This won't be a detailed review of eleven games. This is a quick list of games that I've found impossible to remove from my iPhone -- some for fun, some for kid entertainment and some just because they are cool to show off. Several are free, some I caught on sale, but ones like Fieldrunners and Sway I'd buy at any price.

Cro-Mag Rally [iTunes link] -- I used to play this on the older PPC-based iMacs and it was also an early entrant to the store. Cro-Mag is cute but it also plays exceedingly well. If you want something like Mario Kart on your iPhone, this is about as close as I've found. For a quick racing game that nearly anyone can enjoy, Cro-Mag is a true iPhone "classic."

MotionX Dice [iTunes link] -- You never know when you're doing to need some dice. Plus, MotionX gives this app away, and it's a beautiful example of what can be done on the iPhone. When someone wants to "see something" on my iPhone, often I'll show them how the shadows cast by the dice change as I move the iPhone. Then we'll play some dice games.

Flick Bowling [iTunes link] -- There are faster, cheaper versions of bowling on the iPhone. I find Flick provides just enough eye candy and immersion to suit my taste. Plus, it loads pretty fast and you can get to bowling without a lot of setup. It's a casual game that looks bigger than it is.

Dizzy Bee [iTunes link] -- One of the big, early hits for the iPhone, in no small part because the super cute free version moved a lot of units. Dizzy Bee is the app everyone seemed to give to the kids to play with, but the challenges get pretty tough. Like any great game: simple to learn, hard to master. Plus, there's now a sequel.

Keep reading for some games that are a little more under the radar and some genuine iPhone essentials...

Earlier this week I downloaded Plants vs. Zombies by PopCap Games for the Mac. It's a simple tower defense game that pits lumbering zombies against great varieties of aggressive plants. Your job is to fill your yard with enough plants to keep the zombies from reaching your house.

The first few levels are quite easy. In order to amass your green army, you've got to collect sunlight. Some plants, like sunflowers and certain mushrooms, give off sunlight that you can gather. The rest you collect from the sky (in the daytime, at least). As you complete each level, you're offered another plant.

Many little touches make this game great. Select the help menu and you'll find a "hand written" note that says, "When the zombies show up, just sit there and don't do anything. You win the game when the zombies get in your houze." One zombie variation gets especially angry when you knock his newspaper from his hand while another, dressed in a red leather jacket, white socks and black shoes, summons dancing minions to launch a well choreographed group assault.

Zombies drop coins that you can exchange for additional features, like the number of plants available. Asset management gets harder in later levels as you can only choose a few plants for each assault. Just remember, you always need sun!

Beyond the game itself (there are 50 levels in all) are several mini games, puzzles, survival mode and even a peaceful zen garden. Additionally, you can browse the almanac to see exactly which types of zombies and plants you've encountered as well as what's left. The music and sound effects are fun. I found that it looked jaggy in full screen mode, so keep it in a small window.

Plants Vs. Zombies isn't Eve Online, and it's not meant to be. As a fun distraction during break time or leisure time, it's a great little game. You can play for 60 minutes for free. After that, you'll have to pay $19.95US. It's definitely worth it. If you just can't get enough, check out the extras.

The cutest Beatle, Sir Paul McCartney, did an interview with Entertainment Weekly recently for his new album, and the long-running subject of the Beatles on iTunes came up right at the last question. At this point, this is probably our favorite Apple failure -- they've reinvented the way we listen to music, they've made smartphones mainstream, they've constantly re-created and revolutionized the personal computer, and yet they've never been able to get the best band in history on their iTunes service.

Not for lack of trying, says Sir Paul. He says that he's down with it, and that both sides are still trying to come to an agreement, but that "we" (presuming that means the band themselves) definitely "want it to happen." But he also says that "the record company" (presumably Apple Records, who have had their troubles with Apple Computers in the past)
"was taken over by new people quite recently, so there is a gridlock of sorts." So we continue to wait for The Beatles to show up on iTunes.

Meanwhile, they are apparently going ahead with the Rock Band version featuring The Beatles -- McCartney says that Harmonix is still planning to put the music in the console videogame/band simulator, and that they're going to feature The Beatles in different eras: "early days, Liverpool, then psychedelic, and on from there. It's very cool." Sounds like it -- even if we can't play the White Album from AppleTV, at least we'll be able to do it from the Xbox.

The Penny Arcade Expo was held this past weekend in Seattle, Washington, and we got lots of news about the Penny Arcade videogame, officially titled (you might want to sit down for this one) Penny Arcade Adventures: On the Rain Slick Precipice of Darkness, Episode One. I told you it would be long.

The game is scheduled to appear on PC, Mac, and Linux (as well as downloadable on consoles) in 2008, and will feature a robust character creation system, and all of the Penny Arcade characters. The "Episode One" part also hints at what might be an interesting mechanic-- you'll be able to create a character in the first game, and then carry that character over other episode releases. Joystiq reports that the game looks good, and should be a fun, if short, experience.

So look for an interactive Penny Arcade on your Mac next year. And in the meantime, watch out for those Claw Shrimp. They're vicious.

The gang from Over the Edge gave us a sneak peek of two new features in Unity 2.0: a cool terrain tool and real-time dynamic shadows. Check out the video, but also check out their page of all the other features coming soon to Unity.

[Note: we'll have all these WWDC videos available for direct download soon!]