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Mobile Games Roundup

Pac-Man! Hysteria! Parachute! Surveillant! Mini!

Kristan Reed avatar
Review by Kristan Reed Contributor
Updated on
28 comments

The more popular this mobile gaming lark gets, the more interesting games come out, and the more fall through the cracks every week.

Just this week alone, I could have covered about 10 more games that are worthy of attention - games like Battleheart, Devil May Cry, Blockoban, Cover Orange, Backbreaker 2, Grimm, It's Just A Thought, ilomilo, Tiki Towers 2 and the awesomely named Mini Gay Boyfriend, among others.

Most of these go in a 'To Cover' list, with a resolute intention to include them in upcoming roundups, but then what happens? Another slew of brand new goodies turns up and elbows a lot of them out the way, Surveillant being the latest case in point.

If you've got the time and the money, it's hard to resist spending a cumulative fortune on these snackable nuggets of gaming. But that's what we're here for...

Surveillant

  • iPhone - £1.19. Free trial version available
Eye spy.

Remember Geoff Crammond's thoroughly sinister 8-bit classic The Sentinel? It was probably the most far-out (you could still say "far out" in the eighties) game concept of the decade, and now it's the inspiration for Recluse Industries' avoid-em-up, Surveillant.

Mercifully less complicated than Crammond's brain-breaking masterpiece, the idea in Surveilliant is to hop around from block to block, and eventually ascend high enough to reach the nefarious CCTV and disable its evil electronic eye.

Across 10 surprisingly tricky stages, your main concern is to avoid the frazzling red beam that continually sweeps the play area for troublemakers like you. Stray into this field of view and you'll be smoked harder than Dot Cotton's morning ciggie.

With that in mind, keeping the hell away from this hot arc of death becomes your primary goal, and a camera icon in the top right corner gives you a chance to instantly glance up and see where it's pointing at any given time.

While that's all going on, you'll be tilting your device left and right to look around, tapping on each block to jump from one to the next, and trying to collect all the data clusters scattered around. Scoop them all up, and you'll be able to unlock a platform that grants you access to your prize – and, of course, the next level.

At this early stage, there's only 10 levels to battle through, but with more to be added in Surveillant's upcoming free update, this is a keeper.

9/10

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