Platinum Solitaire (iPhone)

Solitaire is, by definition, a solitary card game played by bored children on holiday when they've run out of Nan's Mills & Boon books, right? Not according to Gameloft.

Instead, the publisher portrays it as a glamorous game played in glitzy casinos across the world, with top card-moving skills rewarded in the form of big sacks of cash.

If we'd known that, we might've spent less time as kids ploughing through endless tales of husky-voiced stern men ravishing posh fillies all the way to the altar. It didn't do much for our pulling abilities later in life either.

Anyway, Platinum Solitaire is Gameloft's glitzy take on the traditional card game, and its iPhone version is a considerably ramped-up version of the mobile game of the same name, which came out a couple of years ago.

The idea is to make your fortune in six casinos, which must be unlocked in turn using your profits. Each offers six variants of solitaire, with the traditional one that everyone knows joined by Golf, FreeCell, Pyramid, Spider and Yukon.

Before a game, you have to place a bet on how well you think you'll do – the more you bet, the more cards you have to 'secure' to win.

As a result, the game can be as tough or as easy as you like, although betting more will help you earn your way to the next casino more quickly. You also earn cash for every card you secure, meaning that if you finish a game (the jackpot), you'll be quids in.

Well, dollars.

Each casino has a favourite game, with a bigger payout if you get the jackpot. Don't worry if you're not a solitaire buff – there's a clear tutorial for each variant, ensuring you know what cards have to go where.

The presentation is very slick, with neat graphics and strong sounds. The main menu music is a bit reminiscent of BBC show Hotel Babylon, weirdly, but we'll overlook that.

The touchscreen controls work really well too, with you dragging cards and piles back and forth with your finger or thumb. The cards are just the right size for this, so you'll never be left fumbling.

In the Quick Game mode, you can shake the iPhone to reshuffle, but to be honest this is a novelty feature – it'd be more fun if the cards actually went flying as if you'd had a proper solitaire-fuelled temper tantrum.

A lot of the hype around iPhone focuses on its potential for whizzy 3D action games, often because that's what developers want to talk about.

But y'know what? iPhone gaming is as much about games like Platinum Solitaire, if not more so. With so many solitaire games available on the App Store, it's important to call out the best examples.

This is most definitely one of them. It's certainly swept us off our feet.