Further into the game you have different types of ninja stars – some that explode after a certain time into lots of smaller stars, some that almost disappear as ghosts and others that I’ve yet to unlock. You also get steel bars on the edge of the wood that you cannot slice through. Cutting off certain larger chunks of wood gives you bonuses such as extra lives, slow-motion for a few seconds and a random star that gets removed from play via a nice little explosion.

The looks, sounds and feel of the game are very very slick. It’s a joy to play, it’s perfect for simply picking up and playing while waiting for the wife to come out of Morrisons (you know, when they just ‘pop in for one or two things…). It’s just the right difficulty – not too easy that you complete it in no time but also not so hard that you get fed up and give up. There are also a good number of Game Center challenges and achievements to try to beat too. I’ve had this game for a few months now and it’s one that I still keep coming back to. At 59p (99c) it’s a bargain!

iSlash iPhone Game Trailer from Duello Games on Vimeo.

But if you are like most of us, who only play for buttons it is still a fun game that gets the pulse racing.

Poker Dealer Button Free is the first release from iPhone developers Pixelapps.  It’s a simple app that helps players track the time per round together with the small and big blind amounts. It also tracks the number of rounds that have been played.

Peter Dickson, he of X-Factor voiceover fame, provides the commentary, a nice touch for an otherwise simple, but useful, free app.

Your car, when you drive like me, gets damaged! The more damage you get, the lower your top speed is and the idea is to complete all the stages of the rally without completely killing your car. You can turn off the ‘damage’ but then any fastest times and records etc are not saved however this would make it more child-friendly as a game.

The graphics are very slick, the retina screen of the iPhone 4 makes a huge difference when developers go to the effort of adding support for it. On first play you can have pop up hints explaining how to do things which can be useful but on the first course there are 3 or 4 points where the game is interrupted to tell you how to change the view for the car, or to explain that the red/green bars mean! It took a few races to get used to the game and the best techniques for steering but thankfully after the course is complete you can either ‘accept’ your time or race that course again. If you choose to ‘race again’ and you actually get a slower time then your faster one is lost – it’s a risk you have to take…

During the race the bars on the left show each part of the course and at each checkpoint these then become colour coded red or green depending on how your time compares to the other competitors. You also have your damage shown at the top left of the screen.  After every 2 races you get the chance to repair your car. You can either let the app do it automatically or you can play a mini-game to stand a chance of getting a better, faster repair. The mini-games are quite fun and a nice break from driving; the first is a skill game to hit a button at the right time, the second is a mini puzzle to join up 2 lines and I’m yet to see the third!

The difficulty seems spot on; it’s not too easy that you can win every race and complete the game straight away but also, it’s not so hard that you simply don’t want to play it. I came 2nd in my first rally, which I’m pretty happy with and it also gave me a new car.

As well as the normal rally mode the game has 2 extra modes: Adrenaline and Time Trial. Time Trial is self-explanatory really (try get the fastest time on a course). Adrenaline has you trying to finish the course within a set time limit and with as little damage as possible to your car. On both these modes you can control the weather conditions.

At the moment this is an iPhone/iPod only app and priced at $4.99/€3,49/£2.99 however it will soon be updated to be a Universal app (for both iPad and iPhone/iPod) when the price will rise to $6.99/€5,49/£3.99 – so if you want it for your iPad then grab it now and wait for the free update!

Rally Master Pro is a good game, it has some good features such as the mini-games and some very varied tracks. It’s difficulty level is just about right and leaves you wanting to keep playing to beat your last time.

Pinball, as a game, is something I feel transfers well to the iPhone (and iPad) – the screen is the right shape and you only need two ‘buttons’ to play the whole thing. GameProm already have a handful of other Pinball games which look good and work well and have teamed up with the metal band Slayer for the theme of this release.

The 3D-looking table looks great, the views scroll really well and you don’t get ‘lost’ as to where on the table you are while playing. You even have the option to use 3D glasses with the app – sadly I don’t have any so can’t comment on how effective it is. Slayer Pinball Rocks is a ‘universal app’ meaning it is designed both for the iPhone and iPad. The iPad version looks really nice owing to the larger screen but the overall gameplay is exactly the same so iPhone users aren’t missing out on anything. The in-app music is great (in my opinion) and they even provide a link to buy the album in iTunes. This is a bit of a shame though as it essentially becomes a paid-app (£2.99 / $4.99) but with ad’s…

I started off by saying “pinball is fun”, which it is, however the fun can be quite short-lived. You see, pinball is pinball. Different pinball tables (or apps) are essentially the same but with different clothes and different holes to get your balls into. Don’t get me wrong, Slayer Pinball Rocks IS a good game – the graphics are great, the transfer to iPhone works a treat and the controls work really well. However, if you already own one of GameProm’s other iPhone pinball apps then I think you may find this a bit ‘samey’.