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The free iPhone game Trawler Report - Ozone, iBomber 2, and Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars

1st June 2010

The free iPhone game Trawler Report - Ozone, iBomber 2, and Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars
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Soon, we'll be looking at an all-new type of iPhone game. The iPhone 4G reportedly features a higher-resolution screen than our current iPhone 3GS, which will mean higher fidelity visuals and, most probably, an even meatier processor.

PSP beater? Sure, easy. And we only have to wait a few more weeks to find out exactly what the device will be like.

One of this week's picks, Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars, has already been released on Nintendo DS and Sony PSP.

It's a game that shows the iPhone isn't quite up there with the PSP yet, graphically. It looks fantastic, granted, but the power of the PSP shines through in its more detailed textures.

Are we going to have to start saving up for an iPhone 4G before too long? We'll hopefully find out later this month.

Ozone
By Ignatio Sanchez Gines
Type Demo

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Ozone's a simple maze game at heart, but it has a neat attention-grabbing mechanic. You control a bubble that propels itself by expelling air. Empty the bubble completely and, poof, you're gone.

You use a virtual D-pad to control your bubble, rather than the accelerometer maze staple, and the key to not spending half your time bouncing off the walls is to use the 'brake' button.

You'll also have to lose some of the bubble's filling deliberately in order to make your way through some of Ozone's obstacles. The free version lets you check out the first handful of levels.

iBomber 2
By Cobra Mobile
Type Demo

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Ever wanted to take to the skies and carpet bomb your local town? It's an aspiration for many, and iBomber 2 is here to fill that particular void in your life.

You play the game from the bomber's eye view, looking through an aiming reticule at the tanks and enemy bases below – you're bombing military targets here, not Tesco. You use the accelerometer to control your plane's movement, although your altitude stays the same throughout.

Blasting targets earns you temporary bomb upgrades and other bonuses. The lite version features a single battle to blast your way through.

Motocross Pro Rider Free
By Mikhail Mulyar
Type Demo

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Physics games have excelled on iPhone, and one of the top subjects for games of this type is motocross trial biking. Motocross Pro Rider puts you at the handlebar of a hyperactive, buzzing trial bike and lays a course of undulating terrain at your wheels.

12 levels are included, and you can play through them in either the Trial or Freestyle mode. Trial is all about getting from one side to the other, without crashing, while in Freestyle there's a timer countdown that can be refilled by performing tricks, such as backflips.

Motocross Pro Rider's physics aren't quite as taxing as genre top dogs like Bike or Die, but it's fun for a quick blast.

Toy Physics
By Athos Consulting
Type Demo

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Remember toys? Those playthings made not from 1s and 0s that light up an LCD screen but from actual, tangible stuff? Toy Physics sees you trying to put the toys back in the toybox, literally. It sounds terribly mundane, but it's actually a neat physics puzzler.

The toys drop from the top of the screen, passing through a different collection of moving and non-moving obstacles in each level, while the boxes you're trying to get the toys in move from left to right at the bottom. You can draw platforms to direct the toys towards the box, but you can only keep one line on screen at a time.

The free version of Toy Physics gives you the first few levels to play through.

Pick of the Week

GTA Chinatown Wars Lite
By Rockstar
Type Demo

We loved each and every edition of GTA: Chinatown Wars, from the Nintendo DS original to the later PSP and iPhone versions. Rockstar has now done the sensible thing and released a demo, an important thing to have when the full game costs £5.99 – enough to buy Angry Birds and nine other 59p hits.

The game has made the iTransition almost perfectly. Textures are a little less detailed than the PSP's but otherwise the game is just like its more expensive handheld cousins.

You are the son of a recently-departed crime lord and have to take a sword to your uncle, who is set to inherit it. After an ambush and a bullet to the head, you quickly become embroiled in the gangland way of life.

The lite version offers a substantial chunk of the beginning of the game, and is well worth downloading.

Crap Apps box of Shame award

SuperBoss
By Jeremy Brasch
Type Full

Bosses are the most awesome parts of games, right? So if you took out everything else and just start with the boss, your game's going to be, like, totally awesome, right?

Sadly for SuperBoss, the answer is 'no', especially not when your boss is an indestructible helicopter that haemorrhages sword-wielding knights every so often. The game takes place on one screen as you blast away, seemingly doing not a jot of damage to the SuperBoss above.

SuperBoss feels like it was designed by a 14-year-old who has drunk too much orange juice and eaten too many sugary sweets. Jeremy, I hope you didn't ditch your homework to make this shameful piece of crap.