Team Up

In life, there are some things that you just can't do on your own and knowing when to ask for help is a skill worth learning. Take driving a car and reading a map at the same time, for example, or trying to neatly fold any sort of bed linen – tasks better tackled with teamwork, lest you end up with a driving ban and crinkled sheets.

For those who do insist on doing everything themselves, then, Team Up may prove to be an edifying experience. For everyone else, the game will probably just feel like a flavourless though challenging puzzler.

The game takes place on a series of isometric grid maps, each with a series of obstacles between you and the exit. There are three characters and things begin with an introduction to each, along with an accompanying map for you to navigate using their respective skill.

After you've learnt that the jumper jumps, the slider slides (pushes stuff) and that the thrower, well, throws, you begin to tackle maps that include all three characters, with the idea of using them in the correct sequence in order for all of them to have access to the exit.

The controls are straightforward enough but do take a bit of getting used to. Flaunting convention somewhat, the '1', '3', '7' and '9' keys are used to move the characters (though you can opt for the thumbstick instead), with the '2', '4', '6' and '8' keys relegated to moving the map around onscreen, affording you the best view of the obstacle you are tackling. You can switch between characters at any time by pressing '0'.

The obstacles are your standard water troughs, boxes and lifts, with each character putting their particular area of expertise to good use via the time-honoured use of the '5' key.

Certainly, it's is a challenging affair and you'll be frowning at the screen before the level count breaks double figures. The real problem, however, is Team Up reveals itself to be a very dry and bland game to play. The steep difficulty curve soon enforces a trial and error approach and even if you spend the time planning exactly how to best a particular stage, executing your plan is both laborious and drawn-out, a combination that simply isn't any fun.

There are control issues, too, with the thumbstick behaving wildly different from the keys equivalent, and in deciding between the two options you will undoubtedly suffer unfair punishment when characters wander off-screen or into trenches when you don't intend them to.

At least visually things are adequate and, thankfully, the sound is not of the grating sort, kept instead to tasteful interlude music between levels.

But that's hardly enough to prevent Team Up from ending up a substandard puzzler in what is arguably mobile gaming's most competitive genre.