Top 10 iPhone games for the summer holidays

It’s that time of year when people the world over say “To hell with the global recession – I need a holiday” before pulling out their overloaded credit cards and spending several thousand pounds on a trip to sunnier climes.

Then there are those who say “Hell, there’s a global recession – but I still need a holiday” and put thousands of saved-up pennies on a trip to a caravan park on the coast.

The third group – the group I happen to subscribe to - say “There’s a global recession on – to hell with leaving the house” and spend what little money they have on alcohol and DVD rentals.

Whatever your summer plans, we have a carefully selected list of iPhone games to put you in that holiday spirit.

Monkey Island 2 Special Edition: LeChuck's Revenge (LucasArts)

If there’s one way to get you in a lighter frame of mood while simultaneously whetting your appetite for exploring a strange new country, it’s playing LucasArts’s seminal masterpiece. Of course, it now comes in a snazzy new iPhone jacket.

Chief among Monkey Island 2’s attributes are its humour and the razor-sharp script this inhabits. There aren’t many games out there that can have you openly guffawing, but this is one of them.

Its qualities as a rip-roaring adventure shouldn’t be underestimated either, as once again we follow the unlikely exploits of the hapless (though eminently likeable) Guybrush Threepwood.

Monkey Island 2 is the perfect holiday accompaniment for those with an adventurous spirit.

Of course, sometimes you just want a bright and sunny pool-side puzzle to absorb your attention while your skin absorbs dangerous levels of ultraviolet light. It’s why those gaudy word-search/Sudoku puzzle books are so popular.

Put those cheap books away and pull out Piyo Blocks 2 on your iPhone. It’s ace.

On paper it’s no different to any other match three puzzler on the App Store – you align coloured blocks, they disappear, you get lots of points. But Piyo Blocks 2 happens to be a really good example of the genre that will eat up hours of pool-side time with ease.

It also helps that it’s one of the sunniest looking games that money can buy.

Call them airport novels, holiday fiction or simple page turners; there’s no denying the popularity of pacy, suspenseful literature amongst holiday makers. Serving much the same function as the puzzle book, it seems to be part of the switching off process to escape into the pages of a book for a few hours each day.

Nick Chase: A Detectve Story is the gaming equivalent of a holiday page turner – though it also happens to mix in plenty of puzzle book elements to boot.

How does one game manage such a feat? By being an immaculately realised hidden-object location game, wrapped around a rollicking mystery story while incorporating brain teasing puzzles, that’s how.

Perfect escapism for any beach-bound holiday maker.

Every holiday cottage/villa/caravan needs a deck of cards. When the weather outlook is grim and inter-family relations strained, the only thing for it is to batten down the hatches, open a giant bag of the local (often amusingly named) brand of crisps and start dealing your first round of Solitaire.

Here’s a tip – save yourself the trouble and download Sword & Poker 2 instead.

Gaia’s supreme effort takes a humble pack of cards and builds an engrossing turn-based RPG around it. If that sounds dull and nerdy to you casual gaming types, you can rest assured that it’s neither.

In fact it’s such an absorbing proposition that you’ll probably still be playing it when the sun comes out and the rest of your family and friends head off to the beach.

Even more so than the humble deck of cards, Yahtzee was an ever-present on Mundy family holidays.

There was something about the combination of a simple set up (you just need five dice, a pen and a few scraps of paper) and a subtly sophisticated rule-set that incorporates all the luck, skill and tension of a game of poker that proved to be endlessly fascinating.

It’s a noisy and messy game though – two things that would often lead to arguments in the close confines of rented accommodation.

Yahtzee Adventures is the perfect solution. It may lack the tactile joy of shaking (kiss for luck) and rolling those dice, but it’s got all the other key ingredients of the holiday classic.

There’s a sizeable portion of people who prefer to spend their summer holidays in a location and manner that are diametrically opposed to your typical relaxed beach break.

We’re talking, of course, about skiers and snowboarders. Not for them being sat stewing by a pool. They’d much rather attach a plank of wood to their feet and hurtle down a frozen mountain.

If that floats your boat, you’ll want to get in the mood for your slippery antics with X2 Snowboarding. It is, after all, the finest representation of the sport on iPhone.

The game lets you activate grabs and tricks by mimicking the actions with your fingers – the perfect dry run for the real thing.

It’s a curious holiday phenomenon (alongside karaoke and drinking foul liqueurs) that you always end up playing some kind of bowls-type throwing game. Whether it’s a languid game of boules or trying to land a Frisbee ring over a stick in the sand, it’s an urge that befalls many of us.

Why frustrate that urge when in the constrained environment of your hotel room/aeroplane cabin? Extreme Lawn Bowls is a splendidly entertaining take on the sport which captures the precision of boules and the colourful improvisation of… whatever that other game is called.

The game pits you into distinctly non-brutal lawn bowls combat with a host of super powered characters. It’s bright, fun and ever so slightly daft – like all the best holidays.

Remember what summer holidays were like when you were a kid? The sun was brighter, the sea bluer and the Orangina tastier than they've ever been since. And the video games you used to play in those 'exotic' arcades and on your brick-like Game Boy… well, they were simply magical.

Super Quick Hook recalls those golden 8- and 16-bit summers with its pixel-art style and hard as nails gameplay.

Swinging from point to point with your trusty grappling hook is a task that requires sharp reactions, plenty of repetition, sugar-based stimulants and long hot days with nothing better to do.

Just like the good old days.

Little screams Summer louder in video games than a decent track and field game. Playman Track & Field is probably the finest example of the summer sports genre on iPhone.

It’s a button masher, but a finely crafted one. From the 100 metre sprint to the javelin throw, each event requires plenty of frantic thumb pounding mixed in with just enough skill and finesse. Iit’s the second best way to get hot and sweaty on holiday (the first being rock climbing, of course).

As well as some delightfully sunny presentation, PTF’s high-score chasing gameplay makes it the perfect pass-the-handset competitive multiplayer game to break up those interminable car journeys.

What’s the worst thing about summer holidays for your average games-nut? Being away from their beloved console(s) for a whole fortnight, of course. It’s enough to give some people I know withdrawal symptoms - once they’ve given up trying to jerry-rig their Xbox to the provided antique TV, that is.

On such occasions, your average iPhone game – brilliant as it may be – just doesn’t quite fill the hole. You need something rich, substantial and epic in scope.

Fortunately, Gameloft worked with Ubisoft to bring this excellent PS2 conversion to iPhone. It’s not flawless, but it captures the big budget action-platformer thrills of the original very well indeed.

If you find yourself thousands of miles from home and hankering for some meaty joypad action, you could do a lot worse than entertaining the prince.