GameZone’s Valentine’s Day iOS and Android crushes

Valentine’s Day is for couples, but even the lucky lovebirds among us here at GameZone can’t help but harbor a secret crush on sweet video games.

These mobile games have stolen our hearts lately. What are your favorites?

Share your picks in the comments, and spread the love.

Glyph Quest – Stephanie Carmichael

Platforms: iOS, Android soon

I adore everything about Glyph Quest. Developer Alexander Trowers has spruced up a regular match-3 role-playing game by decking it in a classic Celtic theme, which is awesome and gorgeous.

Gameplay is even better: The goal is to cast spells by combining glyphs of the same type — or reversing your spell chain to do extra damage to monsters. Every time you link glyphs together, they flip over and randomly change elements, so strategy involves planning future attacks as well as reacting to what pops up on the screen. It all feels very old school considering you’re battling against rats and goblins, learning new spells, and powering up existing ones, but the mechanics are casual enough for anyone to catch on.

Threes! – Lance Liebl

Platform: iOS

Threes! is about matching, swiping, and math. It's cute and addictive, and I've gotten very little work done since I've downloaded it. I'm ignoring my wife and kids because of it.

Threes! is a little difficult to explain – it's one of those games you just have to play to get the hang of – but I'll do my best. Essentially, you're matching numbers (all of which are divisible by three) by swiping. Ones can only combine with twos to make threes. Then after that, threes can only combine with threes to make sixes, sixes can only combine with sixes to make twelves, and so on. Whatever direction you're swiping in will move all the tiles in that direction. Numbers will only combine if there's nowhere to move.

It's a stylish, elegant puzzle game that everyone should download, play, and then delete Candy Crush so they're not tempted to play that anymore. Oh, and each number is a character with an adorable voice.

Spelltower – Mike Splechta

Platforms: iOS, Android

Aside from my recent and short-lived obsession with Flappy Bird (I'm very proud of my score of 93), the one game that I can constantly go back to and find a constant challenge in is Spelltower. It's incredibly simple in theory, but will challenge you to wrack your brain and come up with longer, more elaborate words just to beat your last high score.

Spelltower can most easily be equated to an ever evolving word search. Rows of blocks with letters will rise up from the bottom of the screen and task you with finding words by connecting them in any direction before they reach the top. It's not only extremely addicting but also a good excuse to get some quick brain-training in. However, if I wasn't on an Android phone, I'd probably cheat on Spelltower with Threes! like nobody's business.

Clash of Clans – Matt Liebl

Platforms: iOS, Android

Having just purchased a phone that's actually capable of playing today's games, I'm ashamed to admit that I'm just now getting into the mobile gaming space. So while my pool of games has opened drastically, my actual experience with mobile games is quite limited.

To that end, I'd have to say I'm most infatuated with Clash of Clans at this moment. Since a fellow GameZoner introduced me to the game, I've been hooked, logging in and playing regularly for over two months now. It's hard to pinpoint exactly what it is about the game that has me hooked, but I constantly find myself checking up on my village — even if it's just for a few seconds.

Hoplite – Joe Donato

Platforms: iOS, Android

As an avid PlayStation Vita user, it's rare that a mobile game actually grabs me for more than a few minutes. That's what makes Hoplite so special.

It has the look of a turn-based strategy game and the punishing nature of a roguelike, but at its heart, it's a devious puzzle game. Even better, it's free to beat, meaning you can play through the entire game and then upgrade to the $2 version for extra features.