★★★★★ (iTMS)

On top of coffee tables everywhere sat the vehicular puzzle game Rush Hour, a game centered around freeing the red car from the surrounding traffic jam. Blocked takes that lovable game and transports it to the iPhone in the form of Blocked.

This game is fantastically addictive. It will keep players guessing through all 100 levels.

The learning curve in Blocked is perfect. There isn’t that one standout level in the middle of the Medium difficulty that’s absolutely impossible like in other puzzle games. Easy is just that, so is medium and hard. Every level seems to fit in exactly with the difficulty setting that looms over the puzzle.

If there was a list of iPhone games that were must-haves, Blocked would make the top five games in that list.

Hopefully future updates will bring more levels but for now, and for only $0.99, you would be crazy not to have this game on your iPhone.

★★★★★ (iTMS)

This little known app by David Rahardja brings the daily deals of Woot.com to the iPhone. WootWatch displays the four items being sold on the various Woot sites (Woot, Sellout.Woot, Shirt.Woot, and Wine.Woot). Simply clicking the “I want one!” button forwards the user to Safari where they can enter their personal information to buy the featured product.

The app is simple, easy to use and a must have for any iPhone user who checks Woot.com daily. ~~Zack Shapiro

★★★★★ (iTMS)

ngmoco is slowly becoming the major player in iPhone applications. MazeFinger, Dr. Awesome, Topple and now Rolando are all winners created by the company started by an ex-employee of Electronic Arts.

Rolando is an extremely interesting game, utilizing the accelerometer and various touch screen commands to move your little guys, complete the objectives and unlock more of the first true iPhone platformer. Rolando features 36 levels with various challenges that ask you to drag your finger, tilt your phone, escort the King, control the Prince and so much more.

Every element is polished and a dream to play. Most will hesitate at the $10 price tag but Rolando is really worth the money. It doesn’t crash, plays fluidly and most importantly, is a hell of a lot of fun. If there’s one game to pick up this December, Rolando is it. It will keep iPhone enthusiasts occupied through plane rides and down time for weeks if not months. Rescue friends, collect diamonds, beat the clock and save Ronaldoland from the dangers that be, only on the iPhone and iPod Touch. ~~Zack Shapiro

★★★★★ (iTMS)

I know I pay a hefty bill per month for this phone thing but damn if the apps are so good that I waste my battery using them instead of the phone!

MotionX Poker is, put simply, the most addictive game I’ve played so far on the iPhone. Most people are familiar with poker dice: you roll five dice over three turns and try to make various combos. Unlike Yahtzee however, you’re playing against a dealer so you’re trying to beat it.

MotionX Poker is $4.99 in the app store and worth it, completely. I seem to continually review apps that I love but the simple fact is this: I buy thing that I know I’ll continue to play in six months when I have downtime and I wind up loving them so much that I just want to share. You know what apps you aren’t going to buy already so why not just show you the absolute necessities for your iPhone, huh?

There are three tables to unlock once you start earning money in the game, dozens of cool-looking dice and achievements or “gems” to uncover. Allover, MotionX Poker is one of those apps where you need to click the link at the top once you’re finished this paragraph, spend the $5 and play until you need a recharge (then play some more). ~~Zack Shapiro

★★★★★ (iTMS)

For the past 20 years we’ve been playing Tetris, watching line after line fade away and the points rack up. Trism is that game but for a new generation of players.

Trism a simple game with extreme depth. Once you master tilting the iPhone to produce combinations in-game, the points and the addiction will start to grow. No puzzle game has taken advantage of the accelerometer quite like Trism. The game has the perfect learning curve. It allows the player to play openly with very little chance of losing at first, but soon the more challenging pieces like locks and bombs come in. Locks prevent a row or diagonal from moving and bombs must be eliminated within a specified amount of turns. Figuring out how to diffuse these potentially game-ending situations is where Trism’s difficulty picks up.

With three different and all equally challenging game modes, Trism will provide hours and hours of fun. You can quit anytime and come back to exactly where you left off. Trism also has an achievement system for those looking for an even bigger challenge from the already difficult game.

Just as every kid in the 90’s had a Tetris cartridge for their Game Boy, everyone should have Trism for their iPhone. Get this now! ~~Zack Shapiro

★★★★★ (iTMS)

Five Dice is another app that I can’t speak highly enough about. It came out with Installer during the great iPhone Jailbreak of 2007/2008. I had it on my iPod Touch and played it every chance that I got. Five Dice the same as Yahtzee, the name was changed for to avoid conflict with the whoever owns the trademark.

The game is simple and fun and well worth its $3.99 price tag. If you have an iPhone and a few minutes to kill here or there, Five Dice is a worthy addition to your app list. ~~Zack Shapiro

★★★★★ (iTMS)

GuitarToolkit is the single app that you want on your iPhone if you’re a guitarist. Say you’re at a friend’s house and he asks you to play a certain chord that you’re unfamiliar with - look it up! GuitarToolkit boasts over 1600 chord variations along with a tuner, real tones for tuning by ear, and a metronome.

I can’t compliment this app enough. As a guitarist myself, this comes in handy every time I’m looking for the right note to complete my riff. The metronome is simple and easy to set, great for times when you want to play with a beat but don’t have a metronome or drum machine with you.

GuitarToolkit is packed with almost everything you need as a guitarist or bassist on the go. At $9.99, it’s a bargain compared to what they could charge for this app. GuitarToolkit is a handy addition to a musician’s gig bag. ~~Zack Shapiro

★★★★★ (iTMS)

Every now and then we bookmark something that we want to look at but don’t have the time to. By the time we’re back at the computer, the thing we wanted to see has been long forgotten and lost in the clutter of the Bookmarks Menu. Marco Arment’s Instapaper is the web app/iPhone app to end this nasty habit that we all have. Instapaper should come stock on every mobile device, it’s just that good.

The interface is very simple with the list of articles or websites that you’ve chosen to “Read Later.” Your saved websites are loaded within Instapaper with no need to launch Safari. When you’re done reading, edit your list of saved materials and get rid of the things that you no longer need. Press update at the bottom to load articles that you’ve bookmarked on the computer but haven’t yet loaded onto your iPhone.

The premise is simple and beautifully executed. Everyone needs this handy app for reading on-the-go. ~~Zack Shapiro