iPhone Games for the Christmas Season

There are now over a thousand games listed in iTunes and they vary greatly in quality and price tag. So its can be a real nightmare trying to find the good ones. Over the next few posts we will be reviewing some of the recently released games. For now, we will stick to those targeting the Christmas season.

There are eight Christmas-theme games listed in iTunes – six released in December and two in November. All carry a price tag! What is troubling about these – and other recently released games – is that in many cases the support site and/or game home sites listed for the developers don’t actually have information (or even mention) the game! The game will get a solid rave on itunes, but when we follow the link – nada!

Take Rudolf’s Revenge – released at the beginning of November. In this case, clicking the link to the site results in a “The url is not valid and cannot be loaded” message. The support link works but does not send us to the support page on the site. OK there is a clear tab at the top to “support” BUT, the game itself does not get a mention anywhere on their site. It’s been two months, dudes. If you don’t think its worth a mention, why would we buy it? (No, not a freebie)

And much the same can be said for Christmas Trivia (they do have a site – if you count half a page and a few short sentences as a site, but no support). They do mention their game – sort of – apparently, however, its too much work to list the game by its full title, so they haven’t! Nuff said!

Macphun have done a few games for iPhones – but their current offering – Christmas Puzzle – also does not get a mention on their site! For Christmas Swap, we get “New site coming soon”, and its support is “coming soon” as well! Christmas Season also has a “coming soon” for the game details and support. Poor show for games that have a price tag.

AND NOW:- THE GOOD NEWS….

On the bright side, there are three games in the list that have good site back-up. These games are also well developed and are, we think, the better games in the bunch. In fact, the iPhonegizmo team have found that the quality of the site backing up the game is an indicator of game quality.

Three out of eight aint bad? Well, unless that reflects the results for all 1000+ games…….!

The three games that get good site/product support are: Christmas Spell, ELFrun, and, to a lesser extent, SnapIt – Christmas Edition.

We give the prize for best site support, to ELFrun which goes the extra mile and provides a video trailer for the game.

iPhone Christmas Carols for Weezer Bundle on EP

Citizens of the world without iPhones (I hear there are a few of you), weep not: Weezer feel your pain, and agree that just because you don’t have some trendy gadget doesn’t mean you should be denied the joy that is Christmas With Weezer.

As you’ll recall, your fave fan-friendly foursome recently cut six holiday jingles for a Tap Tap Revenge-derived iPhone/iPod touch gaming app called Christmas With Weezer. At the moment, said jingles are available only to those who grab the game, but come December 16, anyone who can use iTunes or Amazon.com’s MP3 service can score the Christmas With Weezer digital EP from DGC/Interscope, featuring all six songs “with full vocal harmonies.” Who knew “The Greatest Man That Ever Lived” was Santa Claus?

And it wouldn’t be a Weezer update without something else slightly wacky going down. It appears Rivers Cuomo is continuing his dual love affairs with YouTube (through which he conducted a fan-driven songwriting project earlier this year) and being kinda weird, having launched a search for musically-inclined web-users to help him perform a few songs off his recent Alone II: The Home Recordings of Rivers Cuomo. Rivers has already secured an a cappella group to back him through his cover of the Beach Boys’ “Don’t Worry Baby”, and is now “looking for real top-notch, kick-butt pianists” to pound out the repeated chords of “I Was Scared”:

The resulting (jam session-esque?) performance will apparently appear on Stereogum, and here’s the weird part: Rivers seems to be slowing down his voice with each successive YouTube video. Okay then, dude.

Christmas With Weezer:

01 We Wish You a Merry Christmas
02 O Come All Ye Faithful
03 O Holy Night
04 The First Noel
05 Hark! The Herald Angels Sing
06 Silent Night

Video: Weezer: The Greatest Man That Ever Lived (Variations on a Shaker Hymn) [from the Weezer (Red Album) LP]
Video: Rivers Cuomo: My Brain Is Working Overtime [from the Alone II: The Home Recordings of Rivers Cuomo LP]

iPhone Christmas Wallpaper – Merry Christmas to you!

Right click, “Save Image As…” to download, and save the image in a folder that you sync to your phone (check your iTunes sync settings).

If you’re on an iPhone, tap on the image and hold down your finger for a few seconds. Then, click “Save Image,” and select the wallpaper from within the Settings app.

More great iPhone wallpapers here (not iPhone optimized, but still festively cool).