5 slice 'n' dice iPhone games to celebrate Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving is about reflecting on what we're thankful for and sharing time with family and friends. It's also a time for gaming. What else are you going to do during family gatherings - talk to your relatives?

Seriously, these five iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad games will satisfy your cravings for slice 'n' dice action. When you see that turkey (or ham, lamb, goose, or other roast) getting carved into delectable pieces, you can serve up your own slices of portable fun with these affordable downloads.

Tell us what you're planning on playing during the Thanksgiving holiday by leaving a comment below.

The original slicing game for iPhone and iPod touch (there's a separate HD version sold for iPad), Fruit Ninja may not be as hearty and filling as carved turkey, but it's sweet nonetheless.

An example of simple gameplay serving up tons of fun, the game has you slicing various fruits that fly across the screen. Bananas, mangoes, apples, pineapples, strawberries, and others are chopped according to how you swipe.

It's not a breeze, though, since the random appearance of game-killing bombs require careful slicing.

A recent update introduced a new Arcade mode, which joins two original modes - Classic and Zen - for surprising replay value. Achievements and leaderboards are offered too, thanks to Game Center and OpenFeint integration. And it's cheap, making this a great holiday download.

Get Fruit Ninja here

Samurai II: Vengeance (Madfinger Games)
£1.79/$2.99

Thanksgiving is the day Americans slice and dice fowl, but Samurai II: Vengeance lets you hack and slash demonic minions during those awkward pauses in conversations with distant relatives.

Cutting up evil-doers with a katana is perfect for keeping you energised on a relaxed holiday. The action is fresh and fun, relying on a well-designed virtual analogue stick and attack buttons for dishing out devastating combos. The ability to upgrade your samurai and expand your list of moves infuses Samurai II with a depth other iPhone action games regularly lack.

Game Center integration tempts you to spend time unlocking achievements and posting high scores for each of the levels, as well as the endless Survival mode. The price is right, too - download the universal app once and you can play on iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad.

If you've ever had to carve a turkey, you know it's not as easy as it looks. Slice It! is much the same, offering more than 100 stages of tricky shape-slicing action.

Each level presents you with a geometric shape to be sliced into smaller bits. The catch is that each cut must result in portions equal in surface area: in other words, the pieces have to by symmetrical. While that's easy when slicing a square, a multi-sided star or complex figure is much trickier to cut.

Thanks to its availability as a universal app, Slice It! can be played on iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad - the latter device being the most preferred due to its large screen making slices easier. Given its affordable price, there's little to stop you from downloading this simple game.

It's a little late for surgery once the turkey hits the table, but there are still plenty of unlikely patients needing attention in Amateur Surgeon 2. The quirky operation game has you using all kinds of ordinary objects as surgical instruments to save lives.

It's the combination of hilarious characters and bizarre tools that makes this Adult Swim sequel a fun one. Despite some finicky controls, it's a game that will have you chuckling with every surgical slice. Gesturing on the screen is entertaining and great for the short commercial breaks during the football game.

As with everything Adult Swim, it's colourful and irreverent - exactly what you need during a family holiday.

Cut the Rope (Zeptolab)
59p/99c

No meal is complete without a sweet treat and Cut the Rope dishes out dessert in the form of clever candy-dropping puzzle play.

Feeding the greedy Om Nom requires cutting ropes, pulling levers, and dealing with other mechanisms to drop candy in the creature's gaping mouth.

What begins as a straightforward puzzle game evolves into a challenging test. While it's often a cinch getting Om Nom a piece of candy, collecting the bonus stars placed precariously in each level is more difficult. Fortunately, we've crafted a Cut the Rope guide to help you complete the game.

More than 60,000 5-star ratings on the App Store speaks volumes for one of our favourite puzzle games that is ideal for filling in the time between dinner and dessert this Thanksgiving.