Siege Hero

The easiest way to describe Siege Hero is, 'first-person Angry Birds'.

That's probably not how Armor Games would put it, given that its own game Crush the Castle predated Rovio's monster by a good six months.

But Angry Birds is a more resonant comparison for most, and the similarities between the two games are both obvious and unavoidable. They're also wrong.

While on the surface Siege Hero is just Angry Birds from a different point of view, this change of perspective radically affects the way you dismantle the game's various structures.

The principles behind Siege Hero will feel familiar to many. The aim is to take down structure after structure with just a few shots available in each stage, killing every one of the guards that mount it as you go.

Every shot you take is flung head-on rather than from the side, allowing you to target the forts from all angles. For example, taking out the foundations at the base can be far more rewarding in the long term than simply smashing apart the planks where the guards stand.

At your disposal is an array of weapons, starting off with rocks, or collections of rocks, but soon including everything from bombs to fires and torrents of hot oil.

What this variety allows Siege Hero to do is subtly mess with its approach from one level to the next.

While some of the early stages feel like Jenga in reverse (the limited number of shots on offer meaning working out a structure's weak point, and exploiting it with as few efforts as possible, is crucial), others are simply an excuse to cause carnage, with many platforms lined with explosives that light up play when caught up in the ruckus.

But the best levels are those that call for havoc and restraint at the same time.

In amongst many of the castles are civilians, and even though it's not essential to save said maidens, there are extra points on offer for ensuring they stay intact while the walls around them crumble.

It turns Siege Hero into an exact science, but where the levels are perfectly designed to ensure that fun never gives way to an overly fastidious nature.

Hero on hiatus

Indeed, to the game's credit, the main problem is that there should be more of it.

Siege Hero is not short by any means, but its 63 levels are so delicately paced that Siege Hero appears to come to a close just as it's hitting its heights.

It could be argued that that's exactly the way a game should go out, but with a placeholder for the next batch of stages already sat in Siege Hero's menus, its clear there's still much more to come.

Just where Armor Games can take the game in future updates is truly tantalising.

As things stand, Siege Hero already represents a genuinely genre-expanding twist on projectile-based iPhone play. Comparisons with Angry Birds may be misleading in terms of gameplay, but not in terms of quality.