MacGuffin's Curse

Ever walked into a room and completely forgotten what you went in there for?

MacGuffin's Curse seems to be based on this age-related malady. Strip back the gameplay to its fundamentals and it boils down to a series of rooms in which working out why you're there and then fathoming a way out - by sliding blocks and pressing buttons - are the only goals.

Wrapped around this basic gameplay is a unique and charming story with excellent dialogue. Whether or not you enjoy the game will largely come down to how much you value the top-notch narrative and aesthetics, because the game underneath them is fairly underwhelming.

You play as MacGuffin, and your so-called 'curse' is the ability to transform from weedy human into hulking werewolf by stepping into moonlight. The trick is knowing when to employ this talent.

For example, in your werewolf form you can smash through objects and destroy traps, while in your human form you press buttons and push blocks in order to escape from the bloodthirsty masses.

You move by simply tracing out a line in front of MacGuffin and holding your finger down. It's not an especially slick system - MacGuffin often saunters past your intended destination - but on the whole it does its job.

As you make your way through the game the solutions to stages become more and more oblique - which isn't to say they get more imaginative: in most cases, success is just a matter of working out the order in which you need to act.

All the while the plot bobs along engagingly and the dialogue keeps you amused.

MacGuffin's Curse feels like a genuinely unique release on iOS in terms of personality, but the gameplay lacks variety, treading that awkward middle ground between curse and blessing.