Mobile Games Roundup
Coaster! Battlefield! Heist! Soccer! Gesundheit!
As the weeks tick down to the inevitable release of the next iPhone, it's tough to think of what more Apple can reasonably pack into its handset to make an upgrade desirable.
Apart from obvious ingredients such as a faster processor, more storage space and better battery life, any changes are likely to be mostly cosmetic.
Hopefully the much-trumpeted iCloud will make it easier to access content that would otherwise be unavailable without tiresome syncing operations, but for most of us, we're limited not by our handsets but the speed of the networks and the patchy coverage that we have to endure in even the most built-up areas.
A price drop or an 'entry level' model wouldn't hurt, but Apple hasn't ended up with oceanic cash reserves by cutting corners. If anything, its aggressive focus on marketing its products as aspirational grows stronger every year. Have we already seen the peak? Or will the next Apple TV see us surrender our living rooms as well?
Gesundheit!
Gesundheit! brings us the everyday adventures of an allergic green piglet on a mission to bring slavering monsters to justice for capturing his friends and taking residence in his once-peaceful village.
Despite his obvious size disadvantage, our squat, curly-tailed friend has one thing on his side - the ability to sneeze gigantic blobs of snot on command.
It might not make him a hit with the ladies, but his affliction helps him set off pressure pads and lure dim-witted monsters to their doom, so it's not all bad.
It also makes for a hugely endearing puzzle adventure, as you tiptoe around the fragrant hand-drawn landscapes, gobbing out phlegm, luring beasties and 'encouraging' these unsuspecting souls into the jaws of instant, terrifying death.
The fact that you do so accompanied by the most cracked soundtrack since people stopped making children's television on acid only adds to the impression of gently losing your marbles. This may well be the only game you won't mind losing to, if only to whistle along once again to its death ditty.
If Revolutionary Concepts came to charm us senseless, it worked. There are so many reasons to enjoy Gesundheit; its 40 levels of puzzle nonsense are only a small part of why you should dutifully surrender your loose change.
8/10