Deadly Bullet

Some surprises are bad - for example, a lion in your kitchen. While other surprises are good - for example, a lion in Piers Morgan's kitchen.

Odd, brisk, addictive, and simplistic projectile-based casual game Deadly Bullet is the good kind of surprise.

It's a top-down action game that kicks off with a story about a dystopian society owned by a massive corporation. A single rebel faction exists, a rag-tag band called the Deadly Bullets.

When the game informs you that, "You are a Deadly Bullet," you expect to start the game as a scruffy outsider wearing a leather jacket. That's not the case. You're a Deadly Bullet. Literally.

You play as a projectile that soars around the field of play without regard for gravity, physics, and the general laws of nature.

"You are a bullet" sounds like the premise for a bad Choose Your Own Adventure story, but it's actually great fun to tear through the world as a projectile capable of executing 180-degree turns, search and destroy missions, and bad guys.

Here's the thing about Deadly Bullet: there's a learning curve. You might be surprised to learn that it's not easy to control a sentient bullet, but it really does take some practice. You press left on the screen to swing left, and press right to veer right - it sounds simple, but it takes some doing.

Don't give up, though. If you stick to your guns (so to speak), you'll rack up a body count in no time. You're awarded point bonuses according to how many evil-doers you gun down in a single swoop. When you eliminate every intended target in a level, you move on to the next one.

However, if you slam into an obstacle or a trap three times, it's Game Over.

Enemies gradually become more mobile as you ascend, making them more difficult to target. You also level-up as you play and win skill points, which you can use to open up new battlegrounds, or upgrade your power-ups.

Power-ups are especially interesting in Deadly Bullet, particularly the "Mobsucker" boost that draws gangsters into your deadly radius.

Sit back, relax, and kill

The aforementioned "death radius" is part of Deadly Bullet's appeal. The game doesn't demand pixel-perfect accuracy - just getting the bad guy into your circle of influence is enough to splatter him across the pavement.

It's nice to be allowed to focus on getting the controls down pat without also having to stress out about getting every single enemy through the heart.

Deadly Bullet offers a single challenge, but it's a well-tuned challenge that'll spur you into toppling your best scores again and again. Best of all, the game is absolutely free. No ads, no panhandling for in-app purchases. It's just you and justice.