The Week in iOS Apps: Games galore

When the dog days of winter have set in, what to do? How about distract yourself with a good iOS game. This week’s roundup is chock full of them. Read on!

Astropad Studio (free, iPad) turns your iPad into a high-end graphics tablet by connecting it to Photoshop and other Mac creative tools—just connect to your computer over Wi-Fi or through USB. The makers say this app is an upgrade over its Astropad Standard app, with features—speed, shortcut, and app support—built for “creative professionals.” It’ll cost you, though: A subscription to the app costs $8 a month or $65 a year.

The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth ($15, iPhone and iPad) is worth mentioning partly because of its difficult, um, birthing process: It took nearly a year for developers to get App Store approval for this RPG shooter game. And what do you get for the wait? The story of Isaac, who finds “bizarre treasures” that give him super powers that enable him to fight an array of enemies on his journey to safety.

Lifeline: Whiteout (free, iPhone, iPad, and Apple Watch) lets you play as an adventurer “alone in a frozen wasteland with no memory of how he got there.” Your choices shape the story as you try to solve the mystery; this week’s update makes the game available in Italian and Spanish. We loved the first saga, and we have high hopes for the second. 

Love Louis CK? Then you’ll probably love Louis CK (free, iPhone and iPad) which lets you see and listen to the comedian’s standup performances, watch episodes of his self-produced show “Horace and Pete,” and to see tour dates and buy tickets to his upcoming shows.

Milkmaid of the Milky Way ($4, iPhone and iPad). This game is just full of unusual touches: It features a 1920s Norwegian milkmaid named Ruth, the arrival of an alien spacecraft, dialogue written entirely in rhyme, puzzles, exploration, and more.

To celebrate the NBC show’s 65th anniversary, Today (free, iPhone and iPad) has overhauled its iOS app, making search more easy, simplifying the navigation, adding a new “Digest” feature, and more prominently featuring videos from the show.  

Toontastic 3D (free, iPhone and iPad) lets you draw, animate, and narrate your own cartoons. Create your characters, move them around onscreen, and record your voice all to create an animated 3D video. And there’s help, with songs available to insert in the soundtrack, as well as three different templates to help you tell your story.

Truecaller (free, iPhone) has been around for awhile, letting users Identify and block spammers—and adding to a crowdsourced list from the app’s users. The latest iteration of the app features faster updates of the spam list, an option to clear your call history, as well as 3D Touch applications.

Airmail has updated with new custom actions and more … Stryve (pictured) calls itself “the next best thing to hiring a personal trainer” … Shell is a “non-invasive fetal heartbeat listener.”