36 of the best iPhone games

We've sifted through the thousands of games currently available in the iTunes App Store, and have settled on these 36 titles to enthusiastically recommend. Some are old, some are new, but all are worth both your time and money.

The huge number of games available in the iTunes App Store can make delving into the games scene for the iPhone and iPod Touch pretty intimidating at first. Although there's only really a year's worth of content, the volume is already far in excess of what's available for either the Nintendo DS or the PSP. So where do you start? Are the recognizable big name franchises from giants like Electronic Arts a safe bet? Or should you explore more of the indie scene? The truth is that there's a lot of great quality stuff available, but you have to know where to look.

To help you out, we've pulled together what we feel are 36 of the best games currently available. Some of them have been available for a while, some of them are updates to previously well-received ideas, and some of them are spectacular new releases that hit the store in the past few weeks. We've played them all though, and we have them on our iPhones. With a market this crowded, few things are more powerful than personal recommendations. One thing to note though, this is not a ranked list. We've simply provided descriptions of our 36 favorites in alphabetical order.

To help you further, we've linked the title of each game to its respective page in the App Store. Simply click on the game name, and iTunes will open at the page where you can buy the product.