Now fans of the best ever, classic build-a-word game Scrabble can play anytime, anywhere, with or without friends. Scrabble for iPhone or iPod Touch gives players the capability to play up to 25 games simultaneously online against friends, or to try to beat the computer in single player mode.

The graphic design of the Scrabble app is superb, and game controls are super easy to learn, so you’ll be able to download and start playing right away. The background music is kind of a funky, space-techno loop that is ok to listen to, but you do also have the option to use your iPod playlist as well. The sound of the tiles clicking into place on the board and in your rack is a nice added touch, too.

The Quick Play option allows you to play Solo, Versus the Computer, or Pass ‘n Play modes. Game Style choices are Classic, 75-point game, 150-point game, 8-round, or12-round. For multi-player mode that is not Pass ‘n Play, you can choose to connect via WiFi or on Facebook. Those players who may have tried earlier versions of Scrabble on Facebook and suffered through frozen games and disconnects, fear not. The folks at EA Sports have made improvements to that version of the game as well. Now you can start a game on Facebook or your iPhone with up to four friends, then continue your play via either interface. It’s a fantastic addition to both versions of the game.

Gameplay is the same as the traditional board game. Players are given seven tiles at the start of each turn, then commence taking turns trying to play the best combination of words for the highest points possible earned each round of play. Score is kept and the player at the end of the game who has the highest score wins. There are buttons on the play screen that allow you to recall placed tiles (if you haven’t yet pushed play), a Best Word button, and an Exchange option where you get to pick as many tiles as you would like from your rack to exchange (though that entails your entire turn).

The game controls are pretty good. Dealing with such a small screen almost guarantees accidentally placed tiles (which is why the Recall button is key), but you can zoom in and out on the board, so that helps considerably. You are able to use two fingers to hold a tile while you move or zoom the board during your turn. This is definitely a nice feature, and helps quite a bit at times, especially when the board really gets spread out towards the end of the game.

Additionally, the Messaging option, which allows players during multi-player time to chat back and forth, is available on the app version of the game as it is on the Facebook version, but it’s not as easy to use.

Overall this is a nice little app at a decent price for the game. Adding this version to their app collection definitely won’t disappoint lovers of Scrabble. For those who already use Scrabble on Facebook for free, you might have a bigger problem justifying even the nominal fee, but the ability to play anytime, anywhere is really a nice feature, especially for those Scrabble junkies out there.

Pros:

• Same familiar gameplay as the traditional board game
• Several play options in both single and multi-player modes
• Online WiFi multi-player and Facebook game connection available
• Great game for a great price

Cons:

• Facebook users may complain of having to pay for a game they use for free online

Score: 7/10

Price: $2.99

Scrabble on iTunes

Galcon Labs is a great game that boasts an increasingly intelligent enemy, ten levels of gameplay, as well as five game modes. Add to those attributes easy to learn and use game controls, decent graphics and sound, and a detailed tutorial mode and you could easily assume this app to be one of the higher priced games in the Apple store. The icing on this Galcon cake is that the app is available for only .99c! Galcon Labs is truly one of the best .99c you will ever spend at the app store.

Galcon Labs packs a lot of great things into this one, low-priced app. The Settings menus include options for color-blind mode (which is key since the game relies on being able to identify your conquered planets from your enemy’s planets), left-handed mode, color schemes, and audio settings. You can also set-up an account with Galcon.com to keep track of your high scores and connect with other players online. The design is great — very old school style space game - and the music is spot-on perfect for the game.

Basic gameplay requires players to tap to select their own planet, which will have a number indicating how many ships available to deploy. You can set the percentage of your inhabited planets’ ships to send with each deployment at the bottom of the screen. The game is default set to 50% of your total ship number. After selecting one of your planets, you drag your finger to another uninhabited planet, or an inhabited enemy planet. On uninhabited planets your fleet can establish control and start multiplying additional ships immediately, which can then be sent out again to enemy planets. The goal is to defeat your enemy’s fleets so that you can advance to the next level of play.

Gameplay is available in single player mode or multi-player mode, and both modes offer several game play choices: Classic, Billiards, Stealth, Crash, and Assassin. The game is lacking in instructions for some of the game choices, but basic play is the same from one game to the next. Billiards is pretty much the same as Classic, except in Billiards the planets are constantly moving around the screen, increasing the challenge level slightly as you need to keep an eye on where your planets and your enemy’s planets have moved. In Assassin, a planet is surrounded with crosshairs and it is your job to eliminate that planet before your enemy does. Finally, in Stealth, the colored triangles (the ships) that are typically visible become invisible. This is perhaps the most challenging of the game options, as playing against an unseen foe is far more difficult than one that you can keep visual track of.

