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iPhone Weekly Digest: One-thumb Gaming, 8-bit Emulation, Dinosaurs and More

Left: match/drop action puzzler Green Fingers; right: swipe-based dinosaur app DinoMixer

It’s time for our weekly digest of tiny iPhone reviews, courtesy of iPhoneTiny.com, with some extra commentary exclusive to Cult of Mac.

This time, we review Orbital 1.2, Commodore 64, DinoMixer, Green Fingers and Doodle Golf.

APP OF THE WEEK

Orbital now includes a chain-reaction 'full aiming' mode.

Orbital now includes a chain-reaction 'full aiming' mode.

Orbital 1.2: One-thumb precision shooter/ball expansion game, now with excellent aim/chain reaction mode. 5/5 $1.99 http://is.gd/5LOg6

Commodore 64: Official emulator with in-app purchase, auto-save & alt view modes, but iffy controls & odd UI decisions. 3/5 $2.99 http://is.gd/5MLjM

DinoMixer: Swipe-based ‘mix and match’ dinosaurs. Nice illustrations & backgrounds + includes dinosaur info. 4/5 $0.99 http://is.gd/5MLo3

Green Fingers: Frantic swipe-based match game. Compelling, although it irks that one mistake ends the game. 4/5 $0.99 http://is.gd/5JbvW

Doodle Golf: Line-drawing memory test game. Plenty of content but lacks excitement. 2/5 $0.99 http://is.gd/5MLJ8

Not a bad week for iPhone fun. Commodore 64 prodded my nostalgia button, although slightly iffy controls stopped it scoring higher. No such problems for Green Fingers, a gardening-themed match/drop game, whose only failing is that a single mistake spells game over.

DinoMixer almost grabbed app of the week. It’s a great app for dinosaur-mad kids (or, er, old kids who used to be dinosaur-mad… I’m not admitting anything), bringing together great illustrations and educational info about each species.

However, there could only be one winner this time round: Orbital. The orb shooter (fire balls up the screen, which expand, and then hit them again a few times to blow them up) already got App of the Week once, back in October, but the latest update adds an insanely addictive ‘chain reaction’ mode where you have full aiming control. It’s only January, but I reckon Orbital could well be my iPhone game of 2010.

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About the author

Craig Grannell

Craig Grannell is Cult of Mac's designer and an occasional contributor. He also runs iPhoneTiny.com, a Twitter-driven reviews site for iPhone apps and games. Follow Craig on Twitter @CraigGrannell and visit his website, Snub Communications.

Email the author | Read more posts by Craig Grannell.

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