Apps Weekly: Stair Dismount + Mirror's Edge iPhone

This week's app review is not much of a game, but more of a therapeutic physics simulator that's still loads of fun.

Stair Dismount for the iPhone is basically a port of the free indie game Porrasturvat for the PC and Mac. Thing is, it has significantly better graphics and more stairs to choose from.

First, you can choose to use a face of a friend you have in either your photo library, or from Facebook. If you like the face, you can tap "I like this face".

You'll be asked to select a certain area in which you can unleash your rage/sadism onto a person of choice.

As a test subject, I chose my brother's face. Quite the little devil, he is.

After selecting a stair of choice, you can start selecting a pressure point in which you will push your frienemy.

You may have to get the hang of the basic controls first. To rotate the camera, swipe the screen, but be sure not to touch body itself, else you may have to reset the pressure point you wanted to assign.

When you feel that the point you want to push the ragdoll from is satisfactory, you can proceed to "Dismount" it. The strength of the dismount depends on the orange meter that fills up and empties as you go along.

As with a lot of these ragdoll games, a lot of the fun also comes with watching these character models crunch and roll to their deaths.

When you get to hit several body areas simultaneously, you get a score multiplier and some bonus points as well.

When the dummy stops moving, there will be a countdown timer, and your score will be recorded. If you look at the bottom part of the screenshot, you'll see a few options. The button that looks like a chart gives you an overview of the parts you hit, and how severely those parts got hit...

While the camera icon gives you a chance to take a picture and either save it to your iPod, e-mail to a friend or upload it to Facebook.

Aside from those social features, there's not much replay value to Stair Dismount, really. No online leaderboards, even.

Whatever the case, it's still fun to think of maniacal ways to beat the stored high score, and damn it, pushing your friends down, despite the face looking like it was a plastered sticker, doesn't get old.

For the low price, I think it's worth a buy.

Rating: 8.5/10 [iTunes Store Link, push your friends down and upload it for the world to see how much of a loser you are]

Not everyone will see through the novelty of such a sadistic game, but perhaps a little Mirror's Edge action is in order?

Yes, it really is coming to the iPhone.

The third-person perspective may not make it as exhilarating as the original first-person game, but it looks like it will feature some pretty decent graphics and nearly the same art direction as the original game.

Granted, I haven't played the original game, but I may keep an eye on this anyway.