Want to test your mettle in the face of the truly frightening? These games pit you against spiders, flying, clowns, heights, and the unknown—but virtually and from a safe distance. And even if you’re super-brave and not at all scared of anything, these games are certified hits.

If you’ve ever chased a spider around with murderous intent, then this is that, but in game form. In Kill It With Fire you’re out to whack arachnids in all manner of slapstick ways.

It all escalates rather quickly—after splatting a tiddler with a clipboard in the tutorial, you’ll move onto offing eight-leggers with all sorts of over-the-top explosives and weaponry.

Nervous flyers might find it comforting to discover that they can control a plane themselves in the popular X-Plane Flight Simulator.

With some lovely vistas to behold, satisfyingly weighty tilt controls, and flights that cater for both casual and pro flight-sim fans, this one’s a pleasure to take for a whirl. And if we can pilot a virtual plane with such ease, then being a passenger on a real one’s no problem, right?

Defeat the scary clown looming down on you in Rest in Pieces by swinging left and right to dodge painful-looking rocks in this spooky, momentum-based twist on the running game genre.

Successfully manoeuvre your fragile hero to the end of the level and you get to see the sinister children’s entertainer crumble into dust. Take that, long-standing fear of clowns!

We’re not sure if being stalked by a terrifying being on a spooky spaceship was a common fear until Alien came along, but it certainly is now.

Happily, Alien: Isolation has come over from PC and console to grace your iPhone and iPad, offering a brilliant way to confront your xenomorph-based fears. Or make them worse. Either way, you’ll get to experience a horror classic as you play, so we reckon that’s a win overall.

In fun physics game Flip Runner you must time your leaps and spins just right to somersault over huge gaps between buildings, with often disastrous results.

So if you feel like having a good chuckle at your fear of heights, this might help. It’s hard to be scared of them when falling here is so consistently funny—your hardy hero ragdolls all over the place as they bounce off brickwork and tumble to terra firma.