If you don't own an iPhone, chances are you are intrigued by it. Every other day it seems that iPhone owners are getting cool, new, inexpensive downloadable games. Is the iPhone, or devices like it, the wave of the future? Or is just a passing phase, like Britney Spears hotness?

Have your voice heard with our latest question of the week.

Related Links: Check out our reviews of Bit. Trip Beat, Lets Golf, and Skybabes vs. Flyboys.

 

 

Hit the links for one of the best mobile sports games on the market in Let's Golf, Gameloft's latest creation. With superb graphics, entertaining sound effects and smooth gameplay (with online multiplayer!), this title offers hours of fun and replay value. Create your own character, unlock new outfits and equipment, play in tournaments and unlock golf courses from around the world, including Fiji, England, Scotland and the U.S.
 
After a brief tutorial, you'll be smacking the ball around with ease, using simple on-screen buttons to wind up and swing, taking into account the wind direction, speed and overall hole outline. You can even control in-flight ball spin by flicking your left thumb across the indicator, helping to sink long-range chips onto the green or get a few extra yards on the fairway. The game offers plenty of differing courses, from fun, little par threes to long and involved par fives -- some with loads of water and others with more sand than a desert. 
 
Multiplayer can be played with a friend or live across the world, creating your own lobby or hopping in someone else's. You'll be blown away at the brightly colored cartoon characters and beautifully-done courses, making it hard to believe this is a mobile game. The loading screens are lightning fast, never slowing you down and overall, the game is filled with loads of content to keep you playing.
 
Verdict: Buy
 
The Info: Platform: iPhone/iPod Touch, Seller: Gameloft, Players: 1-2 (1-2 online) ESRB: E, Size: 77.9 MB, Price: $5.99
 
Related Links: Check out the XBLA Peggle review and Gameloft's other new release, Oregon Trail. Did you see the new Rock Band DLC yet?

Cheap iPhone/ipod Touch games can be a blessing but they can also be a curse. Sky Babes vs. Fly Boys, crazy name and all, fits into the later category.

To start with the positives, this title looks pretty good for the device and the presentation is top notch. Charters also have a distictive look to them.

However, the most problematic part is the gameplay. There is absolutely no depth to this title. Controls involve tapping on one location to another to complete flights. The objective is to have more cash by completing more flights than the other planes on screen. Fuel costs increase as time passes but this element never feels like it is adding to the game. There is a countdown clock but when it reaches zero, it restarts multiple times until your opponents go backrupt.

No multiplayer modes are available and the entire single player is unlocked from the start. You can play on maps from around the world but you won't find much of an incentive to play more than a couple of times.

Sky Babes vs. Fly Boys could have been a fun game with a complete story mode or could have somehow giving the player the feeling of actually controlling a flight rather than just tapping over and over again.

Verdict: Pass

The Info: Platform: iPhone/iPod Touch, Players: One, Developer: A.C.R.O.N.Y.M. Games, Size: 7.8MB, Price: $.99
 

Related Links: Read our Peggle review, Check out the Oregon Trail, Find out the about the latest Rock Band DLC

There's nothing like a daily dosage of manifest destiny on your mobile device, right? If you've never heard of Oregon Trail, you've lived under a rock for the past 30-plus years, as the original version was released in 1971 by MECC and played in computer labs at schools for decades. And with Gameloft's new release of the title, that educational background and dusty western-world swagger come together once again, updated with cartoony graphics, fun sound effects and extended gameplay with mini-games never seen before.

Like the original, you're given the choice of what month to leave, which wagon to venture with and papa's profession -- the banker with the most money, but the carpenter with special skills for repairing damages. Customize names of your family (father, mother and three children) and keep them healthy along the way by not going too fast on the bumpy trails or forgetting to obtain food.

The title is packed with fun mini-games, like hunting, fishing, collecting berries, crossing rivers or repairing the wagon, all done by tapping the screen at the correct time in a timely fashion, conquering the goal set out for you. Bubbly characters are roadside along the way, giving you the option to talk to or help them if need be. When rivers must be crossed, sometimes it's better to take a pricy ferry, keeping little Timmy and Tammy from drowning. Press along hundreds of miles to Willamette Valley in Oregon, your final stop.

