Pros
Cons
Our Verdict
How the Grinch Stole Christmas is a holiday classic, so it’s no surprise that a Grinch app would show up around this time of year. Grinchmas, from Oceanhouse Media, is a festive and amusing game, but one you’ll probably delete once New Year’s rolls around.
Visually it’s as authentic as you’d hope with animation straight from Dr. Seuss’s book. Grinchmas always features music and effects from the iconic animated feature. In the game, you can choose to be either Mean Grinch or Merry Grinch: Mean Grinch throws snowballs at the noisy houses in Who-ville, keeping the clock going as long as possible before the noise gets too loud and you lose; Merry Grinch tosses colorful presents to homes of corresponding color—as many as you can deliver in two minutes.
The concept is simple, but executing the throwing of presents and snowballs is surprisingly difficult. Grinchmas uses the iPhone’s flick controls to toss items, so your accuracy depends on how much pressure you put on your flick as well as how far you slide your finger. It’s tougher than it sounds.
With only two game modes and one level per mode, the game can get repetitive— it’s obviously not designed to be played at length. It’s perfect for passing a few minutes here and there when you’re in the holiday spirit, but like I said, you probably won’t make it a permanent fixture on your iPhone.
[Meghann Myers is an editorial intern for Macworld.]