Johnny Two Shoes's Plunderland could be iPhone treasure
We're running away to sea
We not heard much from UK studio Johnny Two Shoes recently, so it's good to know it's been working on a new game.
And it's even better to be told the game's already been submitted to Apple for App Store deployment, because if what we've seen of Plunderland is anything to go by, it could be rather special.
Sail ahoyIn terms of first impressions, it's a bit like Pocket God meets Angry Birds and The Horrible Vikings. However, as Johnny Two Shoes points out, it's actually a remake of its 2007 Pirates of JTS Flash game.
In terms of gameplay, it's based around physics, as you tilt your iPhone to move your pirate ship forward. As with Angry Birds, your cannons fire in an arc controlled in terms of where you tap on the screen.
Your mission is to plunder, which you can accomplish by sinking other ships and raiding islands.
In Pocket God style, you can pick up items and characters, throw them around or drop them into your boat or into the sea. And, yes, there are sharks.
Bootiful bootyThe money you collect in each level enables you to buy new boats and upgrade your equipment, although, as Johnny Two Shoes points out, the optimum size of boat changes from level to level, so it's not a case of just unlocking the monster pirate boat and then always using it.
Aside from the mechanics, it's the graphics and feel of the game that have us excited. It just looks like it should be a lot of fun.
You can check out a walkthrough video of the action below, or play the original Flash version here.
Plunderland should be out next week, priced $2.99, €2.39 or £1.79.