Blitz

One of the refreshing things about the iPhone is how simple it makes games that otherwise might be needlessly complicated. The touchscreen consigns button-happy control pads to history and opens up titles to entire new audiences for the first time. That said, there is a case to suggest that some games on Apple's App Store are just a little bit too simplistic, passing off what are actually pretty mundane tasks as innovative titles making use of the phone's technology.

Blitz is one such game. For just £1.19/$1.99, it would be unfair to suggest that it should be some kind of wide, open and expansive adventure, with hours of play and highs and lows equivalent to that of your average sensationalist daytime soap; but at the same time, you might well expect Blitz to offer a little bit more interaction than your TV remote. This is the kind of game where your expectations need to be hauled right in to avoid severe disappointment.

That's because the only action you undertake in Blitz is that of firing bombs (or 'flaming wine bottles' according to the online manual) at a never-ending procession of tanks trundling through the mud. Said tanks move fairly slowly from left to right, and it's your job to try and take them out before they fire on you. In truth, only a small percentage of the tanks (i.e. the big ones) will ever take aim in your direction. Nonetheless, taking down tanks earns you points, and that's pretty much the only goal of play.

The small tanks are the most challenging to target, as their increased speed means you have fire in front of them rather than directly at them. This involves anticipating just where they'll be by the time your bottles - which tend to swing out wildly either left or right during flight - reach their destination. Targeting the tanks requires nothing more than you tapping the screen where you'd like your bombs to detonate. Considering how many tanks rumble across the screen, it's more than easy to blast a few to bits.

The party only comes to an end if you take too much damage from one of the larger tanks, alerted to your presence by the exploding sounds of their comrades. When spotted, these tanks stop in their tracks and slowly turn their guns towards you. Taking them down before they have a chance to fire on you then becomes your priority, with each tank in the process of taking aim highlighted by a big red target marker. These tanks are much easier to dispose of then their smaller cousins because of their lack of speed, meaning they only become a problem if they attack en masse or you run out of ammunition.

And this is quite possible, as your bombs are produced at a set rate. Problematically, there's no way of telling just when you're running short, meaning you only find out when you're trying to fire on someone and nothing happens. There's no health bar oddly enough, leaving you with no way of knowing whether you're skating on thin ice or not. The first you'll know of your demise is when it actually happens.

All in all, this makes Blitz a rather stunted experience. While it has the potential to be something quite frantic, all too often you're informed that the game is over just when things are starting to liven up. It's perfectly possible for contests to be over in a matter of seconds. With this brevity comes frustration, as it's hard to imagine tussling with Blitz's tanks beyond the first few encounters.