Hamster Cannon

Thanks to Android developers, cannons haven’t enjoyed this much of a surge in popularity since preparations began for the battle of Waterloo.

From Nano Panda to Puffle Launch, there's been no shortage of opportunities to blast mammals into walls, spikes, and occasionally towards a safe objective - and Hamster Cannon now joins the fray.

The mechanics of hurtling animals around bouncy levels remains as solid as ever, but it’s a shame the difficulty curve remains flat and the in-game ads are both distracting and prone to crashing the game.

Uncaged

Devoid entirely of a story, Burn the Rope developer Big Blue Bubble’s title instead relies on highscores and the now-rote three-star system for measuring performance to keep you playing through its 70 levels.

Big Blue Bubble knows its physics puzzling, so you’re in safe hands from the simple tutorial stages through to the more convoluted final levels.

The main goal never deviates. Your task is to fire cutesy hamsters across the stages, often bouncing them off scenery in the process, to try and collect as many of the trio of Noms (flaming donuts) as possible.

You can also pick up smaller Noms for score boosts, but they’re considered a minor priority - only the full-fat ones earn you the stars needed to unlock the next stage and the remaining two worlds.

Firing your small squad of suicidal hamsters is a simple process of tapping a rodent, rotating the cannon by swiping to choose a trajectory, and then hitting 'fire'. There’s a short delay as you wait for the fuse to burn down, so you also have to time shots to avoid moving platforms and hazards.

It’s a simple system, with a line from the barrel showing roughly where the hamster will fly, but it's made fiddly by the fact that the moveable arc is a little bit on the small side. Consequently, your chubby thumbs obscure the aiming process, which becomes more of a problem as the need for accuracy grows greater.

Thankfully, once shot from the cannon hamsters will ping about the levels for a fair while, often picking up Noms accidentally in the process, so actual skilled shooting plays a minimal role in success.

Although the difficulty will never stretch seasoned physics puzzle fans, the inclusion of Angry Birds-style special-powered hamsters ups the ante a bit.

Distinguished by their different helmets, some hamsters have spiked metal headgear for crashing through stone blocks, while others have flaming hats that let them dispatch wooden barriers.

While using these more powerful furry weapons to clear out levels before using regular troops to collect the Noms is a solid tactic for the first two worlds, the final stages introduce portals for a slightly more noodle-taxing experience.

Hamster Cannon’s undercooked challenge never quite tests your puzzling prowess to the degree that Angry Birds does, but its an entertainingly casual alternative that’s presented with cute graphics and audio that squeaks appropriately.

Where it misfires is the terrible use in-game advertising. Ads pop up throughout the game, with the worst offenders appearing between levels and occasionally crashing you out of the game.

So, while Hamster Cannon is an acceptable if unoriginal spin on the cannon-firing formula, the decision to prop up the development costs with ads is likely to put off many.