Early '90s action moves were often described by their marketing people as "Die Hard on a...", with whatever vehicle, building, structure, natural that had been occupied by the villains of the piece completing the sentence.
Following on in that vein, Mutant Roadkill from Glu is best described as Temple Run in a car. And some zombies. And a slightly more invasive freemium system. In the future.
Carmageddon outta hereThe world has ended, and you're a survivor who likes nothing better than driving through the wreckage of our once great cities, running over the mutant scum who stumble into your path.
You tilt your device to move from side to side around the forgivingly wide freeways of the post apocalypse, smashing into the shambling undead and avoiding the detritus left behind by the end of civilisation.
For every mutant you kill you get some coins, which you can spend on a new car or on upgrades that give you a better chance of getting farther along the road and killing more things.
From time to time you'll come to a junction, whereupon you have to swipe on the screen to turn left or right, and as you speed farther down the road more powerful mutants will try and flip over your car and kill you.
Not well drivenLuckily, a meter at the side of the screen fills up as you slaughter pedestrians, and once it's full you're given a power-up. These range from car-mounted turrets to bursts of speed that make you invulnerable for a short while.
If your power-ups fail, you'll need to bash mutants that cling onto the side of your car on obstacles, being careful not to get too close and write off your vehicle in the process. As you travel farther you'll be able to pick up boosts and bombs from the roadside, too.
Unfortunately, in spite of some impressive cel-shaded graphics, the game doesn't quite manage to grab your attention. It's fun in short bursts, but even if you splash the cash on extra cars and upgrades there's not enough variation in the gameplay to keep you entertained for long.
Much like the derivative films of the '90s, Mutant Roadkill mainly just makes you want to go back to the original.
Android version reviewed.Mutant Roadkill
Fun in very brief bursts, Mutant Roadkill doesn't have enough going for it to make you want to extend those plays
Harry Slater
Harry used to be really good at Snake on the Nokia 5110. Apparently though, digital snake wrangling isn't a proper job, so now he writes words about games instead.