10 Star Wars: Trench Run

With the possible exception of Darth vs Luke duel on Bespin, the most thrilling part of the Star Wars saga is the Rebel Alliance’s assault on the Death Star in Episode 4. The iPhone game rendition thereof is an absolute stormer – a giddying whirl of button bashing, old skool action that might just be the best Star Wars game ever.

9 Space Invaders Infinity Gene

Remakes, be they of classic movies or classic games, are usually dog’s dinners that only taint your misty-eyed memories of the original. Not so, Space Invaders Infinity Gene. Its eye-catching minimal graphic style means that it looks like very little else around. But it’s the simple, yet supremely addictive shoot ‘em up action that saw it blast its way onto our best of the year list.

8 The Secret of Monkey Island: Special Edition

The iPhone’s touchscreen and point and click gaming are a match made in heaven, natch. More important, though, is that the Apple phone rendering of the game retained all the charm and overt silliness of the original.

7 Soosiz

Soosiz is fast, frantic and fun. But it’s the unique gravity changing mechanic that adds a new modus operandi to the platforming genre which makes it stand out from the herd. If only Miyamoto San and his chums at Nintendo had applied some of this kind of fearless, blue-sky thinking to New Mario Super Bros Wii…

6 2XL ATV Offroad

Would we be overstating things to say this quad-bike sim is the best racer on the iPhone? Not a bit of it. It’s got helter-skelter action galore, while console quality visuals mean you can almost smell the burning rubber.

5 Doom Classic

Decades after first appearing, the game that started the whole FPS shebang still makes other iPhone shooters look like so much cannon fodder.

Extra points awarded by Top10's trigger-happy judging panel for allowing players to strafe their foes via the accelerometer.

No official video of this was available unfortunately. So here's an in-game shot/very poor substitute:

4 Spider – The Secret of Bryce Manor

Beautifully hand-drawn levels give this immersive arcade adventure the edge over its bland-looking competitors. And the neatly crafted puzzles spun us out good and proper.

3 Silent Hill – The Escape

Do video games come any scarier than this object lesson in nail-biting terror? No, they do not. So tense did things become for us that on one occasion we actually dropped our iPhone floorwards in shock. No, really.

2 Top Gun

Iceman? Check. Kenny Loggins’ Highway to the Danger Zone? Check. Homoerotic overtones? Sadly not present. Still, while Top Gun’s iPhone iteration hasn't got everything that made the 1980s US Navy propanda-fest such a hoot, it does boast superb game design, After Burner-style seat of the pants flying and crisp controls. And that's what brought the loving feeling out in us.

1 Rolando 2: Quest for the Golden Orchid

Predictable, us? Maybe so. But was anything else really going to challenge this titan of mobile gaming? Imagine Rolando, then make it smoother, easier to play and tweak the beautiful graphics and you’ve got this stellar title. And you know the best thing? Number three is on its way in 2010.

Anything we've missed? Let us know in the comments section below.