You’ll start flicking pygmies at ice monsters (this mechanic isn’t as responsive as the rest), fire spears at pygmies (tap the designated icon while the world is under water), and participate in a mini-game that challenges you to twist your iPhone – or iPod Touch – in an effort to slide a pygmy across a series of rising platforms. Soon enough, you’ll figure out that it’s possible to strike birds with lighting bolts (which is done by drawing a line from gray clouds).

Each of these elements are cool and creative, enough to inspire players to dig deeper, wondering what they’ll discover next. Similarly, they can turn night into day by dragging the moon to the bottom of the screen (drag the sun downward to return to night). While ruling over the game’s watery landscapes, players may produce a tsunami by dragging the water toward the island. But underneath the cool mechanics – which include a feature that lets you bring in a storm just by touching and dragging white clouds off the screen – is a 99-cent app that amounts to more of a novelty than anything else. Using every ounce of the iPhone’s super-sensitive screen, players can step into the shoes of an all-powerful deity and help or harass the world as much as they want. On its surface, Pocket God looks like a full-fledged game.

There’s a good reason why Apple sells video games in the “app” store, instead of a game-specific destination: it allows developers to create anything they want and apply a very, very broad definition.

Pocket god