The free iPhone game Trawler report: It’s Inner space versus outer space with Dr Nano, Dropship and Galactic Runner

Trends seem to come and go quickly on the App Store. Once a new type of game has blasted to the top of the charts, you can be sure there’ll be a few pale imitations that’ll be released a month or so later. Tower defence? iDracula-like shooters? Flight Control? Well, at least it’s not all about match-three puzzlers, like it used to be on mobile.

Although we wouldn’t take it as this week’s fad, we’ve got a lot of outer space shooters on offer this week, although one takes place inside a human body. Plus, we’ve got a whopping four full freebies for your finger to get busy with.

Okay, so one of them is stinking up the Box of Shame in this week’s Crap Apps slot and the other one’s an interesting failure, but the others are ones to keep an eye out for. Excitement duly dampened? Then let’s get on with the show.

The best free iPhone games on the App Store

Dr Nano Lite
By Mission Critical Studios
What is it? It’s Innerspace on your iPhone
Type Demo

Remember the film Innerspace? That film where somebody was shrunk down to microscopic size to embark on an adventure inside some bloke? Well, Dr Nano’s a bit like that. You have to fly down veins collecting red blood cells while blasting any build-ups of congesting gunk.

The Lite version gives you the first five levels in the Dr Nano saga, which is none too shabby considering that in pure numerical terms it’s almost a quarter of the game, currently selling for £1.79. Although it’s essentially a tunnel blaster, having control over your speed takes Dr Nano up to the next level. Plus, an inner space game is refreshing now that we’re so very used to outer space adventures.

Block Breaker Deluxe 2 Free
By Gameloft
What is it? It’s a superior block-buster
Type Demo

Block Breaker Deluxe 2 has been floating around the App Store for aeons - almost a year in fact - but the free version has only just hit the store’s shelves. It’s an Arkanoid-esque brick breaking game where you control a paddle and have to knock a ball into an arrangement of bricks above.

Other than the solid ball physics, Block Breaker Deluxe 2 excels in the genre thanks to its colourful, effects-ridden visuals. The full version’s only 59p, too. With these cheap games you are really spoiling us, Gameloft. In fact, this was one of the last of Gameloft’s games to be without a free version. Lite bites all round.

Galactic Gunner Lite
By Ezone.com
What is it? It’s a cinematic on-rails shooter
Type Demo

When faced with the option of something constrained, or something open and free, we’ll tend to go for the latter. We want full space exploration, with trading, blasting and the ability to woo strange aliens, right? Even so, that doesn’t mean what’ll result is a better game.

Galactic Runner goes for the simple option - an on-rails screen-tapping shooter - and is all the better for it. All you have to worry about is blasting away at the right area of the screen as the action unfolds around you automatically. The Lite version contains just a single level from the full version, but then there are only seven in total after all. Generosity has its limits.

Civilization Revolution Lite
By 2K Games
What is it? It’s the civilisation-building epic, in mini form
Type Demo

Our Tracy had a few problems with Civilization Revolution when he reviewed it the other week. While we’ve since been promised an update by 2k Games, it’s best to check out this Lite version before plumping for the £5.99 full version. Them controls sure do take some getting used to.

The Lite version lets you play a quick version of the full Civilization experience, speeding things up and missing out the modern era completely. Oh, and you can’t save either. So, this is really designed to give you a quick feel for the game, even though any version of a game as epic as Civilization Revolution will probably last for a good old while. In the meantime, we’re going to hold out for that update.

Paddle Rally
By Creature LLC
What is it? It’s awesomely simple and simply awesome
Type Full

Paddle Rally requires nerves and reactions of steel, preferably steel springs, to get the most out of, but it is nifty. All it involves is keeping a ball up in the air by using the accelerometer to control a bat. You start off wielding a table tennis paddle, but score high enough and you’ll unlock a fly swatter and a host of other ridiculous bats.

We haven’t managed to get too far beyond that though - Paddle Rally is damnably tricky. It makes great use of the accelerometer. Not only do you move the paddle around and change its angle, but a little flick just before the ball hits your bat and you’ll send it way up into the air.

Plus, you can get trick shots for using particular parts of the bat to hit the ball. Yes, Paddle Rally can be hideously frustrating - a lot of the time - but it’s really very compulsive.

iFPS Online
By Pick Up and Play
What is it? It’s an online FPS - not great, but still...
Type Full

iFPS Online has been made into a freebie for now, and it’s quite obvious why. After all, what’s an online shooter without an online community of players to go with it?

Bearing all the issues we tend to have with iPhone first-person shooters - that the controls are more awkward than Woody Allen’s mannerisms - iFPS Online is perhaps more interesting as a work in progress proof of an ambitious idea than a finished product, but it’s worth a quick download just for the former.

As Spanner said in his review, it’s crude and not bags of fun but, hey, it’s free and that’s gotta count for something, right? Come on LiveFire - prove that a decent online FPS on iPhone can be done. Until then, you’ve got iFPS Online. So, err, sorry. Next!

Pick of the Week

Dropship
By ngmoco
What is it? It’s an outer space shooter
Type Full

We’ve had a lot of reasons to love ngmoco since the App Store opened. Not only has it made some of our all-time favourites, but it also has a habit of making some of its older games free occasionally. Dropship is the latest to undergo this treatment.

You’ve got control of a space craft that has to touchdown on hostile planets in order to save friendly troopers stranded on them. Using vector graphics that are both stylish and very pretty, Dropship is still a bit of a jaw-dropper even though it’s positively ancient in iPhone terms - over eight months.

ngmoco hasn’t generally been one to indulge in quick fleeting price drops, so we imagine Dropship will be available for free for a while. Still, we suggest you seek it out now. It’s a winner.

Crap Apps Box of Shame award

Care-o-meter
By Tristan van Bokkem
What is it? It’s an app for truly offensive human beings
Type Full

Unlike many of the Trawler’s crap apps, the Care-o-meter didn’t gain its place in the box of shame for being badly made. It’s more that the idea of anyone using it in its intended context is really very offensive. Y’know, ‘punch right in the nose in response’ offensive.

It’s an app that uses the accelerometer to move a gauge showing how much you care about the conversation you’re currently having. It’s the sort of thing you can imagine Piers Morgan using when not doing exactly the same thing on TV - and not even the real Morgan either: the larger-than-life cartoonish ideal of him as a kind of media hellspawn.

Is that the kind of person you want to be? Really? Okay, but don’t say we didn’t warn you. It could well end up with you getting your own series on ITV, a fate that few have recovered from.