Octogeddon

Octogeddon is from All Yes Good, the studio formed by ex-PopCap developers including George Fan, original Plants vs. Zombies designer. You play Octogeddon, a giant mutant octopus determined to destroy human civilisation, and the mechanic is exactly as silly as that premise suggests.

Combat is described by the studio as "Spin-Em-Up": you sit in the middle of the screen and rotate, with each of your tentacles firing or attacking based on whatever animal-weapon is attached to it. Different sea creatures provide different attack patterns — turret crabs, spitting fish, projectile-firing seahorses.

Deep customisation comes from attaching different creatures to each of your tentacle slots and evolving them into deadlier forms. Combos are essentially endless, and run-to-run experimentation drives the long tail. Boss battles punctuate the campaign and force tactical loadout decisions.

The tone is pure cartoon destruction — wreck cities, take down armies, ruin national landmarks, generally embrace being a kaiju. Easy to pick up, with the kind of light arcade depth that PopCap's design lineage is known for. From the team that made the original PvZ — that ancestry shows in everything from tooltip writing to escalating difficulty curves.