Mafia Wars iPhone: Making the mad money

We all know the gangster rules: "Don't go against the family", "Never bring a knife to a gun fight", "Don't get high on your own supply", and we've been applying them for years on Facebook with the Mafia Wars app. Well, it's time to take the fight to our mobile, iPhone-style.

If you're new to Mafia Wars, the concept is pretty simple. You're a gangster vying for money and power and you'll fill your coffers and rise through the ranks by completing jobs and attacking enemies. To do these basic tasks of thuggery you'll need weapons, stamina and gangsters on your side. Weapons are easy to come by, you buy them from the weapons menu, but stamina and gangsters take time and real-life friends, meaning this isn't a game you'll be able to rush through.

Stamina regenerates very slowly over time. At the beginning you start with 10 energy points and you'll spend these quickly mugging and robbing for cash and experience. Energy then regenerates at one point every three real-world minutes, meaning it's a half an hour before you have a full complement of energy to use again. By the time you reach level five or six, this wait could be as long as an hour at a time. Adding mafia gang members can be achieved in two ways: you can either invite friends playing Mafia Wars using their unique 10-digit code, or beg the mythical Godfather for lackeys to support your wicked ways.

Mafia Wars is our favourite kind of iPhone game. It doesn't rely on twitch reflexes or dodgy on-screen controls, and it looks fantastic. The menus and sound effects give off a slick Guy Ritchie-like gangster chic with gritty cell-shaped images of thugs, guns and piles of cash.

If you want to get in on the Mafia action download it from the Apple App Store, and once you've joined the fight, feel free to add me to your gang of crooks, my Player ID is 7704 1412 23.