Lumber Jacked

In the world of smartphone gaming, new and fantastically named sub-genres are born pretty much every day. Lumber Jacked, for example, fits into the bite-size hardcore platforming genre typified by the League of Evil series.

In fact, some might say Everplay's latest follows the template set down by Ravenous a little too closely.

That would be churlish, though. Lumber Jacked is an entertaining and rock-hard platformer in its own right, with a gorgeous, unique look, and enough content to waste a happy evening on.

The story, such as it is, is all about beavers stealing wood from a lumberjack. This sets in motion a series of events that ends with you punching Bustin Beaver repeatedly in the face. And they say satire is dead.

You need to lead our heroic lumberjack through a series of super-fast, super-tough levels, leaping from plank to spinning pipe, lamping any beavers that get in your way, and collecting your lucky checked shirt as well.

Levels last less than a minute, but in the later stages they get as tough as old wood-cutting boots. Anything that moves is out to kill you, and while you can deal with most of the beavers that attack you with a single punch, time it wrong and you'll die.

The controls are surprisingly effective and it's rare that you'll be able to blame them for a mistake. Two arrows move you left and right, and two buttons control your jumps and streaking power punches.

A three-star rating system lets you know how well, or more often how poorly, you've done in a level, and gives you a reason to go back once you've finished the 60 stages the game has to offer.

The difficulty curve is well drawn, dragging you in with some simple early success before lumping challenge upon challenge until you're on the verge of tearing your hair out and giving up on beaver-brawling altogether.

For those who stick with it, though, there's an impressive, gorgeous retro platformer here. It's unflinchingly hard, but when persevering means you get to hit some more defenceless creatures it's difficult to resist.

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