If, like me, you find yourself inextricably drawn to those police chase TV programmes when channel hopping, the announcement of Smash Cops will have piqued your interest.
You're the law in a city that's out of control, and your job is to use one of five vehicles as a way to ram sense and justice into the body panels of felons you chase around the streets.
It's not just chase, chase, chase, though. Smash Cops's 20-odd short, sharp missions also offer escape and challenge alternatives. Additional elements such as the need to collect 'police badge stars' to unlock new urban areas and more powerful rides add a little depth to the promisingly fun experience.
One-finger salute
The team at new studio Hutch, founded by five ex-PlayStation developers, is promising a unique and intuitive touch control system based on one-finger play. Hands-on time will tell how successful the studio's been in achieving this, but you can get a sense of the system in action in the video below.
You'll also note from the footage that the game is looking pretty handy, with a detailed and stylised graphical approach complementing the seemingly frantic on-screen action.
Smash Cops is optimised for iPhone 4 and iPad, and enhanced for iPhone 4S and iPad 2 to further exploit those devices' additional processing power. Expect the game to roll out onto the App Store in mid-January 2012.
