In between quitting jobs, offending excellencies with my sheer awesomeness, all the angst, and cutting off half my hair, I’ve been playing a lot of iPhone games. So out of character, right? Anyway, these games are a blast and you should check them out if you like fun. If you don’t like fun, you’re probably DW and just the worst person I’ve ever met. Just sayin’.

Ruzzle Adventure

Universal
Genre: Word Games
Price: Free

I never played the original Ruzzle game because I am all about playing with myself, not others – but Ruzzle Adventure caught my eye. The price was right, so I downloaded it and waded through the first few rounds. I’m glad I did, because the tutorial levels are deceptively simple .. but once you get to level 20 or so, the game gets HARD. Like, repeatedly failing levels and having to start over hard. I’m a big fan of word games, but I’ve played so many of them that the mechanics of every game comes way too easily, but Ruzzle Adventure is the first word game I’ve encountered in a LONG time that makes me swear. It’s great. Get it now.

Dwarven Den – The Mining Puzzle Game

Universal
Genre: Puzzle/Adventure
Price: Free

Another title grabbed on a whim that quickly turned into a favourite, Dwarven Den is a lot of fun. You have a different goal each level, ranging from mining gold to forge new tools to locating your fellow dwarves after some sort of attack. In each level you have a limited amount of energy and “tech”, which is kind of like dwarf mana – but if either of those run out, you’re screwed. You also get a variety of tools to use that will help you access areas or capture monsters. For a free game, there are surprising number of levels – I’m at level 69, with another 20 to go. Each level has tons of replay value, and there are a lot of different pieces of equipment to find or create via the forge. I don’t think I’ve encountered a game quite like this before, but I’m really loving it – definitely a favourite by now.

Super Monkey Ball Bounce – Canadian iTunes Only

Universal
Genre: Peggle, with Monkeys
Price: Free

This title was soft-launched in Canada, and isn’t in the US store yet. If you absolutely must get your hands on this Peggle-knockoff, you either need to be Canadian or have a Canadian iTunes account. It’s pretty good if you don’t want to do any exact trick shots (the fine tune controls are not great), and the addition of the saccharine-cuteness of the monkeys is appealing .. if you’re a fan of SEGA’s Monkey Ball games, then you’ll like this. It’s no Peggle, but it’ll do until Peggle 2 is launched on iOS (which, Popcap, GET ON WITH IT ALREADY).