Are You a Dodo?

Are You A Dodo? asks you to play three mini-games in quick succession, tots up a score, and then insults you a bit by comparing your achievements to those of a cute but dopey critter.

Initially, it all seems very neat. There are bold cartoon graphics, a jolly game-show tune, and a selection of mini-games to choose from.

The problem is several of those games aren't very good. And on top that there are a bunch of irritating IAPs, and some of the most obnoxious advertisements we've ever seen on iOS.

The games are split into three categories - logic, dexterity, and memory - and during every crack at a high-score you select one from each.

Three mini-games are always free, and they change with each new attempt. But every other option, including random, requires coins to unlock. You can earn these through grinding, or pay for them with real-world cash.

This robs Are You A Dodo? of the breezy chaos of a WarioWare, and means you can't work on mastering any one mini-game without paying for the privilege.

Most of the mini-games are also far from innovative, offering you colourful but dull challenges like matching pairs, adding numbers, and remembering the order in which you saw various objects.

In some cases, controls further scupper the party. The virtual buttons respond too slowly for you to get up a head of steam, and collision detection makes it tough to accurately use multitouch to make multiple selections.

There are, fortunately, some highlights. 'Shape Shift' has a wheel of objects orbiting a silhouette, and tasks you with matching the relevant form.

Initially it's obvious which one to choose, but as the multiplier builds, the wheel speeds up and everything you see becomes harder to tell apart.

'Mix Match' adds a twist to the typical 'match what you see' template by continually shuffling the pictures on the buttons. 'Quick Shot' is a fun Whack-a-Mole effort that attempts to wrong-foot you by using similarly coloured items.

And 'Super Sorter' has you sorting objects into bins by prodding left or right to match cards streaming in from the top of the screen. Here though, you can't shake the feeling you should play the similar but superior indie title Critter Panic instead.

I am the moray eel!

When your game's done, it's initially amusing to see what you're being compared to. Will you be a 'lumbering moray eel', a 'carefree lab rat', or a 'wobbly harp seal'. There's a lifetime score too, which slowly levels up.

Repeat play is further rewarded by power-ups that make individual games marginally easier next time out.

But just when the game gets going you're bashed out of its rhythm by one of the obnoxious full-screen adverts that appear with alarming frequency.

The simple nature of Are You A Dodo? will appeal to someone with a few minutes to kill, and the basic puzzles make it especially suitable for kids (even if the time limits are a touch stern for very young players).

Really though, with only nine mini-games, the various cloying restrictions, and the awful ads, it'll only be a matter of time before your attention wanes and you kill off this Dodo by deleting it from your device.