The free iPhone game Trawler Report: Rhythm Racers 2, Doodle Sky, Graffiti Ball

Hello there, fellow App Store scavengers. We’re here for another session of trawling through the assorted fish guts of a squillion dodgy free iPhone games in search of that elusive swallowed gem.

This week’s selection is an eclectic mix of freemium titles and full games. Oh, and one ear-drum molesting travesty.

We’ve got the return of the king (of free casual iPhone games), a funky beat-matching sequel, a charming twist on the Flight Control template, and a title that will probably help lower your blood pressure.

It’s all rounded off, as ever, by a fetid old boot of an app that could well see you losing your lunch. Steer clear or, preferably, point and laugh.

The best free iPhone games on the App Store

Rhythm Racer 2
By AvatarLabs
Type Freemium

While we wait patiently for someone to bring the PC’s excellent Audiosurf to iPhone, we have to make do with admittedly fun cheap knock-offs like Audi A1 Beat Driver. Here’s another.

The premise is familiar: you guide your craft left and right along three lanes, picking up visual representations of the beats playing in the background. Rhythm Racers 2 offers a slight twist by implementing accelerometer control, which makes it handle more like a futuristic racer (hence the title, I guess).

As such, it lacks digital immediacy and purity of other games in the genre, but it at least offers something a bit different. You can purchase additional song packs to add to the four default derivative rock numbers.

Doodle Sky
By Original Force
Type Freemium

Doodle Sky takes the excellent flight control system of, er, Flight Control and applies it to a rather more action packed game.

Rather than landing your little hand-sketched planes, your task is to steer them towards a series of hostile targets. As you close in on your enemy your craft will open fire automatically. Align yourself correctly and you’ll also have the opportunity to launch a powerful missile attack.

This freemium version gives you the opening five levels and two planes to play around with, after which it’s time to get out that virtual wallet. Still, in its intial form it’s worth a good 15 minutes of fun, which is more than some paid games provide.

Dreamscape
By Barefoot Explorers
Type Full

Have you ever played Pop? Good, isn’t it? If you haven’t though, you’re going to have to pay £2.99 for the privilege of popping a bunch of bubbles.

Or you could just download DreamScape for free - but get in quick, as it’s part of the FreeAppADay scheme. It features the same kind of cathartic combo-based popping as Pop, but this time with a series of new agey backgrounds.

Okay, it’s not as good, but it's a creditable copy that won’t set you back the price of a pint. Plus, the top ten scorers each day get to join the ‘All Star Rank’, although the concept of competitive bubble popping sits alongside competitive yawning and competitive badminton in the conceptual mismatch stakes.

Pick of the week

Graffiti Ball
By Backflip Studios
Type Full

The maker of Paper Toss and Ragdoll Blaster returns with another maddeningly addictive slice of freebie fun. Graffiti Ball continues the Backflip way of making simple games out of solidly implemented physics.

You have to guide a bouncing ball to the level exit by drawing in additional bits of level furniture – usually a blocking wall or a well placed ramp - to get the ball airborne. It’s all set to a tight time limit, so there’s a real temptation to go slightly ‘off piste’ in order to reach the time top-ups that are littered around some of the levels.

It’s not a wholly original concept by any means, but when the game is this fun (and this free) it would be churlish to complain.

Crap apps Box of Shame award

Vuvuzela Man
By Spoonjack
Type Full

For any non-Dutch or Spanish football fan, the current World Cup in South Africa was spoiled long before their teams went out. The reason? HOOOOOOOOOOOONK.

Yes, those adorable vuvuzelas have reduced even the most exciting match to a drone of 20,000 parping plastic horns. It’s all part of South African culture, we’re told, to the bemusement of millions of South African rugby and cricket fans who haven’t heard so much as a peep at their own sporting events.

Vuvuzela Man lets you replicate not just one tournament ruiner, but up to four simultaneously, depending on your handset.

iPhone 4 owners should download this at your peril – you’ll have to explain to the doctor and your insurance company how £500 worth of shiny plastic and metal found itself forcibly inserted into your rectum. Parp that out, buster.