Cool Curlings

With unseasonably warm weather nearly derailing the Olympic Winter Games in Vancouver, we have similar lukewarm feelings about Cool Curlings.

As a sport, curling is particularly well suited to the iPhone, and Grizzly Panda has done an excellent job of imbuing it with charm. The single-player component consists of 15 challenges in which your Jamaican curling team must prevent the Canadian favourites from winning.

Played with a friend, the strategic depth and competitive potential is vast, but a few shortcuts prevent this from being a gold medal package.

A throw is completed by dragging a line from your player, the length and direction of which determines the strength and angle of the shot. Once the stone is in motion, you can add spin by rubbing the screen to brush the ice.

The goal is to set your stones atop the house - a circular target - across the ice. Just getting close to it is a challenge, yet navigating around opponents' stones can also be tricky as a match wears on.

Considering the potential demonstrated by multiplayer, it's a real shame that the computer doesn't fight back with greater zeal. Whilst the tenuous pretence of beating the Canadian team is all very well, their weak-kneed nature makes beating them in-game a breeze.

There's a reasonable challenge in single-player mode, but you'll have completed all there is to see (save for a couple of gold medals) within an hour. The lack of anything other than local multiplayer is also disappointing, and further limits the opportunities to experience the game at its best.

If you can find a friend you're willing to share a handset with (and don’t mind keeping track of your own scores), Cool Curlings is decent, but it may be best to put this one on ice until it's updated with more content.