The free iPhone game Trawler Report: Super KO Boxing 2, Sushi Cat, Gravity Lander

Welcome back to our weekly rundown of the best freebies on the App Store.

It’s been a fairly quiet week on the free games front - perhaps all the developers have been too busy updating their games for Game Center to think about running promotions. They should make like iOS 4 and adopt multi-tasking.

The proper kind, though.

We’ve managed to dredge up a few gems nonetheless, including one triple-A pugilistic treat from Glu. As always, we round off with a steaming turd of an app for your avoidance.

Super KO Boxing 2
By Glu
Type Full

Super KO Boxing 2 is the kind of charming, polished arcade-brawler you’d expect to see on a Nintendo home console. Admittedly, that’s because it – ahem – 'borrows' its ideas from the seminal Super Punch Out, but we’re not complaining.

You view your boxer from behind, and must weave, jab, and hook your way through a number of fights against assorted larger-than-life adversaries. These characters are what really gives Super KO Boxing 2 its unique (on the App Store at least) style, and that really drive you to see what (or who) is next.

Which is a good job, as Glu still hasn’t followed our advice to add a multiplayer mode. You can’t really complain when it’s free, but then it probably won’t be for long.

Get it here.

Fuzzle
By CandyCane
Type Full

Before the mighty Fling there was Fuzzle. CandyCane’s obsession with shunting round things around a grid began here, in the shape of another gently absorbing puzzler.

The goal is to match up three or more circles of a single colour by dragging them around a board. There’s no limit to how you drag them, but they must have an unobstructed path to their destination. This is made tricky by the fact that new circles materialise after every move, so you need to avoid blocking yourself in.

Fuzzle doesn’t reinvent the puzzler, but it is a slick and addictive little game. While it borrows virtually all of its ideas from established sources, there’s not a lot that plays like it on the App Store.

Get it here.

Sushi Cat
By Armor Games
Type Full

You might look at Sushi Cat as a cynical mish-mash of popular elements. It cribs shamelessly from the ever-popular cutesy Japanese culture, nicking its love of sushi, lovable felines and pachinko. It also resembles, by extension, Peggle – one of the hottest casual games of the past five years.

Your harsh outlook will last up until, oh, around the second level. By that point you’ll have been completely won over by the game’s slick presentation and perfectly judged gameplay, which mixes just enough skill into its healthy dollops of luck.

Derivative? Absolutely, but completely adorable with it, and a must-have for free.

Get it here. Pick of the week

Gravity Lander
By Buro Destruct
Type Full

Our pick of the week is a delightful mix of old and new game mechanics, all wrapped up in a gorgeously stylish retro wrapper. Gravity Lander requires you to land your blocky rocket ship upright on the 'Red Mars base' platform.

To do this you must remove the debris piled on top of it by tapping it. You can also hold the rickety structures steady by tilting your handset, and you can even buy yourself some time be utilising the three boost blasts at your rocket’s disposal.

What looks to be another Lunar Lander clone is nothing of the sort. While it’s an obvious homage to classic gaming culture (it was created as part of the Gameculture programme set up by the Swiss Arts Council) Gravity Lander doesn’t quite play like anything else.

Get it here. Crap apps

The Secret
By Radu Ionescu
Type Full

What is The Secret? Apparently, “The Secret is a social mind game that stimulates curiosity and the ability to convince people.” Despite the high-faluting psycho-babble, though, The Secret is just a small step away from all the other 'hilarious' prank apps on the App Store.

The whole shaky premise for The Secret exists outside the app, rendering it pointless on a functional level as well as a conceptual one.

It all hinges on convincing your friends that you have a major secret that does something special. To what end? The developer suggests extortion, but you can do what you like with it.

You’re supposed to note this red herring of a 'secret' down on the app, and you can even protect it with a password for added authenticity. Clearly struggling to justify its existence, the developer boasts that, “You can make a list of friends to help you remember the people you want to show The Secret to. You can add or remove friends from the list at any time.”

If you’re like me, you’re probably still struggling to determine what the point of all this is. Alas, that remains the biggest mystery of them all.