Download Games Roundup

Slice It!

• iPhone & iPad / £0.59

The last time someone tested my spatial awareness to this extent, Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan were still getting it on. What was once considered arcane juvenile punishment is now evidently seen as joyous mass entertainment, with Com2US's brain-melting puzzle game currently sitting proudly atop the iPhone's paid apps chart, and second only to GTA on iPad.

Like most phenomenally successful iOS apps to date, the premise is about as simple as they come. You're challenged to slice shapes up into the required number of (roughly equal) segments in the required number of turns; what can seem like an insultingly straightforward task can soon become an all-consuming obsession.

Displayed on crumpled graph paper, a simple shape is drawn out in front of you with crayon, and you have to, for example, divide a square or triangle into three equal sections by simply tracing the required lines with your index finger. Depending on how close you are to making each segment equal, you'll then be rated out of five stars and moved onto progressively more challenging tasks.

And what tasks they are. With 60 of the buggers crammed into this stupendously good-value release (and another 40 on the way), it's one of those apps you'll spend disproportionate amounts of time patiently sweating over.

Every time you think you've had enough, a spark of inspiration drives you on to the next one, and the next thing you know, you've missed your stop and you don't even mind.

8/10

GO Series: 10 Second Run

• DSiWare / 200 Points (£1.80)

Does the world need another Canabalt? Probably not, but it is a better place for having 10 Second Run in it.

Designed as a furiously exacting series of platform challenges, the idea is to guide a stick man to a goal within - you guessed it - 10 seconds.

Blessed with a minimalist aesthetic not seen since Jumping Jack in 1983, developer G-mode has seemingly gone out of its way to make everything about the game as basic as possible.

Instead, we'll fill in his back story ourselves, and ponder on his life as a marathon runner, on the run from a troubled past of excess and guilt.

But the fraught misery of having seven children from three failed marriages hasn't stopped Jonty (as we're calling him) from being able to run and jump with the best of them. And so we spend our time keeping the dream alive, running from pillar to post, leaping yawning chasms in a desperate battle against the clock.

Ever onwards, we ignore the failures and keep our eyes on the prize, going for the win. We're not entirely sure what we're winning, exactly, but it's undoubtedly worth it.

7/10