Video Games - The Room Two, Nidhogg, République and Cut the Rope 2 Released on Dec. 12 Developed by Fireproof Studios For iPad (iPhone, Android and Kindle Fire versions to come) Rated 9+ (Players 9 and older) for infrequent/mild gambling or simulated gambling An image from The Room Two, a video game available for the iPad. Fireproof Studios Locked boxes contain keys to open other boxes, which contain keys to yet more. This is the animating principle behind the Room Two, an attractive, occasionally vexing puzzle game made for the iPad that has become one of the must-play games on Apple's tablet. Each level of this sequel presents the player with a realistic-looking room filled with locked boxes and furniture. One is a lab featuring shut cabinets. Another is a cave containing a treasure chest, a strange box, a curious line of ash and an apparatus that might be part of a crossbow. One is a room where a séance took place, with a round table in the center, a roll-top desk on the side and an old-fashioned camera on a stand. Everything is locked up in some way, but nothing is locked for good. The aim of the game is to find the loose corners, the hidden levers, secret switches, passcodes, trick keys and other means to open the seemingly unopenable. Playing The Room Two is like figuring out a series of magic tricks or, perhaps, going to a mansion and determining which book must be pulled to swivel the fireplace and reveal a secret chamber. The first Room was one of the loveliest-looking games on the iPad, a well-drawn, brain-teasing successor to the old classic Myst. The Room Two is better-looking and more complex. A hint system keeps it from becoming too hard, though players will have the most fun if they ignore the hints and instead share a couch with someone who has a knack for solving mysteries. The Room Two is best played by two. The competitive two-player game Nidhogg. Mark Essen is its lead developer. Messhof Released on Jan. 13 Developed by Messhof Not rated This strange, simple-looking, competitive two-player game features an orange man and a yellow one rattling sabers. Or maybe they're carrying fencing foils. Nidhogg has been making the rounds of indie- and art-gaming events and winning awards since 2011. But it was only recently completed and released after an extended development cycle that the lead developer, Mark Essen, blamed on being able to work on the game only part-time. In 2011, Mr. Essen described Nidhogg as "a fighting game if you then take out the health bars and characters and you add in a tug-of-war aspect." Greg Fox, a collaborator at the time, added, "It's like fencing and football combined, with also a dragon that eats you - but that's when you win." Nidhogg's crude art style and simple controls suit a game that unfolds purely, with each player trying to push the other off screen and to move ever closer to the dragon that, yes, eats the winner. This is a basic and bizarre interactive duel made for those who either enjoy straightforward arcade-style games or delight at the sight of an artistically primitive work. Nidhogg ignores the popular aesthetics of modern games to render beauty with something that looks like it has come from a digital era long ago. A scene from Exordium, the first of several planned episodes of the stealth-oriented video game République. Camouflaj Released on Dec. 19 Developed by Camouflaj For iOS Rated 12+ (Players 12 and older) for infrequent/mild violence and horror themes Popular as they may be, stealth-oriented video games can be tough to like. They must be played slowly to be played well. They involve a lot of waiting for guards to pass, a lot of failure and a lot of being caught. They begin to seem the same. République feels like a different kind of stealth game. It feels fresh. In Exordium, the first of several planned episodes of this crowd-funded adventure, the player is not sneaking; Hope, the woman who is trying to escape an oppressive totalitarian state, is. She's the one crouching through corridors and tiptoeing past the guards of the Metamorphosis facility. The player is her guide, the Morpheus to her Neo, in the parlance of the sci-fi movie "The Matrix." The player guides her through the facility via a contraband cellphone, taking control of security cameras to scout ahead, unlocking doors, reading email, scanning documents, intercepting messages and setting off alarms. The player tells Hope where and when to go, all while slowly learning the game's story through found documents. There's still a lot of thinking required to get Hope through Metamorphosis successfully, but guiding her is just a matter of tapping where the player wants her to go. Simple commands rarely go wrong. République gives players the same control over the situation as its totalitarian regime has over its populace. It's a clever premise for a clever game: The player assumes total control to help a person escape total control. Developed by ZeptoLab For iOS and Android Rated 4+ (Players 4 and older) The game Cut the Rope 2 has 120 new levels. ZeptoLab The original Cut the Rope, a game about cutting ropes in an effort to feed candy to an adorable green creature named Om Nom, has grown from its initial allotment of about 100 levels to a whopping 375. Each new pack has added fresh gameplay elements like gravity, wind and electricity. The creators spent ages developing free content for the game. Now there's finally Cut the Rope 2. It has 120 new levels, some exciting new mechanics (Om Nom isn't necessarily in a fixed position in each level anymore), and a bunch of new monster friends, all with their own special powers. It's brilliant fun, even when it's frustrating. The strange economics of mobile games lead some developers continually to create additions to their games. Sometimes they charge for the add-ons. Sometimes, they don't. Cut the Rope 2 is not a revolution in rope-cutting, but on iOS, at least, it's a worthy excuse to give the people who made the game a dollar for their hard work.