Best new mobile games on iOS and Android – October 2026 round-up

Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun Boom – a mobile exclusive banger (Nitro Games) One of the best months for mobile game in years includes Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun Boom and the best version of Mini Motorways yet. It’s not often that the stars align so fully in a single month, but the most recent set of mobile releases is a genuinely vintage crop. There’s the brilliantly realised mobile port of Dave The Diver, which feels perfectly at home on a touchscreen; a new outing for the crown prince of tower defence games, Kingdom Rush; and a fascinating, completely free art piece-meets-mobile game, Sisyphus – The Walk Down. Kingdom Rush 6: Genesis TD iOS & Android, £6.99 (Ironhide Game Studio) The legendary Kingdom Rush returns for the game’s 15th anniversary, with another refined portion of tower defence, complete with the series’ trademarks of upgradeable turrets, supported by individually controllable heroes, troop reinforcements, and spells – along with upgrade trees to add further oomph to your defences. Expert, exclusive gaming analysis Sign up to the GameCentral newsletter for a unique take on the week in gaming, alongside the latest reviews and more. Delivered to your inbox every Saturday morning. As usual, each of its maps comes with its own challenges, including the sudden emergence of new streams of mobs, often inconveniently near the base you’re trying to defend. It’s part of a generally robust level of difficulty, with three star completion ratings a serious undertaking even in normal mode. The fact that it’s a premium game that also features high cost microtransactions has caused some controversy online, but the franchise has been doing that for a while, and although mildly irksome none of its add-ons are essential. Despite that faux pas, the game itself remains first rate. Score: 8/10 Dave The Diver iOS & Android, £10.99 (MINTROCKET) Pixel art is always a popular style on mobile, but few games arrive looking quite as beautiful as Dave The Diver, whose scuba diving and sushi serving antics have just been ported to touchscreen, having previously impressed PC and console and owners. What starts as an immaculately well calibrated 2D diving simulator, whose risk vs. reward structure continually has you pushing the safety envelope, quickly evolves into a whole universe of other things, each seeming to come with its own polished minigame. Although you need precision while firing your speargun and weapons, the speed you need to muster delivering sushi to impatient customers mostly uses the onscreen joystick, making its touch controls more than serviceable, and as with many non-native mobile games there’s a lot of content to get your teeth into. Score: 8/10 Dawnfolk iOS & Android, full game £7.99 (Short Circuit Studio) The land has been overtaken by darkness and your job is to bring light into it, one square at a time, in this tactical game of exploration and management, that has you balancing your people’s needs with resource generation and exploration. That means making sure everyone has enough to eat, places to live, and materials to keep the economy growing, while gradually growing your footprint, upgrading buildings, conducting scientific research, and learning more about what’s happened to the dark enshrouded world. The story mode has a plot and some adventure leanings, although there are also fully formed sandbox and endless modes, where you can apply all your focus to the tactics of expansion without having to worry about scripted events. Dawnfolk has a pleasing homemade feel, delivering an involving 4X style experience. Score: 7/10 Mini Motorways iOS, included with Apple Arcade subscription (Dinosaur Polo Club) There are few current mobile games that have reached solid gold classic status, but Mini Motorways is one. It gets you to hook houses and commercial buildings of the same colour to keep traffic flowing around its minimalist cities. Each is based on a real work equivalent, and while the game originally launched on Apple Arcade in 2019 it’s been regularly updated ever since. This month’s addition is the Asian powerhouse of Singapore, whose mixture of harbour side, plains, and a single winding river tends to lead to unusually high scores. Each level’s slow build climaxes in a bustling colour-coded spaghetti junction of roads, bridges, tunnels, and motorways, which is mesmerising when traffic hits peak flow, the subtle music and sound effects helping keep you in the zone. Its sister game Mini Metro, which is broadly similar but devoted to railways, is also available on Android. Score: 8/10 Sisyphus – The Walk Down iOS, free (Play it Faster Games) – out October 7 In Greek mythology, Sisyphus was a mortal who tricked death and thereby angered the gods, who sentenced him to push a boulder up a hill, which then rolls back down again, for the rest of eternity. French philosopher Albert Camus wrote an essay about his task’s inherent absurdity and was particularly fascinated by the way Sisyphus would feel walking down the hill towards the boulder, realising each time that his efforts had been for nothing. If that doesn’t sound like a typical inspiration for a video game, that’s because Sisyphus – The Walk Down is far from a typical game. Its sub-half hour of narrative accompanied by methodical, unproductive labour creates an almost meditative calm, as you find peace with the futility alongside Sisyphus. Poetic, thought-provoking, and free of charge, we’d recommend the experience to absolutely everyone. Although not yet available for Android, you can play it free online here. Don’t forget headphones, though, which help make the most of its atmosphere and dialogue. Score: N/A Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun Boom iOS & Android, (Nitro Games) Boltgun Boom is a boomer shooter, which is to say it looks and plays much like the original Doom, its blocky visuals and low frame rate looking purposely retro, which is fine in the opening few levels but can make it tough to see what’s going on when the action gets frantic. As in its console and PC big brother, you’re a clomping Ultramarine pursuing your foes through labyrinthine sets of corridors and encampments, gunning them down at a distance or using your chainsaw at close range, the pixellated gore never once threatening to feel either realistic or grotesque. It’s on-screen controls do work but there are too many buttons for it to be comfortable on a mobile screen and their placement is slightly awkward on iPad, making a Bluetooth controller the better option, and essential at higher difficulties. Score: 7/10 Email gamecentral@metro.co.uk, leave a comment below, follow us on Twitter. To submit Inbox letters and Reader’s Features more easily, without the need to send an email, just use our Submit Stuff page here. For more stories like this, check our Gaming page. Arrow MORE: The Naughty Dog news has me optimistic about the PS5 again – Reader’s Feature Arrow MORE: Star Wars: Galactic Racer review – podracing paradise Arrow MORE: Ace Combat 8: Wings Of Theve review – highway to the danger zone GameCentral Sign up for exclusive analysis, latest releases, and bonus community content.