A Friday £5 Special - The Black Friday Edition

Black Friday is upon us. What used to be America's busiest shopping day of the year has spread its toxic wallet-sapping pox across the Atlantic to infect the shops and online stores over here.

And we don't even have a belly-full of turkey to keep us going.

But while the pseudo-holiday might be hell on our wallets and a war on our bank statements, its cut-price apps allows us to fill up half an iPhone homescreen with some of the device's best games for a tenner.

That's why we've dedicated a special Friday £5 edition to this international day of sales. We've pored through the price-cuts, done the sums, and figured out the very best way to spend a ten pound note on these Black Friday deals.

Real Racing 2
iPhone - £1.99 - Firemint

In Real Racing 2, Aussie developer Firemint shows the big boys how to make a driving game for mobile. Forget your Needs for Speeds and your Asphalts, this monster tournament racer looks sharper, handles better, and is packed with way more goodies than anything else on the starting grid.

All of its 30 cars are officially licensed motors, and have been meticulously detailed both inside the cockpit and out. There's a huge ten-or-so hour-long career to delve into, and online multiplayer for 16 player races. For just £2, this is bordering on gluttony.

You also get the cool AirPlay feature, if you're rocking an iPhone 4S. This spits your game onto your HD telly over the airwaves, letting you super-size your view or play split-screen mulitplayer with pals.

Puzzle Agent 2
iPhone - 69p - Telltale Games

Agent Nelson Tethers - the FBI's best (and, admittedly, only) puzzle operative - has gone rogue. While the FBI marked his last case closed, Tethers has gone back to the mysterious town of Scoggins to finish some unsolved mysteries.

Puzzle Agent is Telltale's iOS take on the Professor Layton series, where you're asked to solve a bunch of riddles, back-of-the-cereal-box puzzles, and other such head-scratchers in order to advance the story.

It's funny and totally offbeat, the puzzles are usually pretty sharp, and if you enjoyed the first Puzzle Agent then it's your moral duty to put the mysteries of Scoggins, Minnesota to rest.

Shantae: Risky's Revenge
Universal - 69p - WayForward Technologies

Have you still not bought WayFoward's ill-fated platformer? Even after it tanked at retail on Game Boy and failed to find an audience on DSiWare, did you still abandon it when it came out on iOS? Well shame on you. Shame. On. You.

Luckily you can repent for your sins this Black Friday, as Canadian game-maker WayForward has dropped the in-app purchase price of its pixel-art adventure game down to just 69p. You're getting a huge adventure with several areas, dungeons, objects, and bosses for less than the price of a Mars Bar.

Shantae is the tale of a half-genie chick who can transform into different animals by belly dancing. This handy power lets her solve puzzles and beat-down tough bosses in her quest to oust the nefarious pirate bitch Risky Boots.

Pocket Academy
iPhone - £1.49 - Kairosoft

Kairosoft has made simulations out of a start-up game development studio, a struggling race track, a Japanese town chronologically trapped in the Edo period, a bustling shopping centre, and a steamy spa metropolis.

But despite all that, we never tire of the formula. Something about its dangerously addictive chemical make-up keeps us coming back for the next hit. We'd manage a concentration camp if it came with (I'll stop you there - ed).

Pocket Academy is one of the company's best sims, and it's on sale this Black Friday. You're put in charge of a private school, and it's your job to make it a dream college for a group of needy students.

You'll need to design the layout of the school, hire and fire teachers, and sponsor events to attract new pupils. As ever, it's all about earning dosh and collecting accolades before a couple of decades are up, and - as ever - you won't put your iPhone down until you're done.

iBlast Moki 2 HD
iPad - 69p - Godzilab

iBlast Moki 2 is one of the most fresh and original puzzlers on the App Store, and that says a lot for a digital store that's bowing at the sides for having so many pocket-money puzzle games.

It's your job to blast the Mokis into the magic spiral, by setting up physics-based explosions and creating madcap contraptions. Across 90-odd levels you'll have to manipulate items like paint bombs, ropes, rising balloons, and rotating wheels to do your bidding.

It's also got a monster level editor, which lets you build your own stages and then share them online with other Moki nuts. Getting your imaginative level into the hands of thousands of players is an absolute doddle.

In our Gold Award review, we described iBlast Moki 2 as an "essential purchase" and "the best £1.99 you'll ever spend." Now it's just 69p - so do the maths.

Infinity Blade
Universal - £1.99 - Chair Entertainment

Just in time for its forthcoming sequel, sword-fight sim Infinity Blade has had its price tag slashed to pieces.

Infinity Blade is all about overcoming improbable odds. It only takes a few minutes to trounce through the castle and come to the end boss, but don't expect to beat him the first time. It's much more likely that you'll lose the fight, and get a Game Over screen.

Not to worry, though, because your son - who looks exactly like you, and has all the same gear as you - is out for blood and wants to avenge his father. This kicks off a bonkers Groundhog Day loop of getting killed and coming back for vengeance.

But it's definitely not repetitive. Mastering Infinity Blade isn't just about persistence, it's about levelling up, buying new gear, and learning the ins and outs of its clever finger-swiping combat system.

And when you finally land a finishing blow on the God King? A palpable feeling of satisfaction (and a rush of dopamine) is all the reward you need: until the sequel arrives next week, that is.

Hector: Badge of Carnage Trilogy
iPhone - 69p (Episode 1), 69p (Episode 2), 69p (Episode 3) - Telltale

Hector is rude and crude and, to cap it all off, seriously funny. Irish studio Straandlooper has managed to build one of the most memorable point-and-click adventure series in recent memory, in this trilogy of black comedy apps.

You play as inspector Hector, a slovenly pot-bellied police bloke with a taste for fast women and bottomless cans of booze. Tragically for him and his work-shy attitude, he has to spring into action when a terrorist starts going haywire with a sniper rifle.

What follows is a series of smart puzzles that will have you picking up items, chatting to the local populace, and insulting random townsfolk. It's all tied up with a pretty bow of swear words and jokes about turds and willies. But it's all in the best possible taste.