Froad

We're not sure whether Froad is a frog, a toad, or a hybrid of the two. But whatever he is, he needs to eat a lot to survive.

He needs to eat ants, and snails, and slugs. He needs to eat aphids and insects and molluscs and arachnids. And he needs to eat them at a relentless pace to avoid death.

His diet may be varied, but his method of eating isn't, and so his Whack-a-Mole eating style soon starts to grate.

Armed with Froad's long, stretchy tongue, the aim of the game is to latch on to passing bugs and gobble them down.

However, you can't just eat any old bug. A thought bubble next to Froad's head lets you know which ones to catch - if you catch the right bug you'll prolong your life slightly, and if you catch the wrong one you'll lurch towards the grave.

It's a simple premise, and there's very little to complain about in the controls, which are fluid and accurate.

However, that's all there is to Froad - eating bugs over and over again.

There are plenty of elements that attempt to bolster the rather simple game mechanics.

Swallow the right bugs in succession and you'll gain a multiplier combo. There are also day and night shifts, day shifts, and two arenas to play through.

But Froad's standout feature is the bug variety, with tons of different creepy crawlies to devour. Even after a dozen days in the game we were still seeing new things to gobble up.

There are also gold bugs to grab, which will help you climb the leaderboards.

Unfortunately, these trinkets aren't enough to keep Froad from getting dull very quickly.

After just a few goes we were already bored and ready to move on to a different game. It doesn't matter whether YoYo Games wraps it up in colourful and fun visuals - it's still a very shallow and repetitive experience.

For all its charm and technical proficiency, Froad shows that dressing up a dull concept with fancy visuals will only take it so far.