Top 10 games to play on your cut-price HP TouchPad
Seeing as you've got some money left over...
Reports of TouchPad's death have been greatly exaggerated.
So the device might have been discounted by HP fewer than 50 days after release, and the sorry tablet might have slipped off store shelves at a heartbreaking £89 price point, but there's still some life in the old gal yet.
Don't expect to see many new apps hit the device's meagre store, and don't hold your breath for any software updates, either. But you can, of course, use the cut price device for web browsing, tweeting, emails, and using the small selection of apps on the store.
There's even a handful of games, as eager iPhone and Android developers hastily ported their games to the burgeoning webOS, long before the TouchPad's death-knell was rung.
So use some of that £300 saving you just scooped, and spend a bob or two on the tablet's best games. Here are ten that we recommend.
Angry Birds HD
Rovio Mobile - Free
Rovio's multi-million selling phenomenon has hit just about every phone, console, and microwave oven since its iPhone debut, so there's no surprise that this band of angry and suicidal birds has migrated to the TouchPad as well.
The world-dominating physics puzzler tasks you with catapulting a collection of birds into the rickety houses of egg-stealing pigs. You'll need to figure out the best place to send different types of birds to cause maximum destruction to these wood, glass, and stone structures.
Angry Birds is cute, colourful, and woefully addictive, as you march on from house to house, systematically wiping out several different species of pig. It's perfectly suited to the touchscreen, and if you haven't sampled it yet your brand new TouchPad is the perfect opportunity.
Robotek HD
Hexage - Free
Hexage's Robotek has been a firm favourite on iPad and Android. The strategic slot machine battler is smart, sophisticated, and highly original.
You play as a giant hulking great android facing off against an evil mainframe system. To win the battle you need to deploy helper bots, repair broken-down machines, and, most importantly, send off attacks.
It's not as simple as choosing your next move from a menu, though. You'll pick a mode (Robots, Upgrades, or Attacks) and then roll the slot machine. Three big spinners will then randomly decide the turn's outcome.
You might roll three drones, and a super-powered flying robot will appear for backup. You might roll a laser beam and two electric shocks, giving your robot team the attack power to put a dent in the enemy forces.
Slice It! HD
Com2uS - 79p
Shapely puzzler Slice It! is perfect for maths nerds. The game's 200-odd stages will test your geometric knowledge to breaking point.
On each stage you're presented with a new shape. It's your job to slice the shape into bits, and hopefully end up with a number of pieces that all have the exact same surface area. At the end, you'll have evenly sliced the image into equal-size chunks.
But while it's easy enough to cut a square into four, or deal out a cake-shaped circle amongst 8, Com2uS's game soon brings out the big guns with ultra-hard stages that only a genius can finish with five stars.
Big Boss
Fair Play - £1.59
In most games, you play as a hero trying to best some nasty monster. Maybe you're a dashing knight in shining armour trying to tackle a fiery dragon, or a military defence force attempting to save a city from Godzilla and his cronies.
But in Big Boss the shoe is on the other, oversized and rather scaly foot. You play as a massive great monster who needs to stamp out the citizens of Trogon for building their stupid pointy castle so close to your cave.
Not only do you get to rampage through the kingdom, mauling would-be heroes and incinerating brave monster hunters, but you can customise your leviathan with cool outfits, helpful armour, new powers, and special powers.
Glyder 2 HD
Glu Mobile - £1.49
Glyder is about the joy of flight. Playing as Eryn, a cute chick with a massive pair of wings, you use the TouchPad's motion sensors to dive and swoop about the game's environments, banking around corners and getting caught in updrafts.
There's not that much to it - you'll need to find crystals that are scattered about the foreign dimension and complete 24 goals to get home. But the game's zen-like thrill of gracefully gliding about transcends typical game rules and missions.
If you fancy chilling out in the skies for a few minutes and seeing what your TouchPad's graphics chip is capable of, the critically acclaimed Glyder 2 probably deserves a spot on your homescreen.
Angry Birds Rio HD
Rovio Mobile - £1.59
If you've finished all of the levels on Angry Birds HD, found all of the golden eggs, and scored three stars on every stage that the game has to offer, don't despair.
Earlier this year, Finnish developer Rovio teamed up with movie studio Fox to help promote CGI kids flick Rio. The result was this: a spin-off version of Angry Birds that features the locations, characters, and eye-popping colours of the movie.
It plays exactly like Angry Birds - catapult birds into unstable structures for points, eggs and profit - but the pigs have been replaced by cheeky monkeys and caged up birds. You'll still need a head for physics and some serious patience to blitz the game's bounty of levels.
Need for Speed Undercover
Electronic Arts - £7.25
If you really want to see what your new TouchPad is capable of - other than as a serving tray or an ill-fitting hat - then EA's boisterous racer will make it crystal clear.
You get to drive 20 of the world's hottest motors, including the Porsche Carrera GT, through three environments, tackling other racers and speeding away from coppers. The eight modes include Cop Takeout, Highway Battle, and Head-to-Head action.
It's probably the best racer on the TouchPad. Actually, scrap that. It's probably the only racer on the TouchPad. But EA's touchscreen driving sims are always high calibre games, and Undercover is no exception.
Duke
Machineworks Northwest - £2.38
The legendary alien-killer, womaniser, and vest-wearer Duke Nukem has once again found himself on an alien world. But this time it's HP's commercial dud, the TouchPad.
The game, simply named 'Duke', is a direct port of 1996's seminal shooter Duke Nukem 3D. The one with the aliens, the flushable toilets, and the nudey strippers. The TouchPad remake uses virtual buttons to move, aim, and control His Dukeness.
The eternally delayed Duke Nukem Forever might have left a pretty rotten taste in the mouths of gamers across the land, but Duke's 3D original is nothing to be scoffed at. It's crass and often revolting, sure, but it's a fondly remembered game with legions of fans. If you're one of them, go get it.
Beyond Ynth Hd
FDG Entertainment - £2.59
Beyond Ynth is nothing if not original. Chances are, the core gameplay idea is like nothing you've ever played before, on TouchPad or beyond.
You play as a spotty little bug (called Kribl) who needs to traverse dusty deserts, scary forests, and treacherous mountain peaks to restore light to the Kingdom of Kriblonia.
You'll enter these maze-filled boxes, which you can push over by ramming your tiny body against the side. This tips the entire rooms over, revealing previously hidden pathways, pushable flaps, and moving physics-based objects.
You'll need to carefully consider how to navigate and manipulate each area of this indie adventure, to ensure you don't get squished or stuck.
Beyond Ynth is cute, charming, and wonderfully innovative. If you've never had a chance to sample it on iPhone or iPad, now's the time.
Sparkle HD
10tons - £3.98
Seeing as PopCap didn't get a chance to develop games for TouchPad before its untimely demise, chances are we'll never addictive ball-based puzzler Zuma on HP's tablet.
But never fear, because an effective copy is available in the form of addictive puzzler Sparkle HD! Hooray for mild copyright infringement!
If you've never played Zuma (or the preceeding Scoreloop, or the numerous proceeding copycats), you're presented with a spiralling snake of coloured spheres. You need to spit out coloured balls to form groups of three or more.
Once you get good enough, your shots kick-off chain reactions for massive points.
Sparkle HD is the perfect mindless distraction to occupy your fingers and brain during TV ad breaks, boring bus journeys, and the more lengthy microwave sessions.
