Quality Index: the week's best iPhone games - JellyCar 3, Starfront: Collision, Karoshi
Welcome to the weekly iPhone Quality Index (Qi) games round-up, giving you the LOWdown on the HIGH scorers every Friday on these hallowed pages.
As you may already know, Qi trawls the web for iPhone game reviews from the worlds most respected online and print sources.
Qi then applies its own magic formula to each site (such as 148Apps, Macworld, and VideoGamer) to establish a single definitive Qi score for each iPhone app and game.
Start your engines
Careering onto Qis racetrack this week in pole position rides the third motor from Disneys JellyCar pit lane, weaving through the critical chicanes and haughty hairpins for a champagne-toasting 9.4 Qi rating.
The heavily customised JellyCar 3 passed the chequered flag in first place thanks to a trio of exhaustingly crafted reviews, its 50 levels of platforming-cum-puzzling-cum-driving squishing the competition.
Soar over obstacles, climb walls with Sticky Tires, and go back in time what?! against a backdrop Slide to Play suggests has a molasses-like quality to it. Your car can bounce, drift, flip, and pancake, all without taking a scratch.
Collision course
Adopting the same innovative approach to the freemium business model employed in Sacred Odyssey: Rise of Ayden, Gameloft unleashed the real-time strategy battles of Starfront: Collision for nowt on Wednesday.
15 minutes after download, you face two of the trickiest decisions known to man: do I back the sentient robot race known as the Wardens in a three-way crystal hunt (try saying THAT quickly). And should I upgrade to the full game via in-app purchase??
To the latter Pocket Gamer answered unequivocally in the affirmative, summarising Starfront: Collisions qualities neatly so: Drawing inspiration from the iconic PC titles that define the genre, this feature-rich portable release nails every essential element from controls and graphics to multiplayer and unit variety.
Suicide is painless
After receiving widespread praise on its PC release back in 2008, YoYo Gamess Karoshi has transferred beautifully to iPhone, urging you to die in as many unfortunate ways as possible. No, seriously.
Derived from a Japanese word meaning death from overwork, Karoshi cleverly combines coin-collecting and suicide-seeking, and has found a humorous path to Qi greatness over the last seven days.
You can get the up-to-date information about which games are reviewing best over at the Quality Index.