Unless you’re completely new to gaming you’ll have heard of Among Us, the game of teamwork and betrayal set in the icy depths of space. A real-time strategy game comprising short rounds, you play either as a crewmate trying to safely complete a mission, or a randomly selected alien impostor bent on sabotage and murder.

As a crewmate, you must complete menial tasks around the ship, keeping an eye open for potential saboteurs while you try to avoid being killed or framed by the alien(s) among you. As an imposter, your job is to avoid detection while variously bumping people off or rearranging important bits of wiring. When someone thinks they’ve found the impostor, everyone votes whether to eject them into space – all too often it ends up being an innocent crewmate.
It’s a simple setup, but the joy and depth comes from working with others to figure out who’s smashing up the reactors or messing with the navigation. As the impostor, there’s a dark satisfaction in socially manipulating other players, and a guilty pleasure as innocent crewmates are frogmarched to the airlock.

Be warned, however, that Among Us can offer up reminders of just how awful internet multiplay can be. While fiendish opponents are part of the fun, all too often you’ll see people leaving the game because they didn’t get their preferred role of impostor or crewmate. Pick a bad time to play and it can spoil the appeal, as full games dwindle to a handful of players once the roles are dished out.

Still, you can always host your own local or internet game, playing with friends only, or with rules you set. While it doesn’t offer much depth or progression, Among Us can be a great break from the norm of gaming.

Kingdom Rush is the original title in a popular series of tower defence (TD) games. Like other TD games, the basic idea is that bad guys want to get from point A to point B, and you must build weapons and defences to stop them.

It starts out easy, with a couple of goblins wandering along a forest path. Build a barracks, chuck in a bombard and you’ll be fine. Before you know it you’re knee-deep in the undead, upgrading mages, artillery and archers to keep back the hordes.

Several things make this game stand out. First up, it’s a quality title, with a decent story taking you through multiple terrains, and introducing you to loads of hideous beasts. Secondly, it’s utterly addictive, enticing you back to beat your rating and re-try levels on ever harder modes. And boy, is it hard, with some levels decidedly challenging even on the supposed beginners’ difficulty setting.

Kingdom Rush is also remarkably generous for a game that is essentially free. Admittedly it’s a few years old now, but all the levels, units and gameplay are available and free of ads. Only the hero room – where you choose a powerful hero to help your campaign – and the shop where you buy in-game items offer any purchases, and they’re not necessary to complete the game.

Offering hours of addictive gameplay, Kingdom Rush makes train journeys or damp afternoons pass in moments. And when you do finally finish it, there are plenty of sequels to choose from.

Talking of endless games, Alto’s Adventure has you snowboarding down a limitless mountain in pursuit of flighty llamas. It might not sound a gripping premise, but you’ll soon get absorbed in performing tricks like jumps, backflips and grinds, all by simply tapping the screen.

In game mode, this can be a challenge – particularly when the in-game clock approaches nighttime and everything gets dark. It’s all too easy to smack into a rock and end your run. That’s annoying enough, but it usually also means you’ll have to sit through a video ad as punishment. There are a few ways around this. You can master the game such that you never see them, or unlock it and enjoy it ad-free for just £2. The other alternative is to engage Zen mode. Here there’s no score and no challenge, and you simply get to dust yourself off and jump back on after a fall.

This makes Alto’s Adventure near perfect, both for when you want the excitement of nailing tricks and other challenges, and for when you just want to sit back and enjoy a chilled soundtrack and the gorgeous scenery. And should you tire of either, you can head to the dunes with the sequel, Alto’s Odyssey.

Even if you’ve never played a mobile game, the chances are you’ve heard of Pokémon GO. Originally launched in 2016, the game became a phenomenon thanks to its successful combination of augmented reality (AR) and the collectability of Pokémon.

The game makes you a Pokémon trainer, with the goal to find, capture, train and battle Pokémon – the imaginary animals already popularised by decades of games, cartoons, trading cards and other toys. But rather than uncover Pokémon through virtual adventures in the game itself, you find them by exploring the real world through the lens of Pokémon GO.

Open up the app and your character is represented on a map that shows nearby wild Pokémon and features including Pokémon Gyms – where teams of trainers can battle it out in king of the hill style play. You’ll see Pokémon nearby, and catch them via a cool AR mode where the creature is superimposed on the view from your phone’s camera. Capture them by flicking Pokéballs until you get just the right angle – although some Pokémon put up more of a fight than others.

It might all sound a bit academic, but the end result is a game that encourages you to get out into your community and track down and capture an ever-growing collection of Pokémon. You might see advertising from local businesses, but you’ll also see Gyms located in local places of interest – you might even discover things about your area you didn’t know.

For dedicated players the real appeal is tracking down rare and powerful Pokémon, and getting your own Pokémon to evolve into more powerful fighters. But even casual Pokémon GO players should find plenty to reward them and keep them coming back.