Aqua Teen Hunger Force: Destruct-o-Thon

You'd be forgiven for not hearing of the Aqua Teen Hunger Force TV show before, as it's a lesser-known cartoon series that's only had limited play. Tales of three fast food items (a shake, a pack of fries and a lump of indistinguishable meat) are, to be fair, only likely to be of appeal to a certain audience.

But even if you've never heard of them, you can imagine that three such characters could transfer very nicely to a video game. Could they be running their own fast food joint? What about a platform game where you have to collect bits to make up burgers? Or a game where you smack things as far as you can, bouncing off springs and avoiding flames?

No? Oh well, back to the drawing board. Except this game's developer team didn't go back to the drawing board. What it did instead was mimic one of the most popular internet games of the day and call it Aqua Teen Hunger Force: Destruct-o-Thon.

If you've ever played Yeti Sports online then you'll find yourself at home here. In that legendary title, you smacked a penguin as far as possible across the icy landscape. Here, of course, the object is not to clobber a chilly bird. Instead, you'll send flying a brain, a stick of dynamite or some other such oddity, running first to get some momentum and then trying to get your angle right on impact to send the object on the right trajectory.

The mechanics of doing so are reassuringly straightforward. To start with, you build up the power of your attack, which you do by stopping a moving line in the centre of a bar. This is easy enough to achieve once, but you'll have to do it around 20 times for each round. The closer you get to the middle of the bar, the higher your power will be and the harder you'll be able to whack your target.

The other component is a Track 'n' Field style angle selector to deal with. This, if you hit it in the right place, should be enough to see you on to the next round.

Simple. Except – thankfully, for the game's longevity – it isn't. While there are springs to help your missile go further, there are also obstacles to stop it such as pinball-style bumpers and flames.

What's more, each level has its own target, and getting the longest distance isn't always the main objective. Sometimes, for example, you'll have to blow up a car by first lighting some dynamite on a flame. This means that you'll need the skill to get the dynamite stick over the bumpers with not too much power, or you'll overshoot the car and lose the round.

These mini challenges give the game a much greater depth than you might initially imagine it would have. Although there's obviously a massively random element to it (as it's incredibly difficult to predict exactly how your projectile is going to behave), it's also a lot more fun to play than you'd think. The fact that each level's challenge is so different means that you'll be keen to keep playing to find out what's next.

As we haven't seen the cartoon this game's based on, it's really hard to judge if it's a good use of the licence. But as a standalone game it certainly manages to rise above the common herd.