Price: $0.99    Score: 7/10    By Shaun Campbell

While comparisons to the hugely successful Pocket God can’t help but be made, Pocket Devil: Xmas Holiday Edition carves out it’s own unique style in this new holiday inspired update to the game. Developed by Eyedip, Pocket Devil is probably best described as Pocket God’s evil twin – peaceful pygmies have been replaced with little red devils and the punishments that you can dish out to your minions have also taken a step up in terms of devilishness.

To get started in Pocket Devil: Xmas Holiday Edition you simply tap on a cannon positioned at the top left of the screen which launches a number of devils – named “Mugat2″ – on to their icy little island. Just like in Pocket God, you can interact with the little guys in a number of ways – you can flick the devils to make them fly, tap and drag to move them around and also engage them with various items in the environment.

To deal out some pain to your red devils, you’ll need to make use of Pocket Devil’s action buttons. There are 11 buttons lined up along the bottom of the screen, each with its own icon indicating the button’s use. While some of the actions are Christmas inspired, all of them are naughty, none of them nice. Tapping on a button will activate its event, which include an evil Santa, tridents that fall from the sky, flammable gasoline, prison chains and a big guillotine amongst others. You can spear the devils on icicles that hang from the top of the screen, hang them from a tree like Christmas ornaments or set a demon upon them.

Pocket Devil: Xmas Holiday Edition also features a couple of minigames to keep things interesting – one involves a whack-a-mole style game play, with the aim is to see how many little devils you can slap in one minute. The other game is a 60 second challenge to dispose of as many devils as you can. You can even submit your high scores to Facebook or Twitter.

Like the gameplay, the visuals in Pocket Devil are unmistakeably Pocket God in style but are still fairly unique in their own right. I did find that the game felt a little sluggish – it took a while for my taps to register, and it would often take several tries to select and move a particular devil or initiate an action button – but that may just be a product of my testing the game on an old 2G iPhone.

Overall, Pocket Devil: Xmas Holiday Edition is not a bad buy for $0.99. It’s no Pocket God just yet, but if Eyebit continues to deliver quality updates then Pocket Devil will definitely be one to watch next year.

Pocket Devil: Xmas Holiday Edition requires iPhone OS 3.0 or later and is compatible with both iPhone and iPod Touch.

Price: $0.99    Score: 7/10    By Steve Beaudry

The Holiday Fling by Studio-X is a happy, cheery game that aims to please even the most grinchified Scrooges with falling snow, crisp winter graphics and the sound of sleigh bells and Christmas carols. There’s just one problem: it’s almost impossible to win.

It’s a pretty simple game, really. The object is to take a Christmas wreath of your choice and, with the help of the touch-screen and a little Christmas magic, fling said wreath into a few scattered Christmas trees of your choice. If your wreath rings around one of these trees you get a point. Unfortunately, due to a lack of any kind of real measurable control over the wreaths, it takes an extremely healthy dose of said Christmas magic to get any points. I must have played upwards of 10 rounds, with 10 tries each round, and got only 3 points total.

For some reason, though, it’s difficult to stop playing this game. As I said, there’s really not much to it, but I found myself continuing to go back to it. Maybe it’s the cheery feel of Christmas, the magic of Jingle Bells or maybe just the fact that I really wanted to ring a wreath… but it took the threat of taking too long of a break at my job to pull me away from this joyful app.

So, is it worth it? Well, The Holiday Fling is only 99 cents. That’s a small price to pay for a stocking stuffer that doesn’t even take up any stocking space. For any one with a little free time, this is a good game to come back to every now and then to see how many times you can fail the objective before giving up. The clean graphics and jolly sounds make it a great holiday treat, but I wouldn’t be surprised if by New Year’s Day it gets deleted.

The Holiday Fling requires iPhone OS 2.2.1 or later and is compatible with iPhone and iPod Touch.

Merry Christmas! With thanks to developer Earthscape, The iPhone App Review is happy to give away 3 free copies of their Santa Tracker 3D App. It’s Santa Tracking for the 21st Century – an app that your kids will love. The promo codes below are redeemable on the US App Store only.

