Help! My iPhone has ruined my productivity!

It's temporary I hope - eventually I must get bored with playing Fieldrunners.

Anyone still under the impression that the iPhone is not a real games platform should have a look at this offering from Subatomic studios. It's called Fieldrunners and it's a tower defence game, a genre I'd never heard of. The basic idea is you have to defend your patch against invading hordes bent on destruction. You do this by dropping various weapon towers onto the landscape. Some shoot missiles. Some shoot goo to slow the baddies down and some send out bolts of lightning. The baddies turn up in various forms as well - including helicopters, tanks and some robot things almost as scary as daleks - so you need a mix of items to fight them off.

It's easy to get started and then gets harder and more compelling. It reminded me of a more immediate version of Advance Wars from the Gameboy.

Fortunately the quite considerable carnage is rendered in cartoon-style, otherwise it would be harrowing rather than fun. And fun it is. Make the mistake of showing it to a friend and you'll find you can't wrench it back from them.

Also it handily saves your game if the phone rings.

Anyone in any doubt as to the processing clout possible with an iPhone should take a look at this thing seamlessly animating hundreds of items on screen. And anyone with an iPhone looking to while away a couple of hours could do worse than download it from the Apps store.

Marvellous stuff. Subatomic studios web site.