Escape Hockey

It's not difficult to describe what Escape Hockey is like to play. In fact, we can do it in two words - air hockey. Yes, that game best enjoyed in bowling alleys after a few beers and always a lot of fun until someone's fingers get smashed by their opponent's paddle or the puck ends up flying across the room and underneath a fruit machine to be lost forever.

Escape Hockey puts a new slant on what, after noughts and crosses, is probably the most straightforward game in the world though. Instead of playing with paddles you're controlling an alien monster. In fact, you're playing in an intergalactic prison, and - in Story mode - fighting for your chosen character's freedom. Perhaps Escape Hockey is best described using a few more words then - air hockey played with aliens against a starry jail backdrop. Not so straightforward.

But that's not to say it isn't fun. Escape Hockey does a remarkably good job of recreating that air hockey experience. Controlling your character is - as expected - very easy. You can move left, right, forward and back but also crouch in preparation for a sort of super push forward, which - when timed correctly - sends the puck flying extra fast.

Also impressive is the artificial intelligence of the aliens you play against in Single Player. They're almost like playing human opponents and we hardly experienced a moment that felt unfair. The difficulty level does start out quite hard, but it continues to build gradually. On the downside, the Story mode is pretty superficial. You simply go up against other aliens in first-to-5 matches and if you lose it's game over. The problem this creates is that the game itself is so simple it could do with a more complex tournament mode and some more unlockables to pad it out, and not just a throwaway story in the form of a few screens to read before each game.

Still there are a few characters to unlock and these are the game's most original inclusion. Each character not only looks different - we particularly liked Bonie Bad, who's like the Thing in the Addams Family with an eyeball on top - but has unique attack and defence stats too.

The characters good in defence seem to be larger but slower, whereas attack characters are smaller but nippier. They're well animated which, along with the game's high adrenaline intergalactic-themed music, makes the whole thing surprisingly pretty - even if you are basically playing on the same screen throughout.

But the single player mode inevitably has a limited shelf life - it's good played in short bouts but there's just not enough to the game to keep you playing any longer. Another issue is because a mobile's keys or joystick are more fiddly than gripping a real-life air hockey paddle, the small, precise movements needed can get a little bit tedious.

Luckily the game does include a multiplayer mode, which lets you beam the game via Bluetooth to another phone then compete head-to-head with its owner. Playing a human opponent is undoubtedly a more fun way to experience this type of game but, again, can't really offer long term excitement.

This is mainly because Escape Hockey doesn't offer anything on top of the basic tooing and froing of a puck. It doesn't throw in items or power ups for instance and there aren't enough characters to create much extra longevity.

It's a slickly presented game however and one that undeniably nails the basic mechanics of Air Hockey. But it's also a shallow, short-lived experience and - a bit like when you lose the puck under the fruit machine in real life or, really unluckily, send it flying into the face of one of a nearby group of Stella-swigging boys - its novelty ends quite abruptly.