Hands on with B-Boy Brawl on iPhone

There's no denying the love affair the human race has with music. For some odd reason, the sound of a tune can set a foot tapping, and in sufficiently confident hearers it can even induce dancing.

For some though, dancing is an embarrassing ordeal, which is why games can provide equality of opportunity. Whether or not you're gifted in the dance department, you can still enjoy apps like B-Boy Brawl.

The aim is to defeat various different gangs in a range of cities with your moves. You do this by participating in dance-offs, which have you tapping on-screen buttons to some funky tunes.

The more in rhythm you are, the more points you receive for each tap. In addition, the longer you can keep up your dance prowess the quicker you go into the green on the bar at the top of the screen. When you reach the required point on the bar - bingo - the rival gang is defeated and you get a grade for your efforts.

However, fall out of rhythm too many times and the challenge is failed, meaning you have to restart from the beginning.

The preview build allowed us to get our groove on in New York City, with one hip hop song to nod our heads to, and three areas on the map to try.

Having opted to take on the 'Nerdcore Crew' in Manhattan, we were whisked away to a wooden dance floor, complete with the obligatory discoball light reflecting rather nicely back at us.

After we placed our fingers on the red and green circles, the music fired up - presumably to help us pick out the rhythm. It was fiddly at first, but we soon got the hang of it, and before long impressive combos were coming out left, right and centre, largely thanks to the simple controls.

While the premise is hardly a new one, it does offer a slightly different slant from other apps of its type. For a start, you can't lift off both fingers at once, maintaining the oddly pleasing illusion that your fingers have become your feet.

Whether or not it's anything more than a gimmick it's hard to say, but at the least it's a lot of fun and unique in that respect.

The only real gripe we had with the preview version of B-Boy Brawl was that on a few occasions we were questioning exactly what had caused us to miss a beat.

As things stand, B-Boy Brawl looks to be a promising and unique addition to the App Store. The question is, will the novelty wear off or will it deliver a level of depth that keeps you blazing the dance floor?