As anyone who has ever listened to Justin Bieber will attest, sound can be quite a weapon.
Tales of people flooding from his concerts with blood pouring out of their ears might have originated from a rogue edit to his Wikipedia page – tapped out by yours truly - but I still like to believe there's some truth in it.
Hertz Smasher, too, looks to employ sound waves as a weapon, though in this case, the noise that results is almost non-existent. In almost every respect, in fact, Hertz Smasher is far too quiet.
A design for strife
The game's meek and mild nature is most prevalent in the design of its stages – or, rather, the lack of it.
Hertz Smasher sets itself up as a simple platformer, where the idea is to fight off the approaching hordes of beasties by tooting a soundless horn.
Though you wouldn't know it from your speakers, the sound waves that emanate push your foe back, before eventually destroying them.
However, given they dominate both the land and sky in levels that run no wider than the screen of your phone, you'll increasingly find yourself shooting in all manner of directions at once ('5' to shoot ahead, with '1' and '3' targeting those flying above you) just to survive their mass attack.
This is your only aim in any of the game's main stages. With the clock counting down to zero from the moment the level starts, taking out the enemy is actually nothing more than a means to an end.
Running with repetitionA trifle more taxing are the boss battles that follow – the model of which harks back to platformers of old. The big beast in question moves around in a set pattern, leaving you with a clear weak moment to exploit with your horn.
It's certainly not the most original approach, and like the rest of Hertz Smasher, is little more than a glorified war of attrition.
Indeed, it's hard to muster any kind of enthusiasm for the game's setup after the first couple of levels have passed, since Hertz Smasher just piles on more of the same.
The one area of play that threatens to show a spark of creativity is evident in the wealth of additional weapons you can unlock in the game's shop. Such treats can only be picked up, though, if you manage to collect enough of the gems that randomly fall to the floor during play.
Even equipped with a fresh arsenal, however, Hertz Smasher never makes much of a noise, with the timid tune it does muster missing most of the notes by quite a margin.