One drawback to the game is that the game does get repetitive after several plays, especially because each game has so many levels of about equal challenge. It would be better if the levels became more challenging from the start, perhaps allowing the player to advance difficulty levels rather than just leveling up within a difficulty setting would help that problem.

For only .99c, Galcon Labs offers players a lot of play options and settings options for a nominal fee. There were some app store upsets when Galcon Labs came out not as a free update to the original Galcon, but as its own separate app with its own cost. However, the games are different enough to warrant another version rather than an update, and at only .99c, previous fans of Galcon will definitely want to check out this version of the Galcon game series.

Pros:

• Easy to learn gameplay
• Several levels of play to challenge players as they improve
• Several play options in both single and multi-player modes
• Online Galcon.com community connection available
• Great game for a great price

Cons:

• Can get a bit repetitive, so many levels means it takes a long time to get through

Score: 7/10

Price: .99c

Galcon Labs on iTunes

Teragati is a really fun tilt steering space flyer game that is sure to be a most played app on your iPhone or iPod Touch. Gameplay is easy to learn and difficult to master, so there is some pretty good replay value with this game. Plus, the game is quick loading, and quick playing, so it’s the perfect game to play when you are stealing a few gaming moments during your day.

Teragati’s design and graphics are very basic - but in a retro space game kind of way. Playing Teragati reminds experienced gamers of playing the old Atari and TI space games of yore. The sound effects are your basic space game sounds - explosions, electric volts, and bleeps — and the music is a synthesizer loop of 80’s sounding club music. The overall affect is that of being back on the boardwalk or in the mall arcade spending hours and hours, and way too much money, trying to complete more and more levels for higher and higher scores. It’s great!

The gameplay and controls couldn’t be simpler. Your ship is controlled by tilting your device from side to side as you work to stay alive amid the galactic debris. Some of what you encounter along your path is helpful for you (for example, the Saturn like orbs that come towards you earn you points when hit), asteroids and other debris must be avoided or else your ship will explode on impact. You have 60 seconds per play to try to go as high in levels as possible, scoring as many points as possible.

The tilt sensitivity is so fantastic that you are able to navigate through some of the tiniest of spaces between meteors. Your ship moves far more quickly than you would initially imagine, so on some of your first few attempts you may discover your game ending much more quickly than you thought it would. Herein lies the allure of the game. Learning the game is so easy, but mastering the game is truly a challenge. And because the game load time is instant, and the playtime is a finite 60 seconds, it becomes impossible to play only one round at a time. You can quickly and easily burn through a lot more time than you may have intended trying to outdo your last game.

The game is equipped with OpenFeint capabilities, so you and your friends can challenge one another to play. Your high scores will be recorded on OpenFeint as well, so you can keep working at beating your own personal best every time you start the game. One annoyance with the OpenFeint connection is the way it pops up a message telling you of your high achievement when you’ve completed a new personal best during gameplay. With a variety of meteors, missiles and other deleterious paraphernalia coming at you constantly, it can become a real problem.

Overall Teragati is a fantastically fun little game that offers a lot of replay opportunity. At $1.99 the app is just about perfectly priced (it originally appeared in the app market at .99c). If there are pretty consistent updates providing better ships, and perhaps other play options coming in the future, then the price is well justified.

Pros:

• Great app for a decently low price
• Addictive game play
• Fast loading, fast playing
• OpenFeint connectivity for posting high scores and challenging friends

Cons:

• The price is a little high for a one play option game, but if future updates include more play options, then the price is completely justified

Score: 8/10

Price: $1.99

Teragati on iTunes

To anyone who just purchased his or her first iPhone or iPod touch, I would say - download Doodle Jump as your first game. For only .99c, you will absolutely be hooked into the Apple handheld device gaming world by playing this seemingly simple little app. Anyone can play this fantastic game - just be warned that you may find yourself becoming completely obsessed with it!

Basically the goal of gameplay is to help your adorable little alien guy jump his way as high as possible, earning points along the way. High scores are remembered and can be shared via Facebook and Twitter as well. Using the tilt screen capabilities of the iPhone and iPod Touch, players help the alien jump from one spring platform to another, higher and higher, hoping to not fall, thereby ending your turn.

The newest updated version, 1.20 released June 2010, even boasts extra jumping treats like twirly-bird hats that take you sweeping up past several levels, trampolines, and more crazy fun! However, if you prefer the classic version of the game without the extra bells and whistles, players have the option to play “Classic” mode. Just one more way the game’s replay value is extended. One of the best aspects of downloading the game is that the developers have offered numerous and frequent updates since the game first appeared on the app market, and will most likely continue to do so.

