What good phone controls really feel like

Great mobile controls are invisible. You stop thinking about your thumbs and start thinking about the game. Bad ones put a layer of friction between you and every decision.

For strategy and defence games, that usually means generous tap targets, forgiving drag placement and clear undo. Nobody wants to lose a wave because a tower landed one pixel off.

One-handed playability is underrated. Some of our favourite games, Coin Strike among them, work fine with a single thumb, which makes them perfect for commutes and queues.

When controls fight you, even a brilliant game feels like a chore. We weight this heavily in reviews, because it's the thing you feel every single second.