A fact little known to most people is that, on top of being the best smartphone on the market, the iPhone is also a fantastic gaming device. The iTunes App Store is the ultimate candy shop for gamers, where you can easily spend hundreds of dollars on amazing titles without even breeching the surface of offerings. As an iPhone owner who is also a gamer, I have a few favorites of my own.

Rolando (ngMoco; $5.99) is undoubtedly the best game I have played on the iPhone to date. You take control of a bunch of spherical creatures whose world has been infected by a plague of evil shadow creatures. Using the iPhone’s accelerometer, your job is to tip and tilt the Rolandos to safety across four different levels and dozens of perilous landscapes. Rolando stands heads and tails above the rest of the iPhone’s current game offerings because it isn’t just a copy of a game originally and obviously designed for another system. Out of all of the applications I’ve tested, Rolando makes the best and most innovative use of the iPhone’s hardware. Additionally, the game benefits from a high production value, unique visual style and catchy music throughout.

Spore Origins (Electronic Arts; $4.99) is the little cousin of Spore, EA’s blockbuster fall release for the Mac and PC. The premise of Spore is giving the player total control over the evolution of a species, from the initial, single-cell level all the way up to galactic domination. In Spore Origins, you play through a modified version of the cell stage from Spore. You design a creature, then make your way through various levels, trying to stay alive. All the while, you must gather DNA points to unlock new abilities for your creature, such as jets and flagella to allow faster movement, and poison sacs and electric weapons to fight your way through the primordial ooze. The iPhone version of Spore also makes innovative use of the accelerometer for movement, and captures the most fun aspects of the cell stage from the original game. (Full disclosure: I recently accepted a job with EA after graduation.)

Crayon Physics Deluxe (Hudson; $4.99) is an innovative game with a very simple objective: push a ball around a crayon-drawn world to collect stars. You can draw objects with your finger, such as boxes, boulders and platforms, to assist in moving the ball around the screen. Some of the things you can draw, such as clubs that swing around an anchor point and bat the ball around the screen like in a game of mini-golf, require more intricate planning and knowledge of physics to use properly. Playing Crayon Physics on the go is a bit difficult because of the precision required to draw certain objects, but other than that, this game is a lot of fun and great for procrastinating in your room or in the library.

These three are probably the cream of the crop for me right now, but you obviously might have your own favorites. Leave a comment below with your own top picks!