Stick Man Rescue

Stick man games are nothing new. Since Flash first took off with bedroom-based creators who wanted to publish to the web we've seen all sorts of games featuring heroes composed of little more than five straight lines and a circle.

TikGames's latest release for the Minis service places these crudely drawn avatars in a warzone, where you're asked to rescue them from hazardous situations and grizzly deaths. To do so, you're given a helicopter and a few weapons in the form of pick-ups.

There are flame throwers, missile launchers, and bombs throughout the labyrinthine level layouts, and you can use these to pick off the opposing blue army of stick men and their vehicles, as well as to destroy metal structures, set trees ablaze, and melt ice blocking your path.

You also have a machine gun available at all times, though its use is limited to capping unprotected soldiers and shooting down incoming ballistics.

Incorrectly thrown into the Action category by its makers, Stick Man Rescue is more about memory than dexterity with the buttons of a PSP.

To complete almost all of the 30 levels on offer you'll need to know in which order the lives of your men are threatened by the steam rollers, nuclear explosions, acid pools, and other gruesome hazards the blue army has in store.

You can carry four friendlies back to the safety of your home base at one time, so forward planning is essential. Though one of your squads may be just metres away from the base, you'll need to understand that the stick men across the other side of the map will likely need your assistance first, lest they be smooshed.

Playing Stick Man Rescue is a little like spinning plates, only a bit more comically grim. Piecing together how an area works, why deaths happen, where you can find items to progress further, and when you need to return to previous sections to aid allies you don't currently have space to rescue – that's where the enjoyment lies.

The trouble is, once you've figured it all out, there's nothing left to do. You return to each stage and get 100 per cent in it by rescuing every single stick man, but otherwise there's little to hold your interest: no extra modes, no multiplayer. It's also quite an easy game due mostly to the simplistic controls.

There's no gravity to fight against as you zip about the environments, allowing you to turn on a dime. Imagine the movement of 1982's Choplifter but without any significant weight to your vehicle and you'll understand just how easy it is to manoeuvre.

Face buttons on the PSP handle weaponry, and the D-pad movement and the shoulder buttons flip which direction you're facing. Gliding through a gap in a wall is effortless and – even if it weren't – you don't take damage for colliding with most scenery anyway, and you have an infinite number of 'copters at your disposal.

Without any time needed to learn the finer points of control, you're effectively a super pilot that only needs to be concerned with how to finish an area, which means you can finish the game in a couple of hours at most.

The stick man visuals are understandably basic, as are the backgrounds and vehicle designs. Drawn in a palette of washed out greys, it's a drab and uninspired world to be a part of. Sound design is passable but lacks finesse, explosions are hollow, gun fire lacks punch.

Short and not very sweet, Stick Man Rescue has a couple of good ideas buried in its otherwise boring gameplay. The fact that it forces you to take a whole area into consideration and plan rescue strategies before take-off creates the potential for some interesting gameplay, and the dark humour is fun.

However, its low difficulty level, small amount of content, and bland presentation will make it a very tough sell for most people.