Loading screens cluster up the game a bit, popping up inbetween every little event, although they do offer a fun, educational fact about the real Oregon Trail and the journey-goers who took the dangerous trip years ago. There have been complaints of crashing, sending you back to your iPhone/iPod main screen, but your game is always saved and easily accessed once reopened. But overall, the game is too packed with content to pass up. Get it, partner.

Verdict: Buy

The Info: Platform: iPhone/iPod Touch, Seller: Gameloft, ESRB: E, Size: 49.9 MB, Players: 1, Price: $5.99

Related Links: Weekly 360 and Wii downloads are worth a look. Did you hear Head On is coming to XBLA. And answer our weekly question here.

 

 
 
 

 

Were you craving more Metal Gear Solid Touch screenshots than were shown last week? Here are some new images for this highly anticipated iPhone/iPod Touch game.

Related Links: Enter our Peggle giveaway, Read a preview of an upcoming XBLA game.

With the new installment of the Terminator series quickly approaching, Gameloft jumped ahead to partner with The Halcyon Company in preparation for a mobile game to be released to coincide with the movie, which Christian Bale will be starring in. From the sound of it, this won't be anything like the Arnold Schwarzenegger versions, as Bale brings a much darker, tactical and fresher feel to the character. It would only make sense that the mobile game follow right along that path, hitting its fans with familiar themes. The fun, new twist to the series -- it all takes place in post-apocalyptic (2018) time. You've got to check it out.

With a name like ShiveringKittens, you wouldn't expect a hardcore puzzle game. The main objective of this iPhone/iPod Touch title is to "rescue kittens" by creating matches. The overall look of the game is very "Tetris-y" but gameplay is pretty different.

Your objective is to free kittens by either matching five kittens in any direction or to complete a line of frozen blocks (with or without kittens) from one side of the screen to the other. With each set of kittens saved, the cute animals let out a "meow" and vanish from the screen. Different from Tetris,  blocks slide down as they land and do not stick to one another.

Both the graphics and sound effects are nowhere near outstanding but both are serviceable in the context of the game. To control each falling block piece, you use swiping gestures to change direction. It works pretty well but a simple tapping of the screen would have been a bit simpler.

No high score leaderboards are included and you are free to play any of the 11 levels at any time, making standard progression unnecessary.

This game does not have the instant addictive quality that other iPhone games possess, but with $1 of every purchase of ShiveringKittens goes to a great cause (ASPCA), this game is worth a download for those who are fans of the puzzle genre.

Verdict: Buy

The Info: Platform: iPhone/iPod Touch, Players: One, Developer: GiantCrayon Games, Size: 3.6MB, Price: $2.99
 
Related Links: Vote in the latest GamePro Arcade poll, Check out this week's downloads, Take a look at an upcoming iPhone/iPod Touch Game: Metal Gear Solid!

Congrats to Fat_bot, the weiner of last week's GPArcade giveaway contest. You are now the proud owner of a DS copy of Puzzle Quest: Galactrix. Email me at tterrones@gamepro.com with your GamePro login name and password and I'll send you your prize.

Didn't win this week? No problem. There's always another contest right around like corner. And typically that corner is on a Wednesday. The good news for you? This week's contest will have multiple winners. Five if I remember correctly. Look for more info on that later this week.

Related Links: Check out Andrew's choice for Flash Game of the Month. Ian's showing some new screens from Metal Gear Solid Touch right here. Have you heard about MS's upcoming Days of Arcade?

New Fallout 3 DLC screenshots not enough to whet your appetite? Here are some spankin' new screens of Metal Gear Solid Touch. Also revealed today is the release schedule for the game. The first 12 stages will be released this month and eight more levels will be released as a free update in the future. Charge your iPhone and iPod Touch in anticipation of Metal Gear Solid's arrival on the portable!

Related Links: Last chance to enter our giveaway of the week contest. Hear about XBLA's Days of Arcade?

Another week, another freebie Wednesday. After rummaging through one of the closets here at GamePro Arcade castle, guess what I found? A DS copy of Puzzle Quest: Galactrix in desperate need of an owner. 

Winning is simple. All you need to do is vote on our new weekly feature, the GPArcade question of the week, and post a comment. Put up as many comments as you want. A winner will be randomly selected and announced Sunday. Good luck!

Related Links: Check out the GamePro review of Puzzle Quest: Galactrix. Click here to see what games are available for download this week.