It's 2015 and the AppSpy team is back. Here's a selection of what we got up to this week.

The Big Stories

1. Nintend-who? These are the best Mario, Pokemon, Zelda etc alternatives on iOS.

2. Need For Speed: No Limits is free-to-play, a mobile exclusive, and... yeah, it's not bad...

3. PS4 and Xbox One game Flockers is coming to iOS, and we have the world's first gameplay footage.

4. What are the 7 biggest new iOS and Android IPs coming in 2015? These are!

5. Taichi Panda stars a giant panda beating the snot out of other bipedal animals.

AppSpy Recommends

Look at how bloomin' lovely Drop Wizard is.

LOOK AT IT.

This week Drop Wizard charmed us with its visuals and sound, then snagged us with its rock solid retro arcade platforming action, inspired by a certain Taito classic.

More on Drop Wizard: AppSpy Hands-on / Pocket Gamer review

How we spent our weekend

James: Getting acclimatised to the UK weather again after a lovely stint of summer sun.

Peter: Exploring the beautiful but slightly frustrating world of Mind: Path to Thalamus, getting myself ready for Pocket Gamer Connects.

Danny: I'm going to be hunting [embargoed] in preparation for an interview with [embargoed] developers on Monday morning! Mysterious!

Glen: Giving up on my hopes of ever receiving that long-delayed letter from Hogwarts and playing Drop Wizard and Wizard Golf instead.

We are Steel

2015 is off to a decidedly casual start at 148Apps, with reviews of Area 777, Buddy Bot, Luna League Soccer and Top Tank leading the way. Read it all right here.

This week Pocket Gamer reviewed Gunbrick and Sol Invictus, played Metamorphabet and Need for Speed: No Limits, and figured out how to play PS4 games on any Android device. All that and loads more, right here!