10 Halloween gaming treats for your iPhone

Trick-or-treat! While we'd rather get promo codes in our basket than those questionably flavoured mini-Tootsie rolls (Quality Street - localisation ed), the improbability of getting one means you'll need to stock up on Halloween iPhone and iPod touch games yourself.

Fortunately, we've got ten tantalising ones right here.

Right at the top we've got your survival-horror and violent action romps, though not all opt for the obvious bloody route. Rollercoasters, pinball, and pizza pies prove their ghoulish mettle in some of our Halloween gaming picks.

Of course, we're aware of the dozens and dozens of games that have been conjured to haunt handsets for the holidays and these are just a scant few. What are your favourites for Halloween?

Little Red Riding Hood fights for granny in this over-the-top dark action game built just for Halloween kicks. Red Rage takes liberty with the fairytale, exploring violent new themes in the guise of a side-scrolling hack 'n' slash adventure with axes and dynamite.

It's Tim Burton meets Inkvaders as you guide Riding Hood in a rage against wolves. Cash earned from slaughtered wolves can be spent on helpful upgrades and you can use an invisibility cloak to gain the upper hand on bosses.

Best of all, Riding Hood's rage power unleashes fiery breath on wolf fur. That'll teach them to mess with grandma.

A keystone of the survival-horror genre, Resident Evil is a quintessential Halloween play. This lauded instalment opts for more action than puzzle-solving, though it still toys with creepy creatures and grotesque monsters. The fact that scares are hard to come by in this condensed mobile version doesn't make Resident Evil 4 any less enjoyable.

On the contrary, it's great for a pre-Halloween party monster massacre. Mercenaries mode, which lets you shoot up enemies for cash, gives you your parasite-controlled killing fix without having to bother with story.

Nicely so, too, since Resident Evil 4 strips away much of the console version's plot that it's hard to follow here on iPhone. That's fine by us, because we're more concerned with mashing monsters than dialogue screens.

The puzzling world of the bayou is solved by your touch in this charming game. Skabooki doesn't go for cheap scares, opting instead for the sultry, mysterious air of Louisiana as the setting for its puzzle play.

You control a voodoo doll named Skabooki tasked with completing stages filled with coloured blocks. By tapping groups of blocks, you cause them to disappear from the screen.

Clear blocks in the right order and Skabooki can successfully make it to the stage's exit. It's a simple concept, though one instilled with enough style to hypnotise you into play for hours on end.

Don't let the straw-stuffed protagonist of Scarecrow frighten you away from playing this surprisingly challenging casual game. Your only goal is to guide said scarecrow up the screen by tapping for a bombastic bump. It's all about getting the highest score possible.

Things get tricky when spiked enemies threaten loss of limb, big blocks impede an easy ascent, and jack-o-lanterns bounce you around the screen like the first piece of candy in a trick-or-treat basket.

Overcoming these obstacles is not without its rewards: Scarecrow offers a slate of challenging Plus+ awards that will keep you coming back to this basic, though well made game.

Slip on the garter belt of undead heroine Marie Dupois in this saucy twin-stick shooter that has you traipsing across more than two dozen levels dispatching demons and monsters.

Arising from a graveyard, Marie's adventure takes you past tombstones and blood-soaked carnival rides until she arrives at a creepy university in a final confrontation with a cult known as the Thrum.

It's a shooter with depth thanks to a robust upgrades system and compelling story. Some issues need to be worked out with upping the pace and improving weapons aiming, but neither keeps Garters & Ghouls from dishing out ghastly good action that has arrived just in the nick of time for Halloween.

Less a game of pinball than a ball-busting zombie shooter, Undead Attack! Pinball has you flippin' and tiltin' to kill your (non)-mortal foes. It's not about keeping a pinball in play with your flippers, but preventing the undead masses from reaching the gate between them.

A short campaign lays out three different tables for you to play, joined by a shop at which you can spend money on various upgrades.

While a little on the shallow side, what makes it a great Halloween play is the inventive gameplay that sets it apart from the droves of zombie-infested games out there.

Perhaps the reason why zombies move so slowly has to do with their bellies being weighed down by pizza. At least that's the hypothesis offered by Zombie Pizza, a quirky puzzle game that has you hurriedly making organ-topped pies for hungry undead customers.

In order for your zombie patrons to scarf down your goods, you're given specific instructions on what toppings to prepare.

As the orders pile up, it's a matter of keeping your head straight as you rush correctly baked pizzas out the door. While the gameplay is familiar, the icky original style serves a slice of creepiness worth biting on Halloween.

Nothing is scarier than Hell, which automatically makes Doom Resurrection a prime Halloween pick. This on-rails shooter would be frightening enough with the unexpected arrival of demons at a Martian space base, yet sending you into the depths of Hell itself ensures an adventure that's as satisfying as it is horrifying.

The action is as stunning as the graphics. Equipped with standard assault rifle, you blast through fat zombies, terrifying flying skulls with razor-sharp teeth, and demonic creatures that rush at you on all fours.

Recently updated with a new Challenge mode and additional level, there's even more gameplay to justify the premium price.

Shooting zombies - need we say more? Alive 4-ever transforms the top-down shooter into an all-out undead apocalypse that puts you at the forefront of humanity's fight for survival. Two thumbs and a whole lot of ammunition are all that's needed to get through the superb action.

What really sets Alive 4-ever apart from other shooters is the inventive cooperative multiplayer. Impressively, you and up to three friends can connect locally via Bluetooth and work together to slaughter the hordes of zombies that populate the game's 30 missions.

Even better, light role-playing elements allow you to bulk up your character's HP, maximum ammo count, and critical hit rate.

It may not be a scary shooter or suspenseful thrill, but Haunted 3D Rollercoaster Rush is a fun-filled casual gaming treat. Having already zipped past the American southwest and looped through the Jurassic period, 3D Rollercoaster Rush speeds along a haunted course with devilish jack-o-lanterns and haunted mansions.

Although it's nothing more than a stylish skin of the original game, the tilt-based play is still enchanting. The addition of Bluetooth multiplayer conjures up extra gameplay with ten tracks built for head-to-head competition.

If you haven't already taken the series for a ride, this Halloween-themed edition is a frighteningly good place to start.