It’s 2013, finally! Still no personal rocket packs and flying cars for everyone, but at least we have our iPhones. This month, we also have quirky minimalist designs that could have come from IKEA, a couple snazzy new racing games, epic battles, endless running, and new fuzzy mascots. So, without further delay, here are GameRadar’s picks for the best iOS games of January 2013.

Hundreds is the latest game to use a beautifully minimal sense of style to create a simple, yet involving challenge. The object is simply to expand bouncing dots until the numbers inside them add up to 100. That’s it, yet the diversity of levels, obstacles, and challenge never seem to end.

Hundreds comes from the developer of Canabalt and while it’s a completely different game, the sense of style and easy-to-grasp gameplay shines through. The game sports a terrifically low-key presentation that belies an amazingly devious challenge. The dots turn red when touched, and can’t touch anything else while red. Since there’s usually a horde of bouncing obstacles on the screen at once, perfect timing and creativity are the secret to reaching a score of 100. It’s a creative and intelligent game that isn’t quite like anything we’ve seen.

There have been a few sci-fi racers on the iPhone, but Repulze deserves special mention for its terrific sense of style. The developers clearly spent a lot of hours playing WipeOut on the PlayStation and it shows. The backgrounds have a nice futuristic feel, the tracks ranging from urban sprawls to the Martian landscape are diverse, and the simple controls are responsive and tight.

There’s a clever polarity aspect to the gameplay requiring players to power up their ship by flying through either red or green force fields. Fly through the correct color three times and earn a turbo. Choose the wrong color and the ship acts as if it hit a brick wall. The biggest problem with the game is that it’s all essentially just a time trial mode—there’s no actual AI competition or multiplayer. More modes are on the way, but as is, this is a remarkably good looking and fast racer with some distinctive elements.

Price: Free
Platform: Universal

After earning hordes of fans and spawning endless clones, one of the original endless racing games is back. Bigger and better than ever, Temple Run 2 doesn’t even attempt to break the mold set by the first game. Right from the start, this sequel is instantly identifiable and playable for anyone who played Temple Run.

The graphics have been updated however and look great. The gameplay is slick, playable, and frantically fun. There are a whole slew of new upgrades and reasons to earn coins (or buy more). As far as never-ending running games go, Temple Run 2 expands and improves upon the original just enough to retain its crown as king of the genre.

Price: $4.99
Platform: Universal

Ubisoft is on a roll when it comes to iPhone and iPad games. Rayman already made a smooth jump from console to iPhone and now the publisher has brought over the long-running Might & Magic series. Might & Magic: Clash of Heroes is a strange mash-up of match-3 and strategy that works amazingly well. Originally released on the Nintendo DS several years ago and then revamped to HD for consoles and PC, the game is a perfect fit for powerful touch screen devices like the iPhone.

Using familiar fantasy tropes like elves, demons, unicorns, knights and magic, the game stages battles made up of differently colored units. Players then match up to three units of the same color to attack, and even use champion units for massive damage. Within this simple set-up, however, the level of potential strategy is surprisingly vast. The game even includes multiplayer which adds a ton of play value to the already extensive single-player campaign.

Price: $2.99
Platform: Universal

Joe Danger makes a big splash on the small screen with this mobile version of the superb console game. Making intuitive use of swipe and tap controls, Joe Danger Touch takes the crazy stunt man action of the original game and translates it perfectly to iOS. There’s a ton of diverse levels, and the game always throws new things into the mix to keep it from becoming stale.

The slew of different characters adds to the fun, and the quick tutorials make sure that new players always know what’s going on. Joe Danger Touch also looks fantastic--it’s easily equivalent to its console cousins. Fans of the original games will appreciate that this isn’t simply a straight, quickly put together port, but a new game that takes a lot of familiar elements from the previous games and retools them for the touch screen. It’s definitely worth a look.

Price: $1.99
Platform: Universal

We’ve loved the recent wave of minimalist game designs hitting iOS lately (such as Hundreds and the terrific OLO), and Wave Trip takes that design philosophy to the one touch side-scroller. Similar in gameplay to games like Tiny Wings, but more directly related to the granddaddy of the genre, SF Cave, Wave Trip has a great sense of style mixed with a slight rhythm game element.

Touch the screen to enable your basic craft to fly upward, let off to drop down. Collecting different colors of power ups will create a rhythm and other effects, and the self-contained levels offer plenty of challenging obstacles. There’s a wide variety of levels, each with specific achievements, but it’s the Spartan design and smooth chill lounge soundtrack that gives it a distinctive space in the App Store.

Price: $1.99
Platform: Universal

Virtual pinball games have been around on every platform since the dawn of video gaming, but occasionally it’s fun to see one that tries to get creative with bouncing balls. Momonga tasks players with guiding a flying squirrel through a world of flippers and bouncers to rescue his village in this funky tale with Japanese flavor.

The colorful and lush worlds look great, the ball physics are very solid, and the game manages to throw out an array of creative obstacles. The strange story full of talking animals adds to the quaint charm, making a Momonga a refreshing take on standard pinball. While most of the game is definitely bent in the casual direction, however, some of the boss fights are oddly frustrating, but we still enjoyed this fluffy adventure.

Price: $.99
Platform: Universal

Taking the side-scroller approach to endless running and heavily influenced by Ubisoft’s superb Rayman Jungle Run, Banana Kong is about as close to a Nintendo-sponsored Donkey Kong Country game that we’ll likely ever see on an iPhone. The game is unabashedly trying to evoke the feel and characters of those classic platformers, while using essentially the same simple tap and swipe controls of standard running games. It works well.

An avalanche of bananas is coming up fast behind our gorilla hero and he must run, jump, duck, and power smash through obstacles to stay ahead of the ever-moving mass of fruit. The game throws in a couple new tricks as well. Caves can be discovered by smashing through boarded up entrance ways, and Kong can jump up and down multi-level platforms to collect bananas and stay alive.

Price: $.99
Platform: Universal

Just when we thought we were done with Angry Birds clones, along comes yet another that wins us over with its outrageous style and sense of humor. Starring an incredibly angry tennis pro (named Pete Pagassi) still recovering from his energy drink addiction and offering simpler controls than those bird games, Tennis in the Face gets by with a terrific sense of Adult Swim-style panache. It seems the whole city is now addicted to the vile drink and only a lone tennis ex-pro can stop the madness!

Simply aim the ball and let go, then watch the chaos ensue. Pete’s goal is to knock out all the addicted characters on each level, either by hitting them directly with the ball or using the environment (or each other) to take them down. Clowns, business men, scientists in hazmat suits, cops, and more await him on his noble physics-based quest. The game is fun and quirky, with plenty of levels.

Price: $2.99
Platform: Universal

Fans of remote control virtual races might have faced disappointment with the recent revamp of the Dreamcast game, ReVolt, but Table Top Racing should turn those frowns upside down. Taking the idea of little cars moving fast through household environments, TTR is a fun little racer full of content. With cars that look like an incredibly eclectic mix from someone’s Matchbox collection, the game zooms through kitchens, play rooms, garages, and more.

Each track is full of power-ups ranging from bombs and rockets to EMP blasts and shock waves. Turbo boosts help catch up and taking the corners in just the right spot is key to victory. Since this is an iOS racer, braking and acceleration are automatic, but proper steering helps keep speed up. It’s a simple, fun, and good looking game that hits all the right marks for racing--right down to online multiplayer.

That winds up the first month of 2013. There’s a ton of great stuff coming this year and we’ll be here for it every month. So be sure to stay tuned and don’t play and drive!

If you liked this article be sure to check out what other games we enjoyed back in December as well as our best iOS games of all time.