The 12 mobile games of Christmas

Most of you have probably come to terms with the fact that it's Christmas. Whether you're a wholehearted celebrator or someone who just tries to keep their head down until the madness ends in January, there's no denying that fact. I mean, there's tinsel everywhere.

It even manifests itself in feature ideas. "I know, why don't we do a piece themed around the 12 days of Christmas - only with games?" came the suggestion. "Bung it to Jon," came the weary reply, indicating that the spirit of giving is clearly alive and well among the PG staff.

The question is, can I find a game to match each verse of The Twelve Days of Christmas? Will it be coherent? Will there be any of you reading by the end?

Well, it's the season for miracles.

Sadly for me, no one has ever made a mobile game about '70s music comedy show The Partridge Family. There is an Alan Partridge Player app, but that's not a game.

And so we must turn our attention to the 'Pear Tree' bit of the song and Papa Pear Saga - a bright and bouncy Peggle-a-like from King. Tricky start.

Doves are the representation of peace, mildness, and purity. Which is probably why there aren't all that many videogames about them.

Fortunately, Nitrome is here to rescue me (not for the last time) with 8bit Doves. You've got to love its fresh take on the old tap-to-fly formula, as well as its beautiful Game Boy visuals. No, really, you've got too. It's compulsory.

Hmm. French developers? Anything by Gameloft! No, too easy, too easy. Oh, that game with the chicken! What was it called? Ah no, that was just another nondescript bird.

Nitrome, as ever, has the answer. Cooped Up is a charming little game that sees you pinging a little bird past featherless chickens of all shapes and sizes.

A mobile game featuring birds. Nope, I got nothing. Only joking!

Now, I know what you're thinking, but that would be too obvious. Plus, I need to save Angry Birds for later. Instead I'm going to go for another famous mobile gaming bird in Tiny Wings, because it's really cute and it still plays really well.

As a gamer of a certain age, I can't hear the term 'gold rings' uttered without my thoughts turning to a certain speeding hedgehog, the accompanying twinkling collection sound an unmistakable indicator that you're on the right (probably looping) track.

Yep, gold rings are to Sonic what gold coins are to Mario. Play a little Sonic 4 this Christmas. It'll cheer you up.

This is where I need to play my Angry Birds card. After all, show me a mobile game starring a goose, and I will show you a poorly disguised duck and call you a liar.

The famous story of Jack and the Beanstalk concerns a goose that lays golden eggs, which is also a valuable bonus item in Angry Birds. So let's go with that, shall we?

Not only are you not allowed to eat swans in the UK, you're not allowed to sell games featuring their countenance either. This may or may not actually be true, but the fact remains that there are no mobile swan games out there.

There are, however, games that have you swan-diving - the practice of diving head-first into water - which also ties in with the whole 'a-swimming' part. Flip Diving is a very playable diving game that launched earlier in the year, so that'll do for me.

Eight maids-a-milking? That sounds a bit... farming! That's the angle we need to take here.

It's FarmVille, of course, that king of time management games in which you must run your own farm. Yep, there are cows to be milked, whether you're a maid or otherwise.

This one was easy to figure out. It's got to be a disco-themed game, right? There just so happens to have been such a game released within the last few months: Disco Dave.

It's pretty fun, too, mixing rhythm action with those reactions-based bleepy button tests - and all set to a funky space disco soundtrack.

There are plenty of lords in gaming. People seem to dig pretending to be all regal and uppity and bossy, for some reason.

If we're talking lords, let's go with The Lords of Midnight - a quite wonderful revamp of a classic strategy-RPG in which you must assemble an army and quite literally lord it over the hordes of darkness. There's something rather festive about that colour palette too, don't you think?

Some of the best pipes in gaming are to be found in True Skate. Or rather, HALF-PIPES.

Yes, it's a feeble bit of word play from yours truly. But it's also an excuse to pretend your fingers are a nimble skateboarder's legs and pull off lots of physics-defying tricks. Which I think is a fair price to pay.

Of course, we're going to go with a rhythm action game here. But there's quite enough of a party vibe in the air already, so we're going to provide something of a bitter palate cleanser in the shape of Lost in Harmony.

The core idea is to keep the beat to some banging classical music remixes (I can't quite believe i said that), but it's all tied together by a moving tale of a boy and his sick friend.