Welcome to the weekly iPhone Quality Index (Qi) games round-up, giving you the LOWdown on the HIGH scorers every Friday on these illustrious pages.

As you may already know, Qi trawls the web for iPhone game reviews from the world’s most respected online and print sources.
Qi then applies its own magic formula to each site (such as 148Apps, Macworld, and TiPb) to establish a single definitive Qi score for each iPhone app and game.

Death Becomes Her

Exploding onto the Qi charts this week in the bronze medal position is Cave’s latest iOS bullet-hell shooter DeathSmiles, a port of the critically lauded Xbox 360 edition and the follow-up to the publisher’s formidable DoDonPachi Resurrection and Espgaluda II.

With a sublime 8.8 Qi rating from a quintet of hardcore iPhone app reviewers, this horizontal side-scrolling shmup is not only leaving mobile fans of gothic danmaku beaming, but is also delighting its maker.

To ease relative newbies into the Gilverado-based bullet barrage, DeathSmiles features several button configurations for the touchscreen, while a specially designed iPhone mode incorporates RPG elements and introduces a new Princess, Tiara.

As for the arsenal at your disposal, VideoGamer notes that “the strong-but-slow laser attack can be toggled on and off with another on-screen button, and while my massive chubby fingers obfuscate much of the iPhone screen the game remains surprisingly tactile and responsive.”

First-class delivery

Perhaps the one genre of gaming that feels entirely comfortable on the iPhone’s 3.5-inch display is the meditative puzzler, since it calls for only an economy of movement and a modicum of precision from the player.

Powerhead Games’s block puzzling entry into this unsurprisingly overpopulated category requires you to shift coloured tiles around the left and right grids to form 2x2 or 2x3 packets.

If you’ve ever dreamt about becoming a postal delivery worker - and who hasn’t? – yet don’t fancy the 4am starts, the unfriendly neighbourhood hounds, and the tailored shorts, Async Corp. can help you realise your fantasy from your bedroom.
148Apps highlighted the variety of gameplay options in Async Corp. at review: “With four game types (the timed Quota, the leisurely Async, speed-based Zoning, and relaxing Free Play modes) there’s bound to be something for everyone to enjoy.”

You can get the up-to-date information about which games are reviewing best over at the Quality Index.