Hands on with iPhone graffiti shooter Underground

If I was wealthy and all-powerful, like Steve Jobs for instance, and I commanded my iPhone minions to make me a game, it'd look like Underground.

As a surly youth, I travelled by skateboard to the darkest and seediest corners of town, armed with a backpack full of spray paint, to leave my temporary mark upon the world. It's the transient nature of graffiti that makes it so appealing, and given that street art is at the soul of this strange new iPhone shooter, it's amazing to see how Kinelco has captured the essence of that iniquitous lifestyle.

We've seen screenshots and videos of Underground circulating for a while now, but it's remained something of a mystery exactly what's supposed to be going on, and what your role in this game will be.

In fact, the answer is very simple: it's a classic 2D shooter, with very little embellishment on its gameplay.

But that's not to say that Underground is remotely ordinary. Indeed, this has to be one of the most unique concepts (albeit beautifully wrapped around a standard gameplay mechanic) ever seen on the App Store. It leaves you mesmerised.

As a shooter, Underground plays in a very recognisable and straightforward way. You can choose between accelerometer or touch controls for manoeuvring your ship about the screen, while a second thumb (or a first one if you're using tilt controls, of course) allows you to aim your weapon in directions other than the one your ship is facing.

Dodge the obstacles, avoid enemy fire, blow up as much stuff as you can, and get to the end of the level alive - exactly like any other 2D shooter.

But it's in presentation and style that Underground really excels. It might be a 2D shooter, but it lives in the 3D world. The game is played as if you're staring out of the window in a subway car, with the faintest of reflections in the glass. Scratches, muck and graffiti tags soil the surrounding walls, and there's a distinctly dystopian atmosphere as you pass through the dark and foreboding subway stations.

It's almost beyond comprehension how well this graphical style brings the game to life. The enemies are strange spray-painted extracts from the graffiti world that explode in a vibrantly colourful tag as you shoot them down, while the landscape is built from rich, flava-some murals.

Keeping the beat as you navigate your way through this darkly artistic realm is a soundtrack that harks back to the misspent youth of the disenchanted graffiti writer. House and trance tracks - which pay sincere homage to classic albums like Eric B and Rakim’s Paid In Full, or Into The Dragon by Bomb the Bass - accompany you through your subway trip, while an ominous, nightmarish story is slowly revealed around your character’s hallucinogenic journey.

As a rule I try to resist suggestions that an ordinary game can be made so vitally unique by its presentation and style, but that's impossible to deny with Underground. It plays well, but it feels sublime in your hands thanks to its superb evocation of the graffiti artist's shadowy world.