Yak Dash

Yak Dash is a strange one. It looks like chaos, a glowing riot of primary colours, icy outcrops, and stomping hairy beasts.

But when you get down to the nitty gritty, it's actually quite conservative. It's all about making the right jumps at the right time, sticking to the racing line, and not making a single mistake.

And that throws the balance of the game off. It's a little too cruel, a little too unforgiving. You know full well the first mistake you make will ruin your race. The button you reach for the most is the one that restarts a run.

It makes for a stop-start rhythm of frustrations. It's great when you finish a race in the podium positions, but there's a little too much grind on your way to those small victories

The game is all about getting from A to B on the back of a Yak. The controls are simple enough – tap on the left of the screen to jump, tap on the right of the screen to perform the titular dash.

When you're airborne tapping either side of the screen tilts you in that direction. Performing a full back or front flip gets you some extra apple juice, which you use to perform your dash.

That dash speeds you up a little, but also smashes through obstacles on the course. Hit one of these when you're not dashing and you'll be dumped back to the last checkpoint you crossed.

And that's where the frustration kicks in. As soon as you've been hopped back almost any chance of victory has gone. And the first few times you play any track you won't know what lies ahead.

Yak attack

It's a shame, because Yak Dash is an incredibly well polished product. It's got a cheeky sense of humour, and from the menus to the animations, everything looks gorgeous.

There's just not enough bite to proceedings. Instead it all feels like a bit of a slog. Learning the ropes is fun, and when everything clicks that promised chaos becomes a joy.

But too often you're piling into an obstacle and mashing the retry button to start again. And eventually that gets a bit old.