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

Tactical witch combat, medieval town building, and a cat-themed role-player are amongst the most interesting smartphone games this month.

As the games industry continues its traditional summer lull, touchscreen gaming continues as if it was Christmas. This month’s releases include the mobile ports of Middle Ages city builder Townsmen: A Kingdom Rebuilt, as well as Beat Hazard Arcade – which uses your music collection to procedurally generate a 2D shoot ‘em-up. Plus, there’s the latest addition to Game Stew’s long running Tower Of Fortune series.

Witchcraft!

iOS & Android, £2.99 (Mantita Games)

Witchcraft! is the touchscreen version of a solo card strategy game, that gives you control over a coven of witches with a set of discrete missions to undertake on behalf of local villagers, whose lives you must preserve.

That’s no easy task given the difficulty of many of the randomly chosen tasks, your witches’ powers varying depending on when they’re played, which other witches are on the board, and whether you choose to reveal them, removing them from play for the rest of the round, or let them work in secret.

It’s extremely complex, with decisions having knock-on effects not just for your current mission but also potential future challenges, although having your phone set everything up and apply a rule set that seems to have endlessly complex networks of buffs and bonuses, makes this far more accessible than it is on a physical board.

Score: 8/10

Townsmen: A Kingdom Rebuilt

iOS & Android, free – unlock all maps £2.49 and scenarios £2.49 (Handy Games)

Townsmen is an isometric medieval city builder, that has you reconstructing dilapidated villages into thriving towns, making sure their populations’ need are met, along with ensuring town guards protect against bandits, and firewatch prevents conflagrations.

As is traditional for the genre, you’ll be managing increasingly intricate networks of dependencies, and working your way past bottlenecks using your town’s labour force to build, operate, and maintain various pieces of Dark Ages machinery.

There is a sandbox mode, which starts you in differing landscapes whose size and difficulty you can select, but the meat of the game is scenario based, where you take on an existing town with a problem to solve.

Its visuals might look friendly, but it’s a rigorous challenge, the balancing act between keeping your populace happy, managing their various appetites, and not going bust turning out to be a significant acquired skill.

Score: 7/10

Meow Knights: Idle RPG

iOS & Android, free (Monster Planet Corp)

This slick idle game features charming cartoon cats in armour, their increasingly powerful attacks auto-slaying legions of enemies and bosses, the game getting on with everything from battles to deciding which loot to keep, leaving you mutely following along in its robotic wake, collecting rewards when buttons flash to tell you they’re ready.

It looks great, has jaunty music, and progress is initially swift, but it doesn’t take long to notice that your own humble button pressing is the real inhibiting factor, and if those few dexterity and skill free interactions were also automated, things would work even better.

That slightly depressing realisation doesn’t add to Meow Knights’ longevity, leaving you feeling like a spare part rather than a managing director, even if its high production values prop up a facade of colourful good fun.

Score: 5/10

Beat Hazard Arcade

iOS & Android, free – full game £5.99 (Cold Beam Games)

Beat Hazard Arcade is a twin stick 2D shooter that uses music from your phone’s library to fuel procedurally generated waves of invaders, with each song creating its own unique level to fight through.

The sounds trigger the appearance of attacking enemies, which leave behind power-ups when they die, letting you gradually increase your ship’s firepower as you progress through each song, the aim being to complete an entire track. Doing that unlocks a choice of new ships that are also created from the music, the twist being that everyone gets the same ones, so a tune that gives you an especially choice reward ship will give the same one to a friend completing that track.

Without any progression between songs, things start to feel a bit formless after a while, and there’s something about the sparkling, strobing visuals that can make threats and buffs hard to distinguish, but if you’re looking for a quirky diversion, and one that features easily the best soundtrack of all time, the free version of Beat Hazard Arcade lets you see exactly what you’re getting.

Score: 6/10

Ringdown: Switchboard Puzzle

iOS, £3.99 (Ironic Thought)

Presented with an old school wooden switchboard that takes up your whole phone screen, your job is to connect incoming calls to the right internal phone line by dragging coloured leads and plugging them into the correct numbered sockets.

As you play, calls come in more rapidly and with shorter deadlines before they expire, forcing you to work quickly, prioritising high paying callers, who also have the shortest fuses, the whole thing becoming increasingly hectic as the calls rain in.

The interface works nicely, and is well suited to a mobile screen, but the switchboard process itself has too few surprises, settling for adding more lines and making you connect them more quickly, which doesn’t feel like enough to sustain interest.

Score: 5/10