Caveman Wars

Sometimes you just have to throw a giant ball of ice at a sabre-toothed tiger and hope for the best. Other times you need to pelt a mammoth with fireballs while the glowing blue beast tramps menacingly towards your delicious store of food.

There are very few caves in Caveman Wars, but Tentman Wars isn't quite such a snappy title. It's a game about defending your food store from angry invaders who want to snaffle your meat. It's also a deck-building game. And there's some action thrown in too.

It's a big sweaty mash-up of ideas all held together by frantic tapping. Sometimes it works, sometimes it goes awry, but it's mostly a fun and endearing little game.

You have to hold off invaders for as long as possible using a deck of cards. This represents the rocks, fireballs, and other things that you can fire at the bad guys. There are also buffs and spells that you can equip to heal yourself or power up different attacks.

You'll have three attacks and one spell equipped at any time. Most of the spells last until you switch them out for something better, while the attacks can be used for 60 seconds each. Different enemies are weaker against different attacks, so you'll want to try and keep a varied set of cards out.

A new card pops up at the bottom of the screen every minute or so, and it's a good idea to keep your deck refreshed - otherwise you might find yourself without any attacks, facing a long wait until something new comes along.

That's easier said than done when you're trying to keep an eye on the multiple tracks that your enemies are stalking down. Different terrains can hamper and help your assailants. Quicksand slows them down, for example, while forests give them some shelter from your tapped attacks.

You'll collect new cards, either by finding them or buying booster packs, discover new foes to face off against, and build up your powers so that you can compete against them as you work your way through the game.

Caveman Wars sometimes piles on the enemies too quickly, and it can get a little repetitive, but there's an interesting, sometimes absorbing game here if you're willing to stick with it.