I'm perfectly amicable to abusing animals. "Cat football" was one of my first internet searches and my all-time favorite name for a pet is "Punt." It's a well-known phenomena among family and friends that their shelter rejects invariably plant themselves in my lap for interminable stretches as a sadistic form of revenge. So Boxing Zoo ought to be the ideal Punch Out clone to tote around on my i... more.

Playing the iPhone update of this ancient classic is a lot like taking back a spouse that had an affair. There's love and a desire to reunite, but you're just not sure you can ever fully trust your partner again. Which isn't to say it's not worth messing around a bit for old times' sake. Prince Of Persia Retro revives the 1989 Apple II classic that launched a prolific gaming franchise and ut... more.

A cute 2D platform creature trying to eek out a living in a cruel 3D shooter world. That's as close to "you had me at hello" as I get. I've long been a sucker for this now-underdog genre, which when done well matches the best of its rivals in offering new things to explore and discover. But Goro's Way is like that pretty girl who turns out be not all that bright (or, in my case, probably acti... more.

Odds are you probably already have and love this game, so all that's left for a poor reviewer to do is try to tell you something about it you don't know. For starters, behind the pay wall of The Wall Street Journal's Web site is this gem of an incentive for aspiring app developers:  "'Angry Birds' has generated about 2.35 million paid downloads since its launch in December…It costs 99 cents... more.

A 3D, true-to-physics iPhone pinball game featuring complex logic without roaming cameras or "RGB-like quest on an eight-screen playfield" X-tremism. OK,  a few exist already – the revived Amiga classic Pinball Dreaming: Pinball Dreams in particular – and this isn't the most in-demand genre around. But as a former kid willing to tolerate dad's beatings for staying too long at the ice rink'... more.

Nothing written in this reviews matters, since this app is as critic proof as it gets. But I'm wasting time writing it anyhow since, unlike the Double Down, this effort actually justifies the hype. All-In-1 Gamebox is a perpetual contender on bestseller lists because it offers a wealth of constantly increasing titles – 30 as of this writing – for a mere 99 cents. The logic for buying it is ... more.

It's incredible how thin the line is between a great game and utter trash. And incredible how even the most tired gaming concepts can shine in the hands of a creative programmer. RPG Snake takes one of the world's oldest and most copied games – something so simple it was among my first projects in the archaic language of BASIC – and makes it fresh and fun by meshing it with another old genr... more.

Living in the world's northernmost town means I invariably snag anything with polar bears, seals, penguins and other creatures roaming the extreme ends of the Earth. Saying I can see polar bears from my backyard isn't comic exaggeration – indeed, it's essential to carry a rifle to ward them off when wandering beyond the city limits. That is far, far easier on the nerves than trying to play th... more.

(Full disclosure: This product originally received a scathing "not acceptable" review, which has been completely rewritten due to an update shortly before publication. While this is good news for users, developers who don't adequately playtest software before release tend to make critics surly.) It doesn't happen often, but Intellivision finally won a round against Atari. Mattel's quirky vid... more.

Baseball's a great sport as long as you skip the game. It's endlessly entertaining reading about fantasy fanatics, players' per-pitch pay, the upside of 46th round draft picks, concession prices and anything that is the dugout of despair known as the Washington Nationals. It's possible I have an attitude because I'm so lousy I've hit myself swinging the bat on more than one occasion. So w... more.