Disney Solitaire Master

Despite all the high-tech distractions that the video games industry can now offer winning a game of patience still manages to beat almost all of it. Of course you have to call it 'solitaire' or 'klondike' nowadays, since American publishers refuse to recognise that it's named something else in the countries that actually popularised the game (apparently it was invented in France in the 19th century).

Whatever it's called though patience is as perfectly-suited to mobiles as it is to providing an excuse not to do any work when using Windows. But while Microsoft has ensured there's really only one version necessary on the PC, mobile phones are drowning in a river of virtual card games. And this is another one to set the banks closer to bursting.

Although generally speaking this is an all too sober compilation you are initially struck by the oddity that although it has Disney in the name it barely seems to have it in the game. Mickey and his retinue are nowhere to be seen except in a few small avatars to illustrate your in-game profile and some vague and difficult-to-make-out background images.

Presentation, then, is not the game's strong suite, and especially not the music, which sounds like an ice cream van stuck in an eternal ten second time loop. Luckily, the game saves itself thanks to a generally fiddle-free interface and a surprising generosity of different options and games.

Klondike is the main draw, but you've also got Yukon, Freecell, Golf, Seven Sisters, Poker, Aces Up, Cruel, Pairs and Pyramid. If any of these are unfamiliar to you though you needn't worry as the game has both detailed help pages and a fully-fledged tutorial mode for each of the different games.

On top of this there are three separate game modes: Quick, Ranked and Deluxe. Quick play is just a one-shot game for fun but in Ranked play you create your own profile and attempt to get yourself into the high score table. Deluxe play also offers the same incentive, but most of the games are initially locked until you prove yourself in the ranked mode.

When you do try a Deluxe game, though, you find a number of power-up cards being used. So, for example, the Pick-up card allows you to pick up any upturned card from anywhere on screen simply by selecting the power-up and placing it in a special on-screen holder.

Other power-ups include a Wild Card, which can magically (well, electronically) rearrange all of the cards in that particular column. The X-ray cards lets you see all the cards for five seconds, the Draw One card lets you avoid having to draw every third card for a few seconds, and the Custom Pick card lets you choose any three cards of your choice from the waste pile.

Deluxe mode is a nice attempt to add variety, but it's still basically cheating - which does rob you of the aforementioned sense of satisfaction when you do win. Unless you're evil, in which case you probably don't like playing pretend card games on your mobile anyway.