WordPop! and Farkle

Let's get one things straight - your Palm hand-held isn't a GameBoy, so don't treat it like one. Such an elegant device demands top-quality games based on strategy and thought rather than thumping away at the navigation buttons or engraving the touch-screen with the stylus.

In recent weeks my old favourites have been blown away by a new favourite - Smart Box Design's WordPop!. I love games that you can put down, come back to, and play during a few spare minutes - and this is perfect for when you're bored during a meeting (which can happen) or waiting at the airport. The object of the game is to connect letters to make words, clear the board, start another round and get an increasingly high score. It's simple to learn but takes a while to master the perfect strategy. So far, on the easy level, I managed to clear the board 56 times and score 17,754 over the course of a few days. Medium level is a lot more difficult (I'm up to 5,870 in my current game), and I haven't tried the hard level yet.

My WordPop! strategy is simple - get rid of the difficult letters like Z, Q, X, J and K first, but try to incorporate them into high-scoring long words (my best so far is 'breathless' worth 258 points). Scoring a certain number of points will give you extra letter tiles to use in case you get into trouble. Then get rid of the semi-difficult letters like Y, G, F and C. You also need to keep an eye on the ratio of vowels to consonants - if you end up with ten consonants and only two vowels you're going to struggle to finish. You also have to master the art of rotating the board and popping small words in order to place letters correctly for the bigger words. All-in-all, WordPop! is a challenging, addictive and fun game which taxes the grey matter.

WordPop! isn't the only game from Smart Box Design that I can recommend - the other is the rather wonderfully-named Farkle. Like WordPop! it's well very designed and incredibly addictive. This is a dice game that allows you to play against up to three automated players or against other humans. Again, this seems like a simple idea - first one to 10,000 points wins - but there's a fair amount of strategy to be used, along with an element of luck and having the balls to gamble your points and risk a 'farkle'. The scoring is simple - you get points for throwing 1's and 5's, three of a kind, three pairs, and a straight 1 to 6 run. If you choose to throw again and don't score in any way you get a farkle and lose your points from that round. If you get three farkles in a row, you lose 1,000 points.

Both of these games are a must for your Palm and are both well worth the $14.95 price tag. The graphics are very professional-looking, adding to the playing experience and the overall appeal.