Bored with endless-runners? Chillingo may have just the game for you.
Mini Dash is a colourful, characterful, and supremely playable platformer that doesn't feel even slightly hobbled by touchscreen controls.
While many endless-runners sacrifice depth to accommodate the limitations of mobile, Mini Dash piles on the complexities.
It's a proper, brilliant, challenging platformer.
BuzzingGuiding a pudgy, stump-winged bee, it's your job to ensure the titular character catches up with the rest of the swarm by romping through the game's three worlds.
The most satisfying control method uses the accelerometer. Tilt the screen left or right and your character will zip along in the desired direction. It's wonderfully responsive.
There are also on-screen controls, but they feel comparatively fuzzy and imprecise.
As well as travelling left and right you can stick to walls and ceilings, and you're also able to execute a handy little double-jump. Every surface is accessible to you, regardless of orientation.
Thanks to this, the game's 150-plus levels take on a puzzle-like quality, as you attempt to jump, climb, and run through environments overflowing with enemies, traps, and bottomless drops.
Honey trap
The aim of Mini Dash is ostensibly to charge from the start to the exit as quickly as possible, with star ratings judging your performance. But each level also includes a number of hidden areas.
Invoking the classic Mario World, Mini Dash's levels tease you with seemingly out-of-reach platforms and areas, then leave you to figure out how to get there.
The rewards for finding these hidden spots come in the form of collectibles and mushrooms, which you can use to unlock further content, like extra levels and (essentially) characters with special abilities. (Or you can just purchase the content direct from Mini Dash's in-game store.)
Thanks to a generic name and screenshots that don't particularly distinguish the game from its innumerable competitors on the App Store, Mini Dash is in danger of being overlooked. Don't make that mistake - this is among the best mobile platformers of the year.