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Naughty Boy - Sling and Shoot

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Naughty Boy - Sling and Shoot

Naughty Boy - Sling and Shoot works on the same level as Dennis the Menace. It's about a rebellious young boy with a slingshot, and it seems to think that such a thing is still shocking and amusing in this day and age.

When you take away the "comedy" of Heliceum's latest first-person gallery shooter, what's left is a mix of repetitive and simple gameplay, ugly presentation, and a thoroughly stupid lead character.

Big mess

The school bus has pulled up outside your home. But you don't want to go to school - you want to stay in your room, against the wishes of your parents. Thus ensues a chase as you dash through various parts of the house firing projectiles at the members of your family to knock them out.

Even though the presentation is blood-free, the amount of destruction you'll cause as you rampage through your house creates the impression that you might be unhinged.

Your family looks awful: ugly character models and social stereotypes abound, and the audio is weak too. You spout the same lines almost every time you fire your weapon. Think of a Bart Simpson impersonator shouting "Headshot Headshot Headheadheadheadshot Headshot Biiiiiiig mess" over and over and over again. It's like that.

You start off with meagre equipment, but you can upgrade your slingshot and ammo so that it causes more damage. You can also purchase boosts to upgrade the special ammunition types you use throughout the course of the game, such as La Bomba - a cherry bomb that wears a sombrero.

This upgraded equipment only comes into effect when you're a fair way through the game, as the opening sections are tedious.

Members of your family run towards you, occasionally using household furniture as cover, and if you can't knock them out quickly enough they'll grab onto you. At this point you can use a battery to shock them and continue, or else it's game over.

Shoot grandma

Defending yourself is a simple case of firing your weapon, with extra damage awarded for headshots, and destructible scenery is thrown in for extra scoring opportunities. Oddly, rather than drawing back the elastic on your slingshot and carefully aiming you're encouraged to quickly tap on the screen to let loose rapid volleys of fire.

If grandma is standing behind a fridge to the left, you tap to the right of the screen, adjusting the height at which you tap to account for the distance at which she's standing.

It's possible to aim precisely by tapping and holding, but it's easier to knock the cooler out of the way with lots of fire and hope you hit her, as you can't predict the movement of your targets.

Which, let me reiterate, are your family members.

Missions try to keep you busy with specific requests - such as reaching a certain room in the house in a single try - but apart from the odd occasion when you're given different ammo types to play with, the game doesn't change. It's unrewarding to thoughtlessly tap the screen, and that's all you ever need to do.

No part of the gameplay is fresh or even particularly appealing, and the presentation is so irritating as to be a distraction. There are plenty of shooting gallery games on the App Store, so don't waste your time or money on this one.

Naughty Boy - Sling and Shoot

An unlikeable anti-hero in an equally unlikeable adventure, Naughty Boy - Sling and Shoot deserves to be sent to bed with no dinner
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Peter Willington
Peter Willington
Die hard Suda 51 fan and professed Cherry Coke addict, freelancer Peter Willington was initially set for a career in showbiz, training for half a decade to walk the boards. Realising that there's no money in acting, he decided instead to make his fortune in writing about video games. Peter never learns from his mistakes.