The 5 essential mobile games of Christmas 2008

"So this is Christmas?" sang John Lennon. Yes John, it is. "And what have you done?" Well, so far I've grumbled at 54 adverts, scowled at 98 baubles, and lost two thirds of my wealth buying presents for my inconveniently large family. Thanks for asking. "I never meant, to hurt you..." That's okay, John. "I never meant, to make you cry." Leave it!

Not everything about Christmas is horrible, though. For those of us who work, it affords an opportunity to kick back, switch off our mobiles, forget about the drudgery of playing games for a living, switch our mobiles back on again, and spend some time catching up on our favourite hobby: playing games.

And this year has given us plenty to catch up on. Here are five games that we recommend you arm yourselves with as you enter the breach of high-intensity family life this Christmas.

The 5 essential mobile games of Christmas 2008

5. Peggle Developer: PopCap Games Publisher: PopCap Games Coloured lights, tinkling noises, gifts for doing nothing. At a glance, it's difficult to tell Christmas and Peggle apart. Given a choice, though, I'd take the latter any day. Originally a compelling web game, more recently a ludicrously addictive iPod download, and now a frankly dangerous mobile title, Peggle's appeal lies in its simplicity and the arbitrary parcelling out of its rewards. All you need to do is press a button, but the ensuing firework display of combos and bonus points provides such intense positive reinforcement that you'll be hooked for at least as long as it takes for the tawdry yuletide holiday to pass.
4. Rally Master Pro Developer: Fishlabs Publisher: Fishlabs The hardest thing about visiting relatives at Christmas is that you can't take your console with you. For two weeks or so, you have to leave swinging polygons and dazzling effects behind (assuming you don't own a PSP, DS, or iPhone) and content yourself with graphics and gameplay twenty years behind the curve. Not so. Rally Master Pro, from the code gurus at Fishlabs, is visually spectacular. Not only that, but it runs more smoothly than you can possibly imagine, and there are enough tracks to make you cry. If you're looking for a festive technical display (and who isn't) look no further.
3. Playman Summer Games 3 Developer: Real Publisher: Real During the crisp winter months, one thought dominates above all others: if only it were summer. Real's Playman Summer Games 3 can't change the season, but it can remind you of happier times, when the sky was blue and Great Britain was surreally failing to disappoint at the Beijing Olympics. Not only that, but once you're in its pleasant, button-pressy little world it won't let you go. Like the joystick-wagglers of yore, it involves hitting buttons in quick succession, but in this instance the buttons vary, meaning you have to be quick-witted as well as finger-strong. With beautiful, cartoony visuals and deeply addictive gameplay, Playman Summer Games 3 will make the festive period fly.
2. Jenga Developer: I-play Publisher: I-play Another truly abysmal thing about your family is that they make you play games out of cardboard boxes, using objects. It's embarrassing. Take Jenga, for example – a game whose goal is to remove wooden blocks from a stack until it collapses and everybody falls about laughing. As primitive as all this sounds, there's a decent casual game behind Jenga's hopelessly luddite chunks of timber, and this is where I-play steps in. Jenga the mobile game gives you all of the gameplay of the original and then some, with clever controls, a complex scoring system, and a range of locations to visit - all without having to leave the toilet.
1. Snowboard Hero Developer: Fishlabs Publisher: Fishlabs Of course, Christmas isn't horrible for everybody. Some people, rich people, airlift themselves out of the country during its tawdriest hour and go snowboarding. For those of us who can't afford this luxury, there's Snowboard Hero, a game that lets you barrel down the piste performing a range of tricks and hunting for the fastest time. With blistering 3D graphics and slick controls, this is as close to the real thing as you're ever likely to get on a mobile phone, and a perfect means of escape from your increasingly alien childhood home into a more welcoming winter setting.