The free iPhone game Trawler Report: Moonsters, Kahoots, Qbism

Welcome back to the Trawler Report, our chance to share the best free games around with you, the penny-pinching reader.

This week we have a trio of stylish puzzlers (one with the finest tutorial sections known to gaming) and the 10 billionth app download. Okay, the last feat was more a stroke of luck than anything else, but the game’s pretty good regardless.

Then there’s our Crap app pick, which acts as a cautionary tale that while the best things in life are free, so are the worst.

Enjoy your free games, and enjoy your weekend.

Paper Glider
By Neonplay
Type Full

Paper Glider is one of those ridiculously simple games that manages to bring you back repeatedly. As the title suggests, you have to swipe the screen to set your little paper plane flying through an office.

Once you’ve avoided the hazards of spinning fans and other obstacles, you can prolong your flight out into the open world by tapping the screen to boost. Be careful of how juice you apply, though, as it’s easy to blow yourself off course.

All in all, a fine high-score-based casual game. Also, fact fans, Paper Glider was the 10 billionth iPhone app to be downloaded.

Moonsters
By Ars Thanea
Type Full

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Moonsters is another of those ‘decent-now-it’s-free’ games we frequently feature on the Trawler Report. Merely adequate as paid titles, they suddenly become well worth checking out once they hit ‘Free’ status.

This one’s a pretty typical physics-based puzzler, where you must ping a handful of odd-shaped characters around a series of colourful levels.

The controls and physics are unspectacular, but what makes Moonsters worth a second glance is its attractive presentation. Design specialist Ars Thanea has employed a gorgeous art-style brimming with charm, which carries the game beyond its rather workmanlike gameplay.

Kahoots
By Honeyslug
Type Full

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Rather like Moonsters, Kahoots is a case of style over substance. However, the gap isn’t so pronounced, with the game’s delightful aesthetics supporting some solid puzzle design.

Playing out a bit like a small-scale Lemmings, you must guide your little kahoot to each level exit. To do this, you must swap around sections of the platform he’s standing on. This can be used to prevent him from walking into a trap, to spring him to a distant platform or to drop through to a lower level.

As well as this, Kahoots features the finest between-levels tutorial mechanism in any game, ever. Its name is Pegbeast, and I want it to be my friend. You will too.

Qbism HD
By Blowfish Studios
Type Full

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Uttering the term ‘3D block-puzzler’ is enough to make many puzzle game fans turn up their noses in disgust, but Qbism HD manages to come up with the goods.

The goal is to move a bunch of cubes into a selection of 3D outlines. Being 3D, these outlines have depth to take into consideration as well as the usual height and width. This means you have to rotate the field of play to move each block into position.

It sounds like a small thing, but this 3D element makes Qbsim feel quite fresh. It helps that the controls are a doddle, the graphics sharp and the levels imaginative, too.

Coin Flip + With Double Sided Coin
By iTankster
Type Full

The premise of the double-sided coin trick is a practical one. It’s a con, a way to win trivial disputes and decide fairly unimportant matters.

The whole concept rests on plausibility, of course. It works because people assume that coins are immutable legal tender, which renders this app somewhat pointless.

No one in their right mind would trust an electronic coin-tossing app to decide an argument. It very existence would raise suspicion – why make an app to replace one of the few things more commonly found in pockets than smartphones?

Anyone fooled by this app could no doubt be fooled in any number of ways that don’t require an iPhone. So don’t bother.