The games shelf

A big touch screen lying flat on a table turns out to be a lovely game board. Everyone can see it, everyone can reach it, and nobody ever loses a piece under the sofa.

That's the thinking behind most of the games in the store. They're meant for people sitting together and taking turns on one device, rather than each staring at their own phone.

For two to four players

Ludo is the one everyone grew up with: four houses, a cross of track, and a race to get all four tokens home. You need a six to bring a token out. Whenever you have a choice, the tokens you're allowed to move are ringed, and you tap the one you want. Land on someone and they're sent back to their house. Two people can sit across from each other, or four can take a corner each.

Snakes and Ladders has nine ladders and ten snakes spread over a hundred squares. Land at the bottom of a ladder and you climb it. Land on a snake's head and you'll see the tail light up just before it takes you down. You need the exact number to finish, and if you roll too high you bounce back off the hundred.

Chess has every rule, with nothing left out: castling, en passant, promotion, check, mate, stalemate, and the draws for repetition, fifty moves, and not enough material left to mate. Tap a piece and every square it can legally go to is marked, so the board simply won't let you make an illegal move. The moves are written down beside the board as you play. There's no computer opponent, and that's deliberate. It's a board for two people.

Tic-tac-toe is three in a row, sized for a room rather than a phone. It keeps score between games, and whoever didn't start the last game starts the next one, so nobody keeps the advantage.

For when it's just you

Mahjong Solitaire is the tile-matching one: pick free tiles in pairs until the board is clear. Most shuffled Mahjong boards actually can't be finished, and you can't tell whether you're stuck because of a bad deal or a bad move. That always annoyed me. So these boards aren't shuffled. Each deal is built backwards from a finished board, which means every deal can be won. There are five layouts, from the classic Turtle to the Fortress. Hint finds a pair when you're stuck, and undo goes back as far as you like. Extra tile sets, including a high-contrast one, are in the store.

Pairs is the memory game. Turn over two cards, and if they match they stay face up. Play on your own against your best score, or pass the device back and forth with someone.

Which boards they run on

The board games are made for the larger screens, because a board game needs room. Pairs and Tic-tac-toe also run on smaller screens, and both of those are free. Each game's store page lists the supported devices it runs on.

Why not just use a tablet?

A tablet plays games too. But a tablet is also email, videos and everything else, and it's hard to hand one to a child and walk away. A device that only does what you've installed on it is a calmer thing to leave on the kitchen table.

There are more games on the way. Each one only goes on the shelf once it plays properly on the screen it's made for.

The store Apps, games and packs for your board Every app shows which boards it runs on before you buy. Open the store