5 Hidden Gems Adventure Games for iPhone and iPad for Gamers
Open the App Store charts and you will see the same big adventure games again and again. They deserve their fame, but they are not the whole story. Some of the most beautiful adventures on iPhone and iPad sit quietly further down the list, made by small teams with no marketing budget. They are easy to miss, and that is exactly why they are worth finding.
The five games below are genuine hidden gems, and the numbers back up the claim. The most reviewed game here has around 11,000 ratings, and the least reviewed has only a few hundred, while chart-topping adventures routinely pass a million. Yet every one of these five holds an average rating above 4.4 stars, and two of them have won Apple Design Awards. All five are complete games with no ads in the way.
Photo by Andrei Tanase on Pexels. This is a stock photo used as an illustration, not a screenshot from any of the games in this article.
1. Old Man's Journey
Old Man's Journey, from Broken Rules, is a soul-searching adventure about an old man travelling across hills and valleys to answer a letter from his past. The story is told entirely through imagery, with no words at all, and you shape the landscape itself, raising and lowering hills to clear a path. It costs $4.99, is rated 4+, and has only around 2,300 ratings, which is tiny for a game that won an Apple Design Award.
Why it is worth downloading: it can be finished in one quiet evening, and it stays with you afterwards in a way few mobile games manage.
2. The Gardens Between
The Gardens Between, from The Voxel Agents, follows two best friends, Arina and Frendt, as they fall into dreamlike island gardens filled with objects from their childhood. You bend time backwards and forwards to solve puzzles and light up constellations. It costs $4.99, is rated 4+, and the listing states plainly that there is no internet required, no data tracking, no in-app purchases and no ads.
Why it is worth downloading: it won an Apple Design Award and Apple's Mac Game of the Year, yet it still has fewer than 4,000 ratings. It is calm, clever and completely free of the usual mobile annoyances.
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3. Gorogoa
Gorogoa, from Annapurna Interactive, is a puzzle adventure told through beautifully hand-drawn panels that you arrange, stack and combine to solve puzzles. There is almost no text: the story unfolds through the pictures themselves, as a boy follows a mysterious creature through a strange and lovely world. It costs $4.99, is rated 4+, and was named the 2018 iPad Game of the Year, yet it still has only around 2,300 ratings.
Why it is worth downloading: the panel mechanic is unlike anything else on the App Store, and the game is short enough to finish in a single sitting.
4. The Almost Gone
The Almost Gone, from Playdigious, is an award-winning narrative puzzle game that places you between life and death, alone in a quiet suburban world. You explore beautifully rendered dioramas, from an ordinary sitting room to an abandoned hospital, searching for memories that explain what happened to you. It costs $3.99, is rated 12+, and with only around 640 ratings it is the least known game on this list.
Why it is worth downloading: the story was written by award-winning author Joost Vandecasteele, and its five chapters build into a genuinely moving mystery.
5. Tiny Room Story: Town Mystery
Tiny Room Story: Town Mystery, from Kiary Games, casts you as a private detective who returns to the small town of Redcliff after a letter from your father asks for help. The town is completely empty, and you have to find out where everyone has gone. You rotate fully 3D rooms, find clues and solve puzzles to push the investigation forward. It is free to download, rated 4+, and won Best Mobile Game at the Indie Prize Awards.
Why it is worth downloading: the rotating-room puzzles feel fresh even now, and the detective story keeps you tapping just one more room.
Tips for Finding and Downloading Hidden Gems Safely
Hidden gems are hard to find by definition, so a little care goes a long way. Always download from the official App Store listing, never from a link on a random website or a third-party store, and check that the developer name matches the name in the article. Read the price line carefully: most of the games here are one-time purchases with no in-app purchases, but always confirm that on the listing before you pay. Look at the age rating and the update history too: a game updated recently is a good sign that it still works well on current iPhones and iPads. And give a small game a chance even if it has few reviews, because a few thousand thoughtful ratings can mean more than a million hurried ones.
Big games will always be there, but the ones you remember years later are often the quiet ones. Start with any game on this list, play it without distractions, and see how much a small team can do with a good idea.
Source: App Store — Old Man's Journey — https://apps.apple.com/us/app/old-mans-journey/id1204902987 ; The Gardens Between — https://apps.apple.com/us/app/the-gardens-between/id1371965583 ; Gorogoa — https://apps.apple.com/us/app/gorogoa/id1269225754 ; The Almost Gone — https://apps.apple.com/us/app/the-almost-gone/id1496612088 ; Tiny Room Story: Town Mystery — https://apps.apple.com/us/app/tiny-room-story-town-mystery/id1459520173
