Chris Holt

Scored an iPhone this holiday season? Or perhaps just delicious iTunes Store credit? We’ve assembled this list of the best iPhone games; if you’re a gamer, these are the must-have apps for your device. Loosen your thumbs, loosen your wallet, and start playing.

Angry Birds Rio

If you're going to make a remake of one of the most beloved video games of all time, stripping out the original story, characters, health system, soundtrack, weapons, and iconic multiplayer maps may seem like a bad first step. But as familiar and fun as those elements are, developer Eurocom understood that in order for GoldenEye: Reloaded to compete with the trappings of modern shooters -- like cover, secondary weapons, and iron sight -- it would have to modernize. The resulting FPS is both dripping in nostalgia and feels tethered to the original's spy-saves-the-world premise. While never achieving the ground-breaking highs of its predecessor, GoldenEye: Reloaded has enough geeky moments of familiarity to make it something (slightly) more than just another generic shooter.

GoldenEye 007 initially hit the Wii in 2010 to mostly positive reviews, and this PS3/Xbox 360 version is pretty much the same game with a few modes added and a better engine. Visually, the game is exceptionally uneven -- there are some great fire and rain effects and the characters look good, if completely different than the original. The weapons look fantastic, but Bond seems to not have hands so much as paws. There are also some major clipping issues that mar the game while environmental destruction (even during cut-scenes) looks forced and dated. The overall experience doesn't measure up to modern shooters, and frankly, the upscaled Wii visuals measure up to something I could've played five years ago.

Here's a not-so-bold declaration: The Uncharted games are our generation's Indiana Jones films. Just as we once recalled scenes when Indiana blew up that tank or escaped that rolling boulder trap, we'll begin to reference Nathan Drake's survival of a train wreck or his blowing up of a Hind or his epic fight from a cargo plane's open door. Make no mistakes -- Drake's Uncharted games have become cultural touchstones.

Now, no longer can we merely say that games are "cinematic" or like "Hollywood blockbusters." With Uncharted 3, games have truly become media events in themselves as Naughty Dog's cinematics and set pieces would bankrupt most film studios and Nathan Drake's character displays more range and depth than most action movie protagonists.

You're robbing a bank with three of your friends. Which three friends do you choose? Your old high school buddy as a point man? Maybe. Your paintball-savvy co-worker? Might work in a support role. But when the police arrive and the plan breaks down, who can you trust to get your back and help you pull off one of the most daring crimes in history? That's the allure of Overkill's Payday: The Heist, a multiplayer co-op first-person shooter that tasks you and three of your friends with executing the crime of the century.

One could easily write off Payday's formula as Left 4 Dead's cooperative combat done through the lens of heist films like Snatch or Inside Man. But that wouldn't do Payday proper justice for its imaginative approach to criminal activity. Each of the six initial missions is an homage to a variety of Hollywood (and real life) robberies, ranging from diamond heists atop skyscrapers to complex bank robberies to a particularly audacious caper where you air-lift an armored safe room via helicopter.

Apple Game CenterThe "world's most popular gaming platform" just got better. On Tuesday, Apple unveiled new features appearing in their iOS 5 update, including some much-needed upgrades for their Game Center mobile gaming service. The changes include friend suggestions, photos, and achievement points.

On Apple's website, the "friend suggestions" element gets a bit more clarification: "Meet your match with new friend recommendations based on the games you play and the players you already know." For instance, if you're looking for another buddy to play Words With Friends, Game Center will help you out.

Do you love the promise of 3D gaming but hate the headaches?

Well, then, maybe Vuzix's approach to 3D gaming might appeal to you. Vuzix's series of Wrap glasses feature a 16:9 widescreen display offering "a 75-inch virtual display as seen from 10 feet." So instead of the headache-inducing shutter glasses used by companies like Nvidia, Vuzix utilizes dual LCD monitors with resolutions of up to 1280 X 720.

Your mobile platform just got a boost of Hong Kong martial arts action. Bruce Lee pastiche Fei Long joins the cast of Street Fighter IV Volt for the iOS along with baseball-cap-wearing skateboarder Yun. To celebrate their arrival on the mobile platform, Capcom is offering a temporary price drop for the game from $6.99 to $2.99 through September 19th on the iTunes App Store.

Battleship: The Movie. When we first heard that Peter Berg (director of Hancock) was going to do a feature film based on the popular Hasbro table-top game, we wondered how he'd create a story based upon the idea of two people yelling "hit" and "miss" as they blindly bombed each other in open waters. Well, now we have our answer: aliens.

ioSafe has achieved a reputation for producing tough-as-nails hard drives. Meant to survive conditions that standard hard drives cannot-namely fires and floods-an ioSafe drive such as the SoloPro may be ideal when you're worried about the worst thing imaginable happening to your home.

According to ioSafe's Website, the SoloPro is fireproof up to 1550 degrees Fahrenheit for up to 30 minutes. While that may not sound like a very long time, what ioSafe is saying is that at ever the most intensive fires, it can keep working. Longer exposures to lighter temperatures, presumably, wouldn't affect the drive-though we have not confirmed this.

Monsters from space are set to invade your iOS device. But don't worry, they're the friendly kind. In Namco's new flick-based puzzle game, Mooniacs, you need to help several stranded aliens recover their ship parts and find their friends.

Last week, Macworld got a hands-demonstration with Namco Bandai's latest iOS game. It has a familiar gameplay mechanic to those who have played Angry Birds or Crash the Crib. Your object is to clear the stage of JuJuBees, the currency/food of your strange characters. In each level, you can slide your character from one side to the other and pick the angle and direction of your attempt. But unlike other puzzle games, you only get one shot, so you better make it count.

In a crowded hard drive market, Toshiba's Canvio for Mac portable hard drive is remarkable more for its exterior design than its speed. With solid all-around speed, this USB 2.0 drive competes with Iomega's eGo ( Macworld rated 4 out of 5 mice ) and Seagate FreeAgent goFlex Ultra-Portable ( Macworld rated 4 out of 5 mice ), but does nothing to surpass them.

The Canvio offers 1TB of storage space in a small cigarette-like case. Like many portable drives, it comes in different colors--namely white or silver. A grip extends around the 13.5mm width, and this aesthetic choice, along with the simplistic square art on the box, are the only details differentiating the 6-ounce device from other similarly-styled drives. It's light, it can fit in your pocket, and it's only slightly larger than an iPhone.

Apple launched the iPad 2 to nearly universal glowing reviews. It's lighter! It's thinner! It has a cool magnetic cover now! But gamers were skeptical.

After a year of promises about the "next great gaming platform," the original iPad failed to deliver on expectations. What Steve Jobs called "the most successful consumer product ever launched" met with very little enthusiasm from the gaming community. While visually impressive and selling 15 million units, the number of quality exclusive games was minimal. From a gamer's perspective, there was very little incentive to purchase the expensive and heavier iPad in lieu of the nimble and versatile iPhone 4.