Bumper Stars

Imagine a game of pinball, only there are no balls and there are only beavers (stop sniggering in the back there). Now imagine that this odd pairing of nature’s construction worker and truck stop entertainment is crossed with Peggle.

Got it? Right, hold that image. Now, add fruit. That's the recipe for Bumper Stars.

Educated guesswork and chaos are the source of the fun. You start with a screen filled with assorted round pinball-style bumpers and fruit. There’s a slightly rotund (read: 'fat') beaver in the middle of the screen, who you must ricochet off the bumpers in order to get at the fruit.

You do this by tracking a finger across the screen, which slides an arrow in the corresponding direction. Releasing your finger sends the beaver careering in the direction of the arrow, rebounding off any bumpers in his path and, hopefully, into any nearby pieces of fruit.

You only have a measly three shots per stage, so you really have to think carefully about the angle in order to rebound in enough different directions to have a chance of collecting all the fruit in each stage. Fail to do so and it’s Game Over.

It’s terribly addictive, but it would have been nice if level progression had been included, rather than the game forcing you back to the first stage every time you fail.

There's a multiplayer element, where you can challenge friends via Facebook. You can also buy new Bumper Stars characters, arenas and in-game objects in exchange for credits earned while playing, which is cool.

It may not offer much depth, then, and it probably won’t hold your attention for long enough to reveal all of its secrets. For 59p/99c, however, there’s more than enough fun here to make Bumper Stars a worthwhile purchase.