Mobile Games Roundup

Slitherlink

• Android / $1.99 (free demo)

What better way to kick off our long-awaited regular coverage of Android games than with one that will make you forget everything else going on around you? If you're one of the five people who imported the DS version on the back of John Walker's love letter in 2007, take a bow. Otherwise, listen up.

Simple and evil in roughly equal measures, the idea of these delightful logic tests is to snake a line around a grid and link it up, while adhering to the numbers scattered liberally across it. The placement of each line depends solely on the numbers denoted, so, for example, if you see a zero, you'll know that no lines can be drawn on that part of the grid, while a three will require that three out of the four sides of the square need to be involved.

Being a logic puzzle, most of it you'll be able to figure out through context, practice and common sense. But being a complete git of a game, what often looks perfectly straightforward will most likely have you missing tube stops, laying awake at night and ignoring phone calls as you stare balefully at the task at hand.

If you find it all a bit too easy, you can switch to various-sized puzzles from small to huge, from easy to hard, or up the ante considerably by switching from square grids to honeycomb (i.e. hexagonal) grids. The only thing lacking is some sort of scoring system, as well as, perhaps, a hint system for when you're completely devoid of inspiration. Maybe Ejelta can include these in future revisions.

For the time being, though, simply having a decent version of Slitherlink readily available for next to nothing is something we should be grateful for.

9/10

[N.B. This is a review of Ejelta LLC's Slitherlink. Another (not quite as fully featured) Slitherlink is also available on the Android Market from Tatsuya Kaido.]

Super Tumble

• Android / $1.99 (free demo includes 12 levels)

As a nation that is the undisputed heavyweight world champion of building things up to knock them down again, Super Tumble ought to go down very well with the perverse British psyche.

To save you all a bit of time, a stack of objects (let's think of them as famous sportsmen, pop stars, actors and associated wags) has been ready-assembled in a neat, but slightly precarious, pile. All perched at the top of their game, it's up to you, dear player, to smash them down back into the gutter in the fewest moves possible by tapping on their smug faces.

But because we like our beloved anti-heroes to remain intact, it's crucial that they don't fall completely into the abyss. They must, after all, land softly so that we can gleefully build them back up again. We need to have the option to knock them off their perch once more, lest they get a little too big for their boots.

So, yeah. Super Tumble. Despite being practically identical to about five other games with 'tumble' in the title, this one's rather lovely, and doesn't offend our sensibilities with annoying music or crap visuals. Download the free demo and nod approvingly.

8/10