It's time for our weekly roundup of the best new iPhone and iPad apps and games to have emerged on Apple's App Store.

As ever, prices are correct at the time of writing, but may have changed by the time you read this. (Free + IAP) means in-app purchases are used within the app.

Want more apps? Browse previous Best iPhone and iPad apps roundups on The Guardian. And if you're looking for Android apps instead, browse the archives of the weekly Best Android Apps roundups.

APPS

Astropolo (£1.99)
If you have children who are starting to show an interest in the world(s) above their heads, Astropolo is the perfect download. It's a space-themed collection of mini-games for 4-8 year-olds from developer Les Trois Elles, with lovely papercut graphics and easy-to-grasp controls.
iPhone / iPad

Spruce (Free)
Spruce is an app released by the British Liver trust: its attempt to improve the liver health of binge-drinking Brits by helping them take three days off the sauce a week. You can use it to track your dry days and feel good about your resolve, while the charity will use the (anonymised) data to understand whether the app is working.
iPhone

Nike Football (Free)
The World Cup may be over, but the war of football-related marketing between Nike, Adidas and other brands continues. Nike's latest product is a free iPhone app offering a mixture of product info, interviews with its roster of footballers, and features for group messaging including branded emoji and five-a-side arrangements.
iPhone

Take Creative Vocal Recorder (Free)
This app comes from Propellerhead Software, which makes pro musicmaking software like Reason and ReBirth, but also playful loop creation app Figure. Take sits neatly alongside the other: an accessible way to "sing, hum, rap, strum" musical ideas as you go about your business.
iPhone

Capo touch (£2.99)
More music here: an innovative app that you use with your iTunes song library when trying to learn how to play tracks: it slows them down and detects the chords being played, so you can play them too. Based on an existing Mac version that won an Apple design award, it works really well on smaller devices too.
iPhone / iPad

Brain+ Brain Training (Free + IAP)
Brain training has been very popular on mobile devices from the days of Nintendo's Dr Kawashima DS games, through to Lumosity on modern smartphones and tablets. Brain+ is a new challenger for the latter, expanding to the UK after big success in its native Denmark. It's a collection of simple but fun exercises to stretch your grey cells.
iPhone / iPad

LINE Webtoon (Free)
Line is the social networking app that's enormously popular in Japan and south east Asia, but which has ambitions to take on WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger in the west too. This is one of its spin-offs: an app for downloading and reading free digital comics (or "webtoons"). Given the background, they're Japanese in origin – although they're translated. The link above is for iPhone but here's the iPad version.
iPhone / iPad

Polymo (£1.49)
Polymo is the latest iPhone app angling for a slot on your homescreen as a mobile photography aid. It lets you tag photos before taking them, for later organisation as well as automatically appending them as hashtags when shared to social networks. It's also a neat way to scroll through your pics by theme, if you keep up the tagging.
iPhone

Dino Dog - A Digging Adventure with Dinosaurs (£1.99)
This children's app comes from publisher StoryToys: a mix of animation, education and light gameplay with a dinosaur theme. Kids have to help its Dino Dog and Bonnie the Bear characters dig for ancient bones, then clean them up and assemble them into full skeletons. It's colourful and fun, and the factual content is never dry.
iPhone / iPad

Hook'd - Video Music Messaging (Free + IAP)
Finally: karaoke meets mobile messaging. With my singing skills, it's a cease-and-desist order waiting to happen. But if choosing a famous song – properly licensed, so it's the actual tracks – shooting a video of yourself singing it and then sending it to friends appeals, Hook'd is worth a look. A monthly subscription gets you access to all its songs.
iPhone

GAMES

Pyramid Solitaire Saga (Free + IAP)
Another Saga? Yes, this comes from Candy Crush maker King: its take on the pyramid form of card game Solitaire, as you match cards to clear the screen. The Egyptian theme is reflected in Scarabs that you have to catch by tapping on them, with plenty of layouts and score comparisons with Facebook friends.
iPhone / iPad

Ingress (Free)
Until now, Google's location-based game Ingress has only been available for Android. It's an intriguing massively-multiplayer game that gets you to explore the real world around you in search of energy and objects in the game, with a storyline bubbling around it about scientists, spies and a battle between two factions. A very deep rabbit-hole of gameplay in the making.
iPhone / iPad

Sonic Jump Fever (Free + IAP)
The original Sonic Jump game saw Sega's Sonic the Hedgehog travelling upwards at pace, rather than along: more Doodle Jump-y than his traditional platform adventures. This sequel looks better, throws in new world based on Sonic's console adventures, and adds social high-score tables to compare scores with friends.
iPhone / iPad

Magic 2015 (Free + IAP)
This is the latest iPad instalment of deck-building card-battling game Magic, as you gather your deck and battle against AI opponents or real humans online. I'm not really qualified to sell you on its intricacies compared to previous versions, but I can say that if you're a newcomer, the tutorial is a good way in to its charms.
iPad

Watercolors (Free + IAP)
Described as a "mind-painting puzzle game" in its App Store listing, this is a breath of fresh air: a colour-based game that involves playing with blue, yellow and red paints on-screen, combining them where necessary across Moves, Time Trial and Challenges modes – the latter involving taking on your Game Center friends.
iPhone / iPad

Transworld Endless Skater (Free + IAP)
Forget endless runner games: this is about endless skating as you work your way along jumping, spinning and grinding with your virtual skateboarder – including the option to play as some famous (to people who know their skateboarders, obv) names. It works well on the touchscreen too, which is a decent achievement for this genre.
iPhone / iPad

Hercules: The Official Game (Free + IAP)
Once upon a time, mobile games based on movies were rubbish nine times out of 10. In 2014, thankfully, things are different: Hercules is the latest example of something that feels like a decent game in its own right, rather than marketing ballast. It's a beefy beat 'em up with excellent graphics, and well-done online features too.
iPhone / iPad

Pick A Pet (Free + IAP)
This may be the heyday of the match-three puzzle game on mobile devices, even if some (Candy Crush) critics would argue it's more like a nadir. Still, the games keep coming: Pick a Pet looks good fun, as you match its obligatorily-cute characters by colour, rescuing pets for a collection that grows as you progress.
iPhone / iPad

Blackwell 1: Legacy (£1.49)
As someone who grew up with point-and-click adventure games, something like Blackwell 1: Legacy is a welcome blast from the past: the tale of a woman named Rosa who discovers she can talk to ghosts, then sets off on a suitably-spooky quest. This first episode will be followed by four more, and the series is already shaping up marvellously.
iPhone / iPad

Mighty Adventure (£0.69 + IAP)
Finally, a colourful platform/runner game with lots of character. Well, three characters, anyway, each of which has their own special power. Your job is to switch between them to make best use of each, while exploring the bright virtual world created by developer Pixel Trap.
iPhone / iPad

Those are our picks, but what have you been enjoying on iOS this week? Post your recommendations (or feedback on these) in the comments section.

• 40 best iPhone and iPad games this year (so far)