Banzai Blowfish

There has to be a point where an idea stagnates. Once every possible variation of a concept has been toyed with, once every conceivable twist has been explored, there has to be a moment of collective realisation when game developers decide to move on to something else.

Unfortunately, we're yet to reach that watershed moment with the Angry Birds formula. Every passing week brings more clones and copies to smartphone marketplaces, giving us ever more anthropomorphic animals to hurl around our screens.

This week it's blowfish - or, more specifically, it's Banzai Blowfish, a new game in which you have to catapult fish at cages to free their stricken friends.

Disgruntled fish

The game is split into more than 40 different levels, and each of them is littered with different contraptions and levers that will push, prod, and propel the titular fish towards its goal. You control these platforms and trampolines by tapping on the arrows next to them.

Environmental hazards and pitfalls block your way, from spiky stalagmites to snow banks and gaping, bottomless chasms. Catching any of these means Game Over, and starting the level all over again.

It's also entirely possible to get your blowfish stuck, by missing an obvious platform or mistiming a tap, leaving it lolling around in the no man's land between the pieces of apparatus. A handy 'restart' button means you won't be stuck for too long.

Full of poison

Different zones add different elements for you to deal with, with the underwater levels in particular changing the physics at the core of the game. This keeps things interesting, but not interesting enough to stop the rot from setting in.

Banzai Blowfish is an incredibly frustrating experience for two reasons. Firstly, the most interesting part of the game, positioning the catapults and bouncy pads, has been taken out of your hands. Instead, the only thing you can adjust is the timing of your taps.

This links in to the second source of frustration: the design just isn't good enough. Your taps and swipes have to be perfect, or your blowfish will crash into the scenery, or end up trapped and stationary in the middle of the level.

Blow hard

Formulaic cartoon graphics finish off a package that feels staid and unimpressive. This is a by-the-numbers copycat that's tried to add its own minor changes to the Angry Birds formula. It's telling that Banzai Blowfish is most fun where it's least original.

When the game's working well, and the puzzles require some dexterous, well thought-out tapping, you can't help but smile. But more often than not you feel like you're going through the motions, acting as a witness to the fun someone's already had building the level.

Banzai Blowfish isn't a terrible game, but it's a flawed and inconsistent one. You'll long for more direct control over proceedings, and for a more original central theme. Instead, what you get is another game that's exposed all too easily as a shallow, uninspired copycat.