First in best dressed, but as always, please do the right thing and leave a comment on the post to let other readers know which code you take. Enjoy!

1) 9L9XXTEPTAAA
2) 4E43XTA7F7JJ
3) 9X333PNK63PH

Price: $0.99    Score: 10/10    By Sarah Parker

It is wintertime, but that doesn’t mean Risoo the squirrel gets a Christmas break. A band of  squirrel bullies have once again targeted Risoo in the game Snow Brawlin’ Pro.  Risoo has to defend himself by dodging the onslaught and counterattacking with snowballs. If you enjoyed playing the game Nut Chuckin’, then you will love Ghost Hand Games’ newest gem.

The game play of Snow Brawlin’ is similar to Nut Chuckin’, but has some important differences. Risoo dodges oncoming projectiles in the same way, but he does not need to collect the snowballs in this game. Instead, Risoo’s arsenal is automatically replenished, making the game play initially much easier to get a handle on.

The goal of Snow Brawlin’ is different as well. Your aim is to knock out as many squirrels as you can, trying to achieve high scores, hit-streaks, and higher levels in less time. The number of squirrels and rate of attack increase as the levels increase, but the scenery stays the same and Risoo doesn’t actually “move” to the next level. Most of the squirrels go down with one hit, but new ones pop up faster, making the game pace much quicker than that of Nut Chuckin’. The basic game Snow Brawlin’ is actually free from the iTunes store. Snow Brawlin’ Pro is the upgraded version of the same game that has some added perks, such as extra lives, bonuses, a global leader board, and e-mail challenges.

Snow Brawlin’ Pro is a fun, fast game that is a blast to play. The graphics in both Snow Brawlin’ games are fantastic, and the music and sound effects are awesome. The game play is a little easier at first, but don’t relax! The challenge increases quickly as you advance in the game. Snow Brawlin’ is a great game at a bargain: the basic version is free, and the upgrade is only $0.99.

Snow Brawlin’ and Snow Brawlin’ Pro are both compatible with iPhone and iPod Touch; Snow Brawlin’ requires OS 3.0 or later; Snow Brawlin’ Pro Requires OS 2.2.1 or later

Price: $0.99    Score: 8/10    By Shaun Campbell

Christmas is fast approaching – only a few short sleeps to go – and If you’re like me, nothing gets you into the spirit of the season like some great festive music. Featuring a wide range of traditional, secular and religious songs, iCelebrate is an app that will quickly put you in the holiday mood.

Developed by Conduit Technologies, iCelebrate partners some great Christmas tunes with five lovely yuletide scenes – including a fireplace adorned with stockings, three burning candles and a picturesque snow covered town. The scenes feature subtle animations like twinkling lights and lightly falling snowflakes – a great addition to the soundtrack. You can even tap an option to keep the screen on so that you can enjoy the background while the music plays.

The music itself is streamed live via a number of top holiday-themed internet radio stations so you will need an internet connection to get the most out of iCelebrate. The track name, artist and radio station are displayed at the bottom of the screen and you can tap anywhere to bring up the music controls, which lets you adjust volume as well as skip songs. I found the songs were generally of a very high quality and the radio stations played well known Christmas music. Some of the first tracks I listened to included:

• Jackie Wilson – Noel
• Louis Armstrong – ‘Zat You Santa Claus
• Jim Reeves – Silver Bells
• Elvis Presley – White Christmas
• John Denver – Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer

In Options, you can choose to Play All Genres, or to only play Classic, Modern, Country or Religious music. If you hear a song that you really love you can even share it with your friends with iCelebrate’s Twitter integration.

Overall, iCelebrate is a simple but charming Christmas-themed app for the iPhone, and at only $0.99 for unlimited holiday music, it’s bound to get you in the spirit of the season.

iCelebrate requires the iPhone OS 2.2.1 or later and is compatible with both iPhone and iPod Touch.

Price: Free    Score: 8/10    By Shaun Campbell

Gift giving has always been an integral part of the holiday season, but it’s easy to get lost for ideas. Finding an original and unique gift for a friend, partner or a family member can be a real challenge – especially at this time of year. The Holiday Gift Guide, developed by NearbyNow, is designed to help make the Christmas shopping experience a whole lot easier.

