Released back at the start of January, Super Crate Box ($1.99, Universal) remains one of the most exciting iOS games of the year, with its no-frills design and simple concept: collect as many crates as possible without touching an enemy. Luckily, each collected box snags you a fresh weapon, keeping you ever on your toes as you dodge, weave, and survive while the total climbs.

Recalling the classic snake game best known for existing on millions of ancient cell phones, Hard Lines ($0.99, Universal) molds the formula into a few fresh experiences. In the standard survival mode, you'll attempt to extend your snake while cutting off competitors, while other options give you time limits or focus solely on bashing foes and eating their resulting bits. Brutal.

SNK's arcade classic Metal Slug 3 ($6.99, Universal) finally hit the App Store just last month, and despite prior excellent series entries, it's the first traditional iteration on iOS. It's still a blast a dozen years after its original debut, as you'll run and gun through a series of stages while enemy soldiers and zombies wander about. Physical controls are a big boost to this one.

Wrapped up in a sleek pixel-art design with an excellent chiptune soundtrack, Velocispider ($1.99, Universal) delivers an entertaining arcade-style shooter where you'll blast waves of robotic sharks and other odd creatures. The game looks like a pretty standard affair, but it's bursting with style and humor, with some serious challenge on the back end. It's great with the iCade Mobile, as well.

Good luck naming something more horrifying than a giant, bloodthirsty worm that erupts from the Earth and vaults through the air, eating anything in its path. Luckily, Super Mega Worm ($1.99, Universal) takes a more whimsical route with that scenario, thanks to great retro-stylized visuals and amusing humans, animals, and vehicles that you'll gobble up along the way.

GoatUp ($1.99, Universal) is the only game about a jumping, grazing, and mating goat that we've seen on the App Store, let alone anywhere, though it's plenty fun beyond its oddball premise. As the screen scrolls upwards, you'll continue leaping to stay alive, all while kissing other goats, collecting icons, and dodging enemies along the way. It's weird, sure, but also surprisingly wonderful.

Many of the games on this list are either old arcade favorites or styled as such -- appropriately so, considering the peripheral. But if you like a bit of stealth with your action, give Dynamite Jack (iPad, $2.99) a download. You'll sneak around corridors in search of items, all while evading patrolling guards; plus, you can create and share your own devious missions.

You'll need all the help you can get surviving what's essentially the worst hailstorm ever in The Blocks Cometh ($1.99, Universal), wherein you'll attempt to stay atop the accumulating mess of boxes raining in from the heavens. It's playable in both portrait and landscape orientations, and was just updated to add iCade support -- plus the hero from Velocispider is a hidden character!

Like Metal Slug 3, Blazing Star ($2.99, Universal) is another old Neo Geo favorite that just got an iOS revival, though it's a much different (and less expensive) affair. Blazing Star is a horizontal shoot-em-up set across a handful of stages, with a selection of monstrous bosses and all of the awkwardly-translated charm you remember from the 1998 original.

Surprise! It may be the token iCade game, but there's a good reason for that. Atari's Greatest Hits (Free, Universal) packs in 100 retro releases on both the home and arcade sides, and while some are simply variants of others, that's still a lot of classic gameplay that's absolutely best played with an iCade. Similar apps are also available for the Sinclair ZX Spectrum and Commodore 64, as well!