Bobby Carrot

There are few who would argue that carrots aren't good for you. Chock full of vitamins A through to C, it's little wonder that our health conscious mothers included one such peeled vegetable in our school lunchboxes every day as children.

If our mums had had to go through the rigmarole that Bobby Carrot must endure in order to obtain the little orange sticks of nourishing goodness, however, they'd have probably thrown their dietary scruples to one side and given in to the demands for Twix bars, Penguin biscuits and Jaffa Cakes.

You see, in Bobby Carrot, getting a hold of the rabbit's favourite root vegetable is not simply a case of pulling it out of the ground. In the farm that Bobby frequents, the farmer is in the habit of booby-trapping his crop with spikes, meaning that every step has to be taken carefully in order to ensure that you don't get skewered (animal lovers note this is artistic licence – Bobby doesn't ever suffer such a bloody fate).

The game is viewed from a bird's eye perspective on a series of maps littered with carrots. You take control of Bobby Carrot's movement using either the thumbstick or the '2', '4', '6' and '8' buttons. To complete each level, you have to collect every carrot and then make it to the exit. There are small squares that stand in your path which once you have walked over sprout a crop of nasty spikes blocking you from backtracking.

The idea is to complete each level in as few steps and the quickest time possible, in order to secure a decent high-score. It's a simple idea and a welcome change from the swathes of 'match three' block-based puzzlers that are clogging mobile phones at the moment.

Visually, the game is bright and confident, albeit with a front-end presentation that could do with a little spit and polish. And there are some other niggles, though, that undercut Bobby Carrot from being a truly top puzzler.

For one, it is much too easy; almost all of the levels can be completed on a second attempt, and although the latter stages are admittedly a tad more taxing, there are just too many of the easier stages padding the first half of the game.

The other, deeper problem is that there's very little variation. The introduction of some different hazards or power-ups would have really helped this game to offer a more balanced challenge and also might have spiced up the earlier levels.

All things considered though, Bobby Carrot makes up for its flaws by providing a refreshing puzzle idea that is fun to play, easy to learn and surprisingly addictive. If only real carrots were so moreish, we wouldn't still be coveting KitKats.