Whoever said money can’t buy happiness has never been addicted to Tiny Tower. We decided to sort out which in-app purchases improve their games and which are detrimental.     

Tiny Tower (Free, Nimblebit)

Last week I started playing Tiny Tower. A week later, and I’m not only still as in love with it as I first was, but I’m rapidly spending all my money trying to reach new heights in the little tower. The game is set up perfectly to make you want to buy in-app purchases to get there faster, but unlike a lot of games, you never have to. It’ll take a lot longer to grow an impressive tower if you don’t, but we’ll take that over skeezy freemium models that make it impossible to progress without dropping some hard-earned dough.

Was it worth it?

I think so. Those are pretty reasonable prices for an app that makes all of its money on in-app purchases. On top of that, this game is higher quality than most free games I've played, so I don't mind dropping a few real dollars to support Nimblebit. Plus...

...Notice how much larger my Tiny Tower is than Robbie’s and Ray’s. Seems worth it to me. 

NBA JAM ($0.99, Electronic Arts)

I've always like NBA Jam, so after playing it for a couple hours, I decided to download the $2.99 "unlock everything" Big Man package. It has everything from Big Head mode to Karl Malone. Every package, every character, everything in the game is at your fingertips for $3. 

Was it worth it?

Depends. All of this stuff is unlockable for those people who play one game at a time. But this would take hours and hours to unlock everything. For us, running around like an idiot with big heads was totally worth it.

How is this not worth $3?! 

Peggle / Peggle Nights ($2.99, PopCap)

I've been the Peggle evangelist for quite some time. It's absolutely my favorite game on iOS and -- for the amount of enjoyment you can get out of your $3 -- I'd say it's one of the best values too. That's why the $2.99 Peggle Nights expansion is a no-brainer. It effectively doubles the game's "campaign" and allows you to play as all-new characters. 

Was it worth it?

Easily. Peggle is a masterpiece and Peggle Nights only builds on the genius. We’d buy even more in-app purchases if we could get more levels, but unfortunately, that doesn’t seem to be on the table. 

Order and Chaos ($6.99, Gameloft)

O&C is a subscription-based MMO, so if you want to play this game indefinitely at one point or another you're going to have to spend money on in-app purchases. That wasn't such a big deal when the game cost $0.99, but since then they've upped the prices to $7. That's pretty damn steep for a game that'll only let you play for three months. (I'm still playing Peggle and that came out years ago.)

But this game barely came out and I still have a few months left, so instead I used an in-app purchase to buy extra gold. This should, in theory, have given me an unfair advantage to all the other players of the same level. 

Was it worth it?

That depends which in-app purchase you’re buying. Some things, like runes, are way too expensive for what you get for them. Money is way overpriced too. A subscription, on the other hand, is cheap and well worth the cash if you want to continue playing. Was it worth for me?

I took a mortgage out on my house and all I got was this stupid hat.

I'll let you figure this one out for yourself.