App of the Week – Risk

Platform: Apple iPhone, Apple iPod touch

Price: £2.99

There's something about board games that makes them perfect for mobile devices. Scrabble, Monopoly, Boggle, Settlers of Cataan and now Risk are all way more fun (and about ten times faster) when you don't have to fiddle with little bits of cardboard or worry about Aunt Irene slipping herself a few extra armies from the bank.

This is pretty much a clean port of the old Hasbro classic, woefully outdated in this age of aircraft carriers, biological agents and asymmetrical warfare, but no less fun for all that.

Totting up your armies is done automatically, and fighting can be either old-school one dice roll at a time, or with a speeded-up 'total war' option that lets you string a proper blitzkrieg together.

The map is static (you can't zoom in) and on the sluggish side to respond, but fighting and moving your troops around is easily done. What's less rewarding are the cards and missions: you can't see what cards you win or are holding, and only real Risk-heads will have all the mission bonuses memorised.

There are pass-and-play and Wi-Fi multiplayer options but no online battling - a wise decision as nothing would be more boring than waiting for someone in Kyoto to finish up a long game. The computer AIs are pretty good, although let's be honest, Risk's military tactics aren't exactly Sandhurst difficult: conquer South America and Australia early on, then just sit there until everyone else is dead.