Enter the Gungeon, Cat Quest III, and more. The Games I've Been Playing - August 2025

 

Each month, I want to share some less formal thoughts about the games I've been playing and my impressions of them.

As an individual person covering a storefront that is shoveling titles onto its store each day, I have time to dip my toes into a lot of it, but I can't always spend the time needed for a review. With recaps like this, I can give some games their due, even if I can't get a full review. I can also add additional thoughts to things I did decide to write about or even honor older games I just decided to back to for some reason or another. 

XCOM 2 Collection ($14.99)

  I took a trip back into XCOM 2 Collection mostly because I worked on an update to the 5 best turn-based strategy games list on our site, and guess what? This game definitely still deserves to be on that list. In coming back to it I even unearthed some additional tactical considerations I hadn't made on earlier playthroughs. There's just so much there, and it all is really satisfying. Definitely still worth playing in 2025.  

Click here to read our XCOM 2 Collection review on Pocket Gamer

 

Invisible, Inc. ($4.99)

  Along similar lines, Klei's masterful turn-based strategy based around cyberpunk-themed heist work is still also one of the best turn based experiences on mobile. It's a bummer this game hasn't been updated with widescreen support or the DLC that released on other platforms, but even so, there's still nothing quite like it.  

Click here to read more about Invisible, Inc. on Pocket Gamer

 

Enter the Gungeon (Free)

  You can read me wax poetic about how I fell in love with this game over this past month in my review. I think there's some magical balance developers can make between making a game a surmountable challenge while also throwing in some annoying bullshit you can't really account for, and if you get it just right you not only come out with something that remains fun to play, but something completely unforgettable, super replayable, and oddly funny. Dodge Roll really nailed it here.  

Click here to read our Enter the Gungeon review

 

MicroMacro: Downtown Detective (Free)

  It's been a long time since I've fired up a game that has caught so many other people's eyes and attention like MicroMacro: Downtown Detective, which is impressive considering it is a game in black and white and uses only still images. I think the concept of its mystery-solving-via-photo-hunt is just so instantly recognizable and invites backseat playing so readily that it makes for something that my family likes to hunch over my shoulder to get in on the fun. The concept here is so smart and well-executed that I'm not sure I'll have much appetite for more standard photo hunts moving forward.  

Click here to read our MicroMacro: Downtown Detective review

melotap ($3.99)

  I am slowly working my way through melotap because it's one of those games that tears me pretty dramatically in two directions. On one side, its simple rhythm game setup and mechanics are wonderful. I am endlessly frustrated by rhythm games that focus too much on technical execution to the point that it doesn't really feel like you are doing anything particularly musical, and melotap focuses on letting you feel the music and serve up the primary melodies and rhythms of its song catalog. On the other, I wish the game had some better navigation tools, did song previews, let you see how long songs are before you start them, and had a way to play with bluetooth headphones. I tried to play this game on a flight and the delay from my earbuds made it impossible.  

Click here to read our melotap review

Cat Quest III (Free)

  I played a lot of great games last month, and Cat Quest III might be the best of the lot. It is cute and charming while also cramming in a lot of secrets and challenges, all without feeling like it's withholding or compromising on its vision. It's a game I look forward to picking back up to enjoy fully all over again in the near future, perhaps this time with a co-op partner.  

Click here to read our Cat Quest III review