Friday Freebie: CID Dummy and Ninjatown demos on PSP and DS...

Like a super stealth assassin, Christmas has snuck up quietly behind us and it’s now poised ready to bludgeon us into festive confetti with an oversized candy cane. Much as we love the festive season, it is the period most likely to cause normally sound minded individuals to come unstuck – what other time of year could Cliff Richard possibly get away with that sonic terrorism he calls music.

So that means that in order for you to weather the storm of yule, you'll be needing lots of free handheld gaming stuff. It's what will get you through it.

So for the PSP and DS this week, we have a demo. Sort of. It’s actually a PC demo of CID: The Dummy which is coming to the PSP and DS (and the Wii, too). The game is about a crash test dummy who is even more courageous than your average crash test dummy and has opted to not only allow himself to be hurled through car windscreens at ridiculous speeds but also to battle evil in a 3D platform stylee. What a guy.

Given the gentle hardware requirements for running the demo, we are hedging our bets on both the PSP and PC versions being very similar, though as is typical, the DS version will probably differ quite a bit. It should give everyone a good flavour of what to expect, however, so just head here to claim your free download.

As for something a bit more DS specific, the Nintendo Channel, available via the Wii, has had a demo of Ninjatown added to it this week. Never before have shuriken-wielding black clad monks of death been so cute. So if you own a Wii and a DS and fancy a bit of cuddly ninja domesticity, then Ninjatown is almost certainly the cartoon gaming soap opera to sate your obscure craving.

Moving on to the evermore omnipresent iPhone, and we have two excellent recommendations for free games this week.

The first is for Digital Chocolate’s stupendously titled Crazy Penguin Catapult, which has been added to the free section of the App Store in Lite form (that’s Crazy Penguin Catapult Lite then). If you don’t already understand how much awesome is involved in slinging an endless stream of arctic bird torpedoes at fields of dozy polar bears, then this costless tutorial should school you in the whys and wherefores.

The other game worth checking out is the excellent retro side-scrolling shooter, Space Deadbeef. We know what you're thinking: awesome title. We agree. Well, the game is awesome too, it looks great, plays great and it’s free –merry Christmas (see, we’re not completely Scroogeified round these parts).

Oh and we almost forgot: this week our brand new iPhone gaming video podcast went live on the iTunes Store. It's packed with the latest iPhone reviews, news and features all in a Pocket Gamer style you will hopefully already be fond of. You can subscribe to it by heading here. Be sure to let us know how wonderful we are in the comments.

That’s it for now, remember to click ‘Track It!’ to be sure not to miss the next Friday Freebie which you will no doubt be reading over a pot belly still filled with Christmas grub. Bon Noel.