FingerGaming

Freeloaders rejoice! The iTunes App Store has unleashed yet another generous bounty of iPhone and iPod Touch games over the past week, many of which you can download free of charge. This week’s free releases include demo editions of Edge and Payback, along with free full versions of Hex a Hop and Escape from Witch Mountain.

- Dapple Lite (Streaming Colour Studios)
I’ve owed this one a mention for quite a while — since I first covered it, the color-matching puzzler Dapple has been released to rave reviews across all of internet-land. The free version should give you a good grasp on the game’s unique color-mixing mechanics.

- Zombieville USA Lite (Mika Mobile)
This side-scrolling shooter has been tearing up the paid app charts recently, thanks largely to the success of this Lite demo. Want to see what all the fuss is about? Well, here’s your chance.

- Hex A Hop (ZodTTD)
Emi lives in a world filled with hexagons. Hop across them to make them disappear. It reminds me of Kablooey on the SNES in looks, but don’t let that scare you off — it looks fun enough, and it’s entirely free.

- Payback Lite (Apex Designs)
I’ve covered this before, but Apex Designs’ extraordinarily ambitious Grand Theft Auto clone deserves another mention. Give it a shot, if only to see what kind of graphics your iPhone is capable of pushing.

- Race To Witch Mountain (AvatarLabs)
So when exactly did Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson officially drop “The Rock” from his name? I’m protesting this. You can’t just suddenly pretend like you don’t have a dumb wrestler name when you’ve had one for years. Hulk Hogan never pulled this garbage. Anyway, this is a free racing game based on the upcoming Disney movie starring Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson.

- Edge Lite (Mobigame)
Mobigame’s excellent action-puzzler gets a free Lite demo, which includes five levels from the full version. I liked it a lot. You should play it, if you like fun things.

- Megatouch Photo Hunt Lite (Merit Industries)
It’s out! Merit’s bartop difference-spotting puzzle game comes to the iPhone, and this free version contains a generous 25 levels of photo-comparing fun. Here’s hoping for more Megatouch ports in the future.

- Bear St. Tumbler Puzzle (Snow Storm Software)
It’s a free-to-play puzzle game with teddy bears in it. What, do you want me to draw you a diagram? Here it is: “FAKE BEARS + STUFFING + PUZZLES = THIS”

- Time Crisis Strike Lite (Namco Bandai)
Namco’s arcade light gun shooter arrived on the iPhone to an uneven critical reception — Mathew Kumar gave it one and a half stars in his review. For those who are intrigued nevertheless, this free demo should either ease or confirm your fears about its gameplay.

- Cabochon Quest (Gplex)
From the makers of Fart Call (a murder-justifying application that lets you call someone and play fart noises at them) comes this dodge-and-collect accelerometer game, which recently became free to download. What makes this better than, say, Falling Balls? Well, it’s got dragons in it. I guess that’s something.

- Seat Ibiza Cupra Race (Futurlink)
Here’s an entirely decent-looking arcade-style racer that promotes a real-life European racing league, or car manufacturer, or something. The related websites are all annoyingly vague. But even if you lack the proper context, hey, free 3D racing game.

Tags: dapple, free, free app roundup, hex a hop, race to witch mountain, roundup, zombieville usa