The Holiday Gift Guide brings together 18 digital gift guides from such brands as Macy’s, InStyle, Nordstrom, Armani Exchange and Cosmopolitan for some great Christmas gift ideas.

Tapping on one of the gift guides brings up a number of different gift categories that cover gifts for Him, for Her, for the Family, for Kids & Teens as well as Gifts for Home, Stocking Stuffers and Best Selling items. Selecting one of the options opens a gallery of images, and you then simply select one of the pictures to get further information on the item. You have the option to “See it Online” or to “Find it Near Me”. The first option will take you to the online store that stocks that particular item. Selecting the Find it Near Me option allows you to utilize one of the most useful features of this app. Through GPS location, cell triangulation or by manually entering your city, state or zipcode, the Holiday Gift Guide will locate your nearest stockist. The NearbyNow live concierge can also place a call to the store during business hours to check availability for you, and even place the item on hold. You can tap the Favorites Star on any product to add it to a list of your favorites for later reference, and also access the status of your availability requests right from within the app.

The Holiday Gift Guide also features a “Gift Finder” feature which allows the user to generate a number of targeted gift ideas. You simply select your budget, any applicable special interests (e.g gadget lover, traveler, sports addict), and select whether it is a gift for him or for her. The Holiday Gift Guide will deliver you all of the relevant results, categorised under Adults, Teens and Kids in an image gallery format. While not all of the results are always useful – I was suggested a 10 piece OXO Pop-Container set for a gadget lover – it is a neat idea.

Overall, for a free app, The Holiday Gift Guide delivers a wide range of gift ideas to suit the whole family and will be a must-have download if you are struggling for gift ideas this holiday season.

Holiday Gift Guide requires the iPhone OS 3.0 or later and is compatible with both iPhone and iPod Touch.

Price: $0.99    Score: 8/10    By Michelle Schusterman

It’s that time of year again…decorating trees, stuffing stockings, and throwing Christmas presents down chimneys and into penguin’s nets. And if you need some target practice with that last one, then Santa’s Run is a holiday app game to check out.

Designed by BrokenThumbsApps, Santa’s Run is like playing a game of ring-toss, only with a present for a ring and a chimney for a peg. Just “toss” the gift (using touch and drag) into chimneys in Europe and America, doorways in Asia, and penguin’s nets in the Islands. Easy enough? This is definitely a case of simple concept, difficult execution.

Each level shows three rows of houses with the number of presents to be delivered next to the chimney (or doorway, or net). The gift is at the bottom of the screen inside a blue arc. Toss from the blue arc for the closer houses, move up to the yellow arc for the second row, and toss from the red arc to get to those houses in the very back.

The most important thing to remember is the wind factor – I mean, Santa does have to deal with windy nights, after all. An anemometer in the top right corner will let you know which way and how strong the wind is blowing, anywhere from 0 mph to the sixties (or possibly higher). If you don’t notice the wind, it’s easy to get frustrated right from the start, because your tosses seem highly inconsistent.

Even when you take the wind into account, it’s not an easy game from the start. The wind changes with each toss, so it’s hard to get into a pattern. But after awhile, I figured out a few tricks; really strong winds, for example, are a good opportunity to throw the present hard and into the opposite direction of the wind, which helps it curve and (hopefully) land right in the chimney of one of those far-off houses.

The graphics are very cute, and I appreciate how the music changes with each level – the Christmas jingle song stays the same, but the instruments change to accommodate the setting (I like the steel drums in the Islands in particular!). There’s also two game play options; Around the World and Endless Delivery. Around the World starts off in Europe and takes you around the globe, and you can only reach the next level once the current one is complete. Endless Delivery allows you to choose a setting, then practice tossing the gift into selected houses.

Your accuracy percentage is continually tracked at the top left, with your average saved once all four levels are completed. Let’s just say there would be a lot of disappointed kids around the world if I were Santa – my first time through I averaged 18% accuracy.

Overall, this is a fun game that will help get you in the holiday spirit!

Santa’s Run requires the iPhone OS 2.0 or later and is compatible with iPhone and iPod Touch.

