CrimeSpree makes me want to steal conveniently placed bags of money.

You know old movies where robbers run into banks with black masks on and come out with bags that have huge dollar signs on them? CrimeSpree is kind of like that.

Only instead of being a bank robber, you drive a car around to pick up said bags. And the fuzz is right on your tail.

CrimeSpree reeks of old-school, joystick arcade gaming. Your car is put into a maze-like situation with a number of police cars after you. Your goal is to navigate through the maze in order to pick up all the money bags and avoid the cops within the amount of time alotted.

Along the way you can pick up extra little pieces of help including a spare life (you start out with three, just like in Mario), oil that can can be deployed to temporarily halt a police cruiser, and magical hourglasses that have no basis in reality as they actually add time to your clock.

It’s totally unrealistic and destroys the game’s verisimilitude. But Mario got big by eating magic mushrooms, so I guess I’ll let it slide.

Overall this is a really simple, solid game. The “swipe” control has really helped the iPhone to effectively port over these kinds of arcade games, finding a way around the problem of not having a tactile joystick interface.

In addition to the arcade mode there is a “survival mode” where the goal is, not surprisingly, to survive as long as possible on one life. It’s a great way to get in a quick game during the commercials of your favorite daytime soap opera.

The graphics, sound effects, and music (there are even two tracks to choose from, just like in Tetris!) are top-notch. The game lacks too many features, but that’s fine. It sells for $.99 (but that’s a temporary sale price…get it while the getting’s good), and it more than delivers at that price point.

File this one under “addictive” and “time waster.” I would have done more reviews this week, but I spent all my time trying to get past level seven. This thing gets hard fast.

You can buy CrimeSpree HERE.

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