visuals.
Score: 8/10
