I’m not sure why this game is called “Mayhem,” because there’s very little mayhem going on here. Each level has several fruit people scattered about, and you have to toss candy to them by adjusting the angle and power of the thrower. The presentation is pretty darn cute, though, and the gameplay sounds like the kind of thing I would enjoy. Unfortunately, the controls suck all the fun out of it. It’s really, really hard to line up your shots. Sometimes, the arrow would point in the wrong direction from where my finger was and then would play stubborn when I tried to correct it. Other times, I was left trying to adjust the power gauge while my finger was covering it! There’s really no way to recuperate from situations like that, and many a candy was wasted due to finicky controls. Worse, though, is how the game would occasionally stop responding. After I finally managed to throw a piece of candy to another fruit guy, the game no longer accepted input from me, and I would be forced to reset the level. This happened multiple times. The concept is fun and shows a lot of promise, but overall, Mayhem is just too buggy.

Being a fighting game fan, I was excited to play something fighter-like on my iPhone, but I found myself quite disappointed by Minibash. The game seems to have a cool premise, with players taking control of a sort of puppet fighter and fighting their way through tournaments. Sounds cool, maybe even awesome, right? Nope. It’s actually one of the worst iPhone games I’ve ever played. The gameplay is turn-based and revolves around you readjusting your character’s body every turn, but no matter how hard you try, the fight is almost always a toss-up. The AI will always adjust itself perfectly to block you. I totally know what you’re thinking now, “It has to at least look cool, right?” Nope. Due to the speed of the rounds and puppet-like quality of the fighters, Minibash looks like a slap fight between seizure victims. While that sounds hilarious, it manages to be one of the most boring things I’ve seen play out in recent memory. If you want to experience any kind of fun, then steer clear of this game.

When PopCap came out with Bejeweled as an Internet game years and years ago, I never got into it. I always thought it was awkward, and I preferred any of their other games. Then I saw a free download code for the iOS version at Starbucks, so I decided to give it a try. It’s addictive. Incredibly addictive. While there are games out there that are entirely suited for touch screens, they are almost all designed from the ground up for touch screens. For me, Bejeweled for the PC was before its time, because it is so much more fun, fast-paced, and intuitive to throw these jewels with your finger. There are three game modes. The standard mode is, well… standard, but the Butterfly and Diamond Mine modes make for a very different and exciting experience. They’re hard to explain quickly, but the extra modes require entirely different strategies. The achievements are set up well and kept me wanting to play almost as much as the drive to get the ultimate power-ups that completely clear the screen. The ability to play a quick or long game and the $.99 price should make this a standard for any iOS device.

Ticket to Ride is one of the best board games around. The purpose of the game is to build railroads across a country or continent, depending on the version. You have to build around other players trying to do the exact same thing. It’s a game that relies on a perfect balance of strategy and luck to allow anybody a chance to win, or at least be competitive with every game. The pocket version of the game is $.99 and until recently only had the US map. You can now buy 3 more maps for another buck. The iPad version is $1.99 but comes with both. I’d recommend getting the other maps, as the US map alone gets a little old. Also, this isn’t a great game for the lone iOS user. I play this with my wife, nephew, and sister-in-law to make some intense LAN games with a lot of trash talking. For me, it is all about being able to play a board game with no clean up. If you’ve never played Ticket to Ride, then give it a try. The AI isn’t bad, but don’t go over 3 players, it’ll get frustrating. Nonetheless, Ticket to Ride Pocket is a great board game to video game conversion.

Are you playing Draw Something? I am. So are a ton of my friends. The idea is so simplistic and addictive, I’m surprised it took the mobile gaming market this long to figure the whole thing out. It’s basically two-player Pictionary where you and a friend get coins when the correct answer is guessed. The coins are used to buy more colors and bombs. The bombs will either give you different drawing options or remove some letters from the picture you’re trying to identify. The colors you start with are stingy—primary colors and black—but the $.99 version of the game will give you the dough to buy one color pack, which goes a long way. My few complaints are nit-picky, like the fact that there’s no “undo,” too few words, the win streak stops at 99, and there’s no in-game chat. It was just announced that all of those, except the chat, will be put in the next fix. Even without the updates, the game is a riot and a great way to make people laugh throughout the day. I’ve played it on the iPad, iPhone, and Kindle Fire and, well, the bigger the screen, the easier it is to draw. So did you download it yet?

This is such a visually appealing game that I hate to say anything bad about it, but Little Skywire leaves a lot to be desired. The gameplay, for instance, is incredibly simple. You move a little tram forwards and backwards on a cable, watching the patterned movements of the obstacles ahead of you and zipping past them when the coast is clear. What makes it so charming are the fun style and diversity of objects you see along the way. Unfortunately, near the end of the third world, the levels veer into a robotic motif, and the game’s charm is lost. Little Skywire isn’t even very challenging until you reach the last two levels of the fourth world. These two levels were really neat and suggested that things were about to get interesting, but then you get the message: “Please rate this game, and we’ll add more levels.” That was the end! For now, anyway, but the game still costs $2. If the developer would be willing to drop the price to that sweet $1 spot or hurry and finish the game, this would be an easy recommendation. Until then, I just feel let down.