Doodle Jump was one of the first games to sport the new doodle design craze. The simple line drawn graphics are very cool, and really help you focus on the equally simplistic, though addictive, gameplay. The sound effects, too, are very basic, but they are absolutely perfect in every way. From the boing! as the alien jumps from a spring, the helicopter thupa-thupa-thupa! as the he dons the propeller hat and is whisked into the air, or the devastating crack! of a breaking wood beam if he inadvertently lands on one.

Gameplay couldn’t be simpler. Simply tilt the device from one side to the other as your alien leaps from platform to platform. You also have the ability to tap your alien and have him shoot pellets at the monsters he encounters the higher he climbs. With every new game started, the platforms, obstacles, and bonuses are moved around, so you never play the same level twice.

The obstacles you encounter and the bonus tools you can pick-up are half the fun of this game. Beware of broken, disappearing, exploding, and moving platforms, as well as UFO’s, black holes, and monsters. You can pick up jet packs, the already mentioned propeller hats, and use springs and trampolines to help get you higher and higher into the sky. The game is so much fun, and so incredibly addictive, players won’t want to put it down!

Given the vast number of low cost apps that are also low in quality, this little gem is sure to be a pleaser. With the social network connectivity options, you and your friends can challenge one another endlessly, and there are also both local and global leaderboard options available. For only .99c, you are guaranteeing you will never find a boring moment in your life again!

Pros:

• Awesome doodle graphics, fun sound effects
• Ridiculously addictive - tons of replay value
• Price is a total steal for the value of the game
• Facebook and Twitter connectivity allows for competition amongst friends

Cons:

• Once you start playing - you can’t stop!

Score: 10/10

Price: .99c

Doodle Jump on iTunes

Old school dungeon adventure gamers will be thrilled to add this fantastic throwback app to their App library. Sword of Fargoal requires players to survive 20 levels of misty dungeon mazes on a quest to recover the Sword of Fargoal hidden somewhere on the last level of the game. Because the game loads a different dungeon maze every time players enter a level, the replay possibilities for this game are endless! And at a cost of only $3.99, players get far more than what they pay for out of this very cool classic dungeon crawler.

When Sword of Fargoal first appeared over two decades ago, it was the innovator in the rogue dungeon crawler game genre. Though first released for the Vic 20 in 1982, most of the players who are familiar with the game will most likely remember playing it on the Commodore 64 starting in 1983. The most recently updated version for iPhone and iPod touch released in May 2010 pays homage to the game’s classic design and gameplay. Best of all, playing Sword of Fargoal on the smaller, handheld device definitely enhances the playing experience.

The graphic and sound designs are absolutely stellar. The graphics are very retro cool, with the maze design using a top-down view. You are able to zoom in or out, and there is even a map in the lower left corner of the screen to assist you. There are 28 different types of monsters waiting for you in the mists of the dungeon, each with its own abilities, weapons and spells. The sound effects are exactly the style that classic game enthusiasts will remember, and the music is very Vincent Price meets Harry Potter. Pairing the music with the limited visibility caused by the mist creates the perfect eerie atmosphere.

Play begins with players being given the option to choose the Training tutorial mode, Choose Quest mode, or Settings. The Settings option has very limited customization choices, which isn’t really necessary for this game anyway, but you do get to choose the audio and video levels.

Selecting Choose Quest will start your game. You have eight hero spots available (you are able to delete heroes as needed if you fill the eight spots). Players choose their character - either a male or female hero - and then can roll the dice to try to upgrade their hero’s Health and Skill levels. Next players choose the level of difficulty for their game. The choices are Squire (which offers an endless number of lives), Hero (which is normal play and does have a finite number of life), and Legend (which promises darker maps and stronger monsters).

Play advances from there, as you guide your hero using finger swipes to navigate the misty dungeon levels, and finger taps to attack your enemies, open chests, pry open the lids of barrels, and various other tasks. The dungeon levels present your hero with such a wide variety of tricks, traps and treasurers, that to expand on them too much would be to take something away from the game. Suffice it to say, the game never becomes dull or monotonous. Because the mazes change with every level each time you play the game, you will never play the same game twice. It’s just incredible!

Enough can’t be said about Sword of Fargoal. It’s truly a spectacular gem of an app. At $3.99 players will think they got a steal of a deal for the endless hours of replay fun and adventure this game has to offer.

Pros:

• Excellent graphics, sound and music
• Guaranteed to be a different game every time you play
• Absolutely endless replay value
• Fantastic price for the worth of the game

Cons:

• Really, none - this is a gem of an app!

Score: 10/10

Price: $3.99

Sword of Fargoal on iTunes