Tiny Hawk

You can experience everything Tiny Hawk has to offer within 45 minutes. Every collectible, in the fastest time, on every level: done. Finished.

Polygon Toys would like £2.49 in exchange for this amount of time. That's five and a half pence for every minute of play.

Tiny Hawk is an appropriate title, then. You control a small pixel-art skateboarder. The 8-bit hero automatically pushes himself along the street, leaving you to ollie, change direction, and collect as many energy drink cans as you can in the fastest time possible before reaching the chequered flag.

Holding the 'jump' button and touching a wall bounces you from it to reach the higher areas of the simple puzzle environments.

There are also horizontal rails to grind across gaps. You can drop from these by holding down on the D-pad. And there are springboards that launch you much higher into the air than a regular jump.

There are no moving objects to avoid. Instead, a few well-placed speed bumps and pools of water slow your advancement or reset you back to the start of the level. Completing each area is very easy, but scoring big is your main objective, with points awarded for time and number of cans obtained.

But it's all over within three quarters of an hour, as you breeze through the game's 32 levels. Once you've done everything, there's nothing else on offer. This is a game that's in desperate need of more levels or – better yet – a level editor.

While it lasts, it's simple and fun. Keeping your momentum high and timing jumps just right is platforming 101 by now, but the appeal has never really diminished. And its appeal is enhanced by strong presentation.

The music is upbeat and immensely catchy: deep and funky bass courts chip tune synths with a discordant piano as its pulse, accompanied by a driving drum rhythm.

Sound effects are equally well-produced. Waxed wood gliding on metal is a pleasant aural experience, as is the clicky snap of an ollie. Each noise feels miniscule in nature, perfectly in line with the diminutive but no less colourful visuals.

For all of this praise, it's difficult to accept that Polygon Toys wants a penny shy of £2.50 for Tiny Hawk. It's an especially bitter pill to swallow when you realise you can play essentially the same game online in a free Flash version. Same music, near-identical mechanics, and very similar level design, but at the right price.

Tiny Hawk is a decent game, capturing the fun of collecting things while platforming perfectly. It's a superb technical port, too.

At half the cost, with twice the levels and a higher degree of difficulty, it would be an easy recommendation. As it stands, while you should play Tiny Hawk you shouldn't do it on your PlayStation Portable.