Price: $1.99    Score: 9/10    By Sarah Parker

For busy people on the go, list keeping iPhone apps are heaven sent. But the holiday season can make gift tracking frustrating if your list app is too complicated. Holiday Gift List, by Mobile Simplified, is an easy to use gift-tracking app that simplifies holiday gift giving.

Holiday Gift List is a straight forward gift list that is very user friendly. The main page has 4 categories: Family, Friends, Work, and Other. Each group allows you to track multiple people and multiple gifts. To add people or change names in each group, simply press the Edit button and make changes. The main screen can be customized to be more simple, showing only the name of the person in each group, or you can use the Details feature to view each person’s gift details from the main screen.

When you have set up the people you want on your gift list, you can then set the budget, and the gifts and prices for each person. To set the price of each gift, just write in the price after the item name in the description. The app will then keep a running tally of how much has been spent on each person.

Another nice feature of Holiday Gift List is the gift wagon icons. When you select “Still Shopping” for a person on your list, the wagon icon appears empty. When you are done buying gifts, check off the gift description and choose the “Finished” option. This will show the wagon icon filled with gifts, and let you know at a glance who still needs gifts and who doesn’t. Do you have snoopy friends or family members who can’t wait until Christmas? Put a lock on your Holiday Gift List by going to your iPhone’s Settings app and creating your 4 number passcode.

Holiday Gift List has a very simple design and intuitive interface, so it is easy to get your gift ideas put into the app without too much hassle. This is great news for busy people who have a lot of gifts to buy. And you can use this app for any holiday, not just Christmas. I like that the user can set a budget for each person and track their spending. This is a great feature, and may even keep post-holiday stress to a minimum.

Holiday Gift List is compatible with iPhone and iPod Touch; requires OS 3.0 or later

Price: $0.99    Score:  9/10    By Sarah Parker

Although it is still October, it is always nice to hear great Christmas music, especially as the holiday season draws near. I love traditional Christmas music; it’s too bad we usually only hear it in December! Christmas, by XME Inc., brings 22 relaxing Christmas songs to your iPhone to create a comforting Christmas atmosphere any time of the year.

Christmas features a variety of Christmas songs that are mostly traditional, but include several newer tunes. There are 22 songs in total, which include instrumentals, remixes, songs with vocals, and songs with added sound effects. Two of the songs (“O Come, O Come Immanuel”, and “First Noel”) feature vocals performed by Cekoya, an R&B singer with a beautiful voice. XME has remixed “Rejoice” and added a completely new song to the list, “Heavenly”. I am rather wary of remixed Christmas music because I enjoy traditional Christmas tunes, but XME has made some great songs. The added sound effects on some of the songs can be a little overwhelming, and detract from the song, but otherwise the music is perfect. If you have an iPhone, you can even record your own holiday music or sound effects. The Settings feature of Christmas has a looping option, a timer, and a Christmas countdown. The settings are not saved after exiting the app, so you have to remember to change the settings each time you start the app.

Christmas is a great music app that creates a nice holiday ambiance wherever you go. The price is right, and for 22 songs, this app is cheaper than buying a Christmas album. The music is soothing and would make a great pre-sleep relaxer any time of the year. Who knows, maybe Christmas can even help you ring in a relaxing holiday season.

Christmas is compatible with iPhone and iPod Touch; it requires OS 2.2 or later

Price: Free    Score: 8/10   By Shaun Campbell

An iPhone Christmas App? You bet. ‘Tis the season to be merry after all.

Developed by LaunchKidz, JingleJumble is this year’s ideal way to distract the younglings at your Christmas family gathering. With simple gameplay and charming illustrations by children’s artist Mike Boldt – it’s guaranteed to get you a few minutes of peace and quiet. But then again, there are inevitable difficulties in entrusting your iPhone to a 7 year old.

JingleJumble is a yuletide take on the classic mix-and-match game everyone grows up playing. You use the swipe of your finger to spin through a number of legs, bodies and faces to create some popular Christmas characters. Yes it’s simple, but it’s pulled off beautifully.

JingleJumble is free to download on the app store, but I dare say it would almost be worth paying for.

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars