The Trawler Report: the best free iPhone games on the App Store (March 03 2009)

Love is in the air this week aboard the App Trawler. Post takes a while to reach us out on the sea, so when a knackered-looking carrier pidgeon dropped a bundle of pink, perfumed envelopes on the deck, there were smiles all around.

In this spirit of tardy goodwill, we've decided to stop pouring scorn for just one week. Instead of handing out the Crap Apps award, we're going to give a second pick of the week award, the one-night-only Tardy Goodwill Pick of the Week award.

See you next week!

The best free iPhone games on the App Store

Candy Lite
By Slash Casual Software
Type Demo
What is it? It's a frantic, colourful symbol matcher

Candy looks a lot like any matching puzzler, and to an extent it is. However, it's got a great combo system that'll get your heart pounding much more than your average symbol-slider game. You can carry on moving the tiles as combos are sparking-off elsewhere on the board, meaning that if you're quick enough you can rack-up truly massive chain reactions.

Your aim in each level is to make the little candy tiles reach the bottom of the board. This Lite version gives you a handful of levels from the paid version's 80, and it'll keep you going for a relatively brief but very sweet while.

Crazy Tanks Lite
By Bootant
Type Demo
What is it? It's a cartoony 3D tank arena title

The first of this week's tank games, Crazy Tanks is a tilt controlled arena blasting game. In each level, you have to destroy all the enemy tanks and gun emplacements. Tapping the screen shoots your cannon, so it's very simple to control.

It won't take too long to blast through this Lite version, but the 3D graphics are easy on the eyes and the simple gameplay makes for some breezy fun. The full version comes with 30 levels, and is just 59p at the time of writing. Ready the cannon!

PapiJump Land Lite
By Sunflat
Type Demo
What is it? It's a cheery top-down tilt platformer

You may not have heard of him yet, but Papi is the star of a whole series of iPhone games. He's a happy-looking little pink smiley who bounces around collecting burgers. PapiJump Land is a top-down platform jumping game where you have to avoid nasties and water while searching for the calorific snacks.

He jumps constantly, leaving you to tilt your device to get him going in the right direction. The Lite version features a pretty generous 12 levels from the 30 of the full version. It's a charming title that succeeds through a decent use of the iPhone's tilt sensitivity.

Heavy Mach
By IndieAn
Type Demo
What is it? It's an over-the-top side scrolling destruction fest

Heavy Mach scooped a silver award when we reviewed it, so it's already clear that the game deserves its place on the battlefield. Controlling a crazily nimble tank that can jump into the air, you move through levels blasting all sorts of huge machines with a quite frankly scary arsenal of weapons.

You get to play the first full mission in this version, which is split into four levels. It gives you the experience of upgrading your tank too, plus you get to wield a whole host of UN-worrying weapons of mass destruction.

The Tardy Goodwill Pick of the Week

Garden War Free
By Rockifone
Type Demo
What is it? It's a horticultural tower defence game

There's a lot of tower defence games on the iPhone, but with the genre's odd blend of simultaneously relaxing and exctiting gameplay, another one's always welcome.

Garden War is one of the simpler ones available, with the turrets all available to build from the start and a linear tower upgrade path. You're fighting against insects, trying to stop them from killing your flowers.

With three different stages, each with three difficulty levels, this free version has as much content in it as some full tower defence games.

It's great fun too, and will suck up hours of your time if you're not careful. The full version comes with an additional nine levels, plus more tower upgrades for some even more hardcore bug squashing. For freebie longevity, Garden War wins the Tardy Goodwill Pick of the Week award.

Pick of the Week

Tiki Towers Lite
By Real Networks

The mobile version of Tiki Towers, Tropical Towers, won the IMGA award for best casual game recently, and also netted one of our ultra-rare gold awards. If this hasn't been enough to get you buying the full iPhone version, which is available at a criminally cheap 59p, Real Networks has been good enough to release a Lite version.

It comes with nine levels, making up the first world of the full version. In it, you make bamboo structures to get your monkeys from one side of the level to the other, hopefully having grabbed a banana on the way. It makes great use of the touchscreen and is well worth a look.