Game Reviews

Fragger

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Fragger
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Given the ongoing feud between Steve Jobs and Adobe, it's ironic that games originally created using Flash have gone on to be some of the most successful iPhone titles.

Most notable is Bloons, which has been a constantly in the global paid game charts since it was released in July 2009.

Fragger, which was released by Flash gaming portal Miniclip, follows a similar gameplay route to Ninja Kiwi's balloon-popping puzzler.

Instead of a monkey throwing darts, you're the fragger - a sort of army chap - who lobs grenades at shifty looking terrorists. As with games such as Angry Birds, they're hidden in increasingly more complex locations to test your throwing skills.

Special ops

At first, it's just of case of lofting a grenade over a wall or knocking terrorists off pillars using the grenade as a stone rather than an explosive.

Soon, though, you need to blow covers off holes, drop grenades down pipes, and complete actions in the correct sequence to immolate your enemies. Timed and dynamic explosives in the levels also come into play.

The controls are simple, with the direction of your throw changed as you move your finger in an arc and power set by shifting towards or away from the fragger. Both are graphically displayed via a big arrow set on the fragger's hand.

The trajectory taken by the grenade takes a bit of getting used to, but as the arrow remains in place between throws, it's easy to tweak from attempt to attempt.

You have a limited number of grenades to use per level, with your score dependent on how many you use. There's a global leaderboard so you can see how you shape up compared to the wider community.

Test your arm

Spread across 40 levels, you initially play through them in the Easy mode, then repeat in Hard and Elite modes where you have fewer grenades.

Of course, there's hope for more levels in future updates, but 40 is plenty. It would be nice to see more variation in terms of the level themes, though, especially as the level selection seems a little random.

The game isn't as fully featured or polished as the Flash version you can play for free on the Miniclip portal, either.

That said, Fragger is a nice little game with good graphics, controls and audio, plus touches such as the terrorists' exclamation marks as grenades roll towards them. It's satisfying to play, trickier in places than you expect, and well worth the 59p/99c price.

Fragger

A neat action puzzler, Fragger is another example of a popular Flash game making a welcome leap to iPhone
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Jon Jordan
Jon Jordan
A Pocket Gamer co-founder, Jon can turn his hand to anything except hand turning. He is editor-at-large at PG.biz which means he can arrive anywhere in the world, acting like a slightly confused uncle looking for the way out. He likes letters, cameras, imaginary numbers and legumes.