Top 10 best free iPad games (2010)

After spending all our money on our new, sparkly iPads, we're all feeling a little skint.

Fortunately, the App Store plays host to a variety of free iPad games, ripe for the picking.

Of course, they don't all smell of roses - some are good, some are bad, and some are downright ugly. You need some help sifting through them.

Here's our top ten free iPad games, available for your downloading consumption. Note that this list does not include Lite versions of paid apps.

Remember in Star Wars when Luke and Leia nearly get turned into pancakes in the garbage crusher, and R2-D2 saves the day just in the nick of time?

Compression HD is a Tetris-style puzzler in which the blocks are the Skywalkers, and you're the R2. As pieces fall, the walls and floor cave in, and you need to match-three as fast as possible to avoid a messy pile-up.

With constant tension, OpenFeint achievements, and randomly generated levels, Compression HD is free puzzling bliss.

Playing God is always good fun, and GodFinger is no exception. You're presented with your own planet and followers, and it's all about money, money, money.

Grab the sun and clouds out of the sky and prepare the land, then pick up minions with your finger and dump them in a farm, ready to plow the earth for your cause.

Awe can be bought with real cash to speed up the process, but it's not necessary - the entire game can be played to completion for free.

The long running Tap Tap rhythm series has received huge praise on the iPhone. Tap Tap Radiation continues the tradition on iPad, bringing musical-tapping goodness to the masses for free.

The game comes with a selection of more than 30 songs for free, although you'll have to pay to download the premium tracks.

Still, the free tracks include the likes of Mos Def and Serge Devant, so there's plenty of offer for the cheapskates like us.

Simple yet addictive, Dizzypad for iPhone saw a frog jumping for lilypad to lilypad, spinning around at each stop.

Dizzypad HD takes the original and blows it up for crisp, high resolution. There's plenty more space to play with now, and all the Plus+ enabled scoreboards and achievements are there.

A few special modes can be purchased for $1.99 / £1.19 each, but the free Classic mode is enough to make this worthy of a download.

Harbor Master was a big hit on iPhone, so it's no surprise that an iPad version was developed. Harbor Master HD brings the boat-docking management game to the big screen for free.

There's only one map available, with extra harbours costing 99c / 59p each, but it's still worth downloading to see the difference the high resolution makes.

With so many ships on screen at once, chaos is assured.

Who rules? We Rule, that's who. Originally a big freemium release on iPhone, the kingdom farming experience is also available in high resolution form on iPad.

Plant crops, harvest the results, build stuff with the money, rinse, repeat. Then make some friends to speed up the whole process.

As with GodFinger, real world money can be spent in growing and building faster, but there's not much point, and the whole thing can be played through without spending a penny.

The Aurora Feint series has done a decent job of mixing the match-three genre with RPG elements. Aurora Feint 3 continues the concept on iPad.

Battle bandits and thieves by joining three identical blocks together in standard match-three fashion. OpenFeint achievements and leaderboards enhance the experience.

There's only one chapter to play through, with more features promised with future updates.

The first MMORPG for iPad, Pocket Legends is a huge-world battling romp for a gorgeous price tag of zero.

Along with fighting beasts and upgrading your character, there are tons of community features to allow you and your friends to share items, message each other and the like.

There are premium items and packages available to buy for money, but there really is no need if you'd rather not.

Where would a gaming device be without a free solitaire app? The classic card game is in full, free force on iPad in the form of The Solitaire.

Features include unlimited undo, stats tracking, and global high scoreboards. Touchscreen controls are simple and easy-to-use, which is you what you'd look for in a solitaire game.

It's not going to get your heart racing or your adrenaline pumping, but if you're looking for a relaxing card game, The Solitaire is a good, free option.

Solitaire may be the classic card game, but chess is the king of the boardgames. WarChess brings the war game to iPad for free with a variety of options.

A few different themes are offer, including the abilities to turn all the pieces into 3D fantasy-like beings with their own animations.

There's also the option to play versus an AI opponent, a human on the same iPad, or against a friend via Facebook. Definitely worth a download for the chess buffs out there.