Deer Hunter 3D

Unlike in some other parts of the world, shooting things for fun is generally frowned upon in the UK. The general consensus is: if you're not going to eat it, don't fill it with lead.

Which might explain why Deer Hunter 3D feels like such a guilty pleasure. Slaughtering bears (even though they're digital) shouldn't be this much fun.

It is, though. Glu's game replicates the hunting process with decent 3D visuals and a nice mix of realism and arcade thrills.

Having stalked your prey (which range from deer to mountain sheep and big grizzly bears) by following their tracks on a handy GPS screen, the game zooms in to a static first-person view.

Your gun sight moves around, replicating the shakiness of the human hand. A virtual 'Steady' button allows you a small window of relative poise.

Once you've lined up your shot, making sure to aim for a vital area on the beast lest you merely injure it (finishing the day with injured beasts on the prowl costs you points), a touch of the screen pulls the trigger. Your score for the kill is dependent on the type and size of the animal.

It has to be said that the core shooting is rather basic, and doesn't take into account things like distance or wind direction. It's essentially a jazzed up duck hunt, and can get a little repetitive after a while.

Still, there are plenty of goals and unlockables to keep you playing. Once you've nabbed five 'trophies', your points are totted up. If you reach the points target for the level you unlock the next stage – whether that be a new area of the world (North America, Europe, Russia, and Mexico feature) or a harder target score on the current map.

You also get to unlock new equipment, including weapons (such as a shotgun or a crossbow) and modifications (such as a scope or an aim-steadying tripod). As such, your options and abilities gradually increase throughout the game.

This growth is further reflected in the game's RPG-like ability progression system, which lets you spend points on things like your aim or your GPS's range.

Despite this solid structure and some decent 3D graphics, a few technical issues marred my enjoyment. The controls were occasionally unresponsive, and there was a slight lag between pulling the trigger and hearing the 'bang.'

This was on a highly capable Galaxy S, so it can't have been that the game (a port of an 18 month-old iPhone game) was stretching it.

All quibbles aside, Deer Hunter is an interesting twist on what is, at heart, an arcade lightgun game. There's a real sense of going on an adventure each time you venture out into the wild, which makes playing it a real pleasure. A terribly guilty one.