The computer is beating us by $1,000 right now, but we just hit Bop Till You Drop, so we're about to rack up a huge risk-free score.

It's you against your phone, racing to bank $5,000. You first roll a goal and then spin the slot machine's reels. When the reels stop spinning, you click on individual reels to hold those points, and then either tap the Stop button to end the turn and bank those points, or the Spin button to re-spin the reels you haven't held. So in that way, it's like a cross between a slot machine and video poker.

If the slot machine shows no points on any reels after a spin, you lose that turn. So it's a gamble after every spin: You either tap Stop and bank any points into your permanent total, or keep spinning to increase your points but risk losing the turn and not getting any points at all.

If you "sweep" the machine, or score points on all 6 reels, you usually get a bonus.  Most of the goals, in fact, are to sweep the reels and get a bonus, and you can stop the turn and bank your points anytime. Other goals change things up a little, offering huge bonuses but not letting you stop.

For example, Bop Till You Drop keeps spinning the wheels until no more points can be scored, but you can't lose the turn—all the points will be banked, even when the wheels don't show any more points at the end of a spin. And the Grand Force goal will give you a 1,000-point bonus if you sweep, but you can't stop the turn so if you don't sweep you get nothing.

Tap the Pay Table button for a reminder of how that particular slot machine awards points.

The game has multiple slot machines you can play—they look the same but offer different scoring and bonuses. You start with one and then unlock eight other machines as you play. When playing, you can tap the Pay Table button to see a list of how that machine pays out. And a scrolling information bar gives you prompts on what to do if you ever get stuck or confused about if it's your turn or not.

I dug One Arm Battle. The music is cheesy, but we just turned off the sound effects and went back to listening to our iPod tunes -- if you leave the sound effects on, they'll play right over your music. It'd be nice to be able to play single-player, maybe in a timed race to a certain dollar amount. Or to play against a friend, either with two devices connected via Ad-Hoc, or by passing one device around.

The graphics aren't jaw-dropping—they reminded me of a dressed-up version of the pocket-sized casino videogames my dad used to get in his Christmas stocking and play at the breakfast table. But the gameplay is fun and has moments of real excitement, like when the computer-controlled player is up by $3,000 and you hit a huge winning streak and catch up in one turn. We did experience occasional crashes, but the game saved our progress every time, so it wasn't too annoying.

Casino fun without risking the rent money.

One Arm Battle 1.0.0
COMPANY: Ken Franklin
CONTACT: http://onearmbattle.com/
PRICE: $1.99
REQUIREMENTS: iPhone or iPod touch with iPhone OS 3.1 or later
Unique gameplay. Listen to your own iPod music. Nine tables to unlock and play.
Tables look the same. No multiplayer mode.