Octodad: Dadliest Catch is an uproariously entertaining experience now on NVIDIA SHIELD

Normally, a game whose main character is incredibly difficult to control wouldn't be well received by gamers. In Octodad: Dadliest Catch, however, the erratic controls are the whole point of the experience and the reason why it's so fun to play.

Now available on NVIDIA SHIELD, Octodad: Dadliest Catch puts players in control of an octopus who dresses in a suit in order to pass himself off as a human being.

His transition from being part of a trawler's catch to a fully-fledged member of human society is told in flashbacks and it's a touching tale of one cephalopod's triumph over adversity.

As well as passing himself off as a human, Octodad also ends up with a wife and a couple of kids who, bafflingly, have never suspected a thing about his oceanic origins.

The aim of the game is to control Octodad as he carries out a series of everyday family tasks from feeding the kids, operating a barbecue, and mowing the lawn to more extensive challenges like getting the weekly groceries and orchestrating a family visit to the local aquarium.

Even to a human dad with opposable thumbs these could be fairly challenging tasks, and for an octopus with eight boneless tentacles haphazardly stuffed into a suit to represent arms and legs these jobs take on a whole new level of difficulty.

In order to just walk around you have to use your controller's two analog sticks to independently move each of Octodad's incredibly wobbly legs.

Also, if you want to grab and manipulate objects (say, pouring milk from a bottle into a child's beaker) those sticks are used to move a single tentacular arm around in three dimensions.

It's incredibly difficult to complete even the simplest of tasks and yet, in the context of this particular game it's what makes the experience so enjoyable.

The fact that Octodad is trying to pass himself off as a human while flailing around the house bumping into and smashing everything in sight – all while his family are seemingly oblivious – leads to hilarious slapstick incidents that will have you laughing consistently throughout the game.

This unique gameplay mechanism is initially bewildering but once you start to get to grips with Octodad, the challenges are hugely rewarding.

On top its gameplay, the story is sweetly compelling as we get to learn about our hapless hero's past and his relationship with his family.

If you're looking for your next NVIDIA SHIELD purchase, this one deserves consideration for its quirkiness alone, quite apart from the fact it's also massively entertaining.

Download Octodad: Dadliest Catch on NVIDIA SHIELD via Google Play [download] for £3.90 